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December 17, 2018O Wisdom, uttered by the mouth of the Most High, reaching from one end of earth to the other with great power, yet ordering all things with gentleness, come! Teach us the way of prudence!
How does wisdom come? How does Christ Jesus who has become our wisdom come? When he first appeared on our earth he approached us as did Wisdom of old, meeting us on our way, calling out to us words of truth and sound doctrine, visiting us, testing us, offering us choice food and drink, preparing us to be a worthy dwelling place for himself. “Wisdom has built her house…She calls from the highest places in the town… ‘You that are simple, turn in here! Come eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.’” When he comes again at the end of time he will reach from one end of the earth to the other with great power. But in the time between and at this very Christmas he comes to us in gentleness. He comes to us in secret. As St Paul says, “We speak of God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, yet revealed to us through the Spirit.”
Our Fathers so loved to speak of this hidden and secret coming. Guerric tells us that this coming is certainly hidden but no less wonderful than the other two comings. It is hidden “not because it is unknown to the one visited but because he comes secretly, so that each one can say, ‘My secret is my own, my secret is my own.’”
The house that Wisdom builds in this secret coming is the divine indwelling, the place where we are most ourselves, the place where we most belong. As Jesus describes it, “He who loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him and we will come and make our home with him.” One morning St Gertrude was filled with wonder at the beauties of creation in the garth (the garden at the center of the monastic cloisters), the fish pond, the fresh green trees, the freedom of the birds, especially the doves wheeling in flight, but most of all the secret peace of the place. Yet she sensed something—or rather someone—was missing—someone to be there with her, affectionate and companionable, to relieve her solitude. That night when she was about to sleep this very verse of the Gospel came to her mind: “we will come and make our home with him.” After that, no matter how her mind wandered, for hours, for days or for weeks, when she returned to her heart, she found him there ready to bestow the joy of his saving presence.
This is how Wisdom longs to come to us the Christmas—interiorly, in order to bestow his secret and saving joy, a joy our hearts can find in no other. As St Bernard attests: Happy the person with whom you make your home, Lord Jesus!
Happy the person in whom Wisdom builds herself a house!
Happy the soul who is the seat of Wisdom!
Image: Divine Wisdom by Shiloe Sophia McCloud
