Wisdom … our life … in Christ

It was brought to my attention that we need to ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom. We need help. So ask for it. Let’s look at what the Church said at the Second Vatican Council about our own times in Gaudium et Spes:

To carry out such a task, the Church has always had the duty of scrutinizing the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the light of the Gospel. Thus, in language intelligible to each generation, she can respond to the perennial questions which men ask about this present life and the life to come, and about the relationship of the one to the other. We must therefore recognize and understand the world in which we live, its explanations, its longings, and its often dramatic characteristics. Some of the main features of the modern world can be sketched as follows.

Today, the human race is involved in a new stage of history. Profound and rapid changes are spreading by degrees around the whole world. Triggered by the intelligence and creative energies of man, these changes recoil upon him, upon his decisions and desires, both individual and collective, and upon his manner of thinking and acting with respect to things and to people. Hence we can already speak of a true cultural and social transformation, one which has repercussions on man’s religious life as well.


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What, rather who, is Wisdom?

The first reading at Mass today was taken from the Book of Wisdom. Not a regularly heard from book of the Bible. The Church offers us at least two things today with regard to Wisdom: what is it (how do we define what it is) and who is Wisdom?


Both Saint John the Evangelist and Saint Paul indicate that Wisdom is Jesus Christ. You might say that the contents of the Book of Wisdom is perfected in the person of Jesus Christ. With that in mind, here’s what we heard today.

Wisdom VTiziano.jpg

In Wisdom is a spirit

intelligent, holy, unique,

Manifold, subtle, agile,

clear, unstained, certain,

Not baneful, loving the good, keen,

unhampered, beneficent, kindly,

Firm, secure, tranquil,

all-powerful, all-seeing,

And pervading all spirits,

though they be intelligent, pure and very subtle.

For Wisdom is mobile beyond all motion,

and she penetrates and pervades all things by reason of her purity.

For she is an aura of the might of God

and a pure effusion of the glory of the Almighty;

therefore nought that is sullied enters into her.

For she is the refulgence of eternal light,

the spotless mirror of the power of God,

the image of his goodness.

And she, who is one, can do all things,

and renews everything while herself perduring;

And passing into holy souls from age to age,

she produces friends of God and prophets.

For there is nought God loves, be it not one who dwells with Wisdom.

For she is fairer than the sun

and surpasses every constellation of the stars.

Compared to light, she takes precedence;

for that, indeed, night supplants,

but wickedness prevails not over Wisdom.

Indeed, she reaches from end to end mightily

and governs all things well.


Wisdom 7:22b-8:1