8 September 201323rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Is there a better way to usher in the new school year than by immersing ourselves in God’s wellspring of “wisdom”? The insightful words of the human author of today's first reading seem to lead us deep into the very mind of God! The beautifully poetic Book of Wisdom helps us gain access to some of the ways God reveals God's self in the Wisdom Tradition of the Bible, specifically during the time just prior to the time of Jesus. It is well worth a read!
Solomon is the patron of wisdom in the Bible. 1 Kings 3 tells that, even as Solomon ascends the throne of his father David, he asks not for long life, riches, nor conquest of his enemies. Rather, with deep humility, he asks for a listening heart, one that will bring him closer to God. He seeks discernment to know what is right that he might be a king pleasing to the Lord.Living almost 1000 years before the author of the Book of Wisdom, Solomon invited scholars (scribes) and teachers (sages) into his royal court. He seems to have provided them with opportunities not only to become versed in languages and literatures of the ancient near east, but perhaps also for the beginning of biblical writing itself.
And this may have been both his glory and his downfall: His glory, in that he is the founder of an important movement that reveals wisdom indispensable in the Old Testament and the Jewish-Christian tradition; his downfall, in that his seeking the wisdom of foreign courts probably introduced idolatrous practices in Israel and, according to the Books of Kings and Chronicles, even led Solomon himself astray.
But Solomon remains inseparable from the idea of Wisdom, a gift that must be humbly requested and abundantly given. (Read 1 Kings 3.) Wisdom “sets our earthly path straight.” We have only to take the advice of Wisdom 7: "I prayed and wisdom was given to me."
Let us make this our prayer.
 |
| The Wisdom Woman by Susan Weed (see Prov 1:20-33 and Prov 8) |
