December 17
Traditional Antiphon
O Wisdom, that proceedest from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from end to mightily end, and disposing all things sweetly! Come and teach us the way of prudence.
Liturgy of the Hours
O Wisdom, O holy Word of God, you govern all creation with your strong yet tender care. Come and show your people the way of salvation.
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
O come, O Wisdom from on high,
Who ordered all things mightily
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.
MUSIC - Matt Maher @ Theology on Tap: Sophia
One of the names for Jesus is “Wisdom” also known as Sophia. Wisdom is attractive. Like a man who is attracted to the beauty of a woman and wants to get to know more about that woman, so our hearts are attracted to Wisdom.
Man is attracted to truth and beauty, and we want to get to know more about what we are attracted to. In our modern society many are not attracted to Christ, because of the falsehoods that have been said and done in the name of Christ. People are however attracted still to wisdom, truth, and beauty. Wisdom, truth, and beauty by their nature are one with Christ and so it is through the attractiveness of wisdom, truth, and beauty that many will be drawn to embrace Christ. There is no mistake that the antiphons begin with wisdom, most likely the most attractive of all the antiphons. Jimmy Mitchell, the founder of Mysterium, said that we need to regain and create sacredness in the Church and beauty and truth in the world (secular).
Virtue: Prudence – It is Christ that teaches us the way of prudence. “Perhaps ‘practical moral wisdom’ is a clearer term for this virtue today. Prudence is ‘the virtue that disposes practical reason’ [the mind thinking about what should be done] ‘to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it…with the help of this virtue we apply moral principles to particular cases.’ (CCC 1806).”[i] It is Wisdom that shows us right and wrong and helps us to desire and choose the good.
Search: Is it a "good" or a "god"
Sacrament: Marriage – The Greek philosophers had a love relationship with “Sophia” or Wisdom. Wisdom is referred to as female. Wisdom is intriguing and attractive and we are called into a relationship with Wisdom. This relationship is of course abstract when dealing with just “word” or “idea”. When the Word becomes Flesh, all of humanity can now have a spiritual and physically relationship with the Wisdom they love. Jesus Christ is the groom that comes to marry his people. The antiphon portrays Christ as “reaching from end to mightily end, and disposing all things sweetly”. At the beginning of Sacred Scripture we see a human marriage, that of Adam and Eve, this is the first “end”. At the end of Sacred Scripture we see a spiritual marriage, the wedding feast of the Lamb (that of Christ and His Church), this is the final “end”.
Reflection:[ii]
O Uncreated Wisdom! that art so soon to make thyself visible to thy creatures, truly thou disposest all things. It is by thy permission, that the Emperor Augustus issues a decree ordering the enrolment of the whole world. Each citizen of the vast Empire is to have his name enrolled in the city of his birth. This prince has no other object in this order, which sets the world in motion, but his own ambition. Men go to and fro by millions, and an unbroken procession traverses the immense Roman world; men think they are doing the bidding of man, and it is God whom they are obeying. This world-wide agitation has really but one object; it is, to bring to Bethlehem a man and woman who live at Nazareth in Galilee, in order that this woman, who is unknown to the world but dear to heaven, and is at the close of the ninth month since she conceived her child, may give birth to this Child in Bethlehem, for the Prophet has said of him: "His going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity. And thou, O Bethlehem I art not the least among the thousand cities of Juda, for out of thee He shall come." [Mich. v. 2; St Matth. ii. 6.]. O divine Wisdom! how strong art thou, in thus reaching Thine ends by means which are infallible, though hidden! and yet, how sweet, offering no constraint to man's free-will! and withal, how fatherly, in providing for our necessities! Thou choosest Bethlehem for thy birth-place, because Bethlehem signifies the House of Bread. In this, thou teachest us that thou art our Bread, the nourishment and support of our life. With God as our food, we cannot die. O Wisdom of the Father, Living Bread that hast descended from heaven, come speedily into us, that thus we may approach to thee and be enlightened [Ps. xxxiii. 6.] by thy light, and by that prudence which leads to salvation.
[i] Peter J. Kreeft; Catholic Christianity; page 191-192
[ii] This reflection and the others “Reflection” sections in this packet are from Abbot Gueranger, OSB; The Liturgical Year; Advent