“they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you”
What is Wisdom? Wisdom is “A spiritual gift which enables one to know the purpose and plan of God; one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Wisdom is also the name of one of the books of the Old Testament.” [1]
What is the Book of Wisdom? It is the book of the Septuagint of the Old Testament. It is one of the seven books that were taken out of Sacred Scripture during the Protestant revolt. “The book can be divided into two main parts, separated by the famous prayer for wisdom (chapter 19). Part One is an exhortation to rulers to observe justice and wisdom (chapters 1-8). Part Two extols the advantages of wisdom, as seen in the way God dealt with his own people compared with the unwisdom of the idolatrous nations. Wisdom means knowledge that is so perfect it directs the will to obey God’s commands. In God wisdom is identified with his Word, a foreshadowing of the revelation of the Trinity.” [2]
In the death of our Lord Jesus Christ we see God’s true wisdom. How was it wise for God the Father to allow the Son of God to be killed? It can seem very foolish that God would send His begotten Son to be crucified. However, Saint Paul writes, “the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” [3] It is in Jesus’ death and resurrection that we are saved. We know through these mysteries that God is always with us, always calling us. Sometimes God can seem distant or aloof, but He is not; He is intimately close to us in a personal way willing to do whatever it takes to be with us including sending His Son to die for us.
What does wisdom say about God?
1. God is the eternal truth. Everything we know of ourselves, our world, our universe, and of God is imparted by God’s wisdom. “God’s truth is his wisdom, which commands the whole created order and governs the world.” [4]
2. God created everything according to His wisdom. [5]
3. God did not have to create anything for Himself, let alone allow any of His creatures to share in His being, wisdom, and goodness yet that is exactly what God did. [6] “O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all…The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.” [7]
4. Finally, since God is the creator of everything out of nothing by his wisdom, his creation is ordered. [8]
Search: Proofs of the Existence of God
The video shares the ideas that science has been able to distinguish how God is ingenious when he creates order in our galaxy and solar system. With gravity and angular momentum we see how we don’t spin off into space.
ACTIVITY - Wisdom 9:1-6, 9-11
See Liturgy of Hours Week III Saturday Morning prayer on Wisdom. Chant or read the verses. Discuss the power of God’s Wisdom and the necessity of Wisdom to conquer our enemies and follow the will of God. Saint Luke writes, “I will inspire you with wisdom which your adversaries will be unable to resist” [9] Jesus Christ, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, is the Word made flesh. Jesus Christ is Wisdom. Read the verse a second time and insert or think of the Holy Name of Jesus in the place of the word Wisdom. For example, “Now with you is Wisdom [Jesus], who knows your works and was present when you made the world…”
When do we receive the gift of wisdom? We receive the gift of wisdom at our Baptism. This grace is strengthened at our Confirmation.
Why is wisdom important? Wisdom is first among all the gifts of God and should be given the highest dignity of the gifts because “it makes the soul responsive to the Holy Spirit in the contemplation of divine things and in the use, so to speak, of God’s ideas for evaluating every contingency in the secular and spiritual order.” [10] Saint Jose Maria Escriva said, “Among the gifts of the Holy Spirit, I would say that there is one which we all need in a special way: the gift of wisdom.” [11]
Wisdom is important because it takes the basic tenants of our faith which we learn and believe further develops them into a knowledge of God that surpasses all other worldly knowledge. It also gives us perspective to make good judgments on situations and events in our life. Out of this wisdom blossoms true love of God. If we have charity and wisdom we can endure trials and sufferings because we have the wisdom to know God only permits evil to bring about the glorification of God. “The gift of wisdom, the principle of a living contemplation that directs action, enables the soul to taste the goodness of God, to see it manifested in all events, even in the most painful, since God permits evil only for a higher good, which we shall see later and which it is sometimes given us to glimpse on earth.” [12]
Discussion Question:
Discuss a time when you experienced something that you couldn’t put into words because it was so great. For example, something you might have eaten (an amazing steak or dessert), heard (music), or saw.
Experiencing God can sometimes be indescribable. God wants us to have personal experiences with Him. Our relationship with God involves knowing, loving, and serving all of which must be personally experienced not in a remote way but in a personal manner, either tangible or mystical.
How can we follow God’s wisdom? In a practical sense we follow God’s wisdom by taking time out of our busy lives and setting aside to use the gift of wisdom. Mass, personal prayer, and adoration in front of the Blessed Sacrament are vital to grow in wisdom. Through prayer, “the gift of wisdom illumines our intellect and inflames our will so as to discover God in the ordinary things of each day, in sanctifying out work, in the love with which we finish what we have begun…” [13]
We also follow or participate in God’s wisdom and goodness by having command over ourselves; rejecting evil and sin and turning to what is true and good. God has placed in every man the natural law, which is “the original moral sense which enables man to discern by reason the good and the evil, the truth and the lie.” [14] However, this natural law would not have the gravitas or weight behind it without the wisdom of God to interpret it. Pope Leo XIII writes about law of God and wisdom saying, “this command of human reason would not have the force of law if it were not the voice and interpreter of a higher reason to which our spirit and our freedom must be submitted.” [15] We must know all wisdom comes from God, and by actively participating in His wisdom and submitting to His will, we follow His will by giving Him glory.
How does wisdom and glory come together? In the book of wisdom it says, “[Wisdom] is a breath of the power of God, and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her. For she is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness.” [16] When we are enlightened with wisdom we begin to understand how great God truly is.
[1] CCC, Glossary pg. 903
[2] Hardon, Modern Catholic Dictionary pgs. 570-571
[3] 1 Cor. 1:24-25
[4] CCC 216
[5] Cf. Wis. 9:9
[6] Cf. CCC 295
[7] Ps. 104:24; 145:9
[8] cf. CCC 299
[9] Luke 21:15
[10] Hardon, Catholic Catechism pg. 201
[11] J. Escriva, Christ is passing by, 133
[12] R. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life, II
[13] Fernandez, In Conversation with God, 2, 89.3 pg. 553
[14] CCC 1954
[15] Leo XIII, Libertas praestantissimum, 597.
[16] Wis. 7:25-26