Suffering With Joy

O Sapientia

December 17, 2009

O Sapientia, quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti, attingens a fine usque ad finem fortiter, suaviterque disponens omnia; veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.

O Wisdom, that proceedest from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from end to end mightily, and disposing all things sweetly, come and teach us the way of prudence.

Isaiah spoke of the Messiah:

Isaiah 11:2-3: And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom, and of understanding, the spirit of counsel, and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge, and of godliness. And he shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord, He shall not judge according to the sight of the eyes, nor reprove according to the hearing of the ears.

Isaiah 28:29: This also is come forth from the Lord God of hosts, to make his counsel wonderful, and magnify justice.

God disposes sweetly through Caesar Augustus who issued a decree ordering the enrollment of the whole world in the city of their birth.  And so it was that the prophesy of Micah 5:2 was fulfilled:

And thou, Bethlehem Ephrata, art a little one among the thousands of Juda: out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be the ruler in Israel: and his going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity.

The Virgin and her dear husband Joseph journeyed to the little town of Bethlehem, the house of Bread, to obey Caesar, and so the prophecy was fulfilled.  God’s wisdom is unbounded.  He does not judge by our eyes or ears, but by His infinite wisdom.

“…teach us the way of prudence”, one of the four cardinal virtues on which all other virtues hinge.   Wisdom is knowledge of the Divine.  If our purpose on earth is to know God, to love and serve Him in this world so that we may be happy with Him in the next, then wisdom, a gift of the Holy Spirit, is something we must not only spend a lifetime seeking, it is necessary for the development of prudence.

St. Thomas Acquinas tells us that prudence is of the intellect. The more deeply we know God the more our intellects can apprehend what is prudent in the eyes of God and the more likely we are to exercise our will in union with His.  Acting in union with God brings peace and joy, certainty to the heart.  The Church cries out for us all, “O Wisdom…come…”.

Tags: Advent, O Antiphons, peace and joy