O Wisdom, coming from the mouth of the Most High, reaching out from all places and ordering things mightily and sweetly, teach us good sense
Reflection: Wisdom is a hard word to pin down. It is more than knowledge or cleverness, more than shrewdness. Wisdom contains more than merely an understanding of human nature or of the world. Instead, it draws everything in the world together, gathers it all and makes it all make sense. No wonder that, while we talk about wise people, wisdom came to be associated with God early on in Israel's history. Only the Creator can have the breadth of perspective to draw from the beginning and end of history and still make it all make sense. Wisdom may trickle down to humans, but it starts with God. In fact, Wisdom is often given her own voice (in Proverbs) and is even identified with Christ, the second person of the Trinity
How do we respond to wisdom? We know people, both now and in the past, who, within human limitations, are wise. They have learned the virtue of prudentia, which, while difficult to translate in English, means something like 'good sense'. Wise people are not wise, just because they have a broad perspective, but also because they know their limits and that they are not God. '. Limits are never popular, of course, but they are useful. They allow us to concentrate on what we can do, instead of what we think we should do. So, prudence, in helping us to understand our limits, helps us make decisions about our lives which make sense. Just like wisdom only human sized.
Practice: How does wisdom work in your life? Create a 'O Wisdom' for own life. If you want to share it, you can reply to the Remind app and I'll post it. I'll post an example later today (Monday)
