Justin Appel

Dear Friends,

This week’s readings from Ecclesiastes and Sunday’s Old Testament Lesson from Proverbs 8 highlight the theme of wisdom.

These themes sound familiar to my ears, since as a child, my parents would regularly read the Proverbs (and occasionally Psalms) pertaining to the day of the month. In the Proverbs, Wisdom is normally personified as a woman who speaks eloquently and persuasively, calling to ‘the sons of men’.

In spite of these evocative linguistic expressions in the Proverbs, we learn in chapter 8 that Wisdom was with God in the beginning, before the heavens and earth were created. This poetic image suggests that wisdom is identified with God directly, even as the Divine Logos that is incarnated as Jesus Christ.

This sense of the word ‘wisdom’ did not occur to me as a child, as my understanding of the word seemed to revolve primarily around wisdom as a quality or characteristic that one might ‘take on’. However, a traditional interpretation identifies wisdom directly with God, and, if you want to think of it this way, the qualities of wisdom are also demonstrated by the Mother of God and the saints, particularly in the virtue of humility, a virtue which Christ embodied in the ultimate way. So then, it’s possible to think of wisdom in terms of Christlikeness: we both receive wisdom as a gift from God, and we learn to grow in that likeness.

Here is a musical setting of Proverbs 3:13-19 by the British composer Judith Weir.

Happy is the one who finds Wisdom;
the one who gains understanding.

Her price is greater than silver;
her profit is better than gold.

She is more precious than jewels;
all that you desire cannot compare with her.

Long life is in her right hand;
in her left are riches and honour.

Her ways are the ways of pleasantness;
and all her paths are peace.

She is a tree of life to those who grasp her;
and those who hold her fast are blessed.

By Wisdom, the Lord laid the foundations of the earth;
he established the heavens by understanding.

Words: Proverbs 3. 13-19

Yours in Christ,
Justin