Wisdom

In a Christmas play, when a disingenuous kindergartner flubbed his lines he referred to the Magi as “the three Wise Guys.”

Truly they must have been wise with a God-infused supernatural wisdom; somehow they were led to perceive that a newborn Baby in a distant country was the great Messiah expected from ages past. There’s no explanation for a conviction so strong that with only the most meager evidence they set out on a very arduous journey. It was their divinely inspired wisdom that enabled them to trust that God would lead them to find this Child.

St. Thomas Aquinas says that the gift of wisdom is “sympathy for divine things”--a kind of intuition of the Lord’s designs; it parallels our thinking with God’s thinking, and draws us into union with him. “Anyone who attaches himself to the Lord,” says Paul, “is one spirit with him” (1 Cor 6:17).

For those with this highest sublimation of faith--the Holy Spirit’s gift of wisdom (see Is 11:2)--their involvement in divine providence bespeaks both an intimate knowledge or familiarity with God, and an embracing of his plan for their lives. In one sentence Solomon captured both of these theological elements: “Wisdom is familiar with God’s mysteries and helps determine one’s course of action” (Wis 8:4, emphasis mine). This double dimension--our belief in God as the Revealer of truth, and our reliance on his love-propelled plan for our welfare--is again succinctly stated in 1 John 4:16: “We know and rely on the love God has for us” (emphasis mine). It engages the two highest human faculties: the mind to know God and his revealed truth by the virtue of faith (belief), and the will to rely on his providential plan by exercising the virtue of trust.

This trust or reliance on God--the second aspect of true wisdom--is the soul’s devout answer to God’s holy will as articulated in his loving providence. Such devout surrender to God is the soul’s way of saying, “I love you too, Lord.” The book of Sirach (1:4-10, emphasis mine) reminds us that God’s gift of wisdom is a participation in his own wisdom and is “lavished upon those who love him.” However, as Psalm 52:8 (emphasis mine) reminds us, those who love him are those who trust in him. Therefore, the awesome gift of divine insight--God’s wisdom--is bestowed on those who have mastered the art of loving and trusting the Lord.

This excerpt is from the book Pathways of Trust, by John H. Hampsch,C.M.F., originally published by Servant Publications. It and other of Fr. Hampsch's books and audio/visual materials can be purchased from Claretian Teaching Ministry, 20610 Manhattan Pl, #120, Torrance, CA 90501-1863. Phone 1-310-782-6408.