The Search For Wisdom

THE SEARCH FOR WISDOM

The story is told of the Jewish teacher studying scripture.

A day passed, and his disciples noticed that he was still on the same page, so they assumed that he had found a difficult text. Days went by and still he had not turned the page. Why?, they asked him. “I feel so here, he replied, why should I go elsewhere”?

Reading the opening six chapters of The Letter of Eternal Wisdom, one feels that St. Louis Marie de Montfort would know what he meant – from experience. Writing probably within two or three years of his ordination, clearly he is enthralled by the Wisdom writings of the Bible, particularly the Book of Wisdom. He quoted it at length and with relish. Montfort savors what the average reader might find hard to read. He has absorbed the material from years of loving attention.

The wisdom writings in the Bible were a superb attempt to try and recognize God’s presence in this world. The reality of God underlies the visible universe, and God’s elusive yet attractive presence is found under the guise of wisdom. God is here. There is point and purpose in this life.

Montfort having experienced this, and knowing that in “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (I Cor. 1:24} there is so much yet to be discovered, begins his study by inviting Divine Wisdom to see that, “I long so dearly to possess you, I am looking for you everywhere . . . look upon the strokes of my pen as many steps to find you”. (LEW2). Scripture obviously hooks Montfort.  His study then develops as an exchange between Divine Wisdom and himself, in the hope that ’those on Earth who read it may be filled with a fresh desire to love you”. (LEW 2).

LISTEN TO . . .

For that prayer to be answered the reader would need to be encouraged to commit himself seriously to the search for Wisdom. In so far as he puts himself out will he find and savor Wisdom.  Montfort says this while reflecting on Wisdom 6.  “The first step . , . towards acquiring Wisdom is a sincere desire for instruction; the desire for instruction is love”. (LEW 4:18). Regrettably, as he notes while reflecting on Wisdom 8, “only a few find him because only a few look for him in a manner worthy of him” (LEW 61:18).

Perhaps one way of finding this authentic desire is to do what St. Louis Marie did –  subordinate oneself to the Word of God as given in the Wisdom writings, the book of Wisdom particularly.   The Bible is a community creation and possession.  It is a gift from the heart of the Church.  As the reader is graced by being baptized into that Spirit-filled community, he bas the faith to enable him to receive and savor the Wisdom of God present in these writings.

St. Louis Marie was part of a bible study with patristic roots in the Jewish community which has been largely lost today. This approach was well put into  a contemporary biblical scholar writing of the early Church Fathers.  “To them the object of theology is to know God experientially.  Their expositions of Scripture were intended to move the heart and will as well as to inform the mind, and there is no knowledge of God without this”. (B. Lindars, Bulletin of John Rylands library, vol. 66 no. 2, 1984 p. 242).

. . . THE WORD

Reading from within the community of faith, such an example to wisdom writings, for example, is given initial and increasing savor by the progressive realization that the writers are literally enthusiasts (EN, in THEOS, God).  They are absorbed in God. The Wisdom they communicate they have experienced,  and while not ignoring the literal meaning of the text or contemporary biblical skills,  the text speaks to the heart  and life of the reader at every level. There is always more to be savored. Open like this to the Wisdom  of God may encourage the reader’s desire, “to  possess a deep, holy and special knowledge . . . and not merely a dry and superficial knowledge”.  (LEW 57:8).  As an expression of the Wisdom of God the text has the power to attract, as so many in this tradition have found; “I feel so good here, why should I go elsewhere?”

St. louis Marie says as much in a quotation from one of the Church Fathers, St. Gregory. “Those whom God has chosen to write His sacred words are filled with the Holy Spirit. In a way, they seem to rise above themselves and enter into the very one who possesses them. Thus they became mouthpieces of God himself, for they are concerned with God Alone in everything they say, and they speak of themselves as though speaking of someone else*. (LEW 60.14).  There is a suggestion of self-portrait in Montfort’s appreciation of the biblical writers who “enter into the very one who possesses them . . .  concerned with God alone”. He became like what he saw. “God alone”,  became his motto.

THE NEED TO SEE

Montfort, the evangelist, is so aware that the wisdom of God is to be found in a fragmented world.  So many live without this God-given insight.   The story of Adam’s fall is true of everyone who separates from God.  “His heart turned cold towards the God he no longer loved (LEW 39) . . .  close to despair . . . saw heaven closed and no one to open it”. (LEW 40).  Sin has that effect.  If the wisdom of God is the underlying reality, what can people see without it?  Many today can see the real evidence tor crucifixion, none for resurrection. Without God’s help they are helpless.

To meet this situation of  “a world without hope and without God” (Epics. 2:12), St. Louis Marie imagines the Trinity assembled to rehabilitate man. He follows a tradition which understood sin as putting men and women at odds with God’s justice, unable to do anything about it.  So Eternal Wisdom finds a wonderful way of accomplishing this . . . this tenderhearted Lord offers himself in sacrifice to his Father”. (LEW 45).

We can disregard overtones of appeasing an angry Father. It is more accurate to see sacrifice as the complete giving of oneself to God, responding to first giving oneself in Christ. “If God is for us, who is against us?  He who did not spare his only Son, but gave Him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with Him? (Rom. 8:31-32).  Allowing God in Christ to love us like this, and so respond in kind, makes us one  in the sacrifice of Christ. It is an interchange of love in the gift of oneself.

Montfort, “his mind gifted with the light of wisdom” (LEW 38),,maintains this note throughout his study of Wisdom.

Divine Wisdom now present in a fallen universe, “so gracious . . . so gentle and unobtrusive . . . quietly but effectively brings all things to a happy issue in ways unknown to men“. (LEW 53).

At times in an unjust and unfair world it is hard to believe this, Montfort says, but aware of the presence of the wisdom of God we can believe, “that in everything God works for good with those who love him”. (Rom. 8:28).

WISDOM SO NEAR

This insight into the Gospel is, says Montfort, the result of the gift of wisdom. The dominant note is the attractiveness of Christ Wisdom in his desire to give. In so far as we receive are we enlightened. “How gentle, attractive, and approachable is Eternal Wiadom . . . invites men and women to come to him because he wants to teach them with a smile . . . and even goes as far as to wait at their very door step”. (LEW 5).

Let us not forget St. Louis Marie was acquires this perspective, not least from the time studying the wisdom writings of Scripture.  He then translates this into what he knows of Christ and life. Time with the 7-th chapter of the Book of Wisdom, for example, finds him overwhelmed and so genuinely motivated since, “after reading such powerful but tender words which the Holy Spirit show the beauty . . . of Eternal Wisdom, we cannot but love . . . and search for him . . . all the more so since he is . . . infinitely eager to give himself”.  (LEW 63). He invites the reader to share what he has found – or been given.

This is not primarily an academic exchange.  His understanding of Scripture follows the patristic pattern, that is so far as the reader is at one with the will of God is he given the insight to really see what is there. Such a person absorbs a text into his being, and his world is illumined – “I feel so good here, why should I go elsewhere”?  Such evidently was St. Louis Marie’s experience in his attraction to Eternal Wisdom how then can anyone who possesses Him be unhappy”? (LEW 59).

WONDER AND ADORATION

Paradoxically, because be sees so much, he knows he sees so little. He is always the contemplative, so in his response to Wisdom to Scripture and in life, worship and adoration are his guides to light. He first takes off his shoes before entering holy ground, so his being is attune to God revealing Himself in Christ. This 1s how he opens his chapter on the origin and excellence of Eternal Wisdom. “O the depth, the immensity and the incomprehensibility of the wisdom of God”. (see Rom. 11:33-36).

“Who is the angel so enlightened, who is the man rash enough to attempt to give us an adequate explanation of the origin of Eternal Wisdom? For here most human beings must close their eyes . . . silent . . . attempting to portray him.  Every mind  should realize its inadequacy and adore …”. (LEW 15). There, surely, lies the key to St. Louis Marie’s search for Wisdom.