Wisdom in The Old Testament II

Wisdom in The Old Testament

St. Louis de Montfort’s Love of the Eternal Wisdom is not the kind of book that makes for easy reading . . .

. . . at least not the first time around. It was written when he was a young priest, and probably based on a series of conferences that he had given to a group of seminarians in Paris. It is full of references to, and quotations from, the so-called Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament, and puts special stress on the Book of Wisdom itself.

No writer, of course, does his work in a vacuum. He is subject, as we all are, to the cultural, literary, spiritual and linguistic current of his time. Montfort was certainly influenced by the spiritual and devotional developments of his own day. He was an avid reader of such masters of 16th and 17th century spirituality as Berulle, Eudes, Tronson, Condren and Olier. It was from them, to a great extent, that he derived his interest in presenting Christ as the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom.

“The Divine Wisdom,” writes one of Montfort’s biographers, “is the other name for the Logos, of the Word proclaimed by St. John. All the mystics of the French school (of spirituality) contemplate it, and while placing souls in its light, would fain let it invade them completely, until its light shall have done away with the darkness of self-love, of sensuality, of earthly attachments. In the place of the poor miserable “Ego” there is Jesus . . . Grignion was one of these mystics . . . While only a chosen few read Berulle, Condren, Olier and Father Eudes, Bremond (the French historian of devotional writing) points out that Grignion de Montfort is for all.”

Divine Wisdom Should Live Within Us

That may very well be true, but the idea of Christ as the Divine and Incarnate Wisdom who should live within us and possess us completely is one that most of us don’t hear about too much. It is, perhaps, a notion that some would call a bit too “mystical” for the average Catholic. And it could very well be that Montfort himself came to that same conclusion after years of preaching experience, for he does seem to tone down the emphasis on Christ as Divine and Incarnate Wisdom in his later True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin.

It will help us to understand Montfort’s approach in this book . . .

. . . if we bear in mind that he adapts texts from the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament to Christ, our Lord. The quotations and references do not apply directly and literally to the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, since the Old Testament writers had no concept at all of the mystery of Three Persons in One God. When they speak of Wisdom, they personify an attribute of God: the resourceful way in which He cares for the Chosen People of God.

The Church Adapts Texts from the Wisdom Literature . . .

In accommodating these different texts to Christ, Montfort follows a procedure that has a long and ancient history in the Church. Both St. John the Apostle and St. Paul saw that these passages could apply remarkably well to Christ and used them to illustrate the newly developed doctrine of the Blessed Trinity. Some of the early Fathers of the Church, especially the Eastern Fathers, did the same thing. What they intended to do is to bring out the fact that the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament in some way foreshadowed Christ as Second Person of the Trinity and prepared the way for the enunciation of the full revelation of the Triune God.

It is in this light, then, that we should try to understand Montfort’s use of the expression, Divine Wisdom. He follows an ancient tradition of the Church by taking this biblical foreshadowing of Christ and applying it to the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.

. . . of the Old Testament to Christ

For instance, he writes: “Of Him we read repeatedly in the Books of Solomon that Wisdom was created, that is to say, produced at the very beginning, before all creatures and before all time. He says of Himself: ‘I was set up from all eternity, and of old before the earth was made. The depths were not yet, and I was already conceived.’ ”

Note, first of all, that Montfort speaks of the Wisdom Literature as “the Books of Solomon.” Now, we know nowadays that Solomon was not the author of the Book of Wisdom, for Solomon lived some 500 years before the book was written. The Jewish people, however, attributed all the Wisdom Literature to Solomon, even though many of them were undoubtedly aware that Solomon had nothing to do with their composition. Montfort simply takes for granted that Solomon was the author in accordance with the Jewish tradition.

Note also that Montfort does a bit of adapting of his own in order, no doubt, to avoid confusion. Where the text reads that Wisdom was “created” by God from the very beginning, Montfort explains that this really means “produced.” He wants to make sure his readers understand that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity was not created out of nothingness by God the Father.

Love of Eternal Wisdom: Montfort’s Way of Making Christ Better Known and Better Loved

Now, we cheerfully admit that all of this can be a bit of a mindbender. That it may seem unnecessarily abstruse and far-
fetched, perhaps even involving some literary trickery at times. But, as St. Jerome remarked: “Without a knowledge of the Scriptures there can be no knowledge of Christ.” Love of Eternal Wisdom was Montfort’s way of making Christ better known and better loved.