Listening on the radio to the Nats game the other evening, I heard two unfamiliar names announced to start a late inning. One was the Nats pitcher, who must have been new to the team that week, and therefore unknown to me; and the other was the batter for the other team, and his name was Wisdom.
Wow, what a great name; and on a world-class athlete, as an MLB player would necessarily be, it indicates a completeness not to be expected nor often encountered: skill, strength, speed, and Wisdom – all in one! Having a name such as mine, with only one real benefit – it is often spelled correctly on the first try, even over the phone – I frequently admit to what I call “name envy”. But that night I had a flash of name awe.
There is a genre of ancient text, and a category of Sacred Scripture, called “Wisdom Literature,” and the books are among my favorites. Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth, or The Preacher – you know, “To every thing there is a season” &c), Sirach (confusingly also called Ecclesiasticus), Proverbs. The Psalms and Job also are counted, yet different in many ways; but the obvious one is actually called the Book of Wisdom, from which we hear this Sunday.
The common theme is the wisdom that points to God, and is from God, and of God. But one of the more amusing themes in the Book of Wisdom is that the author points out that anybody who pays attention and, as we might express it these days, “has half a brain,” can identify the existence of the Living God. My favorite example is in the chapter right after the passage we hear Sunday:
For all men who were ignorant of God were foolish by nature; and they were unable from the good things that are seen to know him who exists, nor did they recognize the craftsman while paying heed to his works; but they supposed that either fire or wind or swift air, or the circle of the stars, or turbulent water, or the luminaries of heaven were the gods that rule the world. If through delight in the beauty of these things men assumed them to be gods, let them know how much better than these is their Lord, for the author of beauty created them. And if men were amazed at their power and working, let them perceive from them how much more powerful is he who formed them. For from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator. Yet these men are little to be blamed, for perhaps they go astray while seeking God and desiring to find him. For as they live among his works they keep searching, and they trust in what they see, because the things that are seen are beautiful. Yet again, not even they are to be excused; for if they had the power to know so much that they could investigate the world, how did they fail to find sooner the Lord of these things? (Wisdom 13:1-9)
When I was in Rome recently, we had a tour of the excavations under Saint Peter’s Basilica to the site of Saint Peter’s tomb. Before the Basilica, and before Peter, the place was a necropolis – an above-ground cemetery filled with mausoleums like rows of condos for the dead. The decorations on the sarcophagi and tombs invoked or depicted assorted pagan deities, which the guide identified and explained. Then, at a certain point he asked our group, which god have we not talked about yet? My answer was, The real one. That prompted a chuckle – but it was a chuckle of recognition.
People will ask me, What’s the Bible’s position on this? or What’s the Church’s position on that? The Bible does not have a position, nor does the Church take positions. These are the instruments of God’s own self-revelation and relentless work to rescue us from ignorance of and distance from Him. There are millions of questions, but only one complete answer: Jesus Christ.
In our day of careful manners that avoid talk of religion if no longer politics, it is easy to forget that, just because we do not fall into argument with our neighbors, there is no range of opinions that are to be regarded as equally true or valuable; there is no assortment of possible realities to be accommodated in our speech and action. The Living God has made Himself known, and He is unique and universal, that is, the only God, and the God of everyone and everything. What the author of Wisdom points out is that it only makes sense.
And that night I was listening to the radio, as is so often the case, Wisdom crushed one out of the park.
Monsignor Smith
