7th Week in Ordinary Time
Who can number these? . . . Who can explore these? (Sirach 1:2, 3)
Modern-day scientists can answer many of Sirach’s “unanswerable questions.” Sands of the seashore? Take the amount of grains of sand in a teaspoon and multiply it by the volume of all the beaches and deserts on earth: scientists estimate it’s over seven quintillion (that’s seven with eighteen zeroes after it). The depths of the abyss? Through unmanned submarines, scientists can descend three miles into the deep chasms of the ocean and study its mysteries.
But that knowledge is not the wisdom Sirach is talking about.
From now until Ash Wednesday, we will be reading from the Book of Sirach, a collection of sayings and moral teachings that is part of the wisdom literature in the Hebrew Bible. Today’s reading is a poetic introduction to the book, and it highlights this essential point: all wisdom comes from the Lord (Sirach 1:1). Wisdom helps us see the world as God does. Wisdom helps us know how to live in this world that God has created. Wisdom helps us understand who we are and how we should relate to the people in our lives. In short, wisdom—God’s wisdom—is available to guide every aspect of our lives.
Isn’t that good news? God doesn’t keep his wisdom to himself. He freely—lavishly—gives it to his friends. That includes you!
One of the most obvious ways God shares his wisdom is through his word. Sirach says, “The word of God on high is the fountain of wisdom” (1:5). St. Paul would agree—he urges Timothy to use the Scriptures to teach, correct, and train himself in all areas of righteous living (2 Timothy 3:16).
Today is a good day to take some time to seek God’s wisdom. Try sitting with the Scriptures for a bit, and allow them to sink into your mind and heart. Maybe use today’s readings. Or you could use a favorite psalm or a story from the Gospels. Whatever passage you choose, give yourself time to read prayerfully and to ponder what you read. Let the words open your heart to God’s heart. Let them open your eyes to the way God looks at things. Let them show you how to live.
God’s thoughts are indeed deeper than the abyss. So dive into his word, and discover all that he wants to show you.
“Father, thank you for teaching me the way of wisdom.”
Philoxenes of Mabbug (?-c.523)
Bishop in Syria
Homily 3, 52-56
"I believe! Help my unbelief"
Incline your ear and hear, open your eyes and see the marvels that faith discloses. Form for yourself new eyes, create hidden ears, you are summoned to hear hidden things…, you have been called to see spiritual realities… Come and see what as yet you are not and be renewed as you enter the new creation.
Wisdom was with your Creator in his first works (Pr 8:22), but in the second creation it was faith that accompanied him, in this second act of giving birth he took faith as his helper. Faith accompanies God in all things and he does nothing without her. It would have been easy to bring you to birth without her in the water and the Spirit, yet he does not cause you to be born in the second birth until you have recited the symbol of faith, the creed. He could have renewed you and from ancient made you new, yet he neither changes nor renews you before receiving faith in surety from you. Faith is demanded from someone who is baptized, and it is then that he receives the treasures of the water. Without faith, all is common, but when faith is there then common things appear glorious. Without faith, baptism is simply water; without faith, the life-giving mysteries are just bread and water; without the eye of faith, the old man appears simply what he is; without the eye of faith, the mysteries are common things and the wonders of the Spirit are worth nothing.
Faith looks, reflects and secretly considers the power hidden in things… For see: you bear in your hand the portion of the mystery that, naturally speaking, is common bread; faith sees it as the body of the Only-begotten… The flesh sees bread, wine, oil, water, but faith forces our sight to look spiritually at what it only sees corporally, that is to say to eat the Body instead of bread, to drink the Blood instead of wine, to see the baptism of the Spirit instead of water and the power of Christ instead of oil.