What does it mean
to be fed by Wisdom?
In the Book of Proverbs, the anthropomorphized Wisdom
invites all who are simple to come and eat of her food and drink of
the wine she has mixed. The allegory is a powerful one: those who seek understanding are invited to
feed on the knowledge God gives them, to be nurtured and fortified by learning
the ways of God. Those who accept the
invitation are like the psalmist in Psalm 34, who taste and see the goodness of the Lord, those who know their own
need for God and do not hesitate to seek God’s Wisdom. Paul similarly invites the Ephesians to live
as wise persons, trying to understand what is the will of the Lord. He encourages them to drink not of ordinary
wine, which causes drunkenness, but of the
Spirit, the source of God’s Wisdom, which we celebrate in Eucharist.
Christ, whom Paul calls the power of God and the wisdom of God in 1 Corinthians, came to
share our life, to participate in the human condition and transform it. In John’s Gospel, he tries to explain to his
Jewish audience that they must eat his
flesh and drink his blood in order that they might live forever. His flesh and
blood are necessary; the flesh that dies for our sake and the blood poured out
for our sake will become vehicles of transformation and of salvation. Just as the bread and wine are transformed at
an essential level through transubstantiation, so are we transformed at an
essential level when we consume them – we are transformed for eternal life as
we take in the Wisdom of God.
How wise are
we? We are as rich in Wisdom as possible
if we embrace the Wisdom that is Christ.
This post is based
on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordle.net
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