Where Wisdom Lives

Wisdom is found close to the presence of God. Wisdom in the creation stories is the playmate of God in the creation of the world. Wisdom, as we read in the Sunday readings, is like the woman who builds a shelter for her family, prepares and serves a table of fine foods and wines, and instructs them in the common sense path of looking for God. Her counterpoint is the foolish person who seeks the ways of folly and uses many words to describe the simple things of life. The food at the table of the foolish is borrowed or stolen from other households.

John’s gospel in its early chapters presents wisdom in the words and invitation of Jesus to follow him. The apostle Philip, on hearing that the others had been called, seeks out Jesus for himself. Like any good learning situation, one question is posed only to be followed with the answer of yet another question. Philip asks Jesus: “Where do you live?” The response is direct: “Come and see.” Jesus, in John’s gospel, borrows the words of wisdom herself, where wisdom is to be sought and found in the house she built. Wisdom calls, wisdom invites, and the response is to follow. In the following Jesus the disciple comes to possess wisdom itself. Jesus is the eternal wisdom of the Father now revealed in Jesus to his followers.

Wisdom's Table
It is not accidental that Jesus is much concerned about eating and drinking as the essential sign of his Father’s Kingdom. One only need to read the readings at Mass of the last several weeks. People either eating or drinking in abundance are fed in the desert, and an overflow of nurturing food fills several baskets. The contrast is being hungry and thirsty in the desert. We witness the community murmuring and complaining. Moses himself complains to God about death as possible in the desert journey. God gave them manna from the heavens and quail to eat. The community knew God’s fidelity in his nurturing care. One needs to add that he instructed them in the way of the Law, their covenant with God.

We had a similar story with Elijah in the desert yet another time. He is trying to escape death at the hand of the king. He finds himself in the desert, where under the shade and cool of the broom tree provided by God, complaining that he is no better than his ancestors and praying for death to come. Again, God’s fidelity to the prophet and to Israel comes with food and drink. An angelic messenger invites him to eat and drink, i.e., trust in God’s covenant. He, indeed, eats the hearth cake and drinks of the jug of water. Yet, it is not enough. He again falls asleep only to awaken again and be urged to eat and drink, for the journey to Horeb is long. Invited to the presence of God on Mount Horeb, he learns to trust. Horeb in the Book of Kings is Sinai in Deuteronomy, the place of the giving of the Law. Food and instruction are a way of life for those who would walk the ways of the Lord.

In Mark’s gospel, which describes another feeding of the crowd by Jesus, thousands follow him to the desert, only to find themselves without sustenance. This time Jesus looks at them as

“sheep without a shepherd.” Just like the similar story of the five loaves and two fish, Jesus “instructs” them. Again the interchange of food and instruction is played out. One follows in the way of the Kingdom either by eating the bread from heaven or by being taught in the ways of Jesus himself, the Bread of life. In the case of the five loaves and two fish, food from within the community is transformed by taking, blessing, breaking, and sharing at the direction of Jesus.

Contemporary Wisdom
Where in fact does wisdom live in our times? Where are disciples fed and nurtured for their following of the Lord? Where can faithful people find food and instruction in the ways of the Kingdom? “Come and see” we hear in the Book of Proverbs and in John’s Gospel. Or, as the Book of Psalms invites us: “Taste and see.” Worship provides us with two tables where God feeds his People.

Our Sunday liturgy places the tables before us. In the first part of the liturgy, we gather at the Table of God’s Word, where we break open and eat of his word of scripture. It is there where we proclaim, hear, believe and celebrate God with us on the way to the Kingdom. Even more clearly is the second Table of the Eucharist, where bread and wine are taken, blessed, and shared for our nourishment. At the Eucharistic Table we are feed with the very Bread of Life itself, Jesus who gathers us at the table. From this table we are invited to walk in the way of discipleship. Food becomes a way of life. Instruction is transformed into actions on behalf of the Kingdom.

Wisdom on the Road
Luke instructs us in his gospel in this dual blessing of Word and Sacrament. It is here we find two disciples on Easter Evening on their way to Emmaus. They were complaining and lamenting the death of their Master. Jesus meets them on the way and urges them to wisdom with his questions. Their response is the story of the death of the Lord and of their lack of faith. His continued conversation is the word of life of Jesus’ raised from the dead. Instruction causes their enlightenment, “their hearts burned within them.” Having instructed them, he seduces them to invite him to their table for the evening meal. “Stay with us… the night is far spent.” The unrecognized Master “takes bread, says a blessing, breaks it and shares it with them.” They come to wisdom: “They came to know him in the breaking of the bread.” Wisdom is an insight and a moment, not to be captured fully: “…And he vanished from their sight!”

The two disciples turned around and went back to the other disciples, whom they had left without hope. They became a fellowship of believers: “Jesus is raised,” they sing. “He has appeared to Simon!” is the welcome they receive. The community comes to life because Jesus, in word and broken bread, fed and nourished all of them.

Eucharist is to become a people instructed by the Word and fed at the Table of the Father’s wisdom in Christ.

CDH