Week 7 Wednesday (Year 1)

Readings: Sirach 4:11-19; Psalm 118 (119); Mark 9:38-40

'Early to bed, early to rise, makes one healthy, wealthy and wise'. So we were taught as children. The word 'early' is missing from the translation linked to here. It comes near the beginning of today's first reading, 'those who seek wisdom early, will win the Lord's good favour' (Sirach 4:12).

It is not clear whether it means early in the morning or when one is young. It could be the first. One of the striking things about the Wisdom literature is that it is as likely to be concerned with ordinary and banal things as with profound and unusual things. Either way the reader is encouraged to begin the quest for wisdom as soon as possible, earlier rather than later, today rather than tomorrow.

However, there is at first is a time of testing or initiation. (We were warned about this already in the first reading of yesterday's Mass.) Time is needed if we are to become accustomed to Wisdom. She plays hard to get, hides her face from time to time, and only gives herself finally to the one who perseveres in the disciplines needed to stay with her. Understanding her ways is not immediate or straightforward, we are not immediately at home with each other. In the translation linked here it says that Wisdom 'walks with (us) as a stranger' and the Revised Standard Version says 'she will walk with (us) in disguise'.

It brings to mind the journey to Emmaus when the disciples, disillusioned by their experience in Jerusalem, are joined in their desolate walk by a stranger. We know it is the Risen Lord, but something prevents them from recognising him. He acts as Wisdom does. So he is with them initially in disguise, as a stranger. He opens the Scriptures to them, giving them knowledge and understanding. He interprets the time of testing that has come upon them, and upon him. They invite him to share their meal but in reality it is he who brings them to his meal, and they recognise him in the breaking of the bread. The meal Wisdom offers her clients is one of the meals that informs our understanding of the Eucharist.

Once they have persevered through this time of testing, the seekers of wisdom possess her as they had not done before. 'She comes straight back to them', Sirach tells us, 'to strengthen and gladden them, to reveal her secrets to them, and to give them knowledge and discernment'. In an unexpected fulfillment of these descriptions of wisdom, Jesus risen from the dead comes straight back to his disciples, to strengthen and gladden them, to reveal his secrets to them, and to give them new knowledge and discernment. This he does in his teaching, in the meals he shares with them, in the participation in his Spirit which he makes possible for them, in the sacramental life of the Church which carries His life to them.

He is the Prophet spoken of in the Law. He is the Messiah spoken of by the Prophets. And he is also the Divine Wisdom spoken of in the Writings and in the Psalms (Luke 24:27, 44).