O SAPIENTIA!
December 17th.
"O Wisdom Who camest forth from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from end to end mightily, and disposing all things sweetly, come and teach us the way of prudence!"
(Vide Wisdom viii. 1).
1st. Prelude. The Tabernacle of the hidden God.
2nd. Prelude. The grace of prudence.
For seven days before the Vigil of Christmas, the Church makes use of seven solemn antiphons, commonly known as the "Seven O's," because they all begin with "O." One is sung every day at Vespers reminding us that Our Lord is to come in the evening of the world's history. They are a sort of cry or invitation of the Church, addressing her Bridegroom by some spiritual title and begging Him to come. Before and after the Magnificat is the time the Church chooses for these solemn antiphons in order to keep constantly before our minds the truth that He is coming by Mary. As the days of Advent draw nearer to their close, this truth is plainly marked in the Mass. The Epistle, Gospel and Communion for Ember Wednesday (in the third week) are all full of Mary; the Gospel for Ember Friday gives the account of the Visitation; the Mass for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, as if the Church were loath to leave her out, brings Mary in at the Offertory and Communion; and that for the Vigil of Christmas devotes its Gospel to her. Let us then as we meditate on these great antiphons look in the direction of Mary where our King is as yet hidden, remembering that it is she who when Christmas comes, is going to shew unto us the Blessed Fruit of her womb Jesus.
Point I. "O Wisdom that proceedest from the mouth of the most high."
He is the Eternal Wisdom, and He has now become the Incarnate Wisdom. It is to Him that the Church is calling to-day. He is the "Wisdom of God" (1 Cor. i. 24) and the Source of all wisdom; and yet as man the Spirit of God has rested upon Him and filled His human Soul with the seven-fold gifts, of which Wisdom is the first. This gift enabled Him as man to know all mysteries, all God's secret designs and plans, and to enjoy to the full all His perfections. The subject is so vast that it seems impossible for me to meditate about it, but I will take one of the many things which the Holy Scriptures say about Wisdom, one which will lead me again to the Sanctuary where I would be.
"God loveth none but him that dwelleth with Wisdom" (Wisdom vii. 28). He so loved His poor fallen world that He gave His only begotten Son to be incarnate for it, and now all He asks from His children in return is their love and that they should show it by dwelling with Him. He came to be Emmanuel, God with us. He tabernacled among us, and what His Father asks is that we should not shun Him and live far away from Him, but that we should dwell with Him. Let me keep close then in spirit to His blessed Mother, the Tabernacle where my God is hidden, and let me keep close in reality to the Tabernacle on the Altar where He is expecting my confidences as surely as He expected those of His Mother; let me treat Him as my Friend to Whom I can tell everything that concerns me—how anxious I am to desire Him to come and yet how little desire I seem to have. There is a way of dwelling with Him which is even closer still: "He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood abideth in Me and I in him" (St. John vi. 57). This is the extension of the Incarnation, the way that Infinite Wisdom devised by which poor fallen man could nevertheless dwell with Wisdom.
O Eternal Wisdom, help me to make better use of this Thy most wonderful plan for continuing the Incarnation! He was incarnate for me in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, but He is incarnate for me in a more special and personal way each time that I receive Him in Holy Communion. By means of my Communions and their effects I can dwell always without any interruption in the tabernacle of the Most High, for it is of me that Eternal Wisdom speaks when He says: "My Father will love him, and We will come to him and will make Our abode with him." (St. John xiv. 23).
Point II. "Reaching from end to end mightily and disposing all things sweetly."