Wisdom "can do all things" (Wisdom vii. 27) and it is God hidden in the womb of Mary, Who is reaching from end to end of the earth and ordering the whole world to be enrolled everyone in his own city. Why was this? Because the Roman Emperor wanted to know the number of the subjects in his vast empire just to satisfy his ambition? This is the answer the world would give, but in this case the children of Light—the children of the Incarnate Wisdom know better. The world is being agitated, though it does not know it, not by the command of any earthly monarch, but by the King of kings Who is about to be born and Who must fulfil a certain prophecy as to His birthplace. The prophet Micaias said of Him: "His going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity. And thou, Bethlehem Ephrata art a little one among the thousands of Juda; out of thee shall He come" (chap. v. 2); and Mary, the mother who had been destined from all eternity to give birth to Him Who was "from the days of eternity," was living quietly at Nazareth making all her preparations for His birth there. But could not God have devised means to send Mary to Bethlehem without disturbing the whole world? Yes, but He would show to those who have eyes to see, that wisdom "can do all things," that though He is to all appearances helpless, hidden and dependent, yet it is He and not any other Who is King of the whole world, and that even now before His birth He can reach from end to end of it mightily and do what He will therein. And so "there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled ... everyone in his own city," and Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem and it so happened (as we should say) "that when they were there, her days were accomplished, that she should be delivered" (St. Luke ii. 1-6) and the King was born in Bethlehem. Sweetly He had ordered all things to suit His divine purpose.
Point III. "Come and teach us the way of prudence."
Come, my little King, Who art nevertheless the Eternal Wisdom, come and teach me this heavenly prudence. I know Thy power and I know Thy gentleness. I know, that is to say, that Thou canst do everything and that Thou art disposing sweetly everything in my life; but I want Thee to come and teach me to put my knowledge into practice. If the whole world could be set in motion by Thee just in order that one little desire of Thy Divine Providence might be fulfilled, shall I not be ready to own that Thou art indeed the King, that whatever may happen in the earth, it is the Lord Who reigneth; and in my own life when things seem, as they sometimes do, inexplicable and beyond all human ken, Oh! come and teach me that the way of prudence is to lie still like a little child in its mother's arms, not to try to fathom nor to understand, but to say: I am in the Arms of the Eternal Wisdom, Who can do all things, Who loves me with an infinite love and Who is disposing all things sweetly, gently, mercifully for my sake.
This is the lesson the Child yet unborn would teach. His Mother understood, for, as we have seen, one principle guided the two lives; but it was not easy for her to have all her plans disarranged, to hear that she and her husband must take a long journey perhaps of two or three days, to know that her Son could not be born in her own little home so dear to her with all its hallowed memories, to know that she could not lay Him in the little cradle that she had so lovingly prepared for Him nor surround Him with the little comforts that she had been able to provide. All this would have been much even for a rich mother to give up, and Mary was poor and she knew that she and Joseph would have to take just what they could get and no more. Yet in Mary's heart there was no anxiety, no murmuring, no hesitation, no regret even. Why? Because the Babe within her taught her prudence, taught her, that is, that God's ways are best, that it was He Who was ordering all things sweetly, and that if her plans were upset, it simply meant that they did not happen to be God's plans; and she willingly gave up hers for His.
O Mary as I kneel before the Tabernacle where Thy Son as yet lies hidden, present my petitions to Him. Tell Him that, cost what it may, I do want His Will to be done, I do want to realize that it is He Who is ordering all things sweetly for me and that though the way is often difficult it is His way and therefore mine—"the way of prudence."
Colloquy with the Incarnate Wisdom.
Resolution. "I purposed therefore to take her (Wisdom) to me to live with me, knowing that she will communicate to me of her good things" (Wisdom viii. 9).
Spiritual Bouquet. "O Sapientia! ... come and teach us the way of prudence."