Fr. George Benigsen

"Wisdom"

"WISDOM!" We hear this word repeated frequently during the services in our churches. In the first place it is intended to remind us and bear witness before us and before the world that everything that takes place in the church has as its foundation the Divine Wisdom. "In wisdom hast thou made [them] all', we hear these words at every vigil during the reading of the 103rd psalm, the so called beginning psalm. In our everyday life we frequently use the words "reason", "mind", "sense", "intellect" when we try to describe the obvious function of the human brain. In doing so we frequently separate this function of the brain from the full manifestation of the human spirit. We are living in the age of reason, the age of man's great scientific, technical, intellectual and artistic achievements. Not infrequently are these achievements deprived of the creative element and are directed towards destructive objectives.

Is this what is meant by the word "wisdom" so often used in the church? In part it is, as man's reason, enlightened by the light of Christ, can be contained within the sphere of the Divine Wisdom representing, at the very best, a mere drop in the ocean of that Wisdom. We could repeat here the dying words of that great scholar: "All I know is that I know nothing."

Divine Wisdom is the basis of all creative endeavor in this world. All that cannot be contained therein, does not draw nourishment therefrom, is not enlightened thereby, consciously or unconsciously, is repelled by true knowledge and becomes a victim of destructive forces. As everything is polarized in the world, the Divine Wisdom can be opposed only by absolute folly, diabolical folly, mindlessness. It is that folly of which King David said: "The fool hath said in his heart: there is no God.

So this is why the Church repeats so often the word 'WISDOM'. In the first place it reminds us that true wisdom is inherent in God alone; that man can approach the Divine Wisdom only in direct proportion of his spiritual enlightenment which he derives through the Church and in the Church; that the approximation of the Divine Wisdom is predicated on humility and recognition of one's own insignificance - intellectual and spiritual - before the greatness of God. Also, through the repetition of this word the Church confirms that it, which as the Body of Christ is one, holy, catholic and apostolic, is the repository and the fountain of the only true wisdom.