PRelude
Falling in Love
In yesterday’s article, we dealt with the beginning of acquiring Wisdom. It was a very technical, focused view of how to reach for that which we call “truth” and “beauty” and “goodness”.
What we failed to cover was the reason why anyone would go through the trouble of reaching for these things. Readers were told that to get Wisdom, they needed to basically commit the Scriptures to heart. Yet they were never given an incentive to strive for Wisdom in the first place.
This post is about the why. Thank you for to Paul Senz and his amazing article on beauty for the inspiration.
My journey towards loving Wisdom has been one of teenage romance. For me, Wisdom is the most beautiful, gracious, kind woman I have ever known. She is my confidant, my friend, the spark that lights all fires of beauty around the world.
Would that I could show you a picture of her. But the truth is, beauty will take a slightly different physical form for everyone the moment we personify her. It is not that her actual attributes change or that all her teachings are similarly amorphous and arbitrary. I simply find blondes to be attractive, and others may prefer red heads. Therefore, picturing Wisdom in physical form will not serve everyone.
What I intend here, for everyone, is to show Wisdom’s fruits, so that you will have a sense of her in your heart.
May it inspire you to move forward in your quest, as it has me.
The Path of the Righteous
Wisdom has animated the lives of heroes. These are people who committed their lives (and sometimes their deaths) to what was right, to the service of the people around them.
At the end of life, we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done. We will be judged by “I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was naked, and you clothed me. I was homeless, and you took me in.”
I plead with you–never, ever give up on hope, never doubt, never tire, and never become discouraged. Be not afraid.”
You know well that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, as at the love with which we do them.”
The Works of Her Hands
Wisdom has produced every beautiful thing under the sun. What follows is but a helping of some of them, which have awakened my soul from its stupor.
I See His Blood Upon the Rose I see his blood upon the rose, And in the stars the beauty of his eyes, His body gleams amid eternal snows, His tears fall from the skies. I see his face in every flower; The thunder and the singing of the birds Are but his voice - and carven by his power Rocks are written in his words. All pathways by his feet are worn, His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea, His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn, His cross is every tree.
Psalm 22
My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me,
from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;
and by night, but find no rest.
I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax,
it is melted within my breast;
my strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue cleaves to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.
Yet you are he who took me from the womb;
you kept me safe upon my mother's breasts.
Upon you was I cast from my birth,
and since my mother bore me you have been
my God.
Be not far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is none to help.
Ulysses Death closes all: but something ere the end, Some work of noble note, may yet be done, Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods. The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks: The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world. Push off, and sitting well in order smite The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die. Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho' We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Love
This reflection began with love. I confessed to you the reader how I personally dated and fell in love with Wisdom. In a short, abbreviated way, I have tried to give you a glimpse into that courtship by painting these vignettes.
I believe Wisdom herself does the same. It is my conviction that Wisdom – ultimate beauty, goodness, and truth – strives for every single one of us, like a lover who is way out of our league yet far too engrossed in us to take notice. As such, I believe she herself paints vignettes of her love for us all across space and time.
The greatest of these is the love between men and women.
And of all these loves that have existed across the millennia, the greatest was the love between two virgins.
