We have just a few weeks left in our liturgical year. Today, the book of Wisdom from the Old Testament calls out to us. Most biblical scholars believe that this book was originally written in Greek in Alexandria, Egypt, a great center of learning in the ancient world, a couple of centuries before Christ’s birth. Our reading today tells us that wisdom is received by all who love her, that she is found by all who seek her. If we watch for wisdom at dawn, she’ll be waiting for us at the gate. As disciples of Christ, we are to seek wisdom just as we seek God. We are to yearn and strive for such a connection. Just as we search and strive for wisdom, wisdom and God reach back to us.
But wisdom goes beyond book knowledge and intellect; wisdom is there to help us understand God in our lives, to help us integrate God and his teachings into our daily lives. Book learning and knowledge are important in our development as human beings and in our spiritual quest, but wisdom shows us that there is more. As God reaches out to us, wisdom connects us with God in diverse and eclectic ways: through music, art, poetry, literature, and nature; through prayer, contemplation, and even silence. Meeting wisdom at the gate means that we are called to search for ways to gain experience and understanding, to integrate God into our spirituality quest and into our lives. In our search for wisdom, we are called to read good books, to listen to beautiful music, to see God in nature, to mediate over an intriguing piece of art. We are to find God’s wisdom in the talents and gifts that he gives us. When we sing or play a musical instrument, when we create work of art, when we knit or crochet, when we prepare a welcoming meal for our family or our friends, when we write in a journal, we can use it as a means to experience God and to connect to the divine, to gain spiritual wisdom and understanding through this creative process.
Wisdom is about integrating our knowledge and intellect with our heart, our senses, our bodies, and our real life experiences. Yet, wisdom doesn’t mean that everything is clear-cut. Indeed, in our search of wisdom, we'll experience great joys and great struggles: all this is fundamental to our journey
We can see a connection between wisdom and the Gospel today in the parable about the maidens, in its teaching that we should be prepared at all times since we do not know when Jesus will come again. Perhaps we can also identify with the foolish, unprepared maidens at one time or another in our lives when we’ve not been as prepared as we should have been. We can remember those times when we procrastinate in life, putting something off to the last minute. I remember being in seminary, when I had worked for weeks on a large research paper in our class on the synoptic Gospels, working meticulously on every detail of that paper. I had it all printed out, ready to go several days before it was due, very content with my efforts. I worked at the library in the seminary where I saw one of my classmates come into the library late that afternoon the day before that assignment was due. I asked him if he was happy that all of our hard work for that big assignment was behind us. He stated that he was just now choosing the topic for his paper and was getting ready to find some books on that topic less than 24 hours before it was due. Wow, I thought to myself, thinking of the many weeks and late nights of work I had put into that assignment. The next morning, I saw him frantically waiting for our professor to ask her if he could have an extension on his paper, since it was not even close to completion. I thought of that seminarian in the context of today’s Gospel, of how we are called to learn from those times we are not ready when we should be. Those of us who put ourselves under the rule of God's kingdom as Christ's followers should always be ready and prepared to play our role in the on-going story of God's relationship to us.
The main fault of these foolish maidens was not that they fell asleep or that they failed to have oil in their lamps, but rather that they were not ready to welcome the bridegroom with joy. As we grow in wisdom and understanding, let us joyfully welcome the coming of God's kingdom into our lives and in the lives of others, to welcome Christ's arrival with joy when he comes again.
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