Easter 2026 - Reading #43 - Wisdom
Reading
The Book of Wisdom, traditionally attributed to Solomon, celebrates divine wisdom as the most desirable of all gifts: "I preferred her to scepters and thrones, and I accounted wealth as nothing in comparison with her. Neither did I liken to her any priceless gem, because all gold is but a little sand in her sight, and silver will be accounted as clay before her. I loved her more than health and beauty, and I chose to have her rather than light, because her radiance never ceases" (Wisdom 7:8-10).
Solomon continues: "For she is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness. Although she is but one, she can do all things, and while remaining in herself, she renews all things; in every generation she passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God, and prophets" (Wisdom 7:26-27).
And: "Wisdom reaches mightily from one end of the earth to the other, and she orders all things well" (Wisdom 8:1). For Solomon, wisdom is not an abstraction but a person, a living reality that enters into friendship with those who seek her. She is God's own creative intelligence, active in the world, accessible to those who desire her above all other goods.
Reflection
Forty-four days into Easter. Solomon, the wisest man in the Old Testament, describes wisdom as more desirable than wealth, health, beauty, or even light. And his description reveals something remarkable: wisdom is not a thing to be possessed but a person to be known. She "passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God." The gift of wisdom, at its deepest, is not an ability but a relationship, the relationship with divine Wisdom herself.
The Christian tradition has always seen in Solomon's personification of Wisdom a foreshadowing of Christ, whom Paul calls "the power of God and the wisdom of God." To receive the gift of wisdom, then, is to be drawn into deeper union with Christ, to see with his eyes, love with his heart, and engage the world with his creative intelligence. This is not the abolition of our personality but its fulfillment. The wise person does not lose themselves in God; they find themselves, their truest, deepest, most real self, in the communion of wisdom.
As Pentecost approaches, ask for wisdom with Solomon's intensity. "I preferred her to scepters and thrones." This is not a polite request but a passionate pursuit. The gift of wisdom is given to those who want it more than anything else, who are willing to trade every lesser good for the one good that contains all others. What would you give up to see the world as God sees it? What would you surrender to taste his goodness in everything? The answer to that question determines how fully you will receive the crown of the gifts.