Recipe for Wisdom

If you are twelve years old or older, you probably have stored up an impressive reservoir of wisdom and good sense. You are no “Simple Simon.” You remember the character from the nursery rhyme: Simple Simon went a-fishing for to catch a whale:
All the water he had got was in his mother's pail. I remember an entertainer telling an audience-participation version of “Jack and the Bean Stalk”.  The refrain for listeners to join in on was, “Jack, where’s the sense you were born with?” Despite the fantastic adventures brought about by utilizing the beanstalk—Giants and the goose that laid the golden egg—I stay stuck on a prudent proverb: “Don’t sell the cow for beans, just because someone claims they are magic.”

You don’t hear, “I was on a diet of protein, fruits and vegetables, and whole grains, but I am going to switch to chips and root beer. You don’t hear parents say, “Kids, dinner is ready; go rub your hands along the banister and come to the table.” Those are ridiculous examples, but you would agree as we get along through life, we have a chance to build common sense. Could it be, as some have said, knowledge is the collected, reliable information about a subject, and wisdom is the awareness and intuition for what to do with it?

Wisdom is the strong theme running through the Scripture passages coming up on Sunday. It is the celebrated topic from many parts of the Torah, Prophets, Writings, Gospels, and Epistles of the Bible. I will deal with Jesus’s words from John’s Gospel separately. Here, I give a sampling of selections from our liturgical readings,

Come, children, and listen to me; I will teach you the fear of (reverence for) the Lord.
Who among you loves life and desires long life to enjoy prosperity?
Keep your tongue from evil-speaking and your lips from lying words.  (Psalm 34:11-13)

Wisdom has sent out her servant-girls, she calls
from the highest places in the town,
“You that are simple, turn in here!”
To those without sense she says,
“Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.
Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight.” (Proverbs 9:3-6)

Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is.  (Ephesians 5:15-16)

The premise of wisdom literature in the Bible is our choices and attitudes are informed by foolishness or by wisdom. Foolishness results in despair and ruin. Wisdom leads to joy, hope, and a solid path in life. The topic deserves going on for pages: deeper into this root description. We can afford here only to add just a few more thoughts. The body of wisdom material teaches that the wise give alert attention to God; in awe, they listen up, for God’s wisdom. They receive it as a kind of food from God, that provides life. Going back to the passage above from the psalm, though it is possible for the foolish and evil to have a long life and have prosperity, the wise, respectful of God’s ways can enjoy their life and their prosperity however long and great.

The food and drink which is Wisdom’s offering in the passage from Proverbs, “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed,” serves as a corollary to the challenge and invitation that Jesus gives in John 6. We should note that Jesus identifies himself with that which a person may eat and drink to receive forever-life. Offering himself for consumption is a shocking metaphor, jarring, to say the least. To make it more palatable, if you will understand that when we internalize his Good News spiritually when we choose to believe in him when we decide to follow him, we are eating and drinking his flesh and blood. These are ways we take into ourselves the essential reality of the Savior. Now, read:

Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” (John 6:51-58)

We can not help but also bring Eucharistic theology into this passage, whatever the principle, original application. It is broader than that, however. What Paul so often calls living “in Christ” we can think of as perpetual nourishment with the reality of the Savior. Theology has often thought of the Word of God and the Wisdom of God as the realities of God made available to rational creatures. Certain passages speak poetically of these elements of the Divine, personified. As we have seen Lady Wisdom makes wisdom available to those who would be wise. The Word is spoken of in the Prologue of John, the first chapter. “The Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory.” By relation to the Word, we receive from its fullness, grace upon grace.

Let’s not be fooled. Let’s not be dupes and simpletons. Let us run to dine, and feast on the Word offered. We can eat and drink the bread and wine Lady Wisdom has set out for us. Cultivate a good appetite for it. It is a forever banquet we are invited to. Wash up and come.