Fr. Lino Moreira
The author of today’s first reading, Ben-Sirach, believed that divine Wisdom had come down from the highest heavens, to dwell among the human race, when the God of Israel gave his people a Law according to which they could live. This was an entirely new theological insight, but it seemed to be borne out by Moses himself, who said to the people of Israel: I have taught you laws and customs, as the Lord my God commanded me. Keep them, put them into practice, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations (Dt 4:6).
Alongside Ben-Sirach, other biblical authors have also regarded Wisdom almost as a distinct personality acting as God’s agent, not only in human history, but even in the very act of creation. For instance, in the book of Proverbs, Wisdom itself describes its own role, when God was creating the world, in the following terms: I was beside him as a master workman, delighting him day after day, ever at play in his presence (Pr 8:30).
Such imagery, however, is largely poetic, and it is only in the New Testament, namely in the Prologue to Saint John’s Gospel, that equality with God is eventually ascribed to Wisdom by transposing some of its defining features to the Logos, or divine Word.
In the beginning was the Word – says the evangelist – and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Jn 1:1). And if the Word was thus co-equal with God, who else but the Word could have been at God’s side as a master workman when the world was being made? Indeed, all things came into being through him – the eternal Word – and without him not one thing came into being (Jn 1:3).
In the light of this revelation, God’s command in today’s first reading can also be taken as addressed to the divine Word: Make your dwelling in Jacob and in Israel receive your inheritance (Si 24:8) – said the Creator of all things. And such an unheard-of command met with a loving response, which the evangelist summarised as follows: the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory of a Father’s only son, full of grace and truth (Jn 1:14).
This is the astonishing mystery we are still celebrating with great joy. God’s only-begotten Son, the divine Logos, the light and life of the world, the fountain of Wisdom became one of our flesh and blood in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, born of the Virgin Mary. But the story was by no means an entirely happy one, as we have also heard: He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him (Jn 1:10) – in other words, did not love him. And St Paul also says, speaking of God’s Wisdom made manifest in Jesus Christ: None of the rulers of this world knew it, for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Co 2:8).
Who has ever heard of a more resounding defeat? And yet it was precisely by being so utterly rejected that the Son of God received Israel and all the other nations as his heritage. In fact, it was through his cross, through the mystery of his death and resurrection, that the Word incarnate gave to all who believed in his name the power to become children of God (Jn 1:10). And in this way the Church was born of every nation, of Jews and Gentiles alike, as a universal family of brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ.
So by confessing that Jesus is the Son of God and being baptised in his name, we were all born from above (cf. Jn 3:3.7), from God (cf. Jn 1:13). And we remember very well what our Redeemer said to Nicodemus: unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit (Jn 3:3.7).
At the beginning of a new year, then, we are called to renew our commitment to live more and more according to the Spirit, so that with hearts purified by love we may one day come to enjoy the riches of the glorious inheritance God has prepared for us among his saints (cf. Ep 1:4).