32nd Sunday of the Year A

The last time we had a reading from the Book of Wisdom was on 21st July, the 16th Sunday of the Year, and I gave you that day a brief account of how it came to be written. And, since I’m sure none of you remember a word I said then, I’m going to tell you again.

It was, in fact, the last book in the Old Testament to be written, the date being around the year 50BC. The name of the author is unknown but the indications are that he was a Jew living in Alexandria, one of the principal cities of the Roman Empire. It was an important intellectual centre of the Greek-speaking world and among those who had settled there were a large number of educated Jews who, in an effort to engage with the culture of the city, were attempting to express their religious traditions in the language of Greek philosophy. But for others, this was a dangerous path to tred. For them, the Jews of Alexandria, in attempting to express their beliefs in the language of those around them, were in danger of losing touch with who they were themselves. And it was to counter this that the Book of Wisdom was written. What’s required, it says, is not Greek philosophy but the gift of wisdom, a wisdom which, as we heard this morning, is bright and does not grow dim and is quick to anticipate those who desire her. This is what’s really important.

And, of course, the situation that lay behind this was not unlike the one we face today. As the 21st century picks up pace Christians are also struggling to work out how to relate to the age in which we live. Called to be bearers of the Good News to the world, we, like the Jews of Alexandria two thousand years ago, are called to express our faith in language which is accessible to those around us. But as we do so, the same tensions that lay behind the Book of Wisdom come into play. How do we do this without losing sight of who we are? How do we live our faith in the modern world in a way which both makes it accessible to others but at the same time doesn’t distort the very truth we are called to communicate. That was the question then and it’s the question now, the answer in each case being the same; Wisdom. But what is this wisdom which walks about looking for those who are worthy of her?

Well, essentially, wisdom is another word for gift of discernment, designed to enable us recognize and respond to the movement of God in everything that happens to us. It is a sensitivity to the presence of God in all things; a sense of what is true and what is untrue in a world with a thousand versions of the truth; a feeling for what is right and what is wrong in a world filled with confusion about such things; an instinct, almost, for what is of God and what is not of God in society and in the world. And at the heart of this sensitivity, this awareness, this feel for the things of God, lies a truth many of us learned as children; that the Spirit of God lives in us. It took me years to see the truth of this and to understand that, because the Spirit lives in us, our awareness of what is of God and what is not of God also comes from inside us as the Spirit responds in a felt and identifiable way to everything that happens in and around us. This goes on in every human being, one manifestation of it being what we call conscience, but the truly discerning person is one who has learned, through prayer and reflection, to attend to this movement of the Spirit all day every day and make even the smallest decisions in the light of it. And it’s this understanding of what constitutes wisdom which helps us make sense of today’s Gospel story.The parable of the bridesmaids is nothing to do with the unwillingness of one group to share their oil with the other. It’s about an oil that, by its very nature cannot be shared and, in the context of today’s liturgy, that oil is the oil of wisdom. We cannot borrow someone else’s oil for the simple reason that each person’s wisdom grows out of prayerful reflection on his/her own unique and, ultimately untransmitable experience of God. We have to go and buy our own oil in the market-place of daily life and if we don’t do so, if our lamps are empty as a result of living shallow lives more in tune with the values of a materialistic consumer society than the kingdom of God, then, now, not just in the future, we will find ourselves left outside the wedding hall while others enjoy the feast inside.What all this means in the concrete circumstances of a given individual person’s life is impossible to say, but there are certain key things that will always be true. And I have been very struck by one of them this week in the story of Barak Obama.

No sooner was his victory announced than people began to praise the campaign he had run. And one of the phrases I read time and time again was the way he had appealed to people to listen to their good angel; to go with their hopes rather than their fears. The very language of good and bad angels, of course, is from the world of discernment and in the life of a discerning person hope will always be more powerful than fear. This is why the idea that the world is a terrible place plays no part in genuine Christian thinking even although it is found so often in Church-going people. But our hope must not become fantasy. Fantasy and unreality are never of God and Barak Obama’s awareness of this was clear in his acceptance speech where he talked about the problems that lie ahead in the reality of ‘a sinful world’ - my words not his. And herein lies a fundamental truth which any person growing in wisdom will understand. That we are not, as Paul said in the second reading, like those who have no hope; that the world is loved by God in its sinfulness and that, because of that, we are a deeply hopeful and optimistic people.

To know that this is true whatever happens is genuine wisdom and I invite you to pray today for Barak Obama that, in the years ahead, he will do what he has invited others to do; trust his good angel and always have the wisdom to go with his hopes rather than his fears.


BIDDING PRAYERS


We begin our prayer today by holding up before God Barak Obama and all those who exercise political leadership throughout the world at this moment in history. We pray that, in the midst of the many problems confronting humanity, God will give them the wisdom they need to trust their good angels and make out of hope rather than fear all those important decisions which affect the lives of all of us, especially the world’s poorest peoples......Lord hear us

Called to be people of faith in the 21st century, we pray also for ourselves. We pray that, no matter what happens, we, too, will have the courage we need to trust our good angels and see the world through hope-filled rather than fear-filled eyes.We are a community of loved sinners. God loves the world in its weakness and we ask him to give us the wisdom we need, not only to understand this but to live out of it every day...............Lord hear us

Faced with problems like global warming, economic meltdown, hunger and genocide in Africa as well as wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, many in today’s world are filled with pessimism and despair about what the future holds for us. This is a fear felt especially strongly by many young people and accounts to a large extent for the binge-drinking eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die culture of our time. And so we pray for all who are caught up in this................Lord hear us

Despite the difficulties and risks connected with doing so, and which gave rise to the Book of Wisdom more than two thousand years ago, it remains our task as men and women of faith to find ways of expressing the ancient faith of the Church in ways which are intelligible and accessible to the men and women of our time. It is not their job to come to us. It is our job to reach out to them and we pray for the wisdom we need to do so in a way that is both truthful and effective..........................Lord hear us

The first reading describes in very beautiful language how wisdom seeks out those who long for her. To desire wisdom is to begin to experience her and we ask God to stir in each one of us a deep desire for this gift which enables us to see the world and its people as God sees them. ‘Watch for her early and you will have no trouble; you will find her sitting at your gates’ the reading told us. Watching for her means prayer and reflection and we ask God to show us how to do this.........................Lord hear us

And on this Remembrance Sunday, we pray in for all those who have died in the course of the many wars and conflicts which bedevilled the world throughout the last century and continue to do so now. We pray that as this new century advances, the world will find new ways of dealing with such conflicts so that humanity’s dream may come true and war become a thing of the past...................................Lord hear us