He is the _Eternal_ Wisdom, and He has now become the _Incarnate_
Wisdom. It is to Him that the Church is calling to-day. He is the
"Wisdom of God" (1 Cor. I. 24) and the Source of all wisdom; and yet as
man the Spirit of God has rested upon Him and filled His human Soul with
the seven-fold gifts, of which Wisdom is the first. This gift enabled
Him as man to know all mysteries, all God's secret designs and plans,
and to enjoy to the full all His perfections. The subject is so vast
that it seems impossible for me to meditate about it, but I will take
one of the many things which the Holy Scriptures say about Wisdom, one
which will lead me again to the Sanctuary where I would be.
"God loveth none but him that dwelleth with Wisdom" (Wisdom VII. 28). He
so loved His poor fallen world that He gave His only begotten Son to be
incarnate for it, and now all He asks from His children in return is
their love and that they should show it by dwelling with Him. He came to
be _Emmanuel_, God with us. He tabernacled among us, and what His Father
asks is that we should not shun Him and live far away from Him, but that
we should dwell with Him. Let me keep close then in spirit to His
blessed Mother, the Tabernacle where my God is hidden, and let me keep
close in reality to the Tabernacle on the Altar where He is expecting my
confidences as surely as He expected those of His Mother; let me treat
Him as my Friend to Whom I can tell everything that concerns me--how
anxious I am to desire Him to come and yet how little desire I seem to
have. There is a way of dwelling with Him which is even closer still:
"He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood abideth in Me and I in
him" (St. John VI. 57). This is the extension of the Incarnation, the
way that Infinite Wisdom devised by which poor fallen man could
nevertheless dwell with Wisdom.
O Eternal Wisdom, help me to make better use of this Thy most wonderful
plan for continuing the Incarnation! He was incarnate for me in the womb
of the Blessed Virgin, but He is incarnate for me in a more special and
personal way each time that I receive Him in Holy Communion. By means of
my Communions and their effects I can dwell always without any
interruption in the tabernacle of the Most High, for it is of me that
Eternal Wisdom speaks when He says: "My Father will love him, and We
will come to him and will make Our abode with him." (St. John XIV. 23).
POINT II. "REACHING FROM END TO END MIGHTILY AND DISPOSING ALL THINGS
SWEETLY."
Wisdom "can do all things" (Wisdom VII. 27) and it is God hidden in the
womb of Mary, Who is reaching from end to end of the earth and ordering
the whole world to be enrolled everyone in his own city. Why was this?
Because the Roman Emperor wanted to know the number of the subjects in
his vast empire just to satisfy his ambition? This is the answer the
world would give, but in this case the children of Light--the children
of the Incarnate Wisdom know better. The world is being agitated, though
it does not know it, not by the command of any earthly monarch, but by
the King of kings Who is about to be born and Who must fulfil a certain
prophecy as to His birthplace. The prophet Micaias said of Him: "His
going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity. And thou,
Bethlehem Ephrata art a little one among the thousands of Juda; _out of
thee shall He come_" (chap. V. 2); and Mary, the mother who had been
destined from all eternity to give birth to Him Who was "from the days
of eternity," was living quietly at _Nazareth_ making all her
preparations for His birth there. But could not God have devised means
to send Mary to Bethlehem without disturbing the whole world? Yes, but
He would show to those who have eyes to see, that wisdom "_can_ do all
things," that though He is to all appearances helpless, hidden and
dependent, yet it is He and not any other Who is King of the whole
world, and that even now before His birth He can reach from end to end
of it mightily and do what He will therein. And so "there went out a
decree from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled ...
everyone in his own city," and Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem and it
so happened (as we should say) "that when they were there, her days were
accomplished, that she should be delivered" (St. Luke II. 1-6) and the
King was born in _Bethlehem_. Sweetly He had ordered all things to suit
His divine purpose.