20. Wisdom and folly of God

If Jesus is not a Master of wisdom like the others, because His Passion places a question mark before everything, what is to be said about the wisdom of God?

In Egypt, wisdom was perceived as a little girl, the goddess Maat. For the Greeks, she was symbolised as an owl with piercing eye - the bird which can penetrate even the darkness of night. For the theologians of the Middle Ages, the bird of Minerva, blinded by Christ who is the sun, gave way to theology. But their approach to theology remained very much in the Greek mould, i.e. intellectual, with very little concern for the body. But if we go back to the Bible, we find the body again. Wisdom has built herself a house, she has prepared a table, and called her children: come and eat my bread and drink the wine I have prepared for you! Wisdom feeds us! ...inebriates us! Wisdom is not just clever ideas, but is like a real flesh and blood person, a person yes, but oh how subtle! She is so free that she is a perpetual enigma, and so alive that it is impossible to lay hold of her.

"The beginning of Wisdom: learn wisdom. We are well on the way! The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom." "You are beautiful, my Beloved...as an army in battle array!" The images shock us! We've lost track of our Hebrew!

Was St. Paul right? Folly for men, God's wisdom!

Who would behave like this: apostles and prophets put to death, all this killing which has become history now, and where the best are sacrificed! It seems like the very opposite to what a wise little girl, the Wisdom of God would indulge in! She does quite a bit of damage, and be careful, for once you let her into your house, that is the end of peace, for everything will be turned upside down. She is her own absolute mistress, leaves nothing to chance and does everything perfectly. In her books, it is a life or death choice. love or hate! No compromise! With Wisdom, everything is serious and nothing is forgotten, not the smallest sparrow, not the slightest hair of your head.

You who are indifferent, do you not want to see her? If she becomes interested in you, you will experience her stubborn quality as well as her jealousy! She will come so close and will tantalise you to such an extent, that you will throw her out of doors!

You can beat her and pin her to the wall; burn her books and put her friends to the sword. Be careful about her weak points, for you will see that it is there she will catch you out and win the contest. You think you have triumphed, but she has got there before you! When she gives up, it is then that she has won you over after her fashion, and that she re-moulds you in the fashion she desires. She loses herself, but she saves you, all in one movement! She always does what she wants, no matter what the cost!

Her logic is a uniquely personal one, and her mode of calculating truly original. She absents herself from all the wise mens' committees! Indiscreet to the point of excess, she can also be quite impolite! She is not serious, this little girl Wisdom. She takes liberties, pretending to obey the law, while disregarding its taboos. God's Wisdom is a very vivacious life companion and a very joyful one. In her company, life is never dull and one is never bored. She really is a mad little woman, this divine Wisdom. On the lightest of tones, she can make the most serious of statements. She lures the wise on to ground with no signpost to show them the way, and this with absolute lightheartedness. She inspires those who have the desire to make their mark, with a confidence which baffles them.

Needless to say, comfort is not her number one priority. She promises you a feast of succulent meats and vintage wines, but you had better content yourself with a country picnic, consisting of five loaves and two fishes. A little bread, a little wine, that for her is a true feast! She can make an entire meal out of a few crushed ears of corn. She partakes of nothing herself, for a listening ear is her food and drink.

She loves children, especially the tiny tots. The simple people understand her, but never the learned ones. Do you know why? She distrusts systems and flees from abstractions. Strange pedagogy: She never explains herself! "Destroy this Temple and in three days, I will rebuild it." Would you have understood that He was referring to His body? Another example: Jesus spits on the ground, makes mud and spreads it on the eyes of the man born blind. He says nothing. Let whoever can, understand. It is the Sabbath day. To mix clay is forbidden, yet it is the creative gesture which re models Adam. God's creative wisdom allows herself to be recognised in what she does, or rather, she leaves one to guess. She does not announce her projects; they must be teased out of life's experiences, in the reality of the concrete, in what at times appears absurd, sometimes in the darkness of the night.

Completely free as she is, one never knows how to take her. Sometimes I think she has something up her sleeve. Could she not start off the Deluge once again, or the Exodus? Save the good people and drown once and for all, the wicked? Has her hand to be forced once more? You would think that she did it unwillingly in former times, her body protesting! and that she regarded it with a secret shame which would require redeeming Pharaoh's death by the sacrifice of some lamb or other... it is said that she wept for her enemies more than for her friends

Yes, it seems like that: God's Wisdom is madly ambitious. Artist, poet and especially lover of beauty and perfection, to the highest degree, she bides her time, but is a conqueror with limitless desires. She lays siege on hearts as impregnable as fortified cities; demands the impossible, and like one who knows no bounds, is capable of sacrificing everything. And when her troops refuse to march, and when some mistake or other has to be concealed in order to maintain cohesion, she drinks the bitter cup of barbarous solidarity in which she finds herself dissolved and in some way disfigured. With death in her soul, she pursues her course with people reduced to animals, preparing her revenge when she will appear as she really is.

When one day Saint Francis of Assisi and his brother Illuminato arrived in Egypt, how overjoyed She was to see them barefooted and ready for martyrdom as they prepared to confront the great Sultan! The armies are there, on one side the Crusades and on the other the Muslims, with in the middle, two poor madmen, radiant with God's Wisdom. Where is strength and where is weakness, madness or wisdom? Francis meets the Sultan. "At the end of three days, reads the chronicle, the fierce beast turns to gentleness". With lightness of touch, God's Wisdom impresses even the great ones of this world.

Yes, it is easy with hindsight to discern the truth, and to canonise those who at first appeared deranged. It is easy with hindsight Jesus tells us, to erect monuments to assassinated prophets, but in the thick of life, we are blinded. Nothing is foretold in advance, and the actors are not too sure of what they are doing. "Man never climbs so high, as when he is ignorant of where the road can lead him". Beyond a certain point, "there isn't any road". In daily life, our choices are never mapped out. We must always give proof of initiative, of decision, of liberty and of fidelity.

Isn't it still an extraordinary manifestation of wisdom on the part of God, that to allow us develop as persons, He disappears off the map --is utterly selfless in order to allow us assume our responsibilities? Isn't it truly a stroke of genius when one is God, to slip by unnoticed?

This allows us imagine our surprise and astonishment, when we behold the living God as He is... which of course cannot be too soon!