O Wisdom

O Wisdom, coming forth from the mouth of the Most High,
and reaching mightily from one end of the earth to the other,
ordering all things well:
Come and teach us the way of prudence.

Early Christians, just like Christians today, were accused of being irrational, illogical. We have a tendency to respond to this accusation by seeking common ground with the accuser.  We look for some reason why they should, on their own worldview, see us as rational people holding logical beliefs.  The response of early Christian thinkers was generally different.  They argued that Christianity was logical because it was Logical.  It makes more sense in Greek.  Jesus is the Word - the Logos - who stands behind all creation; he is the reason that makes anything else reasonable.  How could Christianity be illogical when it was all about the Logos?

The big difference, perhaps, is that they really believed (in a way which we struggle to do) that the whole of reality was about Jesus.  We need to get our heads around that.  Jesus.  The Logic of the universe is the God-man Jesus of Nazareth.  It makes sense only in him.

One implication of that is that to learn the way of prudence is to learn Jesus.  He is the Way.  Learning to see every situation in the light of Jesus - more than that, learning to see him in every situation - is what it means to be wise, and logical, and rational.

This is a reflection on the first of the Advent antiphons - there might be more if I can keep up!