Sometimes wisdom tells us to weep. Sometimes she tells us to look upon him whom we have pierced and mourn as one mourns for an only son.
Sometimes wisdom tells us to dance, to glory in the One...
Who was manifested in the flesh,
vindicated in the spirit,
seen by angels,
proclaimed to the Gentiles,
believed in throughout the world,
taken up in glory.
Sometimes wisdom tells us to eat and to drink in celebration. Sometimes she tells us to fast and abstain. But if we follow her guidance we will be her children and her truth will be vindicated in us. On our own we tend to get this wrong. And not just a little wrong. We tend to get it completely backwards.
We played the flute for you, but you did not dance.
We sang a dirge, but you did not weep.
We tend to dance, not to celebrate, but to distract ourselves. We incentive the badness of life and twist our emotions in subtle ways to long for the imperfect and the broken.
We tend to mourn, not the things that our truly sad, but imperfect things we desire here below. It is the sinful and the selfish we mourn all to often.
There are reasons to mourn. This world is imperfect and so are we. Even more so, there are reasons to celebrate. Wisdom wants to teach us how to do both of these at the right time.
How does she teach us? First are foremost she does so through the "Church of the living God" which is "the pillar and foundation of truth." Let us approach the Church for all of the wisdom which she offers. She helps us learn when to fast and when to feast. In doing so she helps us to mourn and weep appropriately throughout our lives. She heals the emotions that so easily mislead us.
We become able to appreciate more fully "the works of the Lord" and the great "mystery of devotion" that crowns those works. Our hearts are no longer weighted down to the earth. They are free to soar.
Majesty and glory are his work,
and his justice endures forever.
He has won renown for his wondrous deeds;
gracious and merciful is the LORD.
No comments:
Post a Comment