Wisdom 7: 22-8:1; Psalm 119; Luke 17: 20-25
Take the Wisdom reading today and read it slowly, carefully, perhaps out loud. All that the author says about Lady Wisdom applies to the Word. Wisdom (feminine, Sophia) is interchangeable in late Jewish tradition with Word (masculine, logos). When the evangelist John saw the Wisdom/Word made flesh, Jesus, expression of God’s love and faithfulness, he could only use the masculine. This first passage gives such a beauty-full description of the cosmic Christ, raised as universal savior. In the gospel today Jesus speaks of the coming of the Son of Man, an apocalyptic image from Daniel 7. We are not to be figuring out when he will come, for the kin-dom is already among us. As lightning covers the whole sky, so the risen Christ (who must first endure suffering and rejection)
lights up the whole cosmos with grace.
Trust that to take your Bible or missalette to read the passage from Wisdom carefully is to pray. Stop if your heart is moved to speak a word of awe, but even simply to read is to worship, the Jews taught. This is God speaking directly to you. No words are necessary, but your heart will probably respond.
Come, Jesus, come! We long for justice and peace to kiss and for truth to spring out of the earth. We long for your light and grace to suffuse the whole universe!