Speak Lord: In wisdom and joy

The First reading at Mass today, Trinity Sunday, comes from the Old Testament book of Proverbs. It is one of those passages from the Jewish Scriptures where there is a certain openness to differentiation within the Divine, the One God. The language resonates with the later Christian language of Word, Logos, to describe the Second Person of the Trinity, the Son.

In both cases, Wisdom, Logos/Son, the language points us beyond what we can easily say of God and still talk of the unity of God. The scripture, the doctrine of Trinity help us dimly discern a way into the more that revelation and experience require us to engage with as we respond to the awesome Mystery of God, and God’s engagement with us.

The Wisdom of God cries aloud:

The Lord created me when his purpose first unfolded,
before the oldest of his works.
From everlasting I was firmly set,
from the beginning, before earth came into being.
The deep was not, when I was born,
there were no springs to gush with water.
Before the mountains were settled,
before the hills, I came to birth;
before he made the earth, the countryside,
or the first grains of the world’s dust.
When he fixed the heavens firm, I was there,
when he drew a ring on the surface of the deep,
when he thickened the clouds above,
when he fixed fast the springs of the deep,
when he assigned the sea its boundaries
– and the waters will not invade the shore –
when he laid down the foundations of the earth,
I was by his side, a master craftsman,
delighting him day after day,
ever at play in his presence,
at play everywhere in his world,
delighting to be with the sons of men.

Proverbs 8:22-31

Wisdom speaks of God’s joy and delight in her presence and Wisdom’s own delight to be with humankind.

• What gives you joy?
• What difference does joy make to your life and your relationship with God and neighbour.

Icon of the Trinity. Russian Museum, St Petersburg. (c) 2015, Allen Morris

 

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