Sunday, January 9, 2011

Wis 7, 25-30 She is an aura of the might of God

(Wis 7, 25-30) She is an aura of the might of God

[25] For she is an aura of the might of God and a pure effusion of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nought that is sullied enters into her. [26] For she is the refulgence of eternal light, the spotless mirror of the power of God, the image of his goodness. – [29] For she is fairer than the sun and surpasses every constellation of the stars. Compared to light, she takes precedence; [30] for that, indeed, night supplants, but wickedness prevails not over Wisdom.

(CCC 2500) The practice of goodness is accompanied by spontaneous spiritual joy and moral beauty. Likewise, truth carries with it the joy and splendor of spiritual beauty. Truth is beautiful in itself. Truth in words, the rational expression of the knowledge of created and uncreated reality, is necessary to man, who is endowed with intellect. But truth can also find other complementary forms of human expression, above all when it is a matter of evoking what is beyond words: the depths of the human heart, the exaltations of the soul, the mystery of God. Even before revealing himself to man in words of truth, God reveals himself to him through the universal language of creation, the work of his Word, of his wisdom: the order and harmony of the cosmos - which both the child and the scientist discover - "from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator," "for the author of beauty created them" (Wis 13:3, 5). [Wisdom] is a breath of the power of God, and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her. For she is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness (Wis 7:25-26). For [wisdom] is more beautiful than the sun, and excels every constellation of the stars. Compared with the light she is found to be superior, for it is succeeded by the night, but against wisdom evil does not prevail (Wis 7:29-30). I became enamored of her beauty (Wis 8:2).

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