Setting the Stage

This past week

Mass Readings feature

Turning point

Before Laetare Sunday

^repentance/reconciliation

Starting this week

—> ^redemption through Jesus’ passion, death & resurrection

OT begins with the promise of restoration (Isaiah & Jeremiah)

—> God becoming more directly involved in redemption when he listens to Moses’ plea for the people.

today: we begin to see OT characters who suffer unjustly

the unnamed just person in Wisdom of Solomon,

Jeremiah, who suffers for proclaiming God’s message.

Their stories prepare us for the events of Holy Week

In the Gospels: we see Jesus’ increasing conflict with religious authorities.

which moves Jesus toward his final showdown with the authorities.

All of this builds up to the events of Holy Week which will be celebrated fully through the liturgies of that week.

Today’s passage from the Wisdom of Solomon

From early Christian days, Christians have understood this passage as referring to Christ and the path of suffering that he took up freely for our sakes.

It’s easy to understand why they did, but it also makes it too easy for us to miss the full significance of Wisdom. The author was opposing the Epicureans; he thought their beliefs and actions were deadly to Jewish life and piety.

1:1-15 Advice to rulers to seek the wisdom of righteousness.

English Standard Version Catholic Edition Chapter 1

Love righteousness, you rulers of the earth,

think of the Lord with uprightness

and seek him with sincerity of heart;

2  because he is found by those who do not put him to the test.

1:16-2:20 A summary of the tenets and way of life of the Epicureans, the leading school of philosophy at the time of the author of Wisdom.

He puts it in their own words:

English Standard Version Catholic Edition Chapter 2

“Short and sorrowful is our life,

and there is no remedy at the death of a human being,

and no one has been known to return from death.”

English Standard Version Catholic Edition Chapter 2

“Come, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that exist

and make use of the creation to the full as in youth.

English Standard Version Catholic Edition Chapter 2

Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither.

English Standard Version Catholic Edition Chapter 2

But let our might be our law of right,

for what is weak proves itself to be useless.

—> Let us lie in wait for the righteous man …

These are the people that our author calls ‘the wicked’.

2:21-24 Why these wicked ones are wrong:

They don’t account for the justice & mercy of God,

The reward of the just.

If any of this sounds familiar, ‘Congratulations!’ you’ve been paying attention to the news when so many people in places of authority seem to be speaking from the same playbook that Wisdom condemns.

What can we make of all this for today?

I think there are two ways to incorporate the message of Wisdom.

to identify this passage with Jesus & use it in our preparation for Holy Week.

No doubt, that’s why this passage is used at this point in the Lenten season,

when all our attention in the Liturgy is turning to the celebration of the Paschal Mystery

and to the suffering of Jesus for our sakes.

To apply the critique of Wisdom’s author to our personal and civic lives

and to the messages, and behaviors of our leadership.

To ask ourselves, ‘Do we believe that we should… ‘

English Standard Version Catholic Edition Chapter 2

… let our might be our law of right,

for what is weak proves itself to be useless.

Or do we say, with Saint Paul

“For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:10, ESV-CE)

and

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7, ESV-CE)