May 30: Trinity Sunday
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Psalm 8 or Canticle 2 or 13
Romans 5:1-5
John 16:12-15
Rather than attempt to comment on the Triune nature of God, I will instead reflect upon a theme running through today’s readings: the wisdom that comes from God. The passage from Proverbs suggests that Wisdom calls to us, and that wisdom was with God from the creation of the world.
In the gospel from John for today, Jesus tells his disciples that the Spirit of truth will come to them and guide them. I think another term for the Spirit of truth that Jesus talks about is wisdom.
Wikepedia says that “wisdom is a deep understanding and realizing of people, things, events or situations, resulting in the ability to choose or act to consistently produce the optimum results with a minimum of time and energy.” But our readings for today suggest that wisdom is so much more; that wisdom is the gift of the Spirit, and, as the gospel from John says, it will declare to us the things that are to come.
Most of us, however, are unable to listen to the voice of wisdom that is a gift of the Spirit because we are so in tune with the wisdom of the world. The wisdom of the world says to hold onto our fears, to clutch them and hoard them and let them consume us. The wisdom of the world says that we are alone, that there is no one with us in this journey called life. But Paul says to us in his letter to the Romans that “we have peace through our Lord Jesus Christ” and that “we boast in our hope of sharing in the glory of God” (Romans 5: 1b, 2b). In other words, we have no reason to fear, and we are not alone.
The risen Christ who is with us and who personifies the wisdom of God tells us that we are not children of the world, we are God’s children. Because we have received the gift of Jesus’ Spirit, the Spirit of wisdom is a living reality within us.
What happens when we listen to the voice of the Spirit,this voice of wisdom which is a gift from God, and not to the wisdom of this world? We can go on. We can maintain our equilibrium in the face of confusion, doubt, and even in the midst of seeming pointlessness. The wisdom of God that the Spirit reveals to us gives us the ability to act with integrity, and lets us know that God is with us all the time. When we listen to God’s voice of wisdom, we find out that “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Romans 5: 5).
And Wisdom continues to speak in you and through you. Blessed be SOPHIA!
Joan