O Sapientia
O Wisdom, coming forth from the mouth of the Most High.
In the first of our O’s beginning on the 16th December as per the Sarum version we start with Wisdom.
Wisdom is personified and given the feminine pronoun in Sirach 24 as it often is: “Wisdom will praise herself, and will glory in the midst of her people”. This is where we find the words of the first O Antiphon, it continues “I came forth from the mouth of the Most High” and “sought a resting place.” This feminine aspect makes me think of Mother Mary as the ‘Seat of Wisdom” since Christ finds His resting place first in the Holy Virgin’s womb, the beginning of the Nativity story. The imagery in this chapter continues to describe Wisdom as mist that moves over creation, this evokes the poetic account of Christ the Word, whispering across all Time and Space in John’s Gospel and ‘taking root’, pitching a tent amongst an honoured people. Remarkably, Sirach speaks of this root growing strong and tall like cedar and palm trees, roses, myrrh and frankincense and then foreshadows the Holy Sacrifice:
“Those who eat me will hunger for more,
and those who drink me will thirst no more.”
The O Antiphon can be seen also in the Book of Wisdom, Chapters 6-9 the author writes “I will tell you what Wisdom is” and goes on to list all her manifold virtues, insisting that Wisdom makes herself known to those who seek her and will guide those seekers to the Kingdom.
“Reaching from one end to the other, mightily and sweetly ordering all things: Come and teach us the way of prudence.”
Advent is preparation of the coming of Lord, we can imagine the tender and vulnerable moments of the Holy Family, and yet there is a quiet mournfulness and uncertainty hovering. In hindsight we know the story of the Gospel, that the Word made flesh and the subsequent development of the Church has been the strong foundation of Western civilisation, education (“The beginning of Wisdom is a sincere desire for instruction”), law and order. But as Paul wrote of God’s ‘mysterious and hidden wisdom’ in his first letter to the Corinthians,
“None of the rulers of this age comprehended it. If they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. For as it is written,
“Eye has not seen, ear has not heard,
nor has the human heart imagined
what God has prepared for those who love him.”” (1 Cor 2:7-9)
Therefore, it is fitting that the last seven days of Advent begins with ‘O Wisdom’, this initial desire for wisdom prepares our path, the path that leads to the Coming of Christ, the birth of Wisdom. Advent and Christmas bring us early sunsets, as the sun is setting and Vespers and the Magnificat is chanted, the O Antiphon will join with these adding to this sense of anticipation.
Hildegard Von Bingen, Doctor of the Church, 12th Century Benedictine abbess and polymath recorded many visions in her work ‘Scivias’, in one of her many visions, she describes the personified representation of God’s Wisdom as a beautiful female figure standing high about a dome as overseer. In Von Bingen’s hymn ‘O Virtus Sapientiae’ (O Power of Wisdom), a version of the O Antiphon, she adds “You have three wings, one of which soars on high, the second exudes from the earth, and the third flies about in every direction. Praise to you, as it befits you, O Wisdom.” This points to the Trinitarian and Omniscient nature of God that we can reflect on throughout Advent via the messianic imagery of the O Antiphons.
By Lucy Fraser