Wisdom & Eucharist
Two words that appear on the Sunday readings (18th August) are wisdom and body and blood of Christ (which I stated as the eucharist in the title). Wisdom can have two dimensions, coming from the first reading and the Psalms.
- Wisdom is related to understanding. St Anselm will call theology as “faith seeking understanding”. One aspect related to this understanding, as different from a scientific understanding, is that we are dealing with mystery in theology. God is a mystery. We can never fully understand God. Wisdom also knows its own limits in understanding. Greatest theologians and scholars were also humble people. They knew how little they knew.
- Wisdom in the Psalms is connected to an experiential knowledge of God. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord. We can use all the senses (not only taste) and to experience God. Again my experience (even if it’s the greatest mystical experience) can’t contain God.
Both these aspects — understanding and experiential knowledge — are signs of wisdom. I think eucharist can be the privileged means of wisdom. The Eucharist helps us to understand God each time we receive him; in receiving him, we also have a privileged means of knowing him.
Anyone who eats his flesh and drinks his blood has eternal life. It’s the privileged means of building me; it’s also the privileged means of building the community and the church. If this communitarian dimension is forgotten from my eucharistic celebration (I just go, participate in the mass, receive communion and come), there is a real difficulty.
The understanding of the community enriches my understanding; their experiences of tasting the Lord enriches me. So in that sense, I truly become wise in the community. Knowing this importance of community is wisdom. And so we say Our Father (not my father) in Heaven.
