During this last week of Advent our spiritual preparations for Christmas intensify and include praying at Vespers the Great ‘O’ antiphons for the Magnificat. These are ancient Gregorian chants which capture something of our desire for the coming of Christ.
Members of the community will be sharing reflections on each ‘O’ antiphon, beginning on 17th December with O Sapientia. The Latin original will be given first followed by the reflection. We invite you to pray and reflect on these beautiful chants as part of your own preparation for Christmas.

O Sapientia,
quae ex ore Altissimi prodisti,
attingens a fine usque ad finem fortiter et suaviter,
VENI,
ad docendum nos viam prudentiam.

O Sapientia – a scriptural meditation

Each of the O antiphons addresses Jesus with a title from the Old Testament. Today he is addressed as Wisdom. This may seem surprising since Wisdom (Sapientia or Sophia) is a feminine noun often associated with Mary or the Holy Spirit. However, in the Bible and the early Church, Wisdom was identified with Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word.

…You come forth from the mouth of the Most High   

This line is taken from Sirach, one of the Jewish Wisdom books. It is one of several passages where Wisdom is personified and speaks in her own name. ‘I came forth from the mouth of the Most High and covered the earth like a mist’ (Sir 24:2). This alludes to God’s creative Word in Genesis. Wisdom comes from God but looks for a place in the world where she might ‘pitch her tent’. Finally, she takes root in God’s chosen people.

There is a similar passage in Proverbs where Wisdom is a ‘master craftsman’ present when God created the world. Wisdom is at God’s side and ‘ever at play in his presence’, but she is also ‘at play everywhere in the world, delighting to be with the sons of men’ (Pr 8:31).

This imagery is taken up by St John’s prologue, read on Christmas Day. Christ is God’s creative ‘Word’ through whom ‘all things came to be’. But he is also the Son of the Father, the spoken Word who is sent into the world. ‘The Word was made flesh and lived among us.’ The Greek literally says, ‘pitched his tent’ among us, the same phrase used in Sirach. This takes us straight to the heart of the Christmas mystery: the Incarnation of God the Son.

…You fill the universe and hold all things together in a strong and gentle manner 

This comes from the book of Wisdom (Wis 7:30). Here, Wisdom is God’s providence which governs all things mightily (fortiter) and sweetly (suaviter). God is all-powerful, but his authority is gentle and caring, like a father or a shepherd. Julian of Norwich had a vision of something small and round, the size of a hazel nut, which represented the whole of creation.  She understood three things: God made it, God loves it, and God cares for it.

The full line from Wisdom reads, ‘Light must yield to night, but over Wisdom evil will never triumph’. This too is applied to Jesus, ‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it’ (Jn 1:5). The darkness or evil in the world does not have the last word but is overcome by God’s plan of salvation accomplished in Jesus Christ. God also invites human beings, as intelligent and free creatures, to help bring about good in the world, the triumph of light over darkness. This is a great gift and responsibility.

…Come to teach us the way of truth

At the beginning of Advent we heard the cry of John the Baptist, ‘Prepare a way for the Lord’.   The season of Advent, like Lent, is a season of conversion, of turning back to God.   As the Stanbrook hymn says, ‘Then cleansed be every heart from sin; make straight the way of God within. O let us all our hearts prepare; for Christ to come and enter there’.

The Wisdom books contrast the ‘way’ of wisdom with the ‘way’ of folly. Wisdom is the way of right living that leads to human fulfilment and flourishing. The Latin of the O antiphon reads, via prudentiae, the way of prudence. The book of Wisdom borrows from Greek philosophy and identifies Wisdom as the teacher of the cardinal virtues: ‘prudence, temperance, justice and fortitude’ (Wis 8:7). Aristotle described prudence as ‘right reason in action’. Prudence helps us discern what is the good thing to do in every circumstance.

However, in the passage from Sirach quoted above, Wisdom is also identified with the Jewish Law (Sir 24:23). Deuteronomy describes the Law as the ‘way’ of life (Dt 30:19). God’s commandments are not restrictive but set us on the way that leads to the fullness of life.  John’s prologue continues, ‘although the Law came through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ’.   Jesus himself says, ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life’ (Jn 14:5).   Jesus sends the Holy Spirit into our hearts – the ‘new law’ – which transforms us within, enabling us to ‘run on the way of God’s commandments’ as St Benedict urges us in the Rule.

But Jesus teaches us another ‘way’: the way of the Cross. St Paul describes Jesus, the crucified Christ, as ‘the power and wisdom of God’ (1 Cor 1:24). The ‘wisdom’ of God is revealed in the ‘folly’ of the Cross which is the salvation of the world. In the Incarnation, God has entered into our human condition and is with us in all trials and suffering. ‘He has become our wisdom, righteousness and sanctification and redemption’ (1 Cor 1:30).

Sr Marian

Calligraphy by Dame Martha Van Overbeke OSB
Text and artwork ©Stanbrook Abbey2024