The Great Days of Advent / The "O" Antiphons / "O Wisdom"

Divine Wisdom is sometimes represented as the all seeing eye

I'm reposting the reflections I wrote in 2016 on the "O" Antiphons. I hope you enjoy them again, or for the first time.

We now begin the final phase of Advent. These are the Great Days, when our focus moves from contemplating the Lord's future coming in glory to his birth 2,000 years ago. I had planned a second post on John the Baptist, a key figure in middle weeks of Advent, who prepared the way for the Lord's public ministry by preaching repentance, but time slipped away on me. I'll leave the fragments of that post aside for the moment, and go directly to the mystery we are called to contemplate right now. 

For those who pray the Liturgy of the Hours, also known as the Divine Office, these are the days of the “O” Antiphons. At every evening prayer Mary’s song of praise from Luke 1:46-56, known as the Magnificate, is sung or recited. There is a different verse recited before the canticle each night, and there are very special ones, known tha the O Antiphons, that are recited during the novena before Christmas. As Fr. William Saunders of the Catholic Education Recourse Center explains:

The exact origin of the O Antiphons is not known. Boethius (c. 480-524) made a slight reference to them, thereby suggesting their presence at that time...By the eighth century, they are in use in the liturgical celebrations in Rome...One may thereby conclude that in some fashion the O Antiphons have been part of our liturgical tradition since the very early Church.

The importance of O Antiphons is twofold: Each one highlights a title for the Messiah: O Sapientia (O Wisdom), O Adonai (O Lord), O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse), O Clavis David (O Key of David), O Oriens (O Rising Sun), O Rex Gentium (O King of the Nations), and O Emmanuel. Also, each one refers to the prophecy of Isaiah of the coming of the Messiah. 

According to Professor Robert Greenberg of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Benedictine monks arranged these antiphons with a definite purpose. If one starts with the last title and takes the first letter of each one - Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, Radix, Adonai, Sapientia - the Latin words ero cras are formed, meaning, Tomorrow, I will come. Therefore, the Lord Jesus, whose coming we have prepared for in Advent and whom we have addressed in these seven Messianic titles, now speaks to us, Tomorrow, I will come. So the O Antiphons not only bring intensity to our Advent preparation, but bring it to a joyful conclusion.  

This evening we begin with: O Wisdom, O holy Word of God, you govern all creation with your strong yet tender care. Come and show your people the way to Salvation. 

The Trinity is a particularly New Testament revelation. The Old Testament writers were concerned, in midst of a polytheistic culture, with driving home the point that God is One. Jesus reveals to us that God is indeed One, but in a community of three divine persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is something not easy to understand, by any measure. But while this is a Christian concept, we can see shadows of trinitarian thought in the Old Testament. In Genesis God states, "Let us make human beings in our own image" (Gen. 1:26) (emphasis added). The use of the plural has been interpreted as both a veiled reference to the Trinity, or else as God addressing his words to the Heavenly court of angels. Later, in Chapter 18, three mysterious figures appear to Abraham. While two are later identified as angels, there is still an ambiguity that makes one pause: is one of them a manifestation of the One True God, or are all three? I think any number of these interpretations can work from a Christian perspective. 

For the first O Antiphon, the Church draws on a more subtle foreshadowing of the Trinity. The Book of Proverbs, Chapters 8 and 9, present us the Lady Wisdom. Yes, wisdom is personified here as a woman. She invites us "mortals" to gain prudence and sense. In Chapter 9 She is described as preparing a table of meat and wine for us to come and enjoy. In the Book of Sirach she says that "From the mouth of the Most High I came forth, and covered the earth like a mist." She was present at the creation, and was commanded, "In Jacob make your dwelling, in Israel your inheritance." 

We look at these passages and see more than just a poetic description of a quality God possesses (though one can do that too).   We see here a foreshadowing of Christ, and by extension the Trinity. 

Jesus in the incarnation of the Eternal Son, who was present with the Father at creation, and is the Word spoken that brought creation into being. He is the tangible manifestation of the Wisdom of God, who came and made His dwelling among us. He taught in our streets, and backed up His preaching with great signs, which we commonly call miracles. He is the giver of the Commandment of Love, which doesn't replace the Old Law, but fulfills it. He shows us the way to follow, which the wise accept. He teaches us still through Scripture and Tradition, and feeds us at the banquet of the Eucharist. 

The Father sent the Son so that we may follow His ways. An abstract doctrine, no matter how true, can be hard to understand and apply. In Jesus we see the doctrine of Love lived out. If we experience despair today, individually, but especially communally, it is probably because we refuse to accept the Wisdom of God lived out through Jesus. Yes, the Christian call is radical, demanding a total commitment. It means a certain short term struggle, even suffering, that can seem endless. It means not choosing the easy answer just because it is easy, but taking the time to discern the truth. 

Wisdom isn't abstract. For the ancient Israelites Wisdom was something practical. To put it in a modern context, the person who knows how an automobile engine works, to pick a random example, can take it apart and put it back together, can identify a problem and fix it possesses wisdom - more wisdom than the scholar who may have all the books of the world memorized but doesn't know when to change the oil in his car, with or without a warning light. Wisdom is being able to judge concrete life situations and act accordingly. It also means knowing when we may not have the answer, and not being too proud to ask for advise from a trusted friend. 

In these days we ask God in a particular way to grant us wisdom. But more than an abstract quality, we ask the He who is Wisdom way come to dwell within us, and among us. On Christmas Day we celebrate His incarnation in time. We await Jesus' coming again in glory, when the Wisdom from on high which orders all things mightily makes Himself manifest to all humanity. We ask that He dwells in our hearts now, guiding us into all truth.