Reflection
Wisdom clearly is the theme in today’s readings. In the first reading from 1 Kings 10:1-10, the Queen of Sheba, the wealthy ruler, visited King Solomon in Jerusalem to test his wisdom with difficult questions.
“The report I heard in my country about your deeds and your wisdom is true,” she told King Solomon, “though I did not believe the report until I came and saw with my own eyes.”
Although no archeological evidence can confirm she existed, the Queen of Sheba’s story is nevertheless deeply rooted in sacred writing and legend. She is known from the Hebrew Scripture, the Quran, and Ethiopian traditions. She stands with King Solomon as a powerful symbol of wisdom and wealth.
Psalm 37 continues the theme with the responsorial psalm: “The mouth of the just man tells of wisdom and his tongue utters what is true.”
But what of today’s gospel, which begins with Jesus’ words, “Hear me, all of you and understand. There is nothing from outside of the man, that going into him can defile him, but the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man.”
This is strong language in a culture that deeply respects and obeys Jewish food laws. The Torah details those foods which are clean and those unclean. Moreover, Jews distinguish themselves from their pagan neighbors by the observance of these food laws.
What then has this gospel story to do with wisdom? Just this: Evil things come from within, from the heart, Jesus tells the crowd. His point is that we have a responsibility to nurture godly matters of the heart, rather than evil things.
Wisdom in the gospels always call us to introspection and a radical understanding of sin, pointing to the heart as the seat of both corruption and the potential for true goodness.
“Hear me and understand,” Jesus exhorts the people. True holiness comes from a transformed inner life, not merely from following external rules.
Nearly 500 years before Jesus, Socrates proclaimed, “wisdom begins in wonder.” It is wisdom that shifts us from a mindset of rules, control and smug certainty to one of receptivity, meaningful listening, and to humility, meaning spiritually prostrate in quiet and deferential respect. That is where wonder begins.
“Hear me and understand,” Jesus says to us today. That is where wisdom begins.
