O Come O Wisdom

Today, December 17, we are seven days away from the Feast of Christmas. In the early Church, perhaps as early as the eighth century of the Common Era, it became a custom to sing a different antiphon on each of these seven days, using a term from Isaiah and other Hebrew scriptural texts which Christians believe describes a facet of Christ's identity. You might recognize these terms from the verses for "O Come O Come Emmanuel," which uses an O Antiphon in each verse.

The term for December 17 is "O Wisdom," described in Ecclesiasticus 24:1-9. The antiphon in English is this:

O Wisdom, coming forth from the mouth of the Most High,
reaching from one end to the other mightily,
and sweetly ordering all things:
Come and teach us the way of prudence.

What would it mean to think of Jesus as the Wisdom of God personified?

In his excellent book of collected poems for the Advent and Christmas seasons entitled Waiting on the Word, British priest and poet The Rev. Malcolm Guite wrote this sonnet in response to today’s antiphon:

O Sapientia

I cannot think unless I have been thought,
Nor can I speak unless I have been spoken.
I cannot teach except as I am taught,
Or break the bread except as I am broken.
O Mind behind the mind through which I seek,
O Light within the light by which I see,
O Word beneath the words with which I speak,
O founding, unfound Wisdom, finding me,
O sounding Song whose depth is sounding me,
O Memory of time, reminding me,
My Ground of Being, always grounding me,
My Maker’s Bounding Line, defining me,
Come, hidden Wisdom, come with all you bring,
Come to me now, disguised as everything.


He then meditated upon this antiphon:

“In its first centuries the Church developed a custom of praying seven great prayers, calling afresh on Christ to come, addressing him by the mysterious titles found in the Old Testament, particularly in Isaiah: ‘O Wisdom!’ ‘O Root!’ ‘O Key!’ ‘O Light!’ ‘O Emmanuel!’ These prayers were said ‘antiphonally’, as the name suggests, either side of the Magnificat at Vespers from 17 to 23 December (although in some places they begin a day earlier, on 16 December). Each antiphon begins with the invocation ‘O’ and then calls on Christ, although never by name.

The mysterious titles and emblems given him from the pages of the Old Testament touch on our deepest needs and intuitions; then each antiphon prays the great Advent verb, Veni, ‘Come!’

There is, I think, both wisdom and humility in this strange abstention from the name of Christ in a Christian prayer. Of course, these prayers were composed "A.D.," perhaps around the seventh century, but in another sense, Advent itself is always B.C.! The whole purpose of Advent is to be for a moment fully and consciously Before Christ. In that place of darkness and waiting, we look for his coming and do not presume too much that we already know or have it. Whoever compiled these prayers was able, imaginatively, to write ‘B.C.’, perhaps saying to themselves: ‘If I hadn’t heard of Christ, and didn’t know the name of Jesus, I would still long for a saviour. I would still need someone to come. Who would I need? I would need a gift of Wisdom, I would need a Light, a King, a Root, a Key, a Flame.’ And poring over the pages of the Old Testament, they would find all these things promised in the coming of Christ. By calling on Christ using each of these seven several gifts and prophecies we learn afresh the meaning of a perhaps too familiar name."

As we prepare to enter Christmas week, may we ever invite Christ, the Wisdom of God, into our lives.