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Book of Wisdom, joy, Lord, memories, repent, reunion, shared experience, sin, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, universe, wisdom
The feeling in the gathering place of my 50th-year high school reunion last evening was congenial and happy, a perfect example for me of how age is related to wisdom. There were comments that spoke of what a good and caring education we received in high school, the benefit perhaps of membership in a small class of 82 students. There were some specific common memories of events and some still etched in only one or two of our minds but nothing mattered except that our shared experience was celebrated and had created a bond that was still apparent in the joy of being together. It was in the looking back, taking the long view, that the essence of “us” came to light without the necessity of a lot of words.
In some way this morning’s reading from the Hebrew Scriptures gave me the same sense. It is from the Book of Wisdom, always a clue pointing to deep meaning. The feelings it elicited from me were remembrance, gratitude and deep peace. Here is what it says:
Before the Lord the whole universe is as a grain from a balance or a drop of morning dew come down upon earth. But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things; and you overlook people’s sins that they may repent. For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned. And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it; or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you? But you spare all things, because they are yours, O Lord and lover of souls, for your imperishable spirit is in all things! (WIS 11: 22 – 12:1)
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