Learning to Listen to God's Saving Wisdom

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The Annunciation by Henry Ossawa Tanner, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

To accept a mystery we must submit—Fiat—and then ponder in our hearts, as Our Lady did: not ponder first and then submit if we understand. God may give us some understanding later, but even if we are left in darkness our Fiat remains, and we are fitting into his wise and beautiful design. ... We can look forward to the day when we shall see his design fulfilled, including our own little part in the context of the whole.

The danger is that we shall want to know too much now. If we insist on knowing God's reasons for things before submitting, we shall never be given understanding. The only way in which we can learn something of divine wisdom now is by being very docile, anxious to be taught in his way alone. God will enlighten us, by degrees, by his gift of Wisdom, whereby we know more of him because we are becoming more like him. We shall begin to see things more as he does. But we must remember that we are in the presence of God and take off our shoes: detach ourselves from our worldly knowledge and our own preconceived ideas. Then the Holy Spirit is given freedom to work in us. We say in the Advent liturgy: O sapientia, fortiter suaviterque disponens omnia, O Wisdom, mightily and sweetly ordering all things. Irresistibly and gently, our Father's wisdom graciously orders everything from one end of the world to the other (Wis 8:1). In the coming of his Son, we find a wonderful combination of infinite power and gentleness. Only infinite Power and Love could make itself as helpless as he did in the crib. Only infinite Wisdom could be so obedient. In making the obedience of the only-begotten Son theirs, the adopted children can begin to learn something of their Father's wisdom.