O Wisdom proceeding from the mouth of the most high, not most high elsewhere, not supernatural, but most high in us.
Earth has evolved unconsciously – not woven or designed by any god – her own life web with its beautiful, terrible endurance, bliss and pain.
To know it intimately, watch, participate, heart-ponder, undergo, those are wisdom’s depths, our common treasury.
O Wisdom reaching from end to end to look after everything strongly and sweetly, come and teach us carefulness.
No imaginary heavenly father since he’s been put down, we inherit the Earth to mind or lose; if she belongs to us, we no less belong to her.
Earth is our matter, we her humanity in the making.
We can speak for her, become her consciousness.
Those are wisdom’s heights but none can make it there unless, earthwise, love is the meaning.
Skies, drop down dew, and clouds, rain down the just one.
Earth, open and sprout a saviour.
O Wisdom, come, making love not war.
O come and set us free.
Do not delay.
O come and release from prison the captive sitting in darkness and the shadow of death.
At this winter solstice, O Rising One, splendour of eternal light and sun of justice, come and give light to those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death.
O desired by the nations, cornerstone that makes both one, come and save humanity formed from earth.
O Emmanuel, come and save us, in justice and peace look after everything strongly and sweetly, God nowhere else.
O Wisdom, come, God with us.
A Human Liturgy I have been thinking about some of the Advent liturgical texts and the first thing that struck me was that the liturgy is profoundly social. It says ‘we’, not ‘I’. ‘Stir up your power, we pray, Lord, and come...’ The liturgy prepares to celebrate the birth of Christ in the yearly liturgical cycle, an event that has already happened. But the salvation/liberation promised and initiated by this incarnation has not yet been fulfilled and, as well as commemorating the birthday, the liturgical texts look forward with longing to a future ‘reign’ of justice and peace. Salvation is seen as forgiveness of personal shortcomings but above all as a social transformation: ‘Heavens, be glad, and Earth rejoice, mountains sing praise, because our Lord is coming. He will have pity on his poor. In his days justice will rise and an abundance of peace.’ ‘And there will be peace in our land when he comes. He will speak peace to the nations...’ Then I noticed that, though this Advent liturgy speaks of a virgin birth, it is profoundly sexual with its constantly repeated rorate caeli refrain of: ‘Skies, drop down dew, and clouds, rain down the just one. Earth, open and sprout a saviour.’ This joyful sexuality and sensuality express a strong confidence in Earth’s own creative and regenerative powers. ‘ Mountains of Israel, spread out your branches, blossom and bear fruit. The day of the Lord’s coming is near.’ ‘Mountains, break forth in joy and hills in justice, because the Lord, the light of the world, is coming in power.’ The liturgy follows the seasonal cycle of the temperate/Mediterranean Northern hemisphere. Advent comes in Winter and it is not by chance that the great ‘O’ antiphon for the winter solstice, December 21st, is a prayer to the sun: ‘O Rising One (Daystar), splendour of eternal light and sun of justice: come and give light to us sitting in darkness and the shadow of death.’ Justice is seen in terms of bringing to light. Although no stranger to cruel punishments herself, when the Catholic Church prays in her liturgy for prisoners, she prays for them to get out: ‘O key of David..., come and release from prison the captive sitting in darkness and the shadow of death.’ Recently, I visited the Treasures of Ancient Persia exhibition in the British Museum and afterwards I sat in the now open-access round Reading Room and read up something about the Persian religion of Zoroaster.
Zoroaster believed in a supreme Wise Lord called Ahura Mazda (Wisdom personified), who was surrounded by ‘beneficent immortals’ (amesha spentas) characterising abstract qualities such as Justice, Truth, Devotion. Abstract qualities became Beings in their own right. In the first of the Advent ‘O’ antiphons, Christ is invoked as Wisdom and begged to come. I thought that if we in SoF do not believe that abstract qualities exist as Beings ‘out there’ but regard them as human ideals, that we can try to realise, we can still summon them, as such. I have had builders in my house and they left a terrible mess for me to clear up.
Every morning when I got up, I had my tea and then summoned my energies: ‘Come on, Dinah, up!’ I was talking to myself but, oddly enough, it did help and the place was ready for Christmas.
Sun of Justice, come and release from prison the captive sitting in darkness and the shadow of death.
The Editor's non-supernatural 'take' on some texts from the Advent liturgy.