Pillar Tuesday - Lent 36

 

Christ at the column by Caravaggio
Musee des Beaux-Arts de Rouen

‘Wisdom’ has prepared a great banquet.

From within her splendid mansion she invites the simple and meek.

Come and join me, eat and drink.

I have only the best here.

Join me and experience life to the full.

Don’t bother correcting the mocker- you will get hurt.

But the wise value correction. They have their ears open.

The core of wisdom is to honour your creator.

Wisdom will bless you. That is its gift.

The paradox of folly is it cannot see itself.

It does not realise that its ways are lies.

The all lead to dead ends.  Proverbs Nine

Proverbs Nine enigmatically speaks of the 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom'.  Throughout time people have conjectured as to what these might be.  TE Lawrence wrote a autographical book using the title.  I understand that originated from an unpublished book he wrote before the First World War about cities in Arabia.  After the war he decided to scrap the book, but keep the title.  For all who have lost work on a computer that inexplicably shuts down, TE Lawrence can sympathise.  He lost his first manuscript (with no back up) when rushing to change trains at Reading station.  Apparently a national plea went out to help the great war hero find it, but these were the days when every house had an open fire that needed lighting.

Nacey Sari, in her 2020 book of the same title describes the pillars as 

• fear of the Lord, (the beginning of wisdom).
• instruction, 
• knowledge, 
• understanding, 
• discretion, 
• counsel, and 
• reproof

For each of us, I guess we work out what this means, both as individuals, and as communities.

For me 'fear of the Lord' is knowing God's presence with us, seeing all, and us choosing to honour this fact.

PRAYER:  May I live knowing you are with me, and me enjoying this fact.