Prologue

Dearest brethren, how great the delight, how great the pleasure, how great the sweetness that is in the heavenly words of wisdom! This is even obvious in the words of the natural philosopher, (Thomas usually refers to Aristotle as Philosophus, “the Philosopher.” In other words, it is not a specifically Jewish or Christian, but a universal insight: every right-thinking person, even a (wise) pagan, can know it. This principle is worked out by Thomas in Part I where he first cites Aristotle and concludes with Scripture.) who writes in book 10 of Ethics about created knowledge: all delights are at some point cut off. The greatest, however, is the delight that is in accordance with the operation of wisdom, and the most delightful operation is the one that is in accordance with the operation of wisdom. (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 10.4, 1175a20–21; 10.7, 1177a12–27.) Also the theological philosopher (Only here does Thomas refer to the writer of Wisdom, allegedly Solomon, as philosophus theologicus, as distinct from the philosophus naturalis.) writes in Wisdom 7:8 that he loved it more than gold and outward appearance; “it” is the heavenly wisdom about which we speak. (Wisdom 7:8–10.)

Because of this we will ask, at the beginning of this homily, our Lord Jesus Christ, the fountain of all wisdom (cf. Sir 1:5), who is, according to St. Dionysius (That is, not St. Dionysius “the Great” of Alexandria (c. 200–c. 265 AD), Pope St. Dionysius (†268), or St. Denis, patron saint of France (†258), but someone whom we call Pseudo-Dionysius: for a long time people thought that this author from the late 5th century who called himself Dionysius the Areopagite was the same person as the Dionysius in Acts 17:34. This identification contributed to the great spread and authority of his works.) in book 6 part c of The Hierarchy of the Angels, the principal instructor of all heavenly spirits and devout souls, to illumine our understanding, to kindle our hearts, and to make my mouth eloquent for the honor of his name in accordance with the Gospel teaching and the edification of our souls. (Cf. Pseudo-Dionysius, On the Celestial Hierarchy, ch. 7, paras. 2–3 (PG 3:208C–209AB).)