Chapter I — To Love and Seek Divine Wisdom, It Is Necessary to Know Her

1. The Necessity of Knowing Divine Wisdom

8. Can one love what one does not know? Can one love ardently what one knows only imperfectly?

Why is Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom, the adorable Jesus, so little loved, if not because he is either not known at all or known very little?

There is scarcely anyone who studies, as the Apostle commands, this surpassing knowledge of Jesus, which is nevertheless the noblest, the sweetest, the most useful, and the most necessary of all the sciences and fields of knowledge in heaven and on earth.

9. [1] It is first of all the noblest of all sciences, because its object is what is most noble and sublime: uncreated and Incarnate Wisdom, who contains in himself all the fullness of the divinity and of humanity, all that is great in heaven and on earth, all creatures visible and invisible, spiritual and corporeal. St. John Chrysostom says that Our Lord is a summary of the works of God, a miniature portrait of all his perfections and of all those found in creatures.

Omnia quae velle potes aut debes est Dominus Jesus Christus. Desidera hunc, requiere hunc, quia haec est una et pretiosa margarita pro qua emenda etiam vendenda sunt omnia quae tua sunt: Jesus Christ, Eternal Wisdom, is all that you can and ought to desire. Desire him, seek him, because he is that unique and precious pearl for the purchase of which you should not hesitate to sell all that you have. In hoc glorietur qui gloriatur, scire et nosse me. St. Jerome 9: Let the wise man not glory in his wisdom, nor the strong in his strength, nor the rich in his riches; but let him who glories draw his glory from knowing me, and not from knowing anything else.

10. 2. There is nothing so sweet as the knowledge of divine Wisdom: Blessed are those who listen to her; happier still are those who desire and seek her; but the happiest are those who keep her ways, savoring in their hearts that infinite sweetness which is the joy and felicity of the Eternal Father and the glory of the angels. [Prov 2:1-9]

If one only knew the delight that a soul tastes when it knows the beauty of Wisdom, when it drinks the milk from that breast of the Father, mamilla Patris, one would cry out with the Bride: "Meliora sunt ubera tua vino: the milk of your breasts is sweeter than delicious wine and than all the sweetness of creatures"; especially when she makes those who contemplate her hear these words: "Gustate et videte: taste and see. Comedite... et bibite: eat and drink; et inebriamini, and be inebriated with my eternal delights; for my conversation has nothing disagreeable, nor my company anything tedious, but in them one finds only satisfaction and joy: non enim habet amaritudinem conversatio illius; nec taedium convictus illius, sed laetitiam et gaudium."

11. 3. This knowledge of Eternal Wisdom is not only the noblest and the sweetest, but also the most useful and the most necessary, because eternal life consists in knowing God and his Son Jesus Christ. "To know you," cries the Wise Man, speaking to Wisdom, "is perfect justice; and to comprehend your equity and your power is the root of immortality." If we truly wish to have eternal life, let us therefore have the knowledge of Eternal Wisdom.

If we wish to attain the perfection of holiness in this world, let us know Wisdom.

If we wish to have in our hearts the root of immortality, let us have in our minds the knowledge of Wisdom: To know Jesus Christ, Incarnate Wisdom, is to know enough; to know everything and not to know him is to know nothing.

12. What good is it for an archer to know how to hit the sides of the target at which he aims, if he cannot hit the center? Of what use will all the other sciences necessary for salvation be to us, if we do not know the science of Jesus Christ, which is the one thing necessary and the center to which all must lead? Although the great Apostle knew so many things and was so versed in human letters, he nevertheless said that he believed he knew nothing but Jesus Christ crucified:

Non judicavi me scire aliquid inter vos, nisi Jesum Christum, et hunc crucifixum, 1 Corinth 2. [1 Cor 2:2]

Let us say therefore with him: "Quae mihi fuerunt lucra, haec arbitratus sum propter Christum detrimenta. Verumtamen existimo omnia detrimentum esse, propter eminentem scientiam Jesu Christi, Domini mei: I count as loss all those forms of knowledge that I had previously valued, in comparison with the knowledge of Jesus Christ, my Lord." I now see and experience that this science is so excellent, so delightful, so profitable, and so admirable that I take no account of all other sciences, which had once so pleased me; and they now seem to me so empty and so ridiculous that it is a waste of time to occupy oneself with them:

"Haec autem dico ut nemo vos decipiat in sublimitate sermonum. Videte ne quis vos decipiat per philosophiam et inanem fallaciam: I tell you that Jesus Christ is the abyss of all knowledge, so that you may not let yourselves be deceived by the beautiful and magnificent words of orators or by the so deceptive subtleties of philosophers. Crescite in gratiam et in cognitione Domini nostri et Salvatoris Jesu Christi." Now, so that we may all grow in the grace and knowledge of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Incarnate Wisdom, we shall speak of him in the following chapters, after we have distinguished the various kinds of wisdom.

2. Definition and Division of the Subject

13. Wisdom, in general, taken according to the meaning of its name, is a savory knowledge, sapida scientia, or the taste of God and his truth. There are several kinds of wisdom. First, they are distinguished into true and false wisdom: the true is the taste of truth without falsehood or disguise; the false is the taste of falsehood, covered with the appearance of truth.

This false wisdom is the wisdom or prudence of the world, which the Holy Spirit distinguishes into three: Sapientia terrena, animalis, diabolica: earthly, sensual, and diabolical wisdom. [Jas 3:15]

True wisdom is distinguished into natural and supernatural wisdom.

Natural wisdom is the knowledge of natural things in an eminent manner according to their principles. Supernatural wisdom is the knowledge of supernatural and divine things in their origin.

This supernatural wisdom is divided into substantial and uncreated wisdom, and accidental and created wisdom.

Accidental and created wisdom is the communication that uncreated Wisdom makes of herself to men; in other words, it is the gift of wisdom. Substantial and uncreated Wisdom is the Son of God, the second Person of the Most Holy Trinity; in other words, Eternal Wisdom in eternity, or Jesus Christ in time. It is properly of this Eternal Wisdom that we are going to speak.

14. From her origin, we shall contemplate her in eternity, dwelling in the bosom of her Father, as the object of his delight.

We shall see her in time, shining forth in the creation of the universe.

We shall then regard her, all humbled, in her incarnation and in her mortal life, and then we shall find her glorious and triumphant in the heavens.

Finally, we shall see what means must be used to acquire and preserve her.

I therefore leave to the philosophers the arguments of their philosophy, as useless; I leave to the worldly-wise the secrets of their worldly wisdom.

Sapientiam loquimur inter perfectos: Let us then speak of true Wisdom, of Eternal Wisdom, uncreated and incarnate, to perfect and predestined souls.