Wisdom 7:1-16: a reflection

1I myself am also mortal, like everyone else, and am a descendant of one formed first and born of the earth. 2I molded into flesh in the time of ten months in my mother’s womb, being compacted in blood from the seed of man and pleasure of marriage. 3I also, when I was born, drew in the common air, and fell upon the kindred earth, uttering, like all, for my first voice, the same cry. 4I was nursed with care in swaddling clothes. 5For no king had a different beginning, 6but all men have one entrance into life, and a common departure. 7For this cause I prayed, and understanding was given to me. I asked, and a spirit of wisdom came to me. 8I preferred her before sceptres and thrones. I considered riches nothing in comparison to her. 9Neither did I liken to her any priceless gem, because all gold in her presence is a little sand, and silver will be considered as clay before her. 10I loved her more than health and beauty, and I chose to have her rather than light, because her bright shining is never laid to sleep. 11All good things came to me with her, and innumerable riches are in her hands. 12And I rejoiced over them all because wisdom leads them; although I didn’t know that she was their mother. 13As I learned without guile, I impart without grudging. I don’t hide her riches. 14For she is a treasure for men that doesn’t fail, and those who use it obtain friendship with God, commended by the gifts which they present through discipline. 15But may God grant that I may speak his judgment, and to conceive thoughts worthy of what has been given me; because he is one who guides even wisdom and who corrects the wise. 16For both we and our words are in his hand, with all understanding and skill in various crafts.

Solomon, the wisest and richest of kings, begins this passage with a striking confession of his own ordinariness: I too am mortal, like everyone else, formed from the earth. He was born as every child is born, drew the same first breath, cried the same first cry, was wrapped in the same swaddling clothes. For all his greatness, he says, no king had a different beginning; all people have one entrance into life and a common departure from it. Before birth and death, the king and the pauper are the same.

From this humbling awareness of shared human frailty, Solomon turns to what he came to value most. He prayed for wisdom, and when it was given, he found it more precious than scepters and thrones, more valuable than any wealth, gem, or even health and beauty. All gold, in wisdom's presence, was like a little sand. And with wisdom came every other good thing, for wisdom, he found, was the source and mother of them all. He had learned that the truest treasure is not riches but the wisdom that comes from God.

Both parts of Solomon's reflection are worth taking to heart. First, remember your common mortality: whatever your status or achievements, you began as every person begins and will leave the world as all do. That awareness keeps us humble and honest. Second, value what Solomon came to value: the wisdom that comes from God, more precious than any wealth. Pray for it, as he did, and prize it above the riches the world chases. A humble heart and a hunger for God's wisdom together lead to a life well lived.

Lord, even the wisest king remembered that he was mortal like everyone else, born and dying as all people do, and he came to prize wisdom above all riches. Keep me humble with that same awareness of my frailty. And give me his hunger for the wisdom that comes from you, more precious than any wealth. Let me seek it above all the treasures the world chases, and find in it the source of every good. Amen.