Sunday’s first reading from Wisdom comes from a long meditation on the exodus, Israel’s escape from Egypt that founded them as a people. The Book of Wisdom emerged during the late years before Jesus when people in Israel tended to look to their past for meaning in a present that seemed marked by God’s absence.
So sovereign and powerful is God in the book of Wisdom that mercy is God’s second nature. God calls us to participate in the gardening of the kingdom and measure our gardening by God’s simple ethic—the just must be kind.
God is sovereign.
There is no god besides you
whose care is for all people,
to whom you should prove
that you have not judged unjustly.
For your strength is the source
of justice, and your sovereignty
over all causes you to spare all.
For you show your strength
when people doubt the completeness of your power,
and you rebuke any insolence
among those who know it.
Although you are sovereign
in strength, you judge
with mildness, and with great
forbearance you govern us;
for you have power to act
whenever you choose.
Through such works you have
taught your people
that the just must be kind,
and you have filled
your children with good hope,
because you give repentance for sins.
Wisdom 12.13, 16-19
- How does your vision of God resemble or differ from the vision in this passage?
- How has the kindness of others benefitted you?
- How can you treat yourself more kindly?