Listen to the Voice of Sophia — Proverbs 8:22-31

Proverbs 8:22-31

The Wisdom of God cries aloud:
"You, my God, created me when your purpose first unfolded,
Before the oldest of your works.
From everlasting I was firmly set,
From the beginning before Earth came into being
The deep was not, when I was born,
There were no springs to gush with water
Before the mountains were settled,
Before the hills, I came to birth,
Before you made the earth,
The countryside, or the first grains of the world’s dust
When you fixed the heavens firm, I was there;
When you drew a ring on the surface of the deep;
When you thickened the clouds above
And fixed fast the springs of the deep,
When you assigned the sea its boundaries,
So the waters could not disobey you
And when you laid down the foundations of the earth,
I was by your side a unique craftswoman
Delighting you day after day
At play everywhere in the world,
Delighting to be among the human family."

[Source of Translation Unknown]

We seldom hear readings from the Book of Proverbs in our liturgies. We're familiar with the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible — Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, and the historical Narratives — from Joshua to the Books of the Kings. We pray the Psalms regularly which are part of the third segment of the Bible — Wisdom Literature. But it is rare to hear readings from other books in the Wisdom collection.

The extract from Proverbs 8:22-31 is not typical of the maxims or proverbs that give the book its name. Rather it is a song of praise in the voice of Sophia/Wisdom of the one who created and shapes the universe. Sophia sings she is there — caught up in the creative activity as the foundations are laid down. "I was by your side", she says to the divine one, "a unique craftswoman".

Through their history the people of Israel usually named God using male imagery, Lord and King being the most common. But encounters with neighbouring nations and more varied roles given to women expanded their imagery to include the female. In this song in Proverbs, Sophia draws us into the interrelationships of the universe.

Sophia sings of the "first" unfolding of the divine design, before the deep/tehom we read about in Genesis 1:2, before the oldest of the works of the Creating One.

Sophia already exists before life was called forth by the One who creates and shapes it. It is through the repetition of "before . . . before . . . before" that we can understand the agelessness of Sophia in relation to the apparent timelessness of the universe.

It is easy to see the relevance of this text from Proverbs to our world today. Sophia is concerned with ecology; she rejoices in the diversity of species: birds, insects, cattle and reptiles. When we think of the human destruction of so many living creatures and their habitats today we realise how far our situation is from the words of her song:

"I was by your side a unique craftswoman
Delighting you day after day
At play everywhere in the world,
Delighting to be among the human family."

The song draws us into the interrelationships among the divine, the human and the whole of material reality. It invites us to encounter Sophia at play everywhere in the world, delighting to be among the human family.

But we need also to be aware that Sophia would weep at human destruction of creation. Recent reports, such as IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) Global Assessment report, give us cause for concern and urgent action. They provide the evidence about the wellbeing of planet Earth from research in the sciences. The National Geographic magazine claimed in 2018 that even with its widely diverse collections of animals and plants, Australia leads in extinction rates worldwide. Australia has 35 endangered species and New Zealand has 28 — both countries registering threats to the survival of their native species through human actions.

We can imagine that the voice of Sophia, the one who was there before the oldest of God’s works, might be lamenting in our time. Her voice from the heart of the Trinity needs to touch us. We, the human community, must now right our wrongs so that we can join in Sophia’s voice song of delight in the Earth community.

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 238 June 2019: 22-23