The reference to wisdom in Sirach 15 comes from an affirmation of human freedom of conscience. Without freedom, the injunction to choose life and not death is meaningless – you don’t have a choice, it’s all fate or maybe karma. In Deuteronomy 30 the choice is also free – death or life, and each choice entails certain consequences. Freedom needs to be exercised wisely. The exercise of our human conscience invites us to participate in the wisdom of God.

In 1 Corinthians 3 Paul pushes his hearers to grow in wisdom, to progress from “milk” to “solid food.” Yet in 1 Corinthians 2 he weaves a breathtaking account of the nature of two levels of wisdom. The lower level, that of limited understanding and faulty choices with dire consequences, he ascribes to “the rulers of this age.”

But, in Paul’s vision, those who have committed themselves to Christ have access to a higher, or if you prefer deeper, wisdom – God’s wisdom, “secret and hidden.” Paul was no fool on the hill when he wrote this. He was deliberately co-opting Gnostic Greek philosophical terms. Many members of the Christian community in Corinth would have automatically resonated with this concept of secret wisdom. But Paul doesn’t mean what the Gnostics meant. Secret knowledge is never meant to remain the private property of one closed-in cult or one fraternity guarding its little private rituals. Nor should it.

“These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God”

— and for Paul, makes it the subject of a powerful message of Good News to share.

Look at the second reading for the Transfiguration, 2 Peter (not written by the apostle Peter.) Wisdom, embodied in prophecy, is

“a lamp shining in the darkness, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”

Simply exquisite.

Then, oh my, there’s the Gospel reading – more like a rant. Look at how Matthew sets up a step-by-step progression in penetrating one level deeper.

“You have heard it said…”,

then Jesus flips the conventional wisdom on its head and shifts the interpretation to one of – building justice. The conditions for committing murder have been set up by anger. Verbal abuse demands atonement before bringing an offering to God. The male gaze sets up the conditions for sexual exploitation, while throwing away a wife in this culture made a woman extremely vulnerable. Impulsive declarations come from overweening pride and self-exaltation. Not all the examples fit our contemporary cultures or speak directly to our lived realities, but we can see what Jesus was doing. He pushed his hearers to take account of the long-term ethical consequences of their actions, and to hold back from thoughtlessly overstepping boundaries.