I confess to thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hidden
these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones.
It is difficult to hide something in such a way that while the wise cannot find it, the childlike and
humble are able to search it out. Yet, this is the way that God shows His supernatural and all surpassing wisdom and that, “the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,” as St. Paul
teaches in his first letter to the Corinthians.
Reaching Beyond Human Wisdom
How did Our Lord achieve this feat? The teachings that Our Lord proposes, His Incarnation, His
Divinity, the Trinity, etc., are mysteries beyond human comprehension. One can read the mystics
and see just how transcendent their experiences are. St. John of the Cross, though an articulate
theologian, chose to express his experiences in poetry that he would later attempt to explain.
Rather than attempt to expresses these truths in a rigorous and systemic way, which would not
only be unapproachable to the average man but also limit their full impact to human speech, Our
Lord expresses much of His teaching in simple parables and sayings. This does not indicate that
systematic theology is unimportant, but rather points out that all human expression is limited. A
deep understanding of these mysteries requires more than mere memorization of theological
formulae, it requires prayerful meditation and the light of faith.
Caught in Our Own Musings
This need for reflection and grace is exactly what hides the mysteries of faith from the ‘wise.’
They are so puffed up by knowledge that they refuse to hear the simple parables and their stiff
necks resist the attraction of grace. The humble, drawing down the grace of God, receive and
meditate on the sayings of Jesus and find in them a wisdom beyond any the world can give. As
St. Paul says, “For it is written: [The Lord] will catch the wise in their own craftiness. And again:
The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”
Our Lady of the Rosary, The Sedes Sapientiae
To build this humble and reflective disposition, we need look no further than the Seat of
Wisdom, the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom we honor today under the title of Our Lady of the
Rosary. For, as the Holy Spirit records, when Mary and Joseph found Jesus in the temple, “And
[Mary and Joseph] understood not the word that he spoke unto them. […] And his mother kept
all these words in her heart.”
Our heavenly mother’s wish to help us to attain the same simple and meditative disposition is
what motivated her to give us her rosary. Such an outwardly simple prayer contains mysteries
that even the greatest saints did not exhaust no matter how often they prayed it! By meditating
frequently upon its mysteries, we shall come to understand what they teach, imitate what they
contain, and obtain what they promise.
