Loving Wisdom

Concupiscite ergo sermones meos, et diligite illos, et habebitis disciplinam. Verum est quod qui diligit sapientiam et assiduus est illius in meditatione, conservet disciplinam in moribus, nec aliter potest amator probari sapientiae nisi conservator sit disciplinae. Unde ipsa Veritas ait: Si diligitis me, mandata mea servate. Et iterum: Si quis diligit me sermonem meum servabit. Hinc et Jacobus ait: Estote ergo factores verbi et non auditores tantum fallentes vosmetipsos, quia non auditores legis justificabuntur apud Dominum, sed factores legis. Clara est, et quae nunquam marcescit sapientia; et facile videtur ab his qi diligunt eam, et invenitur ab his qui quaerunt illam. Decor sapientiae immarcescibilis est, et his solis patet qui eam in veritate diligunt, et studiose requirunt. Qui autem eam ficte quaerunt nollo modo ad eam pertingent, quia, sicut superius dictum est, Spiritus sanctus disciplinae effugiet fictum, et in malevolam animam non introibit sapientia. Unde in Proverbiis sapientia dicit: Ego diligentes me diligo, et qui mane vigilant ad me invenient me. Et iterum: Beatus homo qui audit me, qui vigilat ad fores meas quotidie, et observat ad postes ostii mei. Qui me invenerit inveniet vitam, et hauriet salutem a Domino. Qui autem in me peccaverit laedet animam suam. Omnes qui oderunt me, diligunt mortem. Rabanus Maurus, Commentariorum In Librum Sapientiae Wisdom, Liber I, Caput XIII Source: Migne PL 109.694c-d

Therefore desire my words, and love them, and you shall have discipline. 1 It is true that he who loves wisdom and is assiduous in its meditation, maintains discipline in his conduct, for it is not possible otherwise that a lover shall be approved by Wisdom unless he is a keeper of discipline. Whence the Truth Himself says: 'If you love me, keep my commandments.' 2 And again, 'If someone loves me He shall keep my word.' 3 Whence James also says: 'Be, then, brothers, doers of the word and not only hearers, deceiving yourselves.' 4 'It is not the hearers of the law who shall be justified before God, but the doers.' 5 Bright she is, and wisdom bears no spot, and easily she is seen by those who love her, and she is found by those who seek her. 6 The beauty of wisdom is spotless and to these alone she shows herself: they who love her in truth and devotedly seek her. He who is not true in the search for her has no chance of reaching her, because as it was said before, 'The Holy Spirit flees the fiction of discipline, and Wisdom does not come into a wicked soul.' 7 Whence in Proverbs Wisdom says: 'I love those who love me, and he who watches in the morning shall come to me.' 8 And again, 'Blessed the man who hears me, who watches at my doors every day, and looks toward the posts of my gate. He who finds me, shall find life, and he shall drink salvation from the Lord. But he who sins against me, he wounds his own soul. All who hate me love death. 9 Rabanus Maurus, Commentary On Wisdom Book 1, Chapter 13 1 Wisd 6.12 2 Jn 14.15 3 Jn 14.23 4 James 1.22 5 Rom 2.13 6 Wisd 6.13 7 Wisd 1.4-5 8 Prov 8.17 9 Prov 8.34-36