Scripture Reading: 1st Letter of Paul to the Corinthians 1:17-25

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate. Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

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Reflection

All through the trials that punctuate his life, Liberating Wisdom journeys with Louis Marie. She is his consolation, his liberation. He becomes aware of this in Paris while living in a small corner of a poor house. Himself being in a state of utter destitution, he sees himself in Christ on the cross.

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In his experience of suffering, he senses the folly of the love of Wisdom for wounded humanity. Freed from all human ties, Montfort definitively binds himself to Eternal, Incarnate and Crucified Wisdom. “God Alone” is the magnet of his life. The Love of Eternal Wisdom witnesses to this. He writes: “True Wisdom is not to be found in the things on earth nor in the hearts of those who live for their comfort. For She is so at home with the Cross that elsewhere in this world you will never find Her. She is so identified with the Cross that one can truly say: Wisdom is the Cross and the Cross is Wisdom.” (LEW 180)

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Wisdom who surrendered on the cross is the Wisdom who gave herself completely to humanity by the fiat of Mary. She accepted to be formed in Mary, and she continues to do so in those persons who open their hearts to Her.