The Book of Wisdom or The Wisdom of Solomon 10:17 Commento

God gives to Moses the following instructions for the celebration of the Passover—that is, of that passage that represents all of the action of our faith and the mystery of the passion of the Lord. The Jews were to ask the Egyptians for gold and silver objects and clothing and, carrying them away, to despoil the Egyptians of what they had given them under the devastating shock of the loss of the firstborn. Fearing also for themselves, the Egyptians sent the Jews away with all they had given them, so that “to the just,” as the prophet says, would be restored “the reward of their labors.” Considering the two cities they built for the Egyptians, the spoils the Jews carried away in no way constitute a theft but only the restitution of what was owed them. In fact, this passage had a mystical sense. According to the divine command, they must slay an unblemished year-old lamb under the tent, bathing the doorposts of the house with its blood. None of its bones are to be broken. It must be eaten with bitter herbs and unleavened bread, with loins girded, in all haste. Nothing must be left for the next day. The authority of the Gospel tells how all of these instructions, which had a symbolic sense, are to be fulfilled. It commands us to eat the flesh of lambs until that day that will have no sunset—that is, until the resurrection—“not with the old yeast but with the unleavened bread of purity and truth.” We are to eat after marking with his blood the doorposts of those on whose foreheads his cross will shine, eating “with bitter herbs,” it says, that is, with those who pass a bitter life in grief. But these latter are blessed, because they will be consoled.

If you love God with your whole heart and meditate on the books of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, committing yourself to doing what you have read, then the spirit of wisdom will rest on you. Indeed, “all wisdom comes from the Lord” (and it could not be otherwise), since, “it has always been with him and exists from before time.” If you seek it and keep it once you find it, you will be blessed and can be called wise. Moreover, “it will guide you on a marvelous way,” sustaining and protecting you with its holy right hand. It will bring you to eternal life, which gives happiness, and will let you feel its embrace, and on you will rest the spirit of wisdom.