There are two things necessary to wisdom: that we should have an opportunity for acquiring knowledge, and a mental capacity to make use of the opportunities afforded us. The first resolves itself, more or less, into the need of someone to instruct us. This may, it is true, in quite a number of instances be adequately offered through the means of a book. There are special sciences or branches of learning in which a quantity of reading is necessary, without which it may be altogether impossible to grasp the subject. Thus we might say of the study of history that it is almost entirely built up of materials that demand our closest attention and scrutiny. In other kinds of knowledge, the need may be only for a capable master to instruct us in the main lines and principles: this is especially true of -those who are concerned with abstract knowledge. In philosophy many of the greatest have dispensed with books, taught by their own minds and the stimulus of conversation and discussion with congenial, though opposingly-minded, friends. In the sacred knowledge of God it is above all obvious that we require instruction rather than books, a master rather than a library. But there is also, again, the necessity for a certain amount of intelligence on our part. Said Dr. Johnson on a famous occasion, "I can supply you with arguments, but not with the wit to understand them." Hence it is clear that the best master in the world will be altogether unable to effect anything on those who are incompetent to follow him. In fact, the better the master, often on that account the worse the pupil.
Now in the case of our Lady we notice that she was in a marvellous way gifted. She had at once the greatest master of all wisdom, and at the same time the best mental capacities for that wisdom. The Son of God, who is the eternal wisdom of the Father, was in her company for thirty uninterrupted years, during which time she is recorded to have pondered over the words that He let fall. We are always talking about the effect on children of being brought up entirely in the company of their elders. They are exceedingly precocious, acquire the very phraseology of their parents, and have a view of life that is original and fresh. Whether we consider this an advantage or not, we are quick to see the influence that grown-up people receive from their acquaintances: we judge a man by the company he keeps. What, then, must have been the opportunities that lay in the path of the Mother of God! Her acquaintance with the economy of the divine plan must have been profound. The questions and answers of the doctors could not be compared with her manifold intercourse with the Substance of the Brightness of the Father. Moreover, not merely had she the unique chance in the world of obtaining knowledge of the things of God, but she had also unique opportunities of making the best use of them. She had, that is to say, out of all the world the mind most fitted to understand the words of God. We consider always that children have glimpses of God that are lost to us; we judge that their intercourse with God is so intimate and natural, so innocent and pure, that they must have helps to give us in their chance and broken remarks. All that child ever had was hers. The innocence that came from the Immaculate Conception, an unsullied soul that never knew the least stain of sin, where in all the world was anyone so divinely gifted?
It is, then, no mere poetry to speak of her, as does the Church, as the Seat of Wisdom. Over her was outspread the wings of the Spirit of God. United to the Incarnate Word, prepared with angelic purity to understand the Divine messages, responsive to the voice of an angel that our grosser ears would not at all have perceived, unclouded by the weakness that sin causes to the intelligence, passionless, without even the dulness of old age, she stands at the head of the long line of the Wise who lead onward the children of Men. Surely, then, we know where to go in our perplexities of mind. All, in some way or other, must be puzzled by the intricate problem of life. There are so many things in this amazing world that we do not understand, so many stones of the dealings of God that we cannot reconcile with what we have been taught of mercy and justice and truth. There is as well the outstanding perplexity of ourselves when in the mood we consider our place and purpose and daily failure. There is, finally, the whole of life and death and after-life, the Incarnation with all that follows from that stupendous mystery, and the meaning of the Church. Where else shall we carry these things that so disturb us save to the mother who knew and asked, and in her heart pondered over all these things? Of surpassing intelligence, she shall be our refuge to her Son. For she is but the Seat of that Divine Wisdom which is in her, but not her. Her Wisdom is not her own, but His to whom we beg her to lead us.
- text taken from Meditations for Layfolk by Father Bede Jarrett, O.P.