1 Kings 10

For the beauty of Wisdom is wondrous, and no one looks upon her without admiration and ecstasy, as it is said of Esther and of Solomon, for "all the earth desired to see Solomon's face"; and the Queen of Sheba "came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon"; and when she saw "the order of his ministers, and their apparel, and the cupbearers, and the holocausts, which he offered in the house of the Lord: she had no longer any spirit in her."

The queen of Sheba was a sheep that had come into the place of wolves. The lamp of truth did Solomon give her who also married her when he fell away. She was enlightened and went away, but they were dark as their manner was.

We read also in the book of Kings that the queen of the South came from the end of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon. Actually, it was customary for that nation to be always ruled by women, whom they called Kandakes.The sending by the Ethiopian queen of the treasures of the nations to Jerusalem signifies that the church would bring gifts of the virtue and of faith to the Lord. The etymology of her name is also appropriate, for in Hebrew Candace [Kandake] means "exchanged." In the Scriptures (in the psalm "For those who will be exchanged") it is she to whom it was said, "Hear, daughter, and see, and incline your ear. Forget your people and your father's home," and so forth.

The Scriptures express astonishment that the queen of Sheba came from "the end of the earth to hear Solomon's wisdom." When she saw his dinner, his furnishings and the attendants in his place, she was astounded and wholly in a state of wonder. If we do not embrace the great riches of our Lord, the great furnishings of his Word and the wealth of his teachings; if we do not eat the "bread of life"; if we are not fed with the flesh of Jesus and do not drink his blood; if we disdain the banquet of our Savior, we should realize that God has both "kindness and severity." Of these, we should pray more for his kindness on us, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

For the beauty of Wisdom is wondrous, and no one looks upon her without admiration and ecstasy, as it is said of Esther and of Solomon, for "all the earth desired to see Solomon's face"; and the Queen of Sheba "came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon"; and when she saw "the order of his ministers, and their apparel, and the cupbearers, and the holocausts, which he offered in the house of the Lord: she had no longer any spirit in her."

The words "the attendance of the servants [and their clothing]." It seems that Solomon, in his wisdom, had divided into classes all his servants, that is, all the craftsmen that did their duty, so that they might be identifiable from their clothing and uniforms which [indicated] the different classes of the bakers, the cooks, the cupbearers. Everyone was recognizable from his gear.

We entrust our case to the most prudent person we can find and ask advice from him more readily than we do from others. However, the faithful counsel of a just person stands first and often has more weight than the great abilities of the wisest of people: "For better are the wounds of a friend than the kisses of others." And just because it is the judgment of a just person, it is also the conclusion of a wise one: in the one lies the result of the matter in dispute, in the other readiness of invention. And if one connects the two, there will be great soundness in the advice given, which is regarded by all with admiration for the wisdom shown and with love for its justice. And so all will desire to hear the wisdom of that person in whom those two virtues are found together, as all the kings of the earth desired to see the face of Solomon and to hear his wisdom. No, even the queen of Sheba came to him and tried him with questions. She came and spoke of all the things that were in her heart and heard all the wisdom of Solomon, nor did any word escape her. Who she was whom nothing escaped, and that there was nothing which the truth-loving Solomon did not tell her, learn, O man, from this which you hear her saying, "It was a true report that I heard in my own land of your words and of your prudence, yet I did not believe those that told it me until I came and my eyes had seen it; and behold, the half was not told me. You have added good things over and above all that I heard in my own land. Blessed are your women and blessed your servants, who stand before you and hear all your prudence." Recognize the feast of the true Solomon and those who are set down at that feast; recognize it wisely and think in what land all the nations shall hear the fame of true wisdom and justice and with what eyes they shall see him, beholding those things that are not seen. "For the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal."What women are blessed but those of whom it is said "that many hear the word of God and bring forth fruit"? And again: "Whosoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother." And who are those blessed servants, who stand before him, but Paul, who said, "Even to this day I stand witnessing both to great and small"; or Simeon, who was waiting in the temple to see the consolation of Israel? How could he have asked to be allowed to depart, except that in standing before the Lord he had not the power of departing, but only according the will of God? Solomon is put before us simply for the sake of example, of whom it was eagerly expected that his wisdom should be heard.

In almost all places from the east to the west where the Christian religion is practiced, your manner of life for the glory of God is preached with most illustrious fame. It is rightly required of you that what is believed in your case should also be proved. With the Lord's help, then, do what you have always done, and preserve charity, humility, meekness and obedience in such a way that what is believed about you in the whole world may be augmented by the deeds of an ever spotless life. Then whoever has merited to see you will be able to give verbal utterance to the sentence uttered by that queen who wanted to seek out Solomon as a type of the church. When each one of you like living temples of Christ, adorned with the pearls of good works, filled with the burnt offerings of prayers and fragrant with the spices of virtues has merited to be contemplated, then immediately breaking forth with the voice of exultation, may he exclaim and say with that queen, "The report I heard in my country" about the life of this saintly community "is true." Behold, now in truth "I have discovered that they were hardly telling me the half"; for I have merited to see with my eyes much greater things than I first heard with my ears. When anyone merited to seek and behold you like angels placed on earth, he rejoiced at such things and uttered words with his own lips. Then he happily announced throughout the whole world: Consider and see how much glory is added to you and how precious and holy a joy is produced for the universal church throughout the entire world.

The queen of Sheba was a type of our church. She came from her distant land to king Solomon, the church came together from the four regions of the world to Christ. What [the queen] ignored, she learned from Solomon, and she went back to her land with many gifts. Here the mystery which had remained hidden for centuries and generations was finally revealed: after she had been taught to despise earthly possessions, she was made a participant and dispenser of the heavenly treasure. Why do not we imitate the queen of the South, whom our mother [the church] emulated, by offering gold, precious stones and spices to Christ? The transaction is that we lose worthless things, so that we may get great ones, which we search for and lack in the highest degree.

There are seven orders arranged by degrees up to the priesthood, in which is the standing of the orders, because it belongs to the priesthood to consecrate the Sacrament of the body of Christ, in which is the fullness of all graces; whence the other six are as it were subordinate and like certain steps by which one ascends to the throne of Solomon; and they are six on account of the perfection of the number, because six is the first perfect number, and because the perfection and sufficiency of the office of ministering so requires. For it is necessary that some minister as if from a more remote position, some from a nearer, and some from the nearest, so that nothing is lacking in the ordered ministry.

The seventh and last column of wisdom is simplicity in intention. Concerning this it is said that "King Solomon made a great throne of ivory," and he made in it "six steps." The other columns are round about, but this one is the most principal and at the summit. The Apostle speaks saying: "Seek the things that are above;" and in Ecclesiastes: "What has the wise man more than the fool, and what has the poor man, except to go thither where life is?" Surely, where Christ is, and when Christ shall appear, life shall appear.

Just as God completed the whole world in six days and rested on the seventh, so the lesser world may be led in most orderly fashion through six stages of successive illuminations to the repose of contemplation. As a figure of this, one ascended by six steps to the throne of Solomon; the Seraphim that Isaiah saw had six wings; after six days the Lord called Moses from the midst of the cloud, and Christ after six days, as is said in Matthew, led the disciples up the mountain and was transfigured before them.

These six considerations having therefore been traversed, as if they were the six steps of the throne of the true Solomon, by which one arrives at peace, where the true peaceful one rests in a peaceful mind as in an interior Jerusalem; and as if also the six wings of the Cherub, by which the mind of the true contemplative, filled with the illumination of supernal wisdom, may be borne upward; and as if also the first six days, in which the mind must be exercised, so that it may at last arrive at the sabbath of rest; after our mind has contemplated God outside itself through vestiges and in the vestiges, within itself through the image and in the image, above itself through the similitude of the divine light shining upon us and in that light itself, insofar as is possible according to the state of wayfaring and the exercise of our mind; when at last in the sixth step it has arrived at this point, that it contemplates in the first and highest principle and the mediator of God and men, Jesus Christ, those things whose likenesses can in no way be found in creatures, and which exceed all keenness of the human intellect: it remains that, in contemplating these things, it should transcend and pass beyond not only this sensible world, but also itself; in which passing over, Christ is the way and the door, Christ is the ladder and the vehicle, as it were the mercy seat placed upon the ark of God and the mystery hidden from the ages.

For the beauty of Wisdom is wondrous, and no one looks upon her without admiration and ecstasy, as it is said of Esther and of Solomon, for "all the earth desired to see Solomon's face"; and the Queen of Sheba "came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon"; and when she saw "the order of his ministers, and their apparel, and the cupbearers, and the holocausts, which he offered in the house of the Lord: she had no longer any spirit in her."

This means that the knowledge of divine things must be imparted to all nations everywhere through the advent and manifestation of Christ; and Isaiah predicted the coming of Christ in the clearest way by saying, "The earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." The Scripture usually employs the symbol of silver to signify the holy doctrine [of Christ]. Indeed it is a pure, bright and sonorous metal, and its qualities are extraordinarily appropriate to Christ's gospel. Haggai predicted that the temple of the Lord, which is the church of Christ, must be filled with this kind of silver.