Holy Week · Holy Saturday Sixth Reading · Year C
Baruch 3:9-15, 32-4:4
The Fountain of Wisdom
April 15, 2028
Overview & Insights
“Learn where there is wisdom, where there is strength, where there is understanding.” (Baruch 3:14)
Baruch, associated with the prophet Jeremiah, addresses a people in exile and asks why Israel has grown old in a foreign land, defiled among the dead. The answer is that they have forsaken the fountain of wisdom. The passage praises the wisdom that no ruler or hero of old ever found on their own, for God alone knows the way to her; he who established the earth and calls the stars, who fills all things with understanding, has given wisdom to Jacob his servant and Israel whom he loved. Read at the Easter Vigil, the poem sings of the wisdom of God that appeared on earth and lived among men, which the church hears fulfilled in Christ, the wisdom of God who leads his people out of exile into life.
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Commentary
Baruch, Lesson 3 (Wisdom and the Law, 3:9-4:4) Agape Bible Study
A Catholic verse-by-verse study of exactly this passage, the poem that identifies Wisdom with the Law given to Israel.
The Easter Vigil (Year B), Dr. Brant Pitre Catholic Productions · Brant Pitre
A Catholic scholar sets the Baruch reading within the Vigil's sweep of salvation history toward the Resurrection.
Baruch 3, Haydock Commentary Haydock Commentary
Classic Catholic verse notes (Calmet, Haydock, Worthington) on the call to forsake wisdom's rivals and return to the fountain of understanding.
Background & Word Study
Catholic Encyclopedia: Baruch New Advent · Catholic Encyclopedia
Background on the deuterocanonical book's authorship, canon status, and contents, since Baruch stands outside the Hebrew Bible.
Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah bibleproject.com
BibleProject's overview video covers Baruch's themes of exile, repentance and wisdom that this reading draws on.
The Church Fathers
Questions preachers ask
Why is Baruch read at the Easter Vigil?
Its call to return to the forsaken fountain of wisdom, the wisdom God gave to Israel and made to appear on earth, is heard as a promise fulfilled in Christ.
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