Easter Season · A Seventh Reading Easter Vigil · Year B
Baruch 3:9-15, 3:32-4:4 or Proverbs 8:1-8, 19-21; 9:4b-6
The Fountain of Wisdom
March 28, 2027
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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Take it further: Baruch 3:9-15, 3:32-4:4 or Proverbs 8:1-8, 19-21; 9:4b-6
Commentary
Baruch 3 - Haydock's Catholic Bible CommentaryBar 3 - Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary StudyLight
Haydock's Catholic verse notes on the summons to learn wisdom and the identification of Wisdom with the Law of God.
Baruch - Lesson 3 (The Poem Identifying Wisdom with the Law)Bar - Lesson 3 (The Poem Identifying Wis with the Law) Agape Bible Study
A Catholic study of Baruch 3:9-4:4 tracing the eulogy of Wisdom that only Israel received through the Law, read by the Fathers as pointing to Christ.
Commentary on Proverbs 8:1-8, 19-21; 9:4b-6 (Vigil of Easter)Commentary on Prv 8:1-8, 19-21; 9:4b-6 (Vigil of Easter) Working Preacher
Luther Seminary's Vigil commentary on the wisdom reading the RCL offers as the alternative to Baruch, hearing Woman Wisdom's call within salvation history.
Background & Word Study
Baruch (Catholic Encyclopedia)Bar (Catholic Encyclopedia) New Advent · Catholic Encyclopedia
Background on the deuterocanonical book, its authorship and structure, and its panegyric of Divine Wisdom found only in the Law of Israel.
Sixth Reading: Baruch 3:9-15, 32-4:4 (Easter Vigil study sheet)Sixth Reading: Bar 3:9-15, 32-4:4 (Easter Vigil study sheet) Diocese of Erie
A diocesan Easter Vigil study sheet unpacking the reading's theme of the importance of wisdom and its gift to Israel.
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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