Wisdom is a divine
gift. It is a share in the very way of
seeing and being that is proper to God.
In order for Wisdom to have a place in our lives, we have to become
open. This means acknowledging that we
do not know. Socrates, the wise
philosopher, expressed his awareness of his own wisdom by telling the story (as
Plato records it) that he went around asking so-called experts about their area
of expertise. He would always reach a
moment when they could not answer a question and refused to talk anymore. They did not want to admit that they did not know…. Socrates realized that he was wiser than the
rest because he admitted his ignorance.
God’s Wisdom allows us
to come to an understanding of the nature of things beyond our own natural
knowledge. To be wise in relationship to
God is to know that without God we can do nothing. When we allow God to share His Wisdom with us
through the gift of Revelation – the Sacred Scriptures and the Teachings of the
Church – we reach beyond our reach.
Grace builds on nature. Faith puts
us in touch with the Truth of God.
The challenge of our
time and every time of human history is to put our trust in the God speaking through
His Church. Scandals come throughout history
and, sadly, the Church is not any freer of them than any other part of
humanity. Nonetheless, the Church offers
something we cannot receive any other way.
Jesus has united Himself to His Church.
He has promised us that He will feed and nourish us through Word and
Sacrament. By Baptism we are
incorporated into the very life of Christ as sons and daughters of the Living
God. Eucharist renews our initiation
into Christ and strengthens us for the journey.
Jesus gives us His flesh and blood and through this communicates Eternal
Life.
This week, we will
welcome our children back to School. May
the new year begin well. We pray that
all of us will be truly wise, putting our trust in the Living God. May Wisdom show us the way.
When I was a senior undergraduate student preparing to defend my Honor's Thesis, one of my advisors pulled me aside and gave me this piece of advice: "If you don't know the answer to one of our questions," he said, "it's much better to say 'I don't know' than to try to bluff us with an answer and end up looking stupid." That advice has haunted me and helped me many times over the many years since I received it.
ReplyDeleteAs a Christian, I find that it is better for me (mentally and spiritually) to go to God with my "I don't know" than to try and make sense of this world with my own limited, fallible resources. Thanks, Father, for reminding me again that I need to do this, because I am always tempted to use my resources first and go to God later, rather than the other way around.