Yesterday, after our groundbreaking at the Father Peyton Center in Easton, we had a wonderful reception for our guests and our Holy Cross Family Ministries team. Later that evening, I thought about the conversation at our table and the topic of the first reading: wisdom. I thought about the expression "that with age comes wisdom." I certainly hope so!
At the table, we each related different experiences of our past, mainly dealing with how we were raised, our faith, and taking pride in our work. We sometimes make the mistake of believing that knowledge guarantees wisdom, but there's more to it.
True Wisdom
One friend once said, I know some brilliant people who don't get it. Let's start with the idea that the number of classes we take doesn't have a one-to-one ratio with the level of our wisdom. For example, my great-aunt Mary Reynolds, the oldest of 11 children at the end of eighth grade, ended her academic career to help her family. Yet it was Aunt Mary that everyone in the family and many friends of all ages and academic degrees went to for advice; Aunt Mary was wise.
But, as we know, what the world defines as wisdom is only part of what Solomon speaks about in the first reading. Going back to our Confirmation classes, you probably had to memorize the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of God. Wisdom is first.
Wisdom Defined
The classic definition of wisdom comes from St. Thomas Aquinas: "Wisdom is the knowledge and judgment about divine things and the ability to judge and direct human affairs according to divine truth."
The good news is this gift of wisdom is given to each of us at our baptism and strengthened through practice and God's grace, then sealed in its full potential with our Confirmation. This means that each of us, with these sacraments and our participation with God's grace, has the ability to be wise in judgment and in making decisions for our families and ourselves and even beyond.
And as you all know, so much has changed in our world in a very short time that we need the gift of wisdom. We need wisdom to be perceptive about God's role in our lives and to be receptive to the Holy Spirit's promptings vs. the promptings of the world.
Discovering God's Ways
Jesus makes this clear when He said in today's Gospel, "There will be those who say to you, 'Look there he is….do not go off and run in pursuit. For just as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky, from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day." We need wisdom to know the difference between the world's ways and God's.
We can grow in wisdom through reading, reflecting, and praying with the Word of God. Today's first reading should inform and inspire us to believe that God has given us the gift of wisdom to navigate challenges of any age and circumstance as we journey with Jesus toward heaven.
Later on, take a look at today's reading from the Book of Wisdom (Wisdom 7:22b – 8:1) and believe that God has given each of us what is spoken of as a spirit intelligent, holy—manifold, agile, clear (and) pervading all things by reason of her purity…."
By the way, Aunt Mary was also the one everyone looked up to when it came to faith in God, including her sister, Sr. Jean Marie Reynolds, RSM. By faith, we believe in God's wisdom to guide our lives and those of our loved ones. And, so we pray to our Blessed Mother, Our Lady Seat of Wisdom—pray for us!
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