So much is a mystery to us, but nothing more so than the
mind of God. Who can know God’s counsel, the Book of Wisdom asks, or who can conceive what the Lord intends? Our physical self is a limitation, locking us
in time and space, but the mind of God transcends all. How, then, is it possible for us to discern
God’s will, to have access to God’s wisdom?
Wisdom tells us that this is possible only by remaining open: open to the holy spirit sent by God from
on high, a sharing of God’s very self, and of God’s insights; open to
seeing God at work in every aspect of our lives; open to hearing God’s voice
speaking to us in quiet prayer. Only by
opening our heart, that is – allowing the heart of God to speak God’s wisdom to
our own heart. Teach us to number days aright, Psalm 90 says, that we may gain wisdom of heart, a new, godly perspective on all
that God is doing in our lives.
Understanding the wisdom of the human Jesus was no
easier. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus’ words
challenge his disciples to see differently, to remain open to God’s ways. When Jesus suggests to the crowds that they
must first hate… father and mother, wife
and children, brothers and sisters if they want to remain his disciples,
that they must carry their cross and renounce their possessions,
his teachings seem harsh. But by
remaining open to God’s wisdom, Jesus’ disciples come to understand that they
must first love God more than anyone else, so that they can then love everyone else effectively. By remaining open, the disciples learn that
to carry the cross is to carry the whole of one’s life, its struggles and joys,
because to carry them together allows us to be transformed. And the stuff we accumulate defines us; we
hold onto it because we think it’s who we are.
As Jesus’ followers we need to free ourselves up to be disciples, so
that love, not possessions, become our way of existence. It is a new way of looking at life, a new wisdom of heart.
Likewise, with his Letter to Philemon, the elderly Paul sends
back the man’s slave Onesimus, explaining that Onesimus’ newfound faith in
Jesus is evidence of a new perspective on life, a new kind of wisdom, that will
allow him to bear his life differently; Paul challengers Philemon to do the
same, seeing Onesimus as Paul’s own
heart, a brother, a man in the Lord. Like the community of Solomon in the Book of
Wisdom, like Jesus’ disciples, like Paul’s community, we are all called through
our faith in Jesus Christ to see the world differently, to accept a radical
shift in our world view, and to open our heart as best we can to the mind of God, that
we might gain wisdom of heart and prosper in all that we do in God’s name.
This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
Image source: Wordle
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