Bible
Study: James 3, 13 to 18 and Mark 9, 14 to 29.
There is wisdom that come
from God and there is wisdom that is totally earthly. Quite often, we like to
think of ourselves as wise but in the real sense, if our wisdom is not oriented
towards God, it is actually foolishness. In our first reading this morning, St.
James helps to make the distinction clear.
Worldly wisdom is that which
is fuelled by jealousy and selfish ambition. It is a type of wisdom that considers
everyone else as an enemy and tries to trick them and take what belongs to
them. It is what we call 4-1-9 in our local parlance. The key to this type of wisdom
is ability to tell very convincing lies and get the other person believing you
until he or she falls into a trap. St. James calls this type of wisdom
unspiritual and devilish.
On the other hand, there is
wisdom that comes from above. This is fuelled by purity of heart. It is aimed
at bringing peace, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits,
without uncertainty and insincerity. This type of wisdom is completely opposed
to the worldly wisdom and it never insincere.
It is quite surprising that
we Christians claim to be very spiritual and yet we often place worldly wisdom
over and above Godly wisdom. We tell lies so easily and pat ourselves on the
back that we are just being smart. Telling lies is not wisdom at all. It is the
height of foolishness because eventually the truth will come out and then our
Christian faith is called to question.
Let us aspire for Godly
wisdom. It is a wisdom that puts God first, a wisdom that thrives based on the
fear of God, it is a wisdom that is full of mercy and reaches out to help our
fellow brothers and sisters in need, it
is a wisdom that prevents us from insincerity. We don’t have to compete with
the world and even if they think of us as being foolish because of our
truthfulness and mercy, the truth about who is foolish or not will be known on
the day of Judgement.
In the Gospel passage, the
main message is not about wisdom but about another virtue, faith. The disciples
of Jesus could not cure a boy who was possessed because they were still
learning from Jesus. At the end, they asked why they could not do it, Jesus
said: “This type cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting.” When
last did you pray and fast? Do you realize the enormous power you could emanate
if you did pray and fast today?
Let us pray:
Lord Jesus, infuse into me
wisdom from above that I may see as foolish that which the world considers as
smartness. Amen.
Good morning.
Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. Happy new week.
NB. Please
bear with me for any grammatical/typographical errors in the course of my daily
reflections. Given the short time available to me every morning, I am not able
to do thorough editing before sending them out lest they come too late.
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