32ND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME C
GIVE ME WISDOM, LORD
How shallow-minded people have become. Before they used to blame television for this, calling it the boob-tube (boob of course, meant stupid). But now we have youtube (just recall the people whose influence you are following there!).
And of course, this goes for most of social media. People are satisfied with what videos they watch, what commentaries they hear, what photos they view, what messages they receive. They approve, react, defend and own these things as theirs.
Never mind if these are not true; very few check whether what they get there is real or fabricated. The sad thing is they follow and swallow what is there. Sadder still, most of these things are cheap, sensationalized, misleading and senseless for our lives.
The first reading from Wisdom ch. 6 reminds us of something so precious in the eyes of God and so useful for life of men and women that it should be one of the things we seek to possess – wisdom. Wisdom is more than intelligence or human knowledge.
Wisdom is a gift from the Holy Spirit that enables us to love the truth; not only to know the truth but also to understand how it relates to God and how we can use it to make the world a better place. We glorify the Lord by using wisdom to deal with our problems and with our relationships.
Although wisdom is a gift, we must receive it in our hearts. We need to always look for it and finding it, make our lives conform to its challenge. Having wisdom within us, God improves our knowledge and gives us deeper insights. We do not react but we act upon reflection of things.
Without wisdom we react without thinking. We judge without scrutiny. We idolize people who hypnotized us with their pride and their lies. Unknowingly, we fight what is good, what is holy, what is right.
This is what the Gospel in Matthew 25 depicts, the wise virgins treasured wisdom while the foolish ones neglected to pursue it. God gives wisdom to those who ask, and so we learn wisdom at the foot of the Cross, on our knees, with God’s Word in our hands and his inspiration in our hearts.
Many people wondered and some even questioned why the Church just recently beatified a young man who died of leukemia at 15 in 2006. What can Blessed Carlo Acutis give to the Church in so short a life? But again, many never cared to discover the purity, the sacrifice, the spiritual maturity of that young life. Blessed Carlo was more mature than people older than he in his time, and even in our time!
With the internet we have vast knowledge. With technology, we burst with new information. With social media, we are swimming in an ocean of images and words.
I wonder if any of these channels can give us wisdom. Only the Lord Jesus can grant us that gift through the Holy Spirit.
Begin praying for wisdom. Seek it in prayer and reflection. Live it and share it with others.
(pls share with a friend…)
(The 500 years anniversary of Christianity in the Philippines is about to be celebrated soon. Read and find out how we have been abundantly blessed when we receive the faith in our land…)
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