LIVING BY WISDOM FROM ABOVE

SUNDAY, TWENTY FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Wis 2:12,17-20; Ps 54:3-6,8; James 3:16-4:3; Mk 9:30-37

The Root of War in our Members

James the Apostle leads us to the root of every war within each man and between men. The root cause of all wars is inordinate desires in men. Desire, by itself, is not evil, for desire precedes every action. Desires classified as evil are not rationally coordinated to their goals or desired goods. We judge the desire of a Christian good when it is spiritually directed and rooted in the love of God by which a Christian must live. James the Apostle writes to us concerning desires. He starts with a general description of the cause of war and then dwells on what is specifically Christian. “Wherever you find jealousy and ambition, you find disharmony, and wicked things of every kind being done.” We see this general principle of wars among men in the passage from the Book of Wisdom. The root of jealousy is in the godless. It is natural because reason guides any right-thinking person, and he loves natural goods proportionately. Guided by this orderly love for goods of nature, he does not seek it disproportionately. He would not be jealous of his fellow man for possessing what is due him and cannot rightly belong to both. Hence, these words reveal the thought of the godless. “Let us lie in wait for the virtuous man, since he annoys us and opposes our ways of life, reproaches us for our breaches of the law and accuses us of playing false to our upbringing.” 

Subsequently, wars start within a godless man when he desires in a disproportionate manner goods that are naturally ordered. This disproportion in a man is what makes him godless or sinful. Because he desires disproportionately what the divine will has ordered proportionately, he acts against the divine will. Wisdom rightly calls a jealous man a godless man. On the other hand, we consider a man righteous when he lives by the wisdom from above, ordering his desires according to the natural order of goods. Hence, James considers wisdom to be a heavenly virtue. “Whereas the wisdom that comes down from above is essentially something pure; it also makes for peace, and is kindly and considerate; it is full of compassion and shows itself by doing good; nor is there any trace of partiality or hypocrisy in it.” The clash of desires in a man is the birth of sin, war, evil, and destruction. “Where do these wars and battles between yourselves first start? Isn’t it precisely in the desires fighting inside your own selves? You want something and you haven’t got it; so you are prepared to kill. You have an ambition that you cannot satisfy; so you fight to get your way by force.” Whenever this situation arises in a soul, the soul is ipso facto in sin, as we have explained above. That soul has abandoned the light of God for the darkness of creatures.

For this reason, prayers are not well said or not said at all because the Holy Spirit did not inspire them. We recall again that the origin of prayer is the renewed spirit in each of us that lives in constant union with the Holy Spirit. The original desire that defines this new spirit is love for God. So, its initial desire is for God. Every prayer is foremost a desire for God. A prayer that is said inordinately is not a desire for God but for creatures, not a Christian prayer. James points out this to us here. “Why you don’t have what you want is because you don’t pray for it; when you pray and don’t get it, it is because you have not prayed properly, you have prayed for something to indulge your own desires.” Many, indeed, are the prayers we utter that are not Christian. Such prayers are exercises in self-indulgence. When we shout, kick, fight, and wish to kill others by fire, we are indulging ourselves and not doing the will of the Father.

Our Lord came to the help of his disciples when this evil crept into their midst. They were ambitious for what was not in their power to obtain or to grant. This is our definition of inordinate desire. They were acting contrary to the will of God and the example of their Master, who came to lay down his life for our salvation. They failed to understand what he was teaching them about his passion because a contrary desire was at work in them. We cannot walk according to God’s will when we harbour inordinate desires. “They came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the road?’ They said nothing because they had been arguing which of them was the greatest.” It belongs to God to make one great and to lower another. It should never be a thing to grab by ourselves. The path to greatness in God’s sight is to serve others in the love of God. This is to desire according to the divine will. This is to live according to the wisdom that comes from above. Our Christian vocation is to pattern our lives according to our Lord’s life, who is Eternal Wisdom made incarnate for our salvation.

Let us pray: O God, who founded all the commands of your sacred Law upon love of you and our neighbour, grant that, by keeping your precepts, we may merit to attain eternal life.