INFINITE VALUE OF WISDOM

SUNDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

1 Kings 3:5,7-12; Ps 119:57,72,76-77,127-130; Rom 8:28-30; Mt 13:44-52

The Transitory and the Permanent

God made us in his image and gave us a vocation to be like him. This vocation is not unique to the human person, but general to all rational creatures. Both angels and humans received the vocation to be like God, though each is called to be like God in a manner specific to their nature. Every other thing made by God reflects the glory of God according to its nature, which is God acting within and through them. But the nature of the rational creatures is such that they have to cooperate with God to reflect the divine glory willingly. The presence of wisdom in creatures is what enables them to reflect the glory of God. Whereas irrational creatures bear the imprint of wisdom and naturally obey the will of God in their natural operations, rational creatures have no such imprint of wisdom; they are made to willingly love wisdom and learn to order themselves through wisdom to their end, which is God himself. This was not an imperfection in the rational creatures, but a perfection they possess as a result of the gift of free will from God. It is a priceless gift God gave us, creatures, as an invitation to share the divine life and communion.

We have touched on this point. We pointed out that the command not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is an invitation to act in communion with God. The communal agency is a result of our vocation to share God’s life. The implication is that we are meant to possess the wisdom of God. The indwelling of the Eternal Wisdom in human nature is the Son of Man. What the Son of God became at his incarnation, we will attain by living the word of God faithfully. He is unique as the Incarnate Wisdom, but he is not unique as a man made in the likeness of God. The Blessed Virgin was not born with the likeness of God, for she had not the beatific vision at her conception but attained it through her faithfulness to the Word. We were neither conceived with the likeness of God nor born sinless; we must become like God by faithfulness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Similar to the Blessed Virgin Mary, we will attain the likeness to God through knowledge of God and consistent love for God. Knowledge and love of God enable our minds and hearts, respectively, to cooperate with God. According to Saint Paul, that is how we become like God. “We know that by turning everything to their good, God co-operates with all those who love him, with all those he has called according to his purpose. They are the ones he chose specially long ago and intended to become true images of his Son, so that his Son might be the eldest of many brothers.” The Son shares his glory with his brothers.

The glory of the Son is deeply rooted in his obedience to the will of the Father. This obedience or willingness to do the will of the Father is what manifests the Father in the Son and makes the Son equal to the Father. The desire to accomplish God’s will for his people that Solomon expressed in his prayer to God endeared him to God. He prayed: “O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in succession to David my father. But I am a very young man, unskilled in leadership… Give your servant a heart to understand how to discern between good and evil, for who could govern this people of yours that is so great?” Solomon’s prayer was pleasing to God, for he asked according to the will of God, which is to discern good and evil in communion with God. The prayer of Solomon was acceptable on two counts: It is in sync with the divine will for us, which is that we be communal moral agents with God; Second, it is what is most suitable to a king of Israel, who is called to rule the people of God in God’s place. So, God granted him a shrewd heart more than he desired or hoped for. “I give you a heart wise and shrewd as none before you has had, and none will have after you.”

David, in the psalm, confirms the point we have made above, namely, the fact that our possession of divine glory or our likeness to God lies in obeying the will of the Father as the Son. “My part, I have resolved, O Lord, is to obey your word. The law from your mouth means more to me than silver and gold.” It is in obeying the word of God that we form a moral community with God. As members of the divine community, we become like God and share his glory and authority in all things. This is the rich treasure of heaven, which the parable of our Lord says a man found and sold all to possess it. “Jesus said to the crowds, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field which someone has found; he hides it again, goes off happy, sells everything he owns and buys the field.” The kingdom of heaven is our communion with God. By creating us rational beings, God has invited us to share his life and communion forever. The means to the exalted communion is obedience to the Gospel message we have received. We must resolve each day to live by the Gospel; to pattern our lives on that of the Son of Man, so that we may become his brothers by sharing the same Spirit of Wisdom with him. What shows that we possess wisdom is our eagerness to forego temporal riches and wealth for the ultimate and everlasting glory of God.

Let us pray: O God, protector of those who hope in you, without whom nothing has firm foundation, nothing is holy, bestow in abundance your mercy upon us and grant that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may use the good things that pass in such a way as to hold fast even now to those that ever endure. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who live and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.