A Penitent Blogger
Integrity and wisdom
There are unbelievers in this world who are more educated about Christianity than most Christians. They have multiple degrees, deep technical knowledge, and rapier-like wits.
How could they know so much and be so wrong?
There are priests and preachers among us with powerful gifts of knowledge and oratory. They can get up in front of thousands of people, move them deeply, and then get down from the pulpit to commit terrible immorality.
How could they know so much and be so wrong?
The obvious answer is that there is a difference between knowledge and wisdom – sometimes a tragic difference.
A person may know many things, may know them well, and may even be able to devise an intellectual framework that ties them all together, but still not have wisdom. Their impressive knowledge and robust intellect suffers from a profound disconnect: a crippling, existential detachment. Their philosophy may be massive and intricate, but it is built on sand (at best).
Today’s first reading, from the beginning of the book of Wisdom (Wisdom 1:1-7) reminds us that wisdom requires integrity.
Into a soul that plots evil,
wisdom enters not,
nor dwells she
in a body under debt of sin.
For the holy Spirit of discipline flees deceit
and withdraws from senseless counsels....
Too many of us try to be too clever. We receive a certain amount of education and a certain amount of knowledge, and then we try to twist it to our own convenience. Sometimes we can have so much knowledge and intelligence that we can fool people for a long time (and even fool ourselves) – but there is no escaping reality and there is no fooling God.
Because God is the witness of his inmost self
and the sure observer of his heart
and the listener to his tongue.
For the Spirit of the Lord fills the world,
is all-embracing, and knows what man says.
Thus today’s first reading also reminds us that wisdom requires not just integrity – integrity of thought in se as well as integrity between one’s thought and the rest of one’s life – but that wisdom requires God as well: the ultimate ground of all wisdom.
For perverse counsels separate a man from God,
and his power, put to the proof, rebukes the foolhardy.
Today’s technology has greatly multiplied our capacity to access information and even to gain knowledge, and yet we find that wisdom seems to be in increasingly short supply.
To be sure, none of us are perfect – we are all sinners, we all have room for improvement in our integrity and in our relationship with God (I certainly do) – but if we are honest with ourselves, open to learning, and faithful to growing in God’s grace through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, our integrity and our relationship with God can grow anew and we may thus attain the blessings of true wisdom.
How could they know so much and be so wrong?
There are priests and preachers among us with powerful gifts of knowledge and oratory. They can get up in front of thousands of people, move them deeply, and then get down from the pulpit to commit terrible immorality.
How could they know so much and be so wrong?
The obvious answer is that there is a difference between knowledge and wisdom – sometimes a tragic difference.
A person may know many things, may know them well, and may even be able to devise an intellectual framework that ties them all together, but still not have wisdom. Their impressive knowledge and robust intellect suffers from a profound disconnect: a crippling, existential detachment. Their philosophy may be massive and intricate, but it is built on sand (at best).
Today’s first reading, from the beginning of the book of Wisdom (Wisdom 1:1-7) reminds us that wisdom requires integrity.
Into a soul that plots evil,
wisdom enters not,
nor dwells she
in a body under debt of sin.
For the holy Spirit of discipline flees deceit
and withdraws from senseless counsels....
Too many of us try to be too clever. We receive a certain amount of education and a certain amount of knowledge, and then we try to twist it to our own convenience. Sometimes we can have so much knowledge and intelligence that we can fool people for a long time (and even fool ourselves) – but there is no escaping reality and there is no fooling God.
Because God is the witness of his inmost self
and the sure observer of his heart
and the listener to his tongue.
For the Spirit of the Lord fills the world,
is all-embracing, and knows what man says.
Thus today’s first reading also reminds us that wisdom requires not just integrity – integrity of thought in se as well as integrity between one’s thought and the rest of one’s life – but that wisdom requires God as well: the ultimate ground of all wisdom.
For perverse counsels separate a man from God,
and his power, put to the proof, rebukes the foolhardy.
Today’s technology has greatly multiplied our capacity to access information and even to gain knowledge, and yet we find that wisdom seems to be in increasingly short supply.
To be sure, none of us are perfect – we are all sinners, we all have room for improvement in our integrity and in our relationship with God (I certainly do) – but if we are honest with ourselves, open to learning, and faithful to growing in God’s grace through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, our integrity and our relationship with God can grow anew and we may thus attain the blessings of true wisdom.
posted by Penitens | 1:20 PM
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