Above you'll find the audio of my homily for November 8, based on the first reading and the gospel from today's mass, both of which treat of wisdom. (If a widget doesn't appear above, click here.) The text of my homily follows below.
Let me pose a simple question: would you prefer to be known for your wisdom - or for your foolishness? Which reputation would you prefer to have? Might seem an unfair option: either/or, wise or foolish. But really, there isn't a lot of middle ground here.
If I'm wise, then I'll more readily spot my foolish tendencies and work to correct them. Whereas, if I'm foolish, I might not recognize what's wise - even if it scares me right in my face.
Whether I'm wise or foolish, I need to learn to desire, to desire wisdom. If I'm wise, then it's the continuing desire for wisdom that will keep me away from my own foolishness. And if I'm foolish, then the desire for wisdom will at least help me see my foolishness for what it is - and help me see that there's always another way for me to live my life, a wiser way.
Wisdom is by no means theoretical, ethereal, or esoteric. Wisdom is very practical. In the scriptures, wisdom is that very practical knowledge I need to know how to love God and others, as I live in the world. Wisdom is knowing how to love God and others. Sounds like Jesus’ two great commandments: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind – and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Wisdom is the knowledge we need to follow to obey those two commandments.
Foolishness is what happens when I love God with less than all my heart and mind and soul… when I love myself more than I love my neighbor…
I'm most inclined to be foolish when wisdom asks more of me than I'm naturally or readily willing to give - to God or my neighbor. The greatest foolishness of all is for me to imagine, to think, to believe, to pretend that I am wiser than God. (You might be sitting there saying, “I wouldn't ever think that I was wiser than God.” Every time we sin - we think we're wiser than God. We think,“Well, you know what? I think God doesn't have this right. I'm gonna do it my way…” We all do that at least once in a while. And when I think and act as if I know better than God, then it's easy to convince myself that my foolishness is, in fact, some kind of wisdom.
I so easily and often forget how today's folly becomes tomorrow's regret. I fail to see how easily my foolish indiscretions quickly become foolish habits. I foolishly ignore the ageless wisdom that a life of foolish choices has never made anybody truly happy.
On the other hand, even just the desire for wisdom can open me up to so much more than I can see with my own eyes, or know with my own thoughts, or discern with my own mind, or feel in my own heart.
Just the desire for wisdom can begin to draw me out of myself, out of my own foolishness, to see that there is a way, there is a truth, there is a life for me that leads to: contentment, even in hard times… That brings me joy, even in sorrow… That offers me hope, especially when all seems lost…
Foolishness is life on my turns. Wisdom is life on God's terms.
We live in an age when foolishness is often mistaken for and valued as virtue; a time when belief in God is often mocked as simple and naive. One need only look to what our culture celebrates and how faith is marginalized and mocked to see how often and easily the wisdom of the ages is tossed aside, dismissed, forgotten. We live at an age when foolishness often triumphs as excellence.
Wisdom is the gift I need when, in such an age, I'm making choices; choices between what's right and what's wrong… between what's true and false… between what's loving and selfish… between what's life giving and death dealing… between what's just and what's oppressive… between what's foolish and what's wise.
Foolishness is life on my turns. Wisdom is life on God's terms.
So on whose terms, then, do you and I live our lives? Or better yet, on whose terms do you and I desire to live our lives? Most of us will likely answer that we'd prefer to be known for our wisdom - not be mistaken for fools. That's a choice we make over and over and over again. I'll be more likely inclined to choose wisdom if wisdom is what I try to desire. I'll choose wisdom if I'm willing to forego the ease, the comfort of foolishness and accede to the demands of wisdom. I'll choose wisdom if I choose to live my life on God's terms - not on my own.
There’s a beautiful passage in the Book of Proverbs speaking of wisdom again, in the feminine. Proverbs says, Wisdom has built herself a house. She has spread her table, and she says, Come, eat of my food, and drink of my wine. Forsake foolishness, so that you may live and advance in the way of understanding.
Tonight, Wisdom spreads her table here at the altar - and she invites us to share in the banquet that Christ has prepared for us. Let's pray, then, that we will - all of us - desire wisdom, so that we might choose wisdom, and come to know the peace that wisdom brings.
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