Word to the Wise
Monday, September 24, 2012 - Monday in the 25th Week in Ordinary Time
[Prov 3:27-34 and Luke 8:16-18]Refuse no one the good on which he has a claim when it is in your power to do it for him. Say not to your neighbor, "Go, and come again, tomorrow I will give," when you can give at once....[Proverbs]
Lists of proverbs or popular wisdom are as old as human writing! They continue to be published in the form of "self-help" books that crowd the shelves of bookstores. In our own time, the writer, Robert Fulghum, published his continually popular, EVERYTHING I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN, which is a restatement of many lessons already learned by the ancient Egyptians, who also published (in hieroglyphics, of course) similar works. Therefore it should not surprise us that collections of "wisdom" would find their way into the scriptures. In the Old Testament, the books of Sirach, Proverbs, Wisdom ,and Ecclesiastes are examples. The first scriptures for today and the next two days are drawn from the Book of Proverbs.
Wisdom and truth come ultimately from God, but sometimes they are mediated to us from persons who seem to be extraordinarily endowed with the knowledge of wisdom and truth. In the Old Testament, Solomon was considered such a figure. The Book of Proverbs is composed of several "collections" of sayings, some of which are attributed to Solomon, but this can neither be proved nor disproved. What is important is that we recognize that God can speak to us in the way of popular wisdom like the Golden Rule!
The verses I have highlighted above would resonate well in our American culture where we so often use the expression, "I have a right to.....!" However, the motivation here should be the recognition of another's need that simply comes from the fact of their being a fellow human. Consider Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan in the Gospel of Luke! The victim of the robbers does not call out for help. The Samaritan recognizes that he must respond to a fellow human! The "rights" of human dignity have a claim on us all. Too often in our culture we think of "rights" as legal obligations. Our faith, and the wisdom enshrined in the Book of Proverbs, tells us we must do more than respond "legally." We must respond out of love for one another. AMEN
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