Word to the Wise
Monday, September 22, 2014 - 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." [Prov.]
In the first scriptures for this week, we move from the high intensity words of St. Paul to the calm practical Old Testament waters of the Wisdom literature - specifically, the Book of Proverbs. There we find what seems to be a long list of "sayings" that are the result of centuries of living! Indeed, the ancient Egyptian culture and other Middle-Eastern cultures had similar literature. We are no different and many of us could think of Benjamin Franklin and his Almanac with its "sayings."
The wisdom in today's passage should be clear to us as a matter of obligation and charity! Perhaps we might rephrase it in our day by saying, "If you owe it, pay it, and don't delay it." However, that could trivialize an important matter of practical justice. The person who loaned the resource may have loaned out of the last of his or her resources and may desperately need the repayment.
In the New Testament, Jesus' teachings often include the wisdom of the Old, especially in the Sermon on the Mount [and in Luke, the Sermon on the Plain]. God's Word speaks to us from every page. Are we open to Wisdom? AMEN
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