RBWords

     Once I was invited to speak  to a class of grade school children in third or fourth grade on the subject of "wisdom."  I felt fairly confident of myself and started off by asking the group, "Who can tell me what wisdom is?"  A forest of hands went up.  I picked one child in the front row and asked, "What is wisdom?"  The response came: "Knowledge gained from experience!!!!!!"  That took the wind out of MY sails and taught me a valuable lesson about where Wisdom may be found! I have often been moved by Solomon's famous prayer for Wisdom (1 Kings 3:9) and God's response.  So I pray daily for Wisdom and I pray I will not, like Solomon, lose sight of it as I grow older.  If Wisdom can make "friends of God and prophets," I want to be in that number!

     The words of that child can provide us with "wisdom."  Knowledge gained from experience comes from reflection on that experience.  The image of Mary in the Gospel of Luke (2:51) as a disciple who takes things to heart and ponders them is a good model.  A recent commercial has the line, "Life comes at you fast!" and at the end of the day, many of us honestly cannot recall what happened that day because it is like a blur!  One of the four "questions" that I mentioned recently (How am I praying?  How am I learning? How am I loving? How am I serving?), e.g. HOW AM I LEARNING? can help us each day to look for the presence of Wisdom.  It may be a practical thing like a friend who can teach me how to use my laptop more wisely, or a child pointing out something beautiful that my busy mind may overlook!  Often the response that I find for a particular pastoral problem that presents itself comes to me and I wonder how I "knew" that?  The Spirit of truth that Jesus promised to us in the Gospel of John (16:13) guides us in all those ways that the Book of Wisdom speaks of in today's scripture.  I hope we can all be open to that Spirit and become "friends of God and prophets."  AMEN