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| WISDOM: GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. Image from catholica.com.au via google.com |
Wisdom is considered the perfection of faith and the highest of all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Where faith is a simple knowledge of the articles of Christian belief, wisdom goes on to a certain divine penetration of the truths themselves.(1) Wisdom helps us focus on God and the things of God for by detaching us from the world, makes us relish and love only the things of heaven.(2) Through wisdom, we judge the things of the world in light of the highest end of man - the contemplation of God.(3)
Wisdom, though it helps us focus on God and the things of God by detaching us from the world, does not take us out of the world. Even the Lord Jesus Christ did not ask the Father that we may be taken out of the world; rather, He prayed that we may get the necessary helps in order to transform the world [see John 17: 11, 15-19]. This transformation of the world can only be through the Holy Spirit and His gifts [see John 14:26; 16: 8-11; Acts 2]. With the gift of Wisdom, the Holy Spirit leads us to the proper ordering of the material and spiritual worlds so that we can more easily bear the burdens of this life and respond to our fellow man with charity and patience.(4) Therefore, even while still in the world, our minds and hearts are already joyfully set towards that hopeful expectation of that blissful union with the Father in heaven.
Through wisdom, we see the world in a completely different light already and consider it as a mere instrument in attaining perfection in accordance with the will of the Father. Because of this, we can fully accept and live out the virtue of simplicity for we already know that our lives are not only meant to be lived here in the world but are destined to a better dwelling place, which is the Father's house [see John 14: 2-3]. A person who has wisdom lives in full simplicity because wisdom enlightens him or her that the things of the world are merely burdens that weigh heavily against the soul.
With the help of wisdom, we can also understand more the Lord's admonition to seek first the kingdom of God [see Matthew 6:33]. For wisdom will lead us to the realization that only by acknowledging God first in our lives and in everything we say, think or do, that we can successfully transform not only ourselves but the community that we belong to. When that transformation takes place, there would be a lot of changes within one's self in particular and in the society in general.
Let us then pray for openness that the Holy Spirit may infuse in us this gift of wisdom that we may live in simplicity some more and see that there are may things in this life that we allocate to ourselves unnecessarily to the detriment of others who need them more than we do.
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