The Source of Wisdom
"The word of God makes us change our concept of realism: the realist is the one who recognizes in the word of God the foundation of all things." (Verbum Domini)
Have you ever been in a place where all light was obscured? It is disconcerting isn't it? I've experienced this disconcerting darkness on a moonless summer night, walking on an unlit Colorado dirt road. The majestic evergreens and the sandstone rock formations obscured all real and all ambient light, creating a black cavern of uncertainty. We could not see where the dirt roadside ended and the steep sides of the perilous ditch began. Consequently, progress was slow as we carefully walked along feeling with our feet for the road's edge. For the person without wisdom, life is equally as perilous and confusing. As one progresses through life the absence of wisdom, God's light on our human darkness, quickly magnifies the dangers and confusion.
By contrast the presence of God's light makes even the darkest hours light. On another occasion at 3:00 a.m. on a Colorado mountainside, some 11,000 feet in elevation, all darkness was dispelled by the large, brilliant, illuminating full moon. Though we were in the deepest hours of night's darkness, this heavenly light was so illuminating that we could have literally read a book without difficulty. This too is a good analogy about God's wisdom. When we are immersed in situations that normally would be dark and confusing, the heavenly presence of God's wisdom, dispels the darkness, and enlightens our path.
These two contrasting analogies are not an overstatement, or an over-simplification of the value of wisdom. Though wisdom doesn't enable a person to escape the difficulties and challenges of life, wisdom does enable us to make sense of the seemingly senseless, and provides enlightening direction when choices must be made. On the other hand a foolish person, one who does not avail himself of God's wisdom, suffers both confusion and the consequences of bumbling responses to life's choices, made without light.
Where does one get wisdom? It comes from dwelling in the presence of Wisdom. Saint Cyprian explains it well, "The commands of the Gospel are nothing else than God's lessons, the foundations on which to build hope, the support for strengthening faith, the food that nourishes the heart. They are the rudder for keeping us on the right course, the protection that keeps our salvation secure. As they instruct the receptive minds of believers on earth, they lead safely to the Kingdom of God."
We make ourselves available to soak in, and absorb wisdom as we make ourselves available to the Holy Spirit through sacred Scripture, and to wisdom which come through godly people. Insight becomes second nature, as we become "partakers of the divine nature," (2 Peter 1:3-4) through knowledge of Jesus, and as we learn from God's truth and see life from God's perspective. St. James says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all men generously and without reproaching, and it will be given him."
