(Audio)
The Pharisees are blind guides. Jesus and those to whom he reveals the Father are the only ones who know the Father. Everyone else who tries to offer spiritual guidance is a blind person leading others who are blind, at least to some degree.
Woe to you, blind guides, who say,
'If one swears by the temple, it means nothing,
but if one swears by the gold of the temple, one is obligated.'
Left to our own devices even legitimate earthly wisdom becomes twisted and values inverted in such a way as to actually take us further from the Kingdom. We need Jesus to come and reveal the Father to us and show us his priority and the centrality of love.
One who swears by the altar swears by it and all that is upon it;
one who swears by the temple swears by it
and by him who dwells in it;
one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God
and by him who is seated on it.
Jesus brings a revelation that is different than some sort of scholarly work arrived at by study and logical demonstrations.
For our Gospel did not come to you in word alone,
but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction.
The revelation Jesus brings is not something we would have guessed based on human philosophy. In fact, philosophy seemed to do little more than puff up our pride, giving us a false sense of understanding and control.
Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe (see First Corinthians 1:20-22).
Only once we turn from idols to serve the living and true God can we see the world in its proper order. Only then can we understand a new and heavenly kind of wisdom.
Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away (see First Corinthians 2:6).
The Church countenances enough of the philosophy of Aristotle via Thomas Aquinas so as to show us that those who truly sought wisdom often penetrated very deeply into the order of God's creation and even gained a shadowy sense of God himself. Only by willingness to lay aside idolatry could this wisdom be found. So too in our day. Only with God as first in our hearts can we use it without hurting ourselves. And this is not intuitive. It seems like we could just argue and deduce. But without God first in our hearts, without prayer sanctifying every thought, we are the blind leading the blind.
Sing to the LORD a new song
of praise in the assembly of the faithful.
Let Israel be glad in their maker,
let the children of Zion rejoice in their king.
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