30 May 2015 - having all sweetness within

We should seek wisdom from our youth until the end. It is not a trivial thing. It is not something which is meant to be left for sages on Himalayan mountain tops with no bearing on daily life.

Wisdom can be the delight of our hearts. Most of us, too used to finding delights in sensual pleasures, find this implausible. Wine, women and song seem like delights to be sure. We are content to leave wisdom hidden in the obscure tombs where we assume it resides.

Yet without wisdom all of other things can quickly lose their savor. Too much of a good thing can become distasteful. Too little of goods we should have leave us empty and longing. Only wisdom can keep our feet "to the level path".

This is how the precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart. Wisdom really can be sweeter than honey because it is the sweetness it the core of all pleasure. It enlightens the eyes to see where this true pleasure is found. Unlike the worlds ideas about pleasure this sweetness endures forever because it is rooted in God and his design.

Fair enough. But what is it? How do we find it? Are we off to distant mountains after all?

No. It is the simple who find wisdom. They find it by trusting in the precepts and law of the Lord to refresh them. At it's core, wisdom is the ability to answer the question of whether something is "of heavenly or of human origin" It is the ability to recognize the "authority" of Jesus. When we recognize this we trust in his commands and allow him freedom to do what he wants in our lives. We don't rebel. We don't ask, "By what authority are you doing these things?" Instead we come to Jesus with simply trust. He speaks with an authority which we can hear. "For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes" (cf. Mat. 7:29). We realize that “No one ever spoke like this man" (cf. Joh. 7:46) and so we submit ourselves to these words. Here is the wisdom we need. In the word of Jesus and in his Body we find "all sweetness within" just as we sing in adoration.

Let us taste this sweetness! Let our hearts rejoice in it!