One Sunday I almost lost my students’ attention teaching them that wisdom enhances our ability to make decisions, directs us towards lasting success and equips us to overcome failure, while helping us grow in community. Fair enough! Children don’t want to hear how wisdom articulates the principles of living. These ideas are too abstract for them. They don’t appreciate that wisdom cultivates sound reasoning by encouraging discipline, that it helps people live in harmony and be closer to God. Kids understand that being wise is better than being foolish, but for them wisdom is best learnt from adult behaviour: copying role models, rather than being lectured. We should remember that our children are always ‘listening’ to our behaviour and ‘watching’ our choices – whether we put into practice what we preach or not. Teaching wisdom requires that parents exercise their will in adherence to Truth and that we do it with conviction.
Children happily remember how God appeared to King Solomon in a dream and offered to make one wish come true. Instead of asking for all the gold in the world (which incidentally would fill three Olympic-size swimming pools), Solomon, who was only in his twenties, wisely proclaimed: “Give your servant an understanding heart to judge your people and to know good and evil.” God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies, but for discernment in administering justice, I will do what you have asked!” While his shortcomings remain legendary, there is no denying the third king of Israel transformed a small tribal nation into an economic superpower. His enduring legacy was the establishment of a climate that allowed wisdom schools to take root and flourish, weaving the richness of his Hebrew heritage with the international traditions he embraced.
For students and managers, for employees and bosses, Solomon’s bequest remains most relevant today, as everyone struggles with judgment to improve life and attain happiness. Yes, wisdom is a prerequisite in everything, as she alone helps us make the right decisions in a fog of hesitation. We would do well to pray like Solomon for wisdom above other blessings, for she can guide through right relationships with others, towards interior peace and a joyful unity with the Almighty. However, wisdom remains a grace never fully attained, for desiring it requires ever more openness to God, while being humbly conscious of his greatness and goodness. To seek wisdom is to appreciate the entire human experience, trusting divine Sovereignty over everything, including our difficult existence. Finally, wisdom allows divine intuition to shape our thoughts, by transforming our mind and attuning it to the cosmic intelligence that sustains the universe.
From the book of Wisdom: “Wisdom I loved and searched for from my youth. I resolved to have her as my bride, I fell in love with her beauty. She enhances her noble birth by sharing God's life, for the Master of All has always loved her. Indeed, she shares the secrets of God's knowledge, and she chooses what he will do. If in this life wealth is a desirable possession, what is more wealthy than Wisdom whose work is everywhere? Or if it be the intellect that is at work, who, more than she, designs whatever exists? Or if it be uprightness you love, virtues are the fruit of her labours, since it is she who teaches temperance and prudence, justice and fortitude. Nothing in life is more useful for human beings. Or if you are eager for wide experience, she knows the past, she forecasts the future. She knows how to turn maxims and solve riddles. She has foreknowledge of signs and wonders, and of the unfolding of the ages and the times.”
