23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2016

Wisdom 9:13-18; Philemon 9-10, 12-17; Luke 14:25-33
The Cross: God’s Language of Wisdom!

A Buddhist monk once offered this idea to a young person solicitous of making good progress in spirituality: “start out early, travel light, arrive safely”. In a more expatiated form, a person who desires something has to start out early in search of the desired object. In order for the search to be successful, unnecessary encumbrances have to be avoided, this is the meaning of “traveling light.” Having begun early and traveling light, the wayfarer will arrive safely.

The advice given by the Buddhist monk shows that there is no culture and people devoid of wisdom! What may be unique about wisdom is the question: wisdom for what? For Christians, there is only one Wisdom – “Wisdom from above” (James 3:17): Wisdom from heaven to lead those on earth to heaven. This is the mission of our first reading and this Sunday’s message: “Who can know God’s counsel, or who can conceive what the Lord intends? For the deliberations of mortals are timid, and unsure are our plans” (Wisdom 9:13-14). True wisdom is the domain of God, we need to go to him to get it.

There are two sides to wisdom, according to our first reading: 1) Christian Wisdom is to get to know what the Lord intends for human life (Wisdom 9:13), in contradistinction to 2) what the human mind, with its limitations, conjures up as the meaning of and purpose for human existence (Wisdom 9:14). The book of Wisdom is particularly interested in refuting the erroneous thinking of those who refuse to believe that there is life beyond this planet earth (Wisdom 1-3); those who think that human beings are lords and masters of creation and their own destinies. On the contrary, human life on earth receives its meaning and purpose from the creator of all that exists, visible and invisible. How does human wisdom work?

Ali Bongo’s hijack of the people’s votes and the overturn of the election result in Gabon last Wednesday (September 31, 2016); the promises of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump for a better United States of America; the Eldorado existing exclusively in the head of president Buhari; these only show how human beings contrive and execute human wisdom without regard to God or his purposes for human beings; measured in accordance with the life and example of Jesus Christ, these political leaders score a zero grade, if grade it is! Closer home, the priorities families and individuals espouse have the trade marks of human political systems and economic theories; God remains a stranger in virtually every facet of contemporary society – no thanks to human wisdom!

Here is the problem militating against the acquisition of divine Wisdom: the human inability to seek the wisdom from above owes to the priority it gives to the body over the spirit or soul (Wisdom 9:15). Human theories and wisdom flow from a fundamental principle: what shall we eat? The wars and skirmishes around the world, the rivalry and political intrigues, the display of oratory and diplomacy, all boil down to control of economics and the subjugation of human beings to the enthronement of food or politics of the stomach. This is where human wisdom goes astray because “humans shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

The way out of the quagmire of human wisdom is God’s revelation of his Wisdom to human beings. This is the way our first reading puts it: “who ever knew your counsel, except you had given wisdom and sent your holy spirit from on high? And thus were the paths of those on earth made straight” (Wisdom 9:17-18). A “straight path” is the path of God’s Wisdom, the directives God has revealed as the exclusive way to heaven. God not only revealed the straight path to heaven, he also provided the Holy Spirit, like the accompanying voice to a GPS. Just read Wisdom 9:1-12, and you will see that everyone, especially leaders, need to pray for wisdom, divine Wisdom. This is imperative because God has a plan for both the rulers and the ruled, that plan of God needs to be pursued and sought after.

Make no mistake about it, human wisdom serves a good purpose: it is a harbinger for God’s Wisdom, it is supposed to be a participation in divine Wisdom. The admission of humanity’s limitations is the first step towards the acquisition of God’s Wisdom – praying for the gift of Wisdom. Failure to realize that whatever is done in the flesh will have a reckoning day before God distances human wisdom from God’s. The human reliance on wealth or the deification of material possessions, which today’s gospel speaks about, draws attention to the importance of the cross in a Christian’s life. The way of the cross is the way of God’s Wisdom. Jesus’ cross was predestined, he accepted it, and he is crowned in heaven for it. For those who want to earn heaven, they accept the Wisdom of God by making material success secondary to God’s plan for their lives. If God revealed the reality of heaven through his Son, who died on the cross and rose from the dead, all those who embrace their destinies, rosy or bitter, are on track to heaven.

St. Paul provides us with one way of accepting God’s Wisdom, not to say God’s will, for Christians: to be a Christian is to accept a new way of life. The fact that Paul sends Onesimus back to Philemon, in our second reading, underscores a new ethics or Christian way of life for Christians. A run away slave, Onesimus, bearing the cross of slavery, finds himself in the same prison as Paul of Tarsus. After his conversion, Paul sends him (Onesimus) back to his slave master, Philemon, with the instruction to Onesimus’ slave master to accept him as a brother, no longer as a slave. Paul was absolutely convinced about the power of love, forgiveness and reconciliation in a Christian’s life, a cross which Philemon and Onesimus had to carry jointly.

Contrary to sending Onesimus back into slavery, as some might think, changes will never take place without the human effort to work for and stand on the side of justice and peace; without the effort to concretize the lessons of the beatitudes, divisions will continue to be on the increase. The sending back of Onesimus is an opportune moment for both of them to reveal their Christianity through reconciliation. An example may help: sending a couple back into a strained relationship is not an encouragement of abuse, but an impetus that reconciliation is possible. The message of the cross is a call to work towards improving on the ills of the world, rather than worsen the situation. This is a message which says that some may have to put up with some injustices before a bad situation improves.

The cross of Christ was not rosy and sweet, but Christ endured it for the glory ahead – the potential for heaven for all good Christians. If we were to focus exclusively on the lives of bad people, one may consider Christ’s death for human salvation a waste. Thanks be to God, there are some on the path to eternal salvation, the grateful few, who do not allow the blood of Christ to be spilt in vain! The saints and martyrs, who have made it ahead of us to heaven, are an encouragement for the rest of us. Indeed, “in the same way, anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33).

Let’s start early to accept the language of the Cross, which is God’s Wisdom for our lives; let us reject the encumbrances of earthly pleasures and material quest, so we many travel light on the path of God’s Wisdom; then, we will surely arrive safely in the kingdom of heaven! You see, even a Buddhist piece of wisdom teaches good lessons in Christians’ quest for eternal life!

Assignment for the Week:

Try to see Christ in every inconveniencing person and situation all week long!