God’s Law, NOT Human Laws, lead to Wisdom!
Wisdom 2:12, 17-20; James 3:16-4:3; Mark 9:30-37
In the West, for traveling purposes, GPS is a useful tool to have: it helps one to navigate one’s path. A humanly built machine circumvents the guidance of other human beings for directions, which is considered a dependence on other human beings, but increases individualism, called independence from others. A choice is made for a machine over human beings because human beings have abdicated from helping other human beings because it is now considered a discomfort! This is the death of the society – each person for themselves and God for us all! What an irony: GPS is a human invention, but human beings believe they are independent of each other and not realized that they are the creator and not slaves of GPS!
The book of Wisdom, our first reading, presents life as a communal journey which needs its own guide/GPS – Wisdom. It grapples with the question of the meaning of Wisdom – is Wisdom human customs and traditions or the Torah (the Law of God)? The just man is the subject of attack because “he reproaches us [the unjust] for transgressions of the Torah [God’s Law]” (Wisdom 2:12). This is a polarized society, one group (unjust) invent their own guide for life – GPS, the other (just) has God’s Law as its guide. The decider of where Wisdom is located is the weapon of the unjust – capital punishment meted out to the just-one; why? because he claims that another life awaits him – “according to his words, God will take care of him” (Wisdom 2:20). What an irony – the killer of the just-one does not realize that he will also die some day!
On the one hand, Jesus justifies the destiny and claim of the just-one (first reading) when he says: “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again” (Mar 9:31): death is only a step towards a resurrection – dying to rise again. The disciples of Jesus, on the other hand, prefer the glamour (GPS) of life to the discourse on death and resurrection – “for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest” (Mar 9:34).
A preoccupation with earthly glory blinds one to true Wisdom – God’s Law! That was the case in the first reading, the commandments of God were so inconveniencing that it was better to eliminate the keepers of God’s commandments the just-one. It is certainly the case in the gospel, Jesus’ disciples worried more about greatness instead of God’s will for their lives. James, in the second reading, provides us with a silver bullet, a recipe for social ills – “Wisdom” as God’s Law!
“For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind” (Jam 3:16). The rejection of Wisdom – God’s Law – is the origin of all evils. Disdain for God’s commandments offer the devil a fertile ground to breed evil, not only in human hearts but in the society as well: “[t]hose conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel” (James 4:1-2).
This week’s readings challenge us to bring back God’s Wisdom to our society. Kim Davis of Kentucky, United States, must not be allowed to remain the lone voice that stands up for Wisdom. Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary must not be silenced! The havoc wrecked by the unjust (first reading) will eventually ask for your head and mine: we already see it in legal abortions, divorces, euthanasia, same-sex unions, economic wars, etc. No one knows which laws will be passed tomorrow, but your courage and mine can bring some sanity to our world! According to St. James, “[s]uch [legal] wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish” (James 3:15). Here is what we gain when God’s Law reigns supreme: “the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy” (James 3:17).
Assignment for the Week
Can you stand up for your faith, even if your head is asked for this week? Maybe a simple sign of the cross in public? Refraining from swearing for the week? Give up pornography and substance for the week? Make God’s Wisdom real in some way this week!