28th Sunday - Fr. Leo
Wisdom is the greatest of life's treasures. Wisdom brings us into the realm of God where we value and live for her goodness in our lives. In the Book of Wisdom today it starts, “I prayed, and prudence was given me; I pleaded, and the spirit of wisdom came to me. I preferred her to scepter and throne, and deemed riches noting in comparison with her.” “All good things came to me in her company and countless riches at her hands.
Jesus gives an example of lived wisdom in the gospel. A young man comes to him and asked what he needed to do be saved. Jesus says, follow the commandments, but when he says he has, Jesus invites him to the next level of discipleship. He asks him to give up everything that comes before Him.
At some level I think the young man knew there must be more to the spiritual life because he comes to Jesus wanting to know what more there is. He was not smug. However, the invitation to put Christ before all else saddens him.
Sadness is our first feeling when we come to see we need to change and move on. We would rather not. But, what living with Wisdom brings is priceless. So, we need to ask ourselves what we put before God? What we put before prayer? What we put before celebrating the sacraments in the Church?
The changes we sense need to be done little by little, but not put off forever. For then it never comes, and there are people who come to the end of their lives with out the loving assurance that they are in the hands of God.
Let us pray for Wisdom and the inspiration to seek Wisdom in all things that we might live in the fullness of the Holy Spirit!