We are life-long learners in our faith

August 20, 2006 -- 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Bishop Robert Morneau

	Bishop Robert Morneau
	Questions for reflection: 1. What wisdom do you have to share with others? 2. Who are the sages who have enriched your life? 3. In what sense is Jesus the wisdom and the power of God?

I asked five-year-old Jackson what he thought of the documentary, "March of the Penguins." His terse reply: "Some didn't make it!" Some of the penguins going to and from their breeding grounds perished in the harsh weather or from predators. Five-year-old wisdom. Young Jackson has a native intelligence and already understands some aspects of the condition of being a creature. Some of us don't make it because of adverse circumstances. Life can be difficult, even cruel. Life is also filled with blessings and graces. Many of the penguins did make it.

Wisdom and foolishness! Knowledge and ignorance! Understanding and incomprehension! In some areas of our lives we are smart and insightful; in other areas, we are dumber than doornails. We just don't get it. That is why we are called to be life-long learners, not only in matters of our world but also in matters of our faith. We are called to seek wisdom and understanding every day through prayer, study, and conversations with those who have a wealth of experience.

The Eucharist for us is a source of great wisdom. In today's Gospel, we hear about a food and drink that leads to eternal life. Wise are those who participate in the life of Jesus through sacramental signs and actions. Wise are those who realize that life is so much more than hamburgers and French fries, more than Bud Light and popcorn, more than money in the bank and a new sports car. Gospel wisdom helps us to know and understand that it is in experiencing God's consuming love manifest in Jesus that we find that deep peace and joy that the world cannot give. It is experiencing this divine Love that fills our holy longing.

St. Paul was a wise apostle. He instructs us that we do God's will by being filled with the Holy Spirit and giving thanks always and everywhere to the Lord. By contrast, if we are filled to the point of drunkenness with wine we must realize that debauchery is right around the corner. So we are to watch carefully how we live and how we work, how we eat and how we drink, how we earn and spend our money. Two choices are always before us: wisdom and foolishness - to live well or to live stupidly.

In the book of Proverbs, wisdom is described as a house. But it is more than a building filled with books and tapes and maps. This house, this structure of wisdom, has a table at which the meat and wine consumed enriches the mind and softens the heart. It is in this house that we are taught simplicity, that is, to know what is the one thing that is necessary on this human journey. To understand this is to participate in the wisdom of God.

Douglas V. Steere was a wise man. This Quaker philosopher and writer gives a magnificent overview of the Christian life and what is involved in the call to sanctity. Listen attentively to these wise words: "The life of sanctity is a mad response to the intiative of the mad love of God that has come into realization that God holds it in the utter consuming, transforming, and energizing irradiation of His costly love" (cf. On Beginning From Within, p. 17).

(Bp. Morneau is the auxiliary bishop of the Green Bay Diocese and pastor of Resurrection Parish in Allouez.)