Our Ignorance & God’s Wisdom

This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable.  It has not been verified by the author.

“The reasoning of mortals is worthless, and our designs are likely to fail.” That’s my encouraging message from scripture for this week, from the Word of God. So just give up, basically, right? The reasoning of mortals is worthless, and our designs are likely to fail. So, I think this passage, this is from our first reading, the Book of Wisdom is especially important right now. And it’s a good follow up from what we were talking about last week. So, it’s presented as Solomon, the young Solomon, a young man who is now facing great responsibilities, and he’s feeling overwhelmed. He’s unprepared for these responsibilities of being the king. And so, this is especially a good message for all young people, as you enter into the responsibilities of adulthood, but it’s also for all of us, because all of us face a lot of responsibilities and decisions. So, let’s look a little bit at this passage, which, again, I think it’s so important for our situation today. It starts by saying, “what man can learn the counsel of God?” What man can learn the counsels of God, or “who can discern what the Lord wills?” Remember what the Lord said through Isaiah, “as high as the heavens are above the earth, so are God’s ways above our ways.”  So, this goes on, “the reasoning of mortals is worthless, and our designs are likely to fail.” The key word there is our designs; if they’re ours, they’re likely to fail. “For a perishable body weighs down the soul, and this earthly tent burdens the mind that has many concerns.” And we have a body, and so that weighs down upon us. It makes us sleepy, like a priest is giving a long homily, and you start to feel sleepy and so forth. That’s you can’t help it. We can hardly guess at what is on earth and what is at hand we find with labor. So, let’s just take one example, our own bodies. We’ve been living with our own bodies for a long time, right? And still, our own bodies are so mysterious, and modern science shows us more and more how mysterious our own bodies are. And so that’s just for our own bodies that are so close to us that we have so much experience of this already, so much that is beyond this, just in our bodies. But then this goes on, “but who has traced out what is in the heavens and who has learned God?” It says,” who has learned your counsel?” So, this is talking about how far beyond us are the ways, the counsels of God, and so this is a strong message of humility for us. And I would also say to be aware, because there’s so many voices in our world, be aware of voices which are not humble, even voices in the Church, if they’re not humble. So, it says, “who has learned your counsel,” and but then it says, “unless,” and this is the key point, “unless you have given wisdom and sent your Holy Spirit from on high.” So, if it’s just us with our own human abilities, our own human capacities, our own human resources, God’s ways are so far beyond them that they’re impossible for us to know unless God gives – So, it doesn’t say we get, we earn, we achieve, it says God gives. It has to be a gift from God. It says, “unless you have given wisdom and sent your Holy Spirit from on high, given us His wisdom, given us His Holy Spirit.” Given us the gift of wisdom, the gift of wisdom, and then it goes on. “And thus, the paths of those on earth were set right, and men were taught what pleases you, and were saved by wisdom, divine wisdom.” And so, the only way for us to know what is right, to follow the path of salvation, to be saved, is not by our own achievements, but it’s by humbly recognizing our ignorance and receiving the gift of God – His wisdom. And so, this is not rejecting the gift of the intelligence that God has given us, or our ability to reason. when it’s used properly. The Church has great saints who are an example of that, especially a saint like Saint Thomas Aquinas. And Saint Thomas Aquinas actually leaned very heavily on a Greek philosopher, a pagan philosopher, Aristotle. And so, we should thank the Lord for our intelligence and use it properly. But it’s calling us to humbly recognize the limits of our intelligence and of our reason and how much we need God’s guidance and wisdom. And St Paul says that Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God, and this is very liberating to acknowledge our ignorance faced with the divine mysteries. And so just to give a few examples, that the example of Jesus Himself. Most of the religious experts and authorities rejected Him and condemned Him because they were so proud and conceited, arrogant in their own knowledge. They had studied scripture a lot, but they were too proud to really understand it, and they rejected the Son of God when He came. Or think of that, the mystery that we all experience of death, which to humans, seems just like the terrible end, so sad and final. But Jesus reveals that for those who trust in Him, it becomes the passage into glory and liberation. Or the mystery of this very Eucharist that we’re about to celebrate, which to humanize, is so miserable. It’s just a little piece of a little piece of bread and some wine with just some guy. But that faith reveals that when it’s celebrated with faith, it becomes the body and blood of God Himself, our Lord Himself. And one more example, the mystery of the very times that we’re living right now, where there’s so much evil, so much deception, so much hidden evil, and yet God has His own designs which are infinitely greater.  And that’s why you know, that the messages that the Lord has been giving us, and also so many other prophetic messages in our time and In the history of the Church helped reveal to us in the very times that we’re living, not in 1000s of years ago, but what’s going on right now that we are a part of. This is not something that happened with the Israelites in the desert. This is not something that happened in Holy Land 2000 years ago. This is right now. So much that is confusing, so much that is hard to know, because also there’s also so much deception and manipulation. We have this whole industry, even so much of the entertainment industry, so much of the, we could call it the education industry. So much of the news industry should be called the deception and manipulation industry, which has been affecting all of us. And so, it’s very hard to know what’s going on, what’s really going on. Where are things really leading? But the prophetic messages show us that, yes, there’s great evil, much more evil than we realize, because evil tries to hide itself. But much greater than that are the mysterious designs of God, the mysterious designs of God that we are called to be part of right now. And I think that that’s what the messages are helping us to understand. There’s so many experts chattering away, filling podcasts and newscasts and all this stuff, but only God knows what is really happening. But this reading says, “But God can reveal it.” Only He knows, but He wants to reveal it, but He only reveals it to those who are humble and listening. So let me take one concrete example that we all live through, the example of covid. Do you remember covid? That wasn’t too long ago, right? And there’s more and more evidence of so much deception, so many evil plans that were behind so much of covid and many of the pastors of the Church were not great examples. Francis said something, I don’t remember the exact words, but something like it would be suicidal not to take the vaccine. So, I don’t know what the scientific accomplishments are of Francis, but he’s using his authority to say it is suicidal. That’s pretty serious, right? That’s pretty serious to do something suicidal, to not take the vaccine. So, I think there’s been a lot, as I say, there’s more and more evidence, evidence which has often been suppressed, but more and more evidence coming out of so much deception, and the evil one is using this to create, cause great harm. For instance, people not able to see their loved ones as they were dying. So much harm that was done. And yet, even there, even in that, beyond the plans of evil, there are much more, the mysterious plans of God, the mysterious designs of God, God who doesn’t will evil, but a God who is so great that even the designs of evil cannot escape Him. And so, I wanted to share with you. This was a message that the Lord gave during covid. So, this was given September 18, 2020, given to the Amici Christi, our little lay branch of Amici Christi. And so it’s kind of a long message. I thought, well, should I cut parts out? But I thought, well, now it’s hard to cut anything out, and so I won’t, I won’t really give a commentary. I’ll just read the message. And that’s, you know, this homily is recorded, because that way, if you want, you can go back and listen to it again. But it’s, I think it’s a very good example of both the evil working in our world, but much more deeply, the designs, the mysterious designs of God, which are beyond our human perception. So, it starts, “My children, friends of My heart, I bless you. I see you as My littlest children, held tightly against My chest, against My heart, moving Me to the depths of tenderness. How much I love you, but I also see you as My warriors, and as such, I must form you. A very grueling, intense, painful formation necessary for you to be ready and useful in My plan. I see your hearts full of fear, confusion, sadness, even depression, as you see so much of your world begin to crumble. You feel abandoned by Me, perhaps even betrayed by Me. Where are you? How can you let this happen?” And here Sister added a footnote. She said, “I think that this refers not only to what we feel when we see everything happening around us and feeling His absence in the world, but also in what we see happening within ourselves and how often we can feel left alone by Him. Feeling like we are losing it, and He doesn’t see or doesn’t seem to care.” So that’s the footnote, and the message continues. “And My children, this is just the beginning of what must come to pass. I have so much I wish to say to you, for you are My friends, and I bring you into My plans.” He’s wanting to bring us into His plans. “That as you share with Me the knowledge, the pain, so also you may share the grace and the triumph. Think of what you have experienced in the past months of covid, being bereft of so much that you were used to receiving through My Church – good things, even holy things, but that I have allowed to be taken away from you.” Notice He says I have allowed. He doesn’t say I have willed to be taken away from you, but He says I have allowed. God never wills evil, but He does permit it.  “But that I have allowed to be taken away from you,” and why? He says, “in order to form you in an even deeper, stronger faith in Me, absolute trust, absolute faith, absolute love.” And then it gives a simple example, “when a child begins to lose his baby teeth. What happens? The tooth gradually becomes looser and can no longer be chewed on, bit with, it is no longer strong enough, sturdy enough. Then the tooth falls out, leaving a gaping wound. There is no tooth, only a hole is left. How distressing, this could be, disastrous even, since even more teeth fall out, if the child did not know that a stronger, better tooth will grow in its place. This is but a simple image to describe. In part, what I do with you, what I must allow in order for your faith to grow into what I need. I allow you to lose” in quotation marks, “so much of what you understand of Me, of My ways. I take from you all those things on which you rely on spiritually that are secondary and that are not strong enough to support what you must carry. You are being built as fortresses. Your foundation must be solid rock. And what is this solid rock? Me, your Jesus. I am leading you, forming you in a faith in Me that goes beyond My words, beyond all that has been said of Me, about Me, beyond all human understanding, however holy it may be.” And here sister added another footnote. She says “this could seem problematic. How can we go beyond His words, if they are His words. I understood this to mean that He must take us beyond all our human understanding, even of what we know about Him, what we think we understand His words to mean, stripping us down to the absolute essence, His person. A baby, cannot understand the words spoken to it, but can hold on to the person speaking them.” That’s the end of the footnote. “I lead you beyond all this to the very foundations of all that is, the divine mystery so infinite that not even the smallest particle can be contained by human understanding. I lead you to not only the tree of life, but to the very depths of its roots and to the rock which sustains it, holding it in place so that nothing may blow it down. I know My children, you cannot understand all that I say.” So, this is very important. We can’t understand all that. But He says. Then He says, “it is enough that you receive My words in your hearts and place your trust in Me. Your hand in mine, that you let Me guide you and arrange all things around you.” So, we don’t have to understand everything, just trust. “Do not be afraid. I am at work in and around you. You are mine, and I care for what is mine? You feel you are being stripped more and more. And this scares you, leaves you confused. It is in these moments, My little ones, that you must make an even deeper act of faith, deeper but simpler.” And here He’s going to give a very simple prayer, very practical prayer. So, this is a very good prayer to go back to. Here it is, “Jesus. I don’t understand anything, but you do. I trust in You. Jesus, I can’t do anything anymore, but you can. I trust in You. Jesus, I’m afraid, angry, confused. I don’t know what to do or think, but you know what must be done. You understand everything. I trust in You. Jesus, I feel lost. I only see darkness and turmoil, but you are my anchor, and you have my hand. I trust in You.” And He goes on then, “I want you to trust Me like this, My beloved, beyond all words, all feelings, beyond all understanding, beyond all security, you must believe you are firmly rooted in Me, despite feeling like you are anchored to nothing. Yes, My little ones, such a hard, painful training, but soon you will see its fruits. Soon you will see why I had to form you in such a way, and all this pain will turn into joy. Do not be afraid. Say, God knows why. I trust Him in all things, at all times. Yes, My children, there is much uncertainty all around you, in your country, in the Church, in your families, but all things pass, all things have their purpose. All things are allowed and as much as a greater good is obtained. Who is greater than God? Who is more powerful? No one My children, I am the victor. Always, do not forget this always. But My ways are mysterious, profound, so infinitely above your human thoughts, your ability to see and comprehend what happens around you that in your eyes, all is darkness and disaster. Yes, what is crumbling must fall down. What is rotten must be extirpated. What is poison must be taken away. And I am doing this. Do you begin to see why I must form you in this type of intrepid, absolute, seemingly desperate faith and trust. Why? The more you know, the less you understand. Do not be afraid. Do you think that in these months that you have been bereft of My sacrament, that I have left you without nourishment. My rivers of grace are multiple, capable of reaching every soul, no matter what human obstacle lies in its path. My children, you do not yet know all that your God has done, is doing, and will do for His little children. Have I not said to you, I am with you always? Has My mother not said to you, am I not here? I, who am your mother? Have no fear your Jesus loves you. God, all powerful, loves you. You are enfolded in the love of the divine mystery. Have no fear of anything. I am your rock. What is taking place must take place. It shall pass away. My love and My victory will remain. They remain now your sure refuge, your steadfast hope. My children, do not be alarmed at what you see happening in you and around you. Look at Me. Lift up your heads and look at Me. In the midst of the battle, one does not feel peace and joy, but fear, anger, exhaustion, confusion, because the battle rages as a hurricane around you, but you are fighting and I am winning,” And then it concludes with a blessing. So just before this final blessing. So, there’s, of course, a lot in this message, and so as I say, it might be even helpful to go back and listen to it again if you want. You could even write it out as a way of remembering it, especially the passages that are very helpful to you. So, here’s the final blessing. “I bless you My children and My soldiers, you are mine. Your families are mine. All that you are is mine. I surround you. Have no fear. I bless you with the sign of My cross and victory, the infinite sign of the perfect abandonment to the will of the Father. I Your Jesus, bless you, and I the Most Holy Spirit of God, your friend, bless you. And I your father who loves you infinitely bless you, and thank you for your love, your trust and your cry for Me to come.” Amen.

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Wisdom 9:13-18
Philemon 9-10, 12-17
Luke 14:25-33