“To whom has wisdom been revealed?” This is a rhetorical question posed in our first reading from the Book of Sirach. In its original context, the answer to this question was “No one.”
Jesus Christ is the full revelation of God’s wisdom. Not only that, but through the working of the Holy Spirit, we can grasp God’s wisdom ever more fully but never completely. In and through Christ Jesus, God has lavished wisdom on us.
Just as one can study philosophy and not be a lover of wisdom, one can have access to God’s wisdom revealed in and through Jesus and not be truly wise or even any the wiser. There is a big difference between knowing all about someone and actually knowing the person. Knowing about Jesus rather than knowing him is what happens when one takes a merely academic approach to the scriptures.
This is in no way to denigrate the tremendous benefits that arise from studying God’s word methodologically. We certainly must resist the temptation, ever present in American Christianity, to become anti-intellectual regarding our faith.
Anyone acquainted with the scriptures knows that God’s wisdom is not the wisdom of the world. In fact, divine wisdom often contradicts worldly wisdom. For example, we like to imagine that material abundance is the result of God’s blessing and a sign of God’s pleasure with the one who lives an easy and comfortable life.
Jesus, who is the wisdom of God personified, makes it clear, especially in the synoptic Gospels, of which the Gospel of Mark is one, that such wealth cannot save you and, in many instances, it presents the biggest obstacle to salvation. To give just one example, consider the response of the rich young man to Jesus’ call to renounce everything and follow him. This man “went away sad, for he had many possessions.”1 Seeing him turn away, Jesus remarked: “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”2
In the arithmetic of God’s kingdom Jesus+Nothing=Everything. To grasp this, to experience this, is to possess true wisdom.
Our Gospel this evening also shows us the audacious and often unbelievable nature of God’s wisdom. Divine wisdom is revealed in Christ as compassion and concern. Coming down from Mount Tabor with Peter, James, and John, where, after being transfigured and appearing alongside Moses and Elijah, he was again reaffirmed as the Father’s “beloved son,” and his three companions were told- “Listen to him,” Jesus walked into a dispute.3
This dispute was over the inability of Jesus’ disciples to heal the young man who seemed hellbent on self-destruction. Responding with what seems to be a bit of impatience, the Lord has the boy brought to him. Jesus then witnesses for himself the disturbing symptoms of boy's affliction.
After telling Jesus, in response to his question, that this has been a lifelong malady, the young man’s panicked padre says- “But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” It seems at that moment, Jesus shifts from impatience to annoyance. (One of the most salient features of Mark’s Gospel, which is the earliest written Gospel, is how the inspired author brings the Lord’s humanity into full view). Jesus’s first words spoken in response to the father’s plea indicate this: “If you can!” What he means by this is revealed in what he says next: “Everything is possible to the one who has faith.”
Jesus, it seems, is saying something like “Of course, I can do something! It’s clear you don’t know who you are asking. Do you believe I can help your son?” I can only imagine how the Lord’s slight annoyance melted into compassion upon hearing the honest and sincere reply of this worry-wearied and desperate dad: “I do believe, help my unbelief!”
It wasn’t only the seemingly possessed young man who needed Jesus’ help. His father did, along with all who were there disputing, including Jesus’ ineffective disciples. Of course, this extends to you and me. We need the Lord’s help to believe in him, to trust that he is the Father’s beloved Son to whom we should listen, who we should follow and obey.
In the end, Jesus exhorts those present to pray. Through prayer, your faith will not remain infantile or pagan; a pseudo-faith that believes when things are going great the Lord is pleased, and when things aren't going so well believing he is displeased or, worse yet, that he isn’t who he says he is and, therefore, unable or unwilling to do something. Prayer, the foundation of spiritual life, is the catalyst of faith.
It is through prayer that you come to know Jesus Christ and not just about him. Prayer, because it is “communion with God,” observed Romano Guardini, “is the most fundamental expression of faith.”4 Praying is an act of faith through which we seek help for our unbelief.
Far from being contrary to faith, doubt is an essential ingredient. It is a grave error to reduce faith to mere belief. When your belief flags, it is wise, like the desperate dad, to keep asking Jesus. Prayer is an act of faith in the One who is eager to have compassion on you and to help you in your need.
1 See Mark 10:17-31.↩
2 Mark 10:23.↩
3 See Mark 9:28.↩
4 Romano Guardini, The Art of Praying: The Principles and Methods of Christian Prayer (Manchester: Sophia Institute), 7.↩
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