‘Wisdom is vindicated by all his children’

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

THAT was the conclusion Christ drew from what he told the men of his time. (cfr. Lk 7,31-35) “To what shall I compare the people of this generation?” he asked. “They are like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance. We sang a dirge, but you did not weep.’”

Then he continued: “For John the Baptist came neither eating food nor drinking wine, and you said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking and you said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’”

The same observation can also be found today. And it’s even a worse scenario. Instead of following the teaching of Christ and now of the Church, many are into flagrant self-indulgence, covered with all sorts of distractions, helplessly entrapped in worldly things. The things of God, the concern for eternal life, for a supernatural life, for sanctification, etc., are simply thrown out of the window.

Here, Christ defines what true wisdom is. It’s precisely in following the teachings and the ways of Christ. It’s not just knowing the Christ’s teachings, but rather in putting these teachings into practice.

We really need to declare an unrelenting war against our self-indulgence which has become a very formidable problem we all have. Yes, this has always been a problem to us, but these days it is much more so.

With the many new wonderful things that can instantly give us convenience, comfort, pleasure and satisfaction, many of us are trapped into the very sticky web of obsessions, addictions and the many other forms of self-indulgence that feed on our weaknesses, like lust, pride, conceit, gluttony, unhinged curiosities, envy, etc., etc.

We just have to give a cursory look around to see how bad this problem is. Many people are just looking at their cellphones most of the time. There are reports saying that many young people often forget their meals and lose sleep because of what they do in the Internet. It’s clear they are terribly hooked there and it seems it’s now next to the impossible to get them out of there.

As a result, many duties and responsibilities are left unattended. Disorder and chaos are fast gaining ground as priorities are skewed. Superficiality has now become a mainstream lifestyle, reinforcing the trend toward consumerism, materialism where ethical and moral considerations are ignored or even flouted, i.e., regarded with contempt.

Yes, many people are now living in their own world, detached from the realities of life. Their spiritual and social life, their relation with God and with others are now all but non-existent. At best, they give only appearances of these unavoidable aspects of life, enough to meet at least certain external expectations.

Our sanctification should be a constant concern of ours. For this, we just have to see to it that everything in our life—our work, for example—should have as its main purpose the achievement of holiness, and not just the fulfillment of some technical requirements and the attainment of some worldly goals, no matter how legitimate they are.

And the secret is always to do everything with Christ and for the glory of God. We should not just do anything with our own intention and on our own effort alone, because such way of doing things negates the plan that God, our Father and Creator, has for us. We should be guarded always against this strong tendency of ours to do things simply on our own.

This is how we can have true wisdom!

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com