Mysterious Wisdom

" Brothers and sisters: We speak a wisdom to those who are mature, not a wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away. Rather, we speak God's wisdom, mysterious, hidden, which God predetermined before the ages for our glory, and which none of the rulers of this age knew; for, if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
But as it is written: What eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love Him, this God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God." --[1 Corinthians 2: 6-10].


We believe we are so advanced, so very wise today. We no longer read books crafted of wood pulp, by the dim luminescence of candlelight. We read by the dim blue light of an electronic tablet.

We no longer shoot to kill with a single bullet. We can murder many more human beings with an automatic weapon. Or a nuclear bomb. Our bombs don't just drop out of a plane; how very
"World War I" of us to constrict ourselves to that. No, our guided- missiles fly through the air by themselves. Our soldiers do not even have to be physically present on a battlefield, since they can kill with a remote control drone.

We are not even sure of what the Truth is any longer. Now that we have the Internet, and all ordinary citizens are now their own Truth-crafters, (who get paid by the click),  "the Truth" is whatever sells.

We think we are so very wise, with our cable TV shows featuring "pundits" and "experts". But, as book reviewer Daniel Johnson points out, [on "Public Intellectuals in the Global Arena", by Michael C. Desch], "the members of this self-appointed club seem to have learned nothing from the failure to predict the collapse of communism or make sense of its aftermath. They didn't 't see 9/11 coming, nor the 2008 financial crash, nor the Arab Spring. In the past two years they missed the emergence of Islamic State, Russia's annexation of Crimea, and, most recently, Brexit and the victory of Donald Trump." -[NYT 12/21/16].

This kind of "wisdom of punditry" is exactly what St. Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians -- "a wisdom of this age, of rulers of this age who are passing away."  Our modern wise men are so very often completely wrong, and ultimately fail us even in their passing.

In 1963, when Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote "Strength to Love, he spoke of how humankind worships color television, the airplane, electric lights and rocket ships. I would say, today, that we worship technology still; only the Things which we worship have changed-- the Internet, the smart phone, apps, and social media.

King said, "What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world of externals -- airplanes, electric lights, automobiles and color television -- and lose the internal-- the soul?"

And again, " Some gradually came to feel that God was an unnecessary item on the agenda of life. . .
We are tempted to feel that man is the true master of the physical universe." --[Strength to Love.]

Ultimately, "We may feel that we do not need God, but on the day when the storms of disappointment rage, the winds of disaster blow. . . if we do not have a deep and patient faith, our emotional lives will be wiped to shreds. There is so  much frustration in the world, because we have relied on gods, rather than God."

You see, I grew up in a childhood home where we "genuflected before the god of Science. . . the god of Pleasure. . . and before the god of Money." -[MLK]. In my childhood home, there was no God; and religion was called, "the opiate of the masses." These material gods brought only rivalry, bitterness, jealousy, anxiety, trauma, despair and depression. And when my family's mere human efforts failed, there was No One Else to lean on.

And so, what I seek is "God's wisdom, mysterious, hidden, and which none of the rulers of this age knew." Because no one can be wiser than God.

To build one's foundation on those things built by humankind-- by our faulty, frail, feeble human selves-- is to place one's Faith in all that is temporary and foolish.

What I seek instead is the Spirit, "for what God has prepared for those who love Him, this God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For, the Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God."

[Related Posting: "Prayer For Wisdom", 7/23/11; "Clinging to Human Rules", 9/4/12].

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