The essence of Wisdom! Homily for Saturday of the 8th week in ordinary time JUNE 2023

HOMILY FOR SATURDAY OF THE 8TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR 1

Sirach 51:12c-20b; Ps.19; Mark 11:27:33

The essence of Wisdom!

In the first reading, the speaker prayed for the gift of wisdom and expressed great joy and thanksgiving to God upon receiving the gift. The joy of the speaker is great because he knows the value of wisdom and that is why he earnestly sought for it. It is not enough to be zealous for the good. It is not enough to avoid sin and live a virtuous life. We need to be wise like the serpent even as we are gentle like doves.

In the gospel reading, we see wisdom at play in Jesus’ encounter with the Chief Priests and the Scribes and the elders. The question they put forward to Jesus (By what authority are you doing these things?) expressed their unbelief and at the same time, was a form of mockery on Jesus’ mission. Without wisdom, it could have been an occasion for emotional outburst from Jesus.

Sometimes, people throw some words at us not because they are ready for effective dialogue or clarification but because they want to provoke us into an impulse action or word which we may latter regret. If it so happens, they will be satisfied that they have caused you to soil your integrity. We need wisdom to confront evil so that we may always give the right response, in action and words, at every point in time.

The Jesus who is always fond of teaching and answering questions, answered the Chief priests, Scribes and elders with a question. We need wisdom to sometimes teach wrong doers how it feels to be wronged; this does not mean repaying evil with evil. Beloved, the best way to examine if we are being malicious in our actions towards others is to consider if we will want what we do to others to be done to us. Even when someone may have done something wrong to elicit some reactions, we should ask ourselves how we want to be treated at those moments when we act wrongly too.

Truly, we need wisdom to do the right thing always and to know how to give account of our faith to those who wantonly demand it from us. A Christian without wisdom is like a car moving at night without lights.