Today at Holy Mass we heard in the first reading from the Book of Sirach that “wisdom breathes life into her children”…The question we must ask ourselves is - What is wisdom?…Wisdom is very different then analytical intelligence….A person could be highly intelligent and still lack wisdom…Wisdom is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit …..How does one obtain wisdom?…..Since it is a gift of the Holy Spirit, one must make room for the Holy Spirit in their life…A cup of water cannot be filled with milk if it is filled to the brim with water…The water must be poured out, to make room for the milk…So it is in the Spiritual life…We must “make room” for God in our life…That means dying to ourself….When we do this….The Holy Spirit enters or soul….And with it comes wisdom.
“Those who love your law have great peace, and for them there is no stumbling block”
There is a Christian misconception that we can have “our cake and eat it too” …What do I mean by that?…We can do whatever we want and still have a relationship with God…..In essence, we “take God along for the ride” in our life…We call to Him when we “need something”…Meanwhile, we pursue our own agenda and yet still “think” by doing this we will have a relationship with God……I hate to burst your bubble, but it does not work that way…..This morning while doing my spiritual reading I read something by a Carmelite nun (Sister Ruth Burrows), this is what she said…..”We cannot have our own life and God’s life at the same time”……Sister Ruth went on….”Faith is the movement whereby we accept God’s nearness and his nearness must always mean death of our ego”……If we want to be filled with the Holy Spirit and possess the seven gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to us (wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord), we have to “die to our self”…..We want to have it both ways….Have our own agenda and still have God…Does not work that way!……Jesus was very clear on the matter….”For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it”…….Jesus is not looking for “believers”, he is looks for followers….Being a Catholic is not about “knowing” who Jesus was…Its about striving to live as Jesus taught us to live - And in order to do that, we need grace…..You can not “muscle” your way into being like Jesus…Our human nature is broken and will never permit that to happen without divine grace......And in order to receive this grace, we must “make room” for it within our soul…That means we must “die to our self”……When I think of a person dying to themselves…I think of my wife…She is a highly intelligent woman….If she wished, she could be making huge amounts of money in the corporate world…Instead, my wife had five children in ten years…..She dedicates her life to me and our family - Her actions speak for themselves…This is what I mean by “dying" to your self…My wife Sabryna “put one cup down” only to “pick up another cup”…..We cannot have it “both ways”…..If we want God in our life, we must actively work on dying to ourself daily…This is not only a process but a constant struggle…This is why we need the help of Sacramental grace, daily prayer and weekly fasting….As we all know, even the just man “falls seven times each day”…We can not “muscle” our way to living in a selfless way…We need the help of divine grace
“I am the way and the truth and the life, says the Lord; no one comes to the Father except through me”
Today at Mass we hear about one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit….Wisdom is not something you can read about and then somehow grasp…..Its a gift….In order to allow for God to give us this gift, we must work daily on emptying our self……Those who have successful marriages know that true love is about being selfless…Love gives, it does not take….The same goes with God…If we want God in our life, we must strive to be selfless….…So God can “full us” with his very life…….God is not interested in “half of you”…God wants all of you!….That means we must strive to die to ourself daily……”Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready; come to the feast”………..We can not have it “both ways”….Our God is a not a God of “half measures”
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