Thursday of the
Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time
(Wisdom 7:22b-8:1; Luke 17:20-25)
People usually think of their own age as the
greatest. But is our own age so
wonderful? Its representative products –
the iPhone, the plasma TV, the global positioning device – seem to provide the
rich with outlets for their wealth more than they help me to live more happily. Can we not ask with T.S. Eliot a few
generations ago, “Where is the Life we
have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in
information?”
Today’s first reading reminds us that wisdom has an
eternal character that is available in every age. It is also universal so that both rich and
poor may partake of it. In contriving
twenty-one attributes the author shows how wisdom, and not the products of
technology and commerce, makes life worthwhile.
The number, incidentally, symbolizes absolute perfection being the
product of seven -- representative of simple perfection -- and three --
indicative of the divine.
Wisdom admonishes us to discern the true value of every
created good. It recognizes the
satisfaction that comfort and convenience bring us but realizes that these do
not comprise happiness. Most
importantly, it understands that fulfillment is found in our striving to live
righteously. Beginning with God and not
overlooking the simplest person nor ignoring ourselves we wisely give everyone
her/his due.
