(May 30 or June 2, 2019) | Lectionary: 58
Adults: Who in your family has the gift of wisdom? How does he or she use this gift?
Children: Who is the wisest person you know? What has he or she taught you?
by Thomas Gette
When we reflect on our families, it is likely easy to identify those people who have the gift of wisdom. It may be a parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle, godparent, or guardian. We may find that, when difficult choices need to be made, our wisdom person is the one we most often go to for help.
We may often think of someone as wise simply because they offer good advice. But that is only a part of it. A truly wise person lives a life of integrity. Their faith is integrated into all they do, and wisdom holds everything in balance.
Actually, wisdom is one of the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit. We may remember having to memorize the list as we prepared for our Confirmation: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.
Wisdom can be a misunderstood virtue. It is often confused with knowledge and understanding. Wisdom is our guide in the proper living of the other gifts. Wisdom helps us make the proper choices and discernment based on all we know, believe, and do.
We all certainly know someone in our lives who embodies wisdom, but that wisdom is not always an easy thing to describe. We see it in in how they live their lives and how they encourage us to live ours. They understand the value of listening – to us and to God – and turning things over to God in prayer. A person of wisdom is a disciple of Christ.
Wisdom is not really something we can teach. It is something that comes from encountering the Lord. Pope St. Paul VI once offered a powerful thought on the impact of the wise disciple: “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.”
In his 2014 catechesis on wisdom as a Gift of the Holy Spirit, Pope Francis said, ”We must ask the Lord to grant us the Holy Spirit and to grant us the gift of wisdom, that wisdom of God that teaches us to see with God’s eyes, to feel with God’s heart, to speak with God’s words. And so, with this wisdom, let us go forward, let us build our family, let us build the Church, and we will all be sanctified. Today let us ask for this grace of wisdom. And let us ask Our Lady, who is the Seat of Wisdom, for this gift: may she give us this grace.”
Thomas Gette is a family man with a passion for the domestic Church. He holds master’s degrees from both Franciscan University and the Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium.