Children of Wisdom

Sep. 17, 2025 Wed. 

Wisdom is vindicated by all her children. Lk 7:35

We are often tossed between opinions around us, and easily swayed in those directions, as often we ourselves are directionless. I like Jesus the man who walked the land of Palestine 2000 years ago, because, he realised this human predicament, analysed that and decided to walk coolly, giving it a go-by.

When Fr Vattoly Augustine resigned from the office of the parish priest of Kadamakkudy, there are opinions in favour and against his action. While I too feel there could have been several alternatives to tackle the issue, based on his own argument – that these matters are not fundamental; not a matter worth fighting, as what is of primary importance is to bring about the ideals that Jesus stood for. Then, the whole thing could have been tackled without so much of fuss.

However, this has now been used by him to drive a point home that a Church insisting on ritualism as something fundamental cannot be a real Church, and that has to be resisted.  It is that conviction that leads to such a boldacious action, and I salute that.

Now Jesus speaks about wisdom and vindication of wisdom by her children.  

What could this wisdom be?

Like truth, Wisdom is God herself! And her children are endowed with wisdom.

In presenting the levels of getting to know the truth, typically we are faced with data, collated to give information, analysed to produce knowledge and sifted and assumed to make befitting decisions. At this final level, perhaps, we can speak of wisdom. And in the Sanskrit tradition, we have a beautiful description for that: ‘nityanitya vastu vivekam’ – the skills that enable one to distinguish between what is sustainable/permanent and what is transitory.

Wisdom in our day-to-day interactions is easily inhibited by the typical human tendency to ‘judge people and situations’ based on one’s perceptions and prejudices. We jump to conclusions regarding the motives, attitudes or decisions of others, without even trying to see what would have made them act in a specific manner. So, a typical child of wisdom would be able to suspend or hold one’s judgement on a particular phenomenon (person, event, interaction) and look into the various aspects of it, and arrive at a conclusion.

Second, s/he would have the skill to air that opinion or judgement in such a manner that it builds up rather than breaks.

Those not trained in the school of wisdom are the people generally referred to as ‘opinionated’ – i.e., having one’s opinion on anything and everything in a dogmatic fashion.

Even St. Robert Bellarmine, whom we celebrate today, while being bold enough, could not finally take a stand on the side of Galileo, on whose side was indeed the truth, as we know now, though he did oppose punishing him.  Such a stance requires the combination of wisdom and conviction, from which emerges the courage to side with truth as dawned on oneself.

O wisdom eternal, be you my guide in my steps to discern what is lasting and what is passing; what builds up and what breaks down, and choose always what is right and what adds to the common good.  Amen.

Gospel - Lk 18:25-45 I want to see

Nov. 21, 2024

Today, the gospel teaches us two prayers for enriching Christian life. 

The first one has been transformed into a classical prayer of Christian tradition - Hesychasm, imbibing the injunction of Jesus (Lk 18:1) and St. Paul (1Thes 5:17) to pray without ceasing and without losing hope.  It has come to be known as Jesus prayer.  I treat this as a great way to integrate God-consciousness into all phases of our daily lives.  The prayer of the blind man is: Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me! The spiritual tradition has adapted it as: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner! 

It combines the gospel attitude of understanding the unworthiness of the individual seeker (Lk 18:13-14) as was stated by the centurion, who said: Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter my home (Mtt 8:8), or of St. Peter, who realized his distance from the ideal of sanctity personified in Jesus, and said, 'Go away from me, for I am a sinful man (Mtt 5:8). The tradition insists on repetition of the prayer that it becomes part of our system leading to union with the merciful Lord Jesus in the silence of heart.  I have been initiated into a system that integrates the prayer with the practice of pranayama, with the conscious inhaling and exhaling.  The inhalation part would invoke Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, and the exhalation part the rest 'Have mercy  on me a sinner'.  It can be the full prayer for both inhalation and exhalation as well, so that literally the practice leads to the prayer becoming part of our breath and one gets into the rhythm of 'praying without ceasing'. 

The second prayer is the blind man's response to Jesus query: 'What do you want me to do for you?' He is very clear: 'I want to see'. This is to be the aspiration of every seeker - 'wanting to see'.  What is that a seeker should seek to see? 

Yes, the blind man wanted to see the world - people and things.  

There are several dimensions of sight as we dwell on this creaturely endowment. 

I want to see: However, with many even with the physical sight intact, we are not trained to see - see around.  See the earth, the soil, the rock, the dust, the sky, the sun in his many coloured moods, the moon, the beautifully arrayed constellations that illuminate the night sky.  It is a pity that despite being designated the stewards of the planet by God, unlike the exceptions like the seer Daniel, we are not able to exercise this great potential of seeing the amazing diversity, their beauty, and their power (Daniel 3:56-88).  We ought to grow in the ability of 'seeing' the richness of this uniquely amazing planet of life, and appreciate each of these variegated existences as my fellow creature - brother sun, sister moon...brother pig, sister cockroach. 

I want to see: myself as you see me - with my powers, with my powerlessness. In the book of Revelation, human blindness is pointed out (3:17) and the believers are urged to 'buy the ointment to smear their eyes so that they could see' (3:18).  In seeing myself as you see me, I want to see yourself reflected in me! I am inclined to agree with the Socratic dictum: 'Know Thyself'. This requires the openness and humility to learn from others - people and situations, valuing feedback as Jesus did: Who do you think, I am? 

Can I see myself as that great Thou and proclaim as that great Indian seer said: Aham brahmasmi! As the Christian thought has been so strictly regimented by the Greco-Roman categories, it cannot free itself to find the reiteration of this experience when Jesus makes the claim 'I and the Father are one' (Jn 10:30) or 'One who sees me sees the Father' (Jn 14:9), 'I am in the Father and the Father is in me' (Jn 14:10).  Whether this statement as such is prior to his times - I am not sure. Most likely yes. It is not unlikely that Jesus did have a stint in India to absorb these lofty ideals which he rendered in his own fashion as a further growth in God-realisation of the Israelites.  He got the rare guts to make such a statement from his own God-realization. Only if I could grow to that state!

I want to see: other human beings - as sharing the same 'tatvam' (essence) as I possess, and able to look at them and say: 'tatvam asi' - Thou art that! Essentially the same - hence, in spite of the differences, hurting another is also self-hurt. Retaliation is only adding to your hurt. 

As a learner and self-proclaimed seeker, I am happy for the 'sight' and 'seeing' words - 

insight - the ability to see beyond the external, the avarana, the appearances; a much needed competency for a seeker. 

farsight - the ability to see ahead, in advance the natural progress of things; a competency needed for people who lead institutions and movements; it emerges from the ability to see thee varies but connected things in one big picture, and visualise the possibilities their synergy offers. 

foresight - the ability to see the future of things, is a gift that can help one to lead one's life with integrity, while helping others to lead their life as well. 

hindsight - the ability to understand a thing after it has occurred - this is a gift more useful with correcting the future course of actions, based on what were the lessons one is able to draw from past events or experiences. 

oversight - neglect, the slip of sight on some details, leading to failures. While this in all likelihood is not deliberate, it can be debilitating for an individual's career, both as a follower or as a leader. 

oversee - the method of seeing things as a superior officer or functionary, ensuring that things fall in line - overseer. 

On the other hand, there are ways in which one should develop sight by looking at things 

introspection - being the most powerful one, the need to look into oneself - for making things better

Circumspection is the ability to be sensitive to the stimuli in the environment and one's responses to them, making sure that one does not step on someone else's toes.  A soft skill to be developed to make one's team more efficient and motivated. 

https://oblatesosbbelmont.org/2012/02/05/daniel-357-88-56-let-every-creature-bless-the-lord/