Twentieth Sunday Ordinary

Twentieth Sunday Ordinary
August 20, 2006

"Wisdom... has spread her table... Come, eat of my food... Forsake foolishness... advance in the way of understanding." (Proverbs 9:1-6). "Watch carefully how you live, not as foolish people but as wise...." (Ephesians 5: 15-20). "I am the living bread... whoever eats this bread will live forever." (John 6:51-58).

Divine Wisdom is a personification (a woman in this case) of God, who builds a house and sets out a meal of teachings to sustain us in daily life. The foundation of all wisdom is a God who is both good and all-powerful. We also know from experience that bad and good things happen to the deserving and undeserving alike. No one has ever been able to figure out how or why a good and all-powerful God could allow this. Wisdom tells us that it is foolish to try to understand it with intricate philosophies. Some things are simply beyond our understanding in spite of all we have discovered about our world. Perhaps there is no "theory of everything". A wise person learns how to live contentedly with the ambiguities and uncertainties of life. Ironically the deepest understanding comes from not trying to understand more than this. Wisdom, like a good mother, bypasses philosophical discussions and gives us nourishing practical guidance about living successfully. "Mother said there would be days like this!"

Jesus makes a most outlandish statement which must sound like foolishness to many who hear him. He is claiming that anyone willing to be totally united to him, body and soul, heart and mind, will be given God's own life for eternity. Like the "meal" of Divine Wisdom and the Word of God when we hear it with our hearts, so in the Eucharist we "eat" God whose very self becomes part of us. God completely permeates our entire world and our inner selves. Nevertheless our individual selves are not lost but live forever with God. This is not to say that we can ignore present problems of life. Far from it.

No one is independent of other people, the earth, or the Spirit In our personal lives it is foolish to wait for adversity to strike before starting to develop a spiritual attitude and a community of friends and family. By the time it does, it is too late to begin. This is also true globally. We can no longer afford to foolishly ignore the mounting evidence that the earth's resources are rapidly being depleted. Are we really willing to risk everything on the foolish illusion that success and happiness is measured by the size of our armies, bank accounts, cars, houses or how much stuff we accumulate?

St. Paul cautions us not to get caught up in the foolishness of the world around us. We are willing to appear foolish in holding on to the hope that we have a future with God beyond this life and that it must begin here and now. The Most High may not come out of the heavens to rescue us from our foolishness if we refuse to respond to the invitation to the table of Divine Wisdom. It is