The gift of Wisdom Preserves and Protects Love
Wisdom is named as one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. And the one who has the Spirit of God, is said to be in possession of Wisdom. In our day-to-day Christian life, wisdom is necessary to lead a good and happy life. But wisdom does not stand alone, in fact, wisdom is at the service of love, which St. Paul says, “is the greatest of all gifts, the most excellent way, which binds all the Spiritual gifts together.” 1Cor. 12:31. Although Love reigns supreme, it needs to be executed properly, and it belongs to wisdom, which is the “perfection of prudence” (Wisdom 6:12-16), to guide the proper execution of love. A wise person knows very well how to properly love God and neighbor. God is pure wisdom, and since we have the gift of reason, we can be receptive to wisdom, we can have a conversation with divine wisdom through the faculty of reason in mental prayer, in meditation and contemplation of divine wisdom. Therefore, we can love God because we can know God. What is intelligible to reason is more pleasing and lovable. That is why the greatest joy comes from knowledge of truth. Love is intentional; we decide, or we choose to love. And we love more deeply what our reason judges to be good and true. The more we know God or desire to know Him, the more we love Him. Then, we are always with Him in Prayer. True and pure love is the result of a well-informed mind. The more we know our friends; their struggles, and their joys, the more we love them. If the five foolish virgins in the parable of the ten Virgins (Matthew 25), did not make a good judgment, it is because they had no knowledge of the bridegroom, and therefore, did not have enough love to make ready for Him. And the Bridegroom confirms it when he says, “Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.” Whenever our Lord Jesus is disrespected, whenever He is mocked, whenever there is indifference, humiliation, blasphemies, sacrileges, and all sorts of offences against Him, it is because there is no knowledge of Who He is, and therefore, there is no love for Him. Incidentally, those who betrayed Him, and crucified Him had no knowledge of Him. We can also recall the event, after the resurrection of our Lord, when Simon Peter, the head of the Apostles, said, “I am going fishing.” John 21:3. [he had forgotten the words of our Lord, “from now on you will be catching men” Luke 5:10. You will be the herald of the good news, you will lead people to Christ, not away from Christ]. Peter went back to his former ways, dragging everyone with him. He had lost sight and knowledge of our Lord. And his love had declined. And when our Lord walked towards Peter on the shores, Peter did not know who it was, until John, the beloved disciple, whispered to Peter, “It is the Lord.” It is Him. The eye of love notices quicker what it knows and loves. We who have the faith, possess the light of knowledge of the mysteries of God. We notice the movements of the Holy Spirit quicker than anyone else. We see the presence of God more readily; we love God more deeply. We are always with Him in Prayer.
Love is protected by Wisdom. In the parable of the wheat and the weeds (Matthew 13:24-30), the enemy comes at night and sows weeds among the wheat while men are sleeping. This is a great lesson on how the devil works. The devil is very cunning. He knows very well that we are doing our best to be holy and to love God, so what does he do? He creates a diversion, something that distracts us from our commitments. These destructions begin to creep in slowly by slowly as we get interested in what the devil suggests. The devil is good with enticements; anything that quickly captures our attention. It could be as simple as a YouTube video, a new article in the press, or enjoying an extra time of sleep more than usual. And once we start to love that which the devil proposes, and get to do it more often, then we lose interest in cultivating virtue, and all the good routines of prayer. The result is slavery to sin. The solution then, is to always be vigilant. It takes great effort to protect holiness. That is why we need wisdom and virtue. St. Ignatius of Loyola, in his spiritual exercises, encourages us to be attentive and quick to identify the movements of our inner desires, to judge whether they are of the Holy Spirit or of the evil one. Sometimes the evil one comes to disturb our peace of mind, so he creates events that get on our nerves, a few irritations here and there. In most cases, the evil one uses those closest to us, in our homes, our families. We need to be ware. To quickly examine ourselves why a certain event is raising the hair of our skin, and what needs to be the proper reaction. These, my friends, are the tactics of the enemy. But our greatest consolation is the Grace of God. The Grace of God protects us from the enemy, and it purifies us when we fall into temptations. This is the work of God, our sanctification. Therefore, let us always present ourselves before God with a heart well-disposed, to be purified and to receive Grace that helps us to be always vigilant, and to execute love with great wisdom.
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