true wisdom? 智慧？

Thirty Third Ordinary Sunday Year A

Each culture has developed a whole collection of wise sayings and proverbs. We also grew up with lots of advice from our elders. "Don't judge a book by its cover" (人不可以貌相）; "Take care of one's need first before thinking of others", "Don't put all eggs into one basket" etc. 

Being ethically Chinese, I have come to realize how we have often equated wisdom with knowledge and also good business acumen. A man who knows how to save, how to make good investments, who become rich as a result of his own hard work of intelligence, he is regarded by society as a wise man. 

All these wise sayings have their place in our lives. However, holdings onto some of them may cause us to loose sight of the most important wisdom of all. The wisdom that tells us that all comes from God and will return to God. It is the wisdom that reminds us that the most important things in life are not just having friends, having lots of children, having lots of money, prosperity and luck. The most important thing in our faith in God who promised eternal life for us, and this is for eternity. To understand this is true wisdom. 

I remembered during my university days, lectures often remind us of this : University is a platform to prepare you for the outside world. Hence, word hard and be prepared! I guess this may be also one of the contributing factor that creates fierce competition among students. In today's world, society often judged based on your qualification, result and skill as a determination of getting a secure job-  as if these are the pass or gateway to paradise. A person's wisdom or perhaps the word which commonly known as intelligence often based on how great is your achievement in the past. But we fail to see that all these investment on earth are just temporary, and it will end at death.

Undeniably, many people are good at making investment- buying the right shares, making the right business assessment. However, many people are really bad at making spiritual investments. We work so hard in life in order to make life easier for ourselves and for our future generations and we end up at death with nothing. We are prepared for any eventuality in life - education, business, family life, but we are not prepared for eternal life.

Now my dear friends, I have a question for you.  Are you prepared to meet the lord at any time? It could be today, tomorrow, this week, next month or next year. Have you made the right investments? Have you invested for eternal life? Or have you put all your investments in looking for worldly pleasure, riches, ambition, fame, and power. You may have all these things - power, riches and fame - but they will serve you no good at your death.

When people tell us to be wise, and not be foolish, let us heed their call. But let us also understand what is true wisdom. True wisdom is investing for eternal life, not this life, not in riches, not in possessions. No! True wisdom is being always prepared to meet the Lord who may call us home at any time. So now, are you ready? Are you prepared?

This week's reading give us and insight on what it means to be ready. Being ready is not merely making sure that we have made our confession before our death. Being ready is not just merely avoiding wrong doing as much as possible. Being ready doesn't mean just waiting for death to happen. These are insufficient.

Being ready means that we must be constantly at our mission, fulfilling the vocation that God has given us. Each of us is entrusted with certain talents. Each of us have been given certain responsibilities - we have responsibilities as a parent or as a children or as a worker or as a member of the community or as Catholic etc. These talents are gifts from God and come with a responsibility. We are to use them for the mission which has been entrusted to us.

Many people go through their life without living out their full potential. Many people are satisfied with only doing the "bare minimum." Their philosophy is "why do more when you can do less!" God did not create us to live only a fraction of our lives. If we only live 10% of what we are capable of living, then the other 90%  is wasted.

Being ready means giving our all for the glory of God. We may not be able to do everything. We may not be able to do all things well. We may not even able to achieve within our  lifetime all our goals. Nevertheless, whatever we do, if we do it to the best of our ability and for the glory of God, is enough.

In today's first reading uses the symbol of a wise wife or perfect wife as the model of a disciple. A wise wife knows that "charm is deceitful and beauty empty" what is important is that she is able to fulfill her role and responsibility as a dutiful wife - bringing "advantage and not hurt to her husband all the days of her life." She is always busy at work and has no time for idleness, gossip of unfruitful activity. The wise wife is thus a model for all of us. We are made for the glory of God and not bring hurt to him or to others. We are created with gifts and talents  in order for us to realize our mission and vocation in this life.

Similarly, the Gospel tells us the story of the three servants who receive different amount of talents from their master. The amount that they received is not important. Sometimes we may feel that others have more than we have. We feel that this is unfair. We may never know the reasons for this. But we know that the one receives, the more is expected of that person. Those who have been given more greater responsibility to use those talents and gift for the good of others and for the glory of God. If we just complain that we do not have enough, if we do not do anything with the little that we have, then even what we have will be taken away.

Make the best of your life. You may be rich or you may be poor, you may be beautiful or you may look ordinary, make the best of your life. Use whatever talents or gifts the Lord has given you for his greater glory. Don't hesitate any longer because as St. Paul tells us in the second reading "the Day of the Lord is going to come like a thief in the night", so stay wide awake and sober.