By Father Casey
We live in the aptly named “Information Age,” because it is next to impossible to go ten minutes without being informed about something. A few years ago I traded obsessively checking my social media feeds with obsessively checking my various news apps, and I’m not sure how much my life improved.
Given the mountain of information, we can easily think our society should be flourishing, and gamely tackling even the thorniest problems. But our abundance of information has not always been matched by an abundance of wisdom. True, it’s hard to make a decision without information (the early days of the pandemic taught us that, when we had so little information to go on), but good decisions and problem-solving are also the product of wisdom. Wisdom is information coupled with insight. Wisdom is knowledge paired with judgment. There is information and there is wisdom, but they are not the same.
This weekend we will hear more from the Letter of James (3:13-4:3), and he will pose to us an extremely important and timely question: “Who is wise and understanding among you?” Do we even know wisdom when we hear it or see it? Are we so used to listening to the loudest voice in the crowd that we’ve forgotten that neither volume nor boastful self-assurance are signs of wisdom? Here is how Eugene Peterson translates James’ teaching on the matter in The Message:
Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here’s what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It’s the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. Mean-spirited ambition isn’t wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn’t wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isn’t wisdom. It’s the furthest thing from wisdom…Whenever you’re trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others’ throats.
In other words, the loudest voice is usually not the wisest. And it goes without saying that anything that hurts or diminishes someone else, even unintentionally, lacks wisdom. But it may also be that the most profitable choice is not actually the wisest, and neither is the choice that is the most clear or convenient.
This may be why we’re struggling right now as a society against the massive and complicated challenges like the pandemic or systemic injustice. We like clarity, confidence, and above all, convenience. But these are not always hallmarks of wisdom. Sometimes wisdom presents itself quietly and unassumingly. Sometimes the wise course does not shout at us from our screens, but whispers at us from within our souls. Sometimes wisdom is the voice that actually complicates our lives, making things harder for a time, because it cautions us from choosing the most attractive choice for the sake of pursuing larger aspirations.
Frank Bruni reflects on this in a recent editorial in the New York Times. I recommend the whole piece, but this section is particularly relevant:
“In logistical, social and economic terms, the first chapter of Covid was certainly the worst. We were totally shut down. We were utterly freaked out. People couldn’t work, couldn’t see loved ones, couldn’t comprehend how so much had changed so fast…but in a certain psychological sense, is the current chapter perhaps the most challenging of all? We thought we’d turned the corner, only to learn we hadn’t, and we’re neither isolated nor liberated. Our marching orders are fluid and feel less like orders than like caveats, nudging us not toward obedience but toward wisdom, which is even harder…
We are increasingly a country of either/or, pro/con, virtuous/deplorable, all/nothing. And the pandemic right now can’t be squeezed into any dichotomy. Nor will it be hurried to its end. It asks that we take fresh stock every few days. That we reshuffle our responses accordingly. It asks us not to be only one way or only the other but to make informed and enlightened decisions dependent on context and to accept that there won’t be a eureka moment, when the clouds lift, the waters part and we’re free. Instead, with an accretion of those informed and enlightened decisions, we’ll proceed, inch by inch.”[1]
This is why we need to ask God on a daily basis to give us the holy gift of wisdom. Pray for insight and judgment to pair with all the information and knowledge that bombards you every day. Pray for patience to seek true wisdom amidst the din of voices telling us what to think. Pray that you may know how to choose the good over the convenient, the right over the easy, the godly over the gratifying. And remember to look to the life of Jesus for guidance on the nature of wisdom, for he is our perfect example for how, even in dangerous and divided times, to live wisely.
[1] Frank Bruni, “Why This Covid Chapter May Be the Hardest of All,” September 2, 2021.