Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Knowledge creates power. Powerful knowledge comes at a cost. That cost disciplines our minds, hearts, and wills to delve deeply into the mysteries hidden from the foundations of the world. Delving into these mysteries, Wisdom, the mind and heart of God, becomes visible and real. Wisdom “knows and understands all things” (Wis 9:11), but more than just knowing and understanding, “She will guide me wisely in my actions and guard me with her glory” (Wis 9:11). So complex, Wisdom reveals the ease of right order guiding and directing us into the depths of her mysteries.
Wisdom the attendant at God’s throne comes to us as a gift, hidden and veiled for She is more precious than gold or silver (Prov 3:14-15). She infuses not only knowledge, hidden and forbidden to those who are evil, but eternal and experiential for those who are good. She, the “Tree of Life” (Prov 3:18), draws us into her garden, the eternal garden called heaven. “Those who hold her fast are called happy” (Prov 3:18) for She orders us rightly knowing God is our Father, and we are his beloved children.
Fear of the Lord, as Scripture tells us, opens the door to Wisdom. Fear, not the servile fear of punishment but reverence and awe at the wonders revealed, create astonishment in our minds. So profound are God’s thoughts that the only response respects and revers, that is admires and adores Wisdom. Adoration recognizes the one true God Whom we are to properly praise. Jesus quoting Moses directs our worship telling us, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve” (Lk 4:8). In other words, beware of false gods but worship the one, true God.
Solomon received Wisdom and became known as the wisest of all. He sought and beheld her in his heart for She is the source of all treasures, pleasures, and powers. Yet, as we know, Solomon lost Wisdom. Beguiled by her power, corruption entered his heart, and he forgot it was a gift, a cryptic, mysterious, and obscure gift given only to those who seek her day and night with all their heart, mind, and strength. He lost his perfect praise of Wisdom and turned to false and fake god’s who corrupted his reverence and awe.
As Solomon did, so we easily deceived forget to adore God and God alone. Becoming wise unto ourselves, forget Wisdom is God’s gift to us. We do not create Her, nor do we possess her. We are to use her knowledge as a gift to improve the lives of others, not to lord it over them. Solomon made this mistake. Instead of seeking her righteously, we use her power for self. Wisdom and her knowledge become our edge for personal gain.
Wisdom’s hidden knowledge, however, is never the problem. The source and purpose of knowledge is. In the garden, the Serpent, a creature of incredible wisdom, yet created by God, tempts Adam and Eve to obtain knowledge from himself, not from God. Created as the enlightened one, that is what the name Lucifer means, the highest spiritual creature, he perverted his knowledge. Instead of becoming humble knowing he is not the source of his own knowledge, he became filled with pride declaring himself greater than God. In his pride, he fell.
Isaiah, the great prophet, depicts the fall. He declares Lucifer to be the Day Star, the son of Dawn. Yet, he goes on to explain Lucifer’s rejection of God’s right ordering: the greater serves the lesser, the greater does not dominate the lesser. Wisdom’s secret, serving the lesser, corrupted Lucifer’s heart. He refused to serve and declares, “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High” (Is 14:14).
Lucifer’s power perverted his heart thinking he was greater than God. In his selfish pride, Lucifer fell. He is brought down to “Sheol, to the depths of the Pit” (Is 14:15). His knowledge seduced his heart, thinking he was all-powerful, greater than his Creator. No longer did he take pride in being God’s most sublime angel, but turned his pride against God seducing himself and others, including Adam and Eve. Seduced, knowledge becomes his weapon against God forgetting knowledge and power are divine gifts, not innate entitlements.
Dark knowledge comes from the wrong source. It comes from Lucifer who is filled with Wisdom but traded it for self-determination. Lucifer thought he could define God. He, a creature, seeks to establish a different knowledge. Creatures order the seas, the winds, and the changing of the seasons. In this new knowledge, Lucifer manipulates Wisdom. It is for his self-glorification, not for divine adoration. In his deception, he tempts us, as he did Solomon, that we too can perceive and understand the hidden mysterious of God without God.
Compared to us, Lucifer has infinite knowledge. With this knowledge, He foils God’s plan. Instead of being humbled by God’s gift of divine wisdom and knowledge, Lucifer refused to serve. Becoming filled with pride and envy, he deceives us to follow him and disown God. He distorts and perverts our knowledge of God making us think we have knowledge that obviously exceeds our abilities. Because of his arrogance God acted and annulled Lucifer, declaring,
For the LORD of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back? (Is 14:27).
God thwarts Lucifer charging Michael a lowly, humble angel, to cast him down into the pit. Here God unveils his power, glory, and majesty by which He rules even when arrogance and egoism attack. God’s power, glory, and majesty come not only from his knowledge and wisdom, but more importantly from his meekness and humility. If we want Wisdom and her knowledge, Jesus tells us not to learn from Satan, as He saw him fall like a lightning flash from heaven, but “from me for I am meek and humble of heart (Matt 11:29).
Throughout the Scriptures, God unveils his heart: full of meekness and humility. These two reign; and those who submit, that is place themselves under God and serve Him humbly and meekly, receive divine wisdom and knowledge. Meekness and humility the yoke that strengthens us gives us greater knowledge and wisdom than Lucifer. These two: meekness and humility, yoke us to Jesus Who infuses Wisdom into our minds so we may grasp his ways in all things. The secret to obtain such power over Lucifer and his temptations embraces meekness and humility. Embraced, that is clothed with the heart of Christ, Lucifer flees for these two virtues rule us and he cannot defeat them.
The whole Gospel message, unveils, literally the apocalypse, this mystery. Meekness and humility give us insight and understanding into God’s essence. God, a mysterious being that so many mistake as vengeful, is the opposite. Lucifer is vengeful; God is meek and humble. Jesus epitomizes these displaying mercy and kindness even to those who thwart and attack his being. He embraced Judas as he betrayed him. He forgave St. Peter and even warned him of his betrayal. Unlike Judas, St. Peter embraced his kindness and mercy after grievously denying Jesus. In his letter, St. Peter understands Wisdom as he experienced Jesus’ divine meekness and humility:
The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance (2 Pe 3:9; see Eze 33:11).
Without divine compassion, St. Peter and every sinner would perish. With Jesus, every sinner receives sufficient grace to break free from Satan’s deception to have dominion over God.
Only those who are meek and humble receive Wisdom. Wise, we submit to God’s divine authority. Empowered, we have dominion over his creation. Dominion and power are gifts God gave not only to Adam and Eve but to us too. God spoke to Adam and Eve revealing his Wisdom.
Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth (Gen 1:28).
Lucifer corrupted God’s plan tempting Adam and Eve to have dominion over creation without God. Yet, God annulled Lucifer’s arrogance and vengeance sending his Son into the world, meek and humble, even riding on a donkey a beast of burden.
Jesus riding on the beast of burden becomes the mysterious paradox. Jesus takes upon Himself our burdens, and by his wounds sets us free from the yoke of Satan: arrogance and vengeance. His humility and meekness break the yoke of Satan. Freed from the burden of sin, suffering, death, we put on the yoke of Christ: meekness and humility. This is Wisdom. This is Jesus’ prayer.
I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will (Mt 11:25–26).
Meekness and humility do not lessen the weight of the burdens. In a certain sense, those who put on the yoke of Christ have heavier burdens. Instead of carrying the yoke alone, or worse, carry the yoke with Lucifer’s arrogance and envy, in our meekness and humility Christ carries them with us and for us. He gives us strength and his strength gives us rest. Peacefulness comes because Christ is at our side leading and guiding us on the narrow way. This secret, Christ carries our burdens when we are meek and humble, is the cryptic knowledge that gives us Wisdom. God’s grace carries us when we are heavy laden with the toils and labors of life. In Christ we find rest for He carries us.