First Reading: Deuteronomy 30:10-14 Responsorial: Psalm 69:14, 17, 30-31, 33-34, 36, 37 (or Psalm 19:8, 9, 10, 11) Second Reading: Colossians 1:15-20 Gospel Passage: Luke 10:25-37
Wise Counsel by Msgr. Richard Henning
Adults give many rules to children: “do not play in traffic,” “do not touch the stove,” “wear your bicycle helmet, etc.” Of course children do not always understand or follow such rules even when they are explained. But these rules are rooted in the experience of adults who wish to protect children from the dangers that exist for children who lack experience and judgment. Ironically, when it comes to their own lives, adults can be equally resistant to good sense. In life decisions, relationships, and so many other areas, we make choices that harm themselves and others. In these more complex matters of life, the wise adult recognizes that the Scriptures and Traditions of our faith contain thousands of years of wise counsel.
In today’s passage from Deuteronomy, Moses summons the people to return to the Lord “with all your heart and all your soul” (30:10). In the midst of a long address, Moses has just assured the people of God’s mercy. Now he reminds them that the law of the Lord is not some unattainable mystery. The human mind and conscience, if attentive to the Lord, are capable of seeing and understanding the wisdom of God’s rule. The responsorial we pray also speaks of God’s goodness and mercy. The beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord for it is the Lord that answers needs and gives life. (The alternate Psalm choice more directly praises the words of the Lord for this divine wisdom is “Spirit and Life.”)
If for Jewish tradition the law of the Lord was the principle vehicle for relationship to God, Christian believers look first to Christ. Today we read from the famous hymn to Christ in the Letter to the Colossians. In this hymn, Christ is praised for His role in creation, His preeminence, His place at the Head of the Church, and His gift of redemption. God’s Wisdom takes shape in Christ who reveals to all people the path to God. We do well to remember that this Jesus was concretely experienced by those first disciples. He continues to be known and experienced by Christians in faith. Like the Wisdom of God’s Law which is not too distant or mysterious to grasp, so in knowing Jesus the believer can know God in an extraordinarily concrete and accessible manner.
Jesus reveals something of God’s Wisdom in the passage from Luke when he encounters a scholar of the law. The man addresses Jesus as “teacher.” The title is inadequate, but Jesus will indeed teach this man and those who listen today. Jesus turns the man’s question on him, and he sums up the law as the call to love God and neighbor. Jesus approves of the man’s insight, but the man continues with a second question: “who is my neighbor?” Jesus response recounts the compelling story we know as the “Good Samaritan.” This beloved parable reveals so clearly the concrete demand of God’s law. The man’s question would make compassion something complex; a matter for debate. Jesus’ response teaches the utter simplicity of compassion always and everywhere. In fact, it is the very same compassion we encounter in the life of Jesus Himself.
How often human “wisdom” does no more than obscure the truth? And how often does divine wisdom cut to the heart of the matter? We can provide ourselves with every manner of excuse for avoiding God’s law: “we are not saints,” “morality is complicated, there are so many gray areas,” “we are only human.” While such excuses might be partially true, they can blind us to the clarity of God’s wisdom. God has revealed the path that is good for us who often lack experience and judgment. Jesus has even trod that path so there may be no doubt. It remains for us to have the maturity to listen to and heed the wise counsel laid before us with such compassion and such love.
