BECOMING A FOOL FOR WISDOM
(March 13)
“Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, ‘He catches the wise in their own craftiness.’” (1 Cor 3:18-19)
St. Paul himself was first blinded for three days, by the light of Christ that “flashed around him” on the road to Damascus. “For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.” (Acts 9) Saul was a learned man, well-versed in the Scriptures and “extremely zealous for the traditions” of his fathers (Gal 1:14), so he thought he had all the answers; that he saw things in the proper, *orthodox* light. He needed to cease seeing, to be blinded, in order to un-learn his own answers and “become a fool that he may become wise.”
Can we also be in need of un-learning our own answers, even those we think are based on the Scriptures and on “the traditions of our fathers,” but are actually just “the wisdom of this world”? Sometimes we do. Sometimes we might notice signs that our seemingly-orthodox “wisdom” is not bringing the light of Christ into our lives. If, for example, we routinely wake up with a feeling of dread or existential angst; if merely-human fears of this or that (of financial insecurity, of human opinion, of ageing, of the future in general) are our daily companions, instead of faith and alertness to God’s loving presence in our lives, – these may be taps on our shoulder that we are embracing “the wisdom of this world.” It is devoid of the hope that comes with really letting God into our every day, from our waking moment.
Let me let myself “become a fool” this morning, and surrender to God’s wisdom and to His undying faith in me and all of us, because I can do that. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Amen!
