Perhaps those of us who have suffered different types of
loss and failure can more easily crawl to the Feet of Christ and beg mercy.
Perhaps those little ones, who have never been tempted to greatness, or high
status, or have never had the chance to become rich are more fortunate than
those who have been blessed by God. God does bless many people with gifts or
riches, and these can be a way to holiness.
For example, to those
to whom much is given, much is expected. Therefore, those who have been
given many things are called to be generous or to give it all away and be, like
St. Francis or St. Bernard, and choose voluntary poverty.
The way to holiness is
as distinct and as unique as every person ever created.
The lives of the saints reveal the lifestyles of those who
were rich and those who were poor. The lives of the saints reveals those who
were middle class, those in business, in the military, in teaching, artists,
actors, farmers, stewards.
But, whatever we do and whoever we are, we are all called to
perfection, which is our participation in God.
Because of time constraints in my life now, I am not going
to write about the Attributes of God as Infinite, Immense, Eternal, or
Incomprehensible. I shall return to those later.
Skipping a few chapters to “ The Wisdom of God” and “The Will and Holy Love of God” in
Garrigou-Lagrange’s book, I want to emphasize a few ideas from these two
chapters before moving back to a review of what I highlighted a month ago on
Divine Providence.
Garrigou-Lagrange writes that the two “great attributes” of
God’s intellect are wisdom and providence.
Interesting.
However, the author notes this: “…free will is an absolute perfection resulting from the intellect. The
act of the divine will is love, and its two great virtues are justice and
mercy.”
Love is in the will. Those of us who have been married, or
who are married, know this truth. Love is not in the emotions, but in the
intellect, in the act of the will. One loves whether one feels like it or not.
This is the wisdom of love.
But, the wisdom of God must be understood, not we see the
wisdom of the world, but as something else.
An entire paragraph is worth repeating: “That wisdom is a comprehensive view embracing all things, everyone is
agreed. But after that, what divergences there are! We may view things from
above, believing that they all proceed from a holy love, or at least are
permitted by it, and that all things converge upon one supreme good. Or we may
view things from below, considering them the result of a material, blind
fatality without any ultimate purpose. Another divergence is that there is a
wisdom characterized by a false optimism, shutting its eyes to the existence of
evil, and there is a pessimistic, depressing wisdom that see no good in
anything.”
In my immediate circle of persons at this time, I meet all
these types of wisdom. The first is the wisdom of the saint. The second is the
wisdom of the atheist, and the third is the wisdom of the consumerist. The
fourth is the wisdom of the cynic, whether young or old.
Those who see things in only materialistic terms, not
considering the soul, fall into the second category, whether avowed atheists or
practical atheists. Many psychologists and psychiatrists fall into this
category, trying to heal a human without considering the soul.
As Garrigou-Lagrange notes, “To adopt this attitude in our estimation of things, is to make of self
the center of all things, unwittingly to adore self. Practically it amounts to
a denial of God and a looking upon others as, so to speak, non-existent.”
Many people I know well, at this time, fall into this
category, as do so many Americans. I pray daily for their conversion.
Garrigou-Lagrange sadly writes that this way is the way of mediocrity and that
those of us who aspire to Christian perfection are seen involved, “as much an excess in one direction as
downright wickedness is in the other.”
If you are not understood by those around you, it is because
they are stuck in the wisdom of the world. This following selection from
Garrigou-Lagrange – describes my life. ”We
must avoid extremes in everything, we
are told. And so the mediocre comes to be called good, whereas it is
nothing but an unstable, confused state lying between the good and the
bad…Instead of rising higher, a man will remain permanently halfway. Hence the
word charity is sometimes applied to a reprehensible moderation, this ‘wisdom
of the flesh’ is equally indulgent to vice and indifferent to virtue.”
To choose to live the Gospel and live in the love of God
causes division. Many cannot understand.
Scary that so many of us are separated from loved ones
because they simply cannot understand our decision to follow Christ fully.
Such wisdom of God, we are reminded in the text, when the
author quotes St. Paul
Many Catholics live in mediocrity and criticize those of us
who choose not to do so as “fools” or even irresponsible. Why?
Because our lives are simply not understood by those who
live in the wisdom of the world, we are called fools.
Sadly, the modern Church has not spoken out against
mediocrity enough. Even at the TLMs, too many sermons are on subjects which no
longer challenge those of us in the pews.
God’s wisdom is a “luminous knowledge” of Himself and all
things. This light can be shared with us to some extent.
I shall return to this topic …to be continued…
