Wisdom has been one of the priceless treasures of life which no one can do without. It is often said that youth do not have this gift yet since they lack experience and the insights gained from a reflection on those experiences in the light of faith in God. But wisdom can be gained by anyone of any age as long as he or she is open to God and His will. It is the Spirit that gifts this precious treasure.
The best wisdom to be gained is the one coming out from the pages of the gospels. In this coming Sunday's gospel, Jesus talks about the wisdom of making Him the priority of one's life.
In Jewish culture the limitations of their language does not include comparatives. This means that the Jewish language cannot say, "you should love God MORE than your mother, your father, your relatives..." It can only say either/neither. Thus, we find in the gospel Jesus saying you should follow Him and turn your back on your father, mother and family. This is from the gospel of Luke. In other parts of the gospels, we even find about loving Jesus and HATING your father, mother and family. Well, this is the limitation of the Jewish language at the time - which in Jesus case would be Aramaic.
I guess, in our own time, if we apply Jesus' command to follow Him, then because of the gospel's inculturation into our own particular modern culture, we would say that we would indeed follow Him to the max more than our families and friends. It is Him we give priority in love. Love for Him is uncorrupted and eternal, infinite because He is Love Himself in all its perfection. All our worldly loves are only a reflection of that Spirit of love that He Himself gifts us with. As with all worldly loves, it is imperfect. It gets corrupted and it is tainted with sin and self and the cares of the world. So the wisdom to follow Jesus as being top priority in our life is indeed a truth that no one can context - unless of course he believes in a different faith. All Christians will agree with us on this point. We all adhere to the Truth - Jesus.
And if we follow Jesus totally and without reserve, we must plan and see and discern if we have the resources to be able to complete our following of Him. This is a matter of self-knowledge and reflection which we must do daily in the context of Scriptural guidelines and contemplation before the Blessed Sacrament - or whatever prayer you undertake in your prayer life. We can find a way of following Christ were we can be successful and faithful and serviceable and simple in our lifestyle. This would create a bigger impact than one who is following Jesus but could not handle the demands of the particular call or vocation he decided to take. Therefore to undertake the life project of discipleship, we must be aware of our talents, our giftedness, and our strengths. And we should also be aware where we are limited, weak and lacking in certain talents and gifts. We are called to be good stewards of God's gifts in ourselves so that we could use it for the upbuilding and edification of His Church.
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