Wis 7:7-11
Ps 90:12-12, 13-15, 16-17
Heb 4:12-13
Mk 10:17-30
Some of the most exquisite images in scripture describe the attributes of Wisdom. It should be so. Wisdom is one of God's greatest gifts.
Wisdom is not innate or genetic. It is never present at birth or during the earliest stages of development. It has nothing to do with IQ and even less to do with educational level. It is acquired and molded through long experience of successes and failures. Wisdom is the special possession of those with a listening heart who have the courage to enter into silence, prayer, and self-reflection.
Wisdom defines and supports civilization. Wisdom is fundamental to being human. Wisdom definitively and perpetually separates us from all lower animals, no matter how cute, cuddly, majestic, or clever they might be. Only humans are capable of becoming wise, of developing wisdom.
Somewhere in the bowels of MIT beneath the water level of the Charles River, grad student-worker bees are slaving away at what they call AI--artificial intelligence. Note: no one is working on artificial Wisdom.
A computer can be programmed to check the spelling of and even translate the lyrical passage just proclaimed. Recall though, that a lot of computer-generated translations leave much to be desired though they are a reliable source of comedy. Despite the translation programs, spell and grammar check, and other tools, no computer can be programmed to create something as splendid from its circuit boards.
The Book of Wisdom, and the rest of the Wisdom literature, such as Proverbs and Sirach, gives us advice about how to live, how to love God, and how to love others. The Book of Wisdom is not inert. It is not an historical curiosity that explained the world to the benighted, non-scientific, and unsophisticated peoples of the Ancient Near East. Wisdom recognizes and supports all that God does in the world. It should undergird all that we do in the world. Though there is a pragmatic dimension to it, the Wisdom literature is not a handbook along the lines of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. It is much more than that.
Wisdom reveals the mystery of God, a mystery we cannot begin to approach through any literature but the mystical, the numinous, and the poetic. We come closer to understanding the mystery of God through the poetry of the psalms than we do through books of systematic theology or historical-literary criticism of the Gospels.
In 2007 British neuropsychiatrist Sir Michael Trimble published: The Soul in the Brain: The Cerebral Basis of Language, Art, and Belief. Placing a heavy emphasis on neuroanatomy and physiology he describes the role of the brain in the genesis of language and art as the basis for religious belief. Language and art-- particularly poetry--are the most important means of transmitting those beliefs. It is a brilliant book that does not fail to acknowledge the ancient wisdom of the philosophers.
Whether speaking of the Ancient Near East or the early years of the 21st century in the U.S. one must ask what Jesus meant by the startling and uncomfortable image of the camel passing through the needle's eye more easily than the wealthy. Does wealth automatically condemn? Are all the wealthy excluded from the Kingdom of God? What income level is damning?
Jesus is not warning against wealth. He is warning about a human behavior that hasn't changed in two millennia. That behavior is the drive for more and more. The behavior that suggests the wealthier one is the more time, energy, and attention is spent in maintaining and trying to increase that wealth, oftentimes to the detriment of caring for and about others, if not outright destroying them. Too often the more one has the less one shares. We've become almost jaded to news detailing the latest financial scandals involving obscenely paid business executives who, it appears, want even more.
The current trial of Elizabeth Holmes, foundress of Theranos Corporation, is a morality tale of greed mixed with the pursuit of wealth and fame combined with a callous disregard for the health of others, both those foolish enough to work for her and the patients who received erroneous results on their lab work.
We tolerate, and even rationalize, the greed of overpaid athletes whose whiny behavior and associated demands for ever more astronomical salaries, that have pushed the cost of taking a family to a game beyond the ability of many.
There are also the middle and lower level atrocities in the pursuit of money committed by those with similar mindsets but much smaller budgets. These rarely reach the level of newsworthy. Consider the Little League treasurer or the secretary of the PTA who skims thousands from the organization to support a LIFESTYLE.
When I first arrived at Georgetown in 2002 the front page of the Post detailed the greed of the former president of the teacher's union and her minions. They used tens of thousands of union dues dollars for the usual: fur coats, vacations, jewelry, a $50,000 set of antique sterling silver, and so on. She received a well-deserved nine-year prison term plus three years supervised parole.
Money, it seems, wants more money no matter the cost to others, no matter the cost to oneself, be it prison or the loss of the Kingdom of God. It is not the hard cold cash that Jesus is decrying. Jesus is warning against the mind-set of wealth craving more wealth that is the opposite of what is needed to enter the Kingdom of God. That is what Jesus is condemning.
Unlike membership in a country club, unlike a place on Forbes Magazine list of the 1000 wealthiest people in the country, salvation does not derive from human achievement. One is not automatically saved because of rank, bank balance, or the number of toys possessed upon death. Wealth is not one of the keys to the kingdom. It need not be an impediment to entering the kingdom, but it will never move anyone to the front of the line.
True wealth is not what one possesses,
true wealth is what one gives.
True wealth is not what one hoards,
true wealth is what one shares.
The more we share our treasure with those in need, the treasure of money, giving time to the needs of another, or the gift of presence, the larger the eye of that needle becomes.
. . . and that there camel gallops right on through.
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Photo shot through old distorted glass at sv. Višarje in the Julian Alps.
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