- Who is like the wise?
And who knows the interpretation of a thing?
A man’s wisdom makes his face shine,
and the hardness of his face is changed. -
Wisdom is a peculiar thing. At times, we like to pretend that wisdom is like knowledge, but in our modern day, it is something quite different.
Perhaps at one point there was no dividing line; now it is useful to use both words to delineate between two types of knowing.
What do I mean? Knowledge appears to be associated with information gained via the scientific method and wisdom appears to be understanding that is a-priori or intuitive.
Knowledge is knowing what gravity is. No matter how many times you drop the apple, it still hits Newton’s noggin.
Wisdom explains our values. It is the understanding that it is useful to know the apple falls.
Have you captured the nuance here? Based on these definitions, we can see that knowledge has little insight into values.
To know something does not imply knowing it is useful. Why else would they call them useless facts?
To put it another way, could you count and record the blades of grass in your front yard? Sure can, but wisdom would inform you of the uselessness of the action.
The emphasis we place on knowledge and wisdom show in many ways the heart of our culture. We are staggeringly, technologically powerful, yet we can’t define what a woman is.
Wisdom has a way for us all to tap into the underlying means and purposes of things without necessarily needing to articulate them.
We do this most obviously when we partake in communion, but we also enter into these patterns at marriages and funerals.
This is great news! Because wisdom is difficult to search out. I mean, look at Solomon’s life; the wisest man searching out wisdom was disappointed.
In these rituals, we get the opportunity to act out some of the most fundamental truths of the universe, such as love, sacrifice, meaning, etc.
Those that can speak of these intuitions speak of wisdom. They know not only the form of the thing but its purpose as well.
To put it simply: they know the how and, more importantly, the why.
To have the why answered is to indeed find the answer to the unanswerable question of the child. Why are we going to grandmas? Why do I have to? Why does Daddy love Mommy?
These are not foolish questions. Children, especially in infancy, are only students. Yes, they have needs, but that does not distinguish them from us.
They desire to know, and they desire to know even the most difficult questions. That is why we must give them the worst answer.
Because I said so.
It is an answer from authority, one that every child knows is bad. They can even see the adults not buying it while they offer it.
Love the Lord your God with all of your mind. What does this mean? A part of the answer is to answer the why questions.
Why? When those who interpret the world correctly speak, it creates peace. It is the action of organization – of putting it all in the proper place.
That is why a child asks why.
With that truth, one can have a faith no longer naïve. They can move beyond the tender time of childhood and begin to see the world as it truly is.
All our suffering resolved in perfect being.
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