ROOTED (DAILY HOMILY)

‘‘….It is he that deadeth unto me wisdom, and directeth the wise. For in his hand are both we and our words; all wisdom also, and knowledge of workmanship…For wisdom is more moving than any notion: she passeth and goeth through all things by reason of her pureness’ (Wisdom 7,15-8,4)

Religion is easily bypassed by our ultra-smart world, the ‘know-how’ of a modern society which has complex organisational skills. As if in a harbour, many flagships of this complex fleet (let’s call it today’s culture) are parading proudly under their flags. What is ignored is the ‘letter’ of the Sacred Scriptures, religious wisdom.

However, if one leans over these sacred pages (visible and invisible, as verbal tradition, and the practical life style, the morality of the faithful are also included) we can clearly detect the origin of all what we know and deploy. Our ‘science and technology based’ culture is coming from these deep-roots. I am time and again spellbound by the analytical skills of these sacred authors. There is such an in-depth, multi-faceted assessment of human history, which contains, in an embryonic form, the later analytical mindset of sciences. The key is: bravely facing reality as it is. We can observe the same ‘reality probing’ in the secondary texts of Judaeo-Christian religious literature. The minute-detail discussions of issues of life in rabbinic literature, or, the doctors of the church when x-raying the ‘moral lung’ of the present times. ‘And in all ages entering into holy souls, she maketh them friends of God, and prophets.’ Friends of reality.

On the threshold of closing the church year, when our focus is Christ the King of the Universe, it is worth re-anchoring ourselves in the bottom-rock of all reality, God’s Wisdom. It will - surely - fertilise what we know about the world, and how our knowledge should be deployed. Not only in the service of our own interests, but in the interest of all. Animals, humans, and the created world – the whole life of planet Earth. Thus, let us be rooted.

26.11.2020