Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Osmond Anike

Readings:

First Reading:1 Kings 3:5, 7-12 – Solomon chooses the gift of wisdom.

Responsorial Psalm:Psalm 118(119):57, 72, 76-77, 127-130 – Lord, how I love your law!

Second Reading:Romans 8:28-30 – Those he called, he justified.

Gospel:Matthew 13:44-52 – He sells everything he owns and buys the field.

What constitutes wisdom is not the amount of information gathered, but rather what one does with that information. Gathering information is as easy as A, B, C., the real task lies in processing the information gathered. This is what distinguishes a merely educated person (in terms of just getting an academic certificate) and a wise person. A merely educated person simply gathers information in a scattered form, but a wise person processes that information to know which are relevant and which are not, which must be applied at which particular situation and which must wait before being applied, etc. In this sense, one could be educated but not wise; one could be learned but stupid. A wise person possesses the wealth of the mind; and the wealth that is indeed worth seeking is the wealth of the mind rather than the wealth of the pocket. Although it is possible for one to possess both wealth of the mind and wealth of the pocket, the truth is that when one is rich in mind, the person is rich in character; but when one seeks the wealth of the pocket at the exclusion of the wealth of the mind, the person becomes stupid in character.

The bane of modern politics, especially in the developing world, is that politicians do not seek wisdom; they seek the wealth of their private pockets. What matters for many of them is not how best to govern the people but how to perpetuate themselves in power. They campaign on the platform of “serving” the people, but when they are eventually elected, they compel the people to serve their interests. When a leader becomes narcissistic, the populace is the worse for it. Among each person’s scale of values, there has to be a priority; and, wisdom lies in making your priority come first. The priority of a good leader must lie in the wellbeing of the people rather than in the leader’s personal wellbeing.

Solomon is regarded as great in world history because he was able to realize that wisdom should take precedence over wealth on the scale of preference of any good ruler. He had the opportunity to seek for material wealth, but he rather chose wisdom. Perhaps, Plato derived his notion of “philosopher-king” from this Solomon episode in the first reading. When Plato postulated in his dialogue, Republic, that the world will not really progress as a just society until either philosophers become kings or kings become philosophers, he was using the word “philosopher” in its etymology of “lover of wisdom”. This is exactly what King Solomon asked – to become a lover of wisdom in the sense of acquiring wisdom with which to govern God’s people. However, his desire for wisdom is not just centered on mere earthly wisdom which can sometimes be synonymous with shrewdness. Solomon was, above all, seeking for wisdom that springs from the knowledge of God: “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom”. He was seeking for wisdom of discernment between good and evil. No wonder God was so impressed by his choice of request.

Unfortunately, today, many of our so-called rulers seek “wisdom” not of discernment of good and evil but rather of confusing evil with good, and of justifying evil for the purposes of scoring cheap political victories. This is shrewdness and not necessarily the wisdom that is praised by God in the reading. Solomon’s interest was never to score any political gain. He realized that what was needed to govern the people was wisdom rather than wealth. And being a young man, he was genuinely conscious of his limitation in terms of possession of that wisdom. If only Solomon’s choice could act as guidance to all the leaders of the world, indeed, the world would become a paradise.

The wisdom that is the knowledge of God is a treasure so infinitely valuable that one ought to dispense with other possessions (“sell everything he own”) in order to acquire it. This is the treasure hidden in the field, as read in the gospel of today.

Wisdom consists in discovering that there is a treasure hidden within you, and grabbing that treasure with both hands instead of wasting your time chasing rats. Some of the wealth of the pocket that we chase every day to the exclusion of real treasure can be equated with “chasing rats”. There are more pressing and more important things for an adult to do than waste one’s entire life pursuing that which really should come last in the scale of preference. First things should come first.