From wise to fool

A PASSAGE from the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans can

serve as a graphic description of what is happening in many of the

discussions people have about some hot issues. Let’s hope that we can

be guided accordingly.

            “Claiming to be wise, they became fools,” (1,22) he said.

The immediate context in which these words were spoken may be

different, but they still can be applicable to the present state of

public opinion where we can now see so much wisdom of the fool.

            When people abandon God or alienate themselves from him,

there’s no way but to get into all kinds of anomalies, no matter how

clever and sophisticated the rationalizations are. Such sophistication

foists falsehoods as truth.

            Nowadays, there is so much surge of self-righteousness

that the source of what is good and evil, fair and unfair, human and

inhuman is not anymore God the Creator, but us. The distinction is not

anymore made by God, but by us. We are now in the world of

subjectivism.

            Everything is now based on our views and opinions, our

preferences and current understanding of things. If we can manage to

have some kind of consensus, then that’s it! We can now consider as

good what actually is inherently bad, and we make a world of

make-believe that sooner or later will burst.

            People now follow their own light, a very beguiling and

unreliable light. They have forgotten what Christ said: “I am the

light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness,

but will have the light of life.” (Jn 8,12)

            This man-made light is usually so self-fascinating and

blinding that instead of enabling us to see things objectively, it

only leads us to see our subjective egos. It is a light that is

usually not compatible with humility, patience and fidelity. Rather,

for it to shine it makes use of pride and violence, impatience and

intolerance, infidelity and promiscuity. Thus, it usually generates

division and conflict, controversy and envy.

            This man-made light is the wisdom of the wounded flesh,

the world and the devil himself. It can be clever and wily, and can

present immediate if short-lived advantages. It springs from people’s

belief that they are simply using their freedom, ignoring the fact

that our freedom is not self-generated but is a gift from God and has

to be lived according to God’s will.

            This man-made wisdom is different from the wisdom referred

to by Christ when he said: “Be wise as serpents and innocent as

doves.” (Mt 10,16) As St. James said in his letter, the wisdom that

comes from above “is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to

reason, full of mercy and good fruits, without uncertainty or

insincerity.” (3,17) It is a wisdom that expresses itself in restraint

and moderation. There is no bitterness at all.

            Whereas the wisdom that is not from God, as St. James

again said, “is earthly, unspiritual, devilish.” (3,15) It is

generated by jealousy and selfish ambition, and spawns disorder and

every vile practice. It basks in contentiousness.

            This wisdom finds no value in suffering, no meaning in the

cross of Christ. It can hardly cope, let alone find joy in setbacks,

difficulties, failures. Its triumph is actually triumphalism, a false

victory that would be unmasked sooner or later.

            We have to be careful with our world today so swamped with

this kind of wisdom of the fool.