Meditations

EARTHLY WISDOM To set the mind on the flesh is death. Romans 8.6. Worldly people have shrewd and wise minds, as Jesus tells us in the Gospel, and their wisdom is often greater than that of godly people. But in spite of its dazzling, deceptively beautiful appearance, worldly wisdom is a fearsome flaw. It brings death to all who take it as the rule by which they live. Tortuous in its logic and abounding with subtleties, worldly wisdom is the enemy of God's wisdom, for God always walks in uprightness and simplicity. What good are all their talents to those who are worldly wise, since they find themselves caught in their own traps? St. James the Apostle says such wisdom is earthly, unspiritual, and devilish. It is earthly because it limits its concern to acquiring and owning earthly goods. It is unspiritual because it aspires only to furnish others what fires their passions, and to plunge them into sensual pleasures. It is devilish because, in addition to having the mind, spirit, and shrewdness of the devil, it has all his evil intent. With earthly wisdom, we imagine we are deceiving others, when actually we are deceiving only ourselves.