Earlier this month on July 8th, 2013 Archbishop Charles Chaput delivered this Address at the National Shine in Washington D.C. This spoke to me more than any sermon had in a long time. It spoke to my frailties as a human. It reignited a more noble purpose within myself that has been lying dead inside from the festering wounds of my agnosticism.
More importantly, Archbishop Chaput delivered this not just through the words of Christianity. He sought out an enemy of Christians and used his words to deliver the message. “Speak both to the powerful and to every man—whoever he may be—appropriately and without affectation. Use plain language. Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance, and be ready to let it go. Order your life well in every single act. Behave justly to those who are around you. Be vigilant over your thoughts, so that nothing should steal into them without being well examined.” Every moment, focus steadily on doing the task at hand with perfect and simple dignity, and with feelings of affection and freedom and justice. Put away hypocrisy. Pout away self-love and discontent with your portion in life. We were made for cooperation, and to act against one another is contrary to nature. Accept correction gladly. Teach without anger. Keep yourself simple, good, pure, serious, a friend of justice, kind, affectionate, and strenuous in all proper acts.” Take care never to feel toward those who are inhuman and feel the way they feel toward other men.” These were the words of Marcus Aurelius.
For those who do not know your history, Marcus Aurelius was an Emperor of Rome. In his days he was no friend of Christianity, yet reading these words today you would never know it. These words contain wisdom. The Archbishop then goes on to site his dictionary “The Dictionary in my home defines wisdom as ‘the understanding and pursuit of what is true, right or lasting’.” I personally would like to know what dictionary he is using, because I find this definition far more useful than Webster which describes wisdom as:
1. “a : accumulated philosophic or scientific learning : knowledge
3. : the teachings of the ancient wise me”n
I won’t reiterate his entire homily, I think you should read it or listen to it. I will highlight his three points however.
“Here’s my first point: The more secular we become, the less we care about the true, the right and the lasting. And here’s the reason: We don’t really believe they exist. Or we simply don’t care.
“Here’s my second point: Just as we transformed our belief in God to a belief in ourselves beginning with the Enlightenment, now we’re shifting a belief in ourselves to a belief in our tools under the cover of a scientific and technological revolution. To put it another way: Losing faith in God inevitably results in losing faith in man, because only God can guarantee man’s unique dignity. Without God, we turn ourselves into the objects and the victims of our own knowledge. And we’re doing that at a moment when our tools have more destructive power than at any time in history.”
“That brings me to my third point: I believe that it’s exactly this vocation—this eternal perspective that makes the Church the most reliable bearer of wisdom for the contemporary world.”
His three points each touch on the three pillars of Wisdom. I don’t doubt in my mind at all that the more secular we become the less we care about Wisdom. Before I graduated with my undergraduate I attended three Universities and a Community College. While there were certainly wise individuals within the Public Education structure, just as there were people of various religious inclinations, by and large the education provided was information only. In other words it lacked wisdom.
Perhaps one of the most telling examples was in a class where students discussed the attack on the world trade center. A student likened the terrorist attack to the end of Star Wars where the Rebels, and specifically Luke Skywalker blew up the Death Star. Instead of being denounced instead of being roundly criticized for this comparison, the student was applauded. I’m not saying that Star Wars cannot provide Wisdom, what I am saying was that the attack on 911 was an attack of pure evil comparing it to the Rebels or the good guys from a popular culture reference is not worthy of applause. This is just one small anecdotal example of the loss of Wisdom on campus. There are numerous others.
Just last week I saw a news story where college students were signing a petition to endorse 4th Quarter or post birth Abortions. It isn’t just the lack of Wisdom that bothers me, it is the rapidity and the new culture and path that is filling the void left in its absence. We are not all Christians, we are not all Jewish, nor Muslim, nor Atheist, nor Agnostic, but we should all be able to agree there are common pillars of Wisdom, of Conscience, and of Culture. It is time we take a look at what our ancestors did right and not just simply dismiss them for because they may have endorsed some really bad ideas, our ancestors prevailed based on their application of Wisdom and tried and true morals and beliefs, rules and of course determination.
