It has been said that not much is known about the Holy Family. There is little written about them in the Gospels. Perhaps that is true, but in what few verses there are, volumes of books could be written about how they most likely lived their lives in obedience to God.
We too are called to live our lives in obedience to God and His commandments. Consider this short passage about the Holy Family from Luke’s Gospel:
The Return to Nazareth
When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth
The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him. Luke 2:39-40
Learning Point #1 – The Holy Family lived in obedience to the Mosaic Law.
Learning Point #2 – The Holy Family formed Jesus in God’s wisdom.
We are all members of the Holy Family, if we want to be. The Holy Family will accept us. They will, however, expect us to live as they do. Some things come to mind here: love, righteousness, piety, chastity, prudence, strength, obedience, faithfulness, generosity, order, peace, wisdom, and Fear of the Lord.
In this post, we will review seven (7) verses from the seven (7) Wisdom books of the Bible: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom, and Sirach. From these verses, there are some basic principles that should help you with your ongoing discipleship formation in Christ, or God willing, even a conversion. Let us begin!
7 Wisdom Principles to Apply in Daily Life
Wisdom Principle #1: Embrace Suffering.
Gird up your loins now, like a man; I will question you, and you tell me the answers! Where were you when I founded the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Job 38:3-4
Reflecting on the Book of Job in the Old Testament, Job went through horrendous suffering and the highest levels of diabolic oppression, despite being righteous and innocent. Job made a plea to God for an explanation, and we see God responded.
“The restoration of health and riches to Job prefigures the resurrection, which gives health and eternal life to those who believe in Christ.” – St. Zeno of Verona
God is in control – Christ controls all aspects of spiritual warfare in your life. No matter what happens to you, good or bad, God and his angels are very much involved in your life. Have faith in God and have humility in His will for you, in whatever that may be.
If there is suffering, try not to murmur or complain. Rather, offer your suffering in prayer up to Jesus on the cross for the salvation of souls, and with that, your suffering has salvific value in eyes of the God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth.
CCC 300 God is infinitely greater than all his works: “You have set your glory above the heavens.” Indeed, God’s “greatness is unsearchable”. But because he is the free and sovereign Creator, the first cause of all that exists, God is present to his creatures’ inmost being: “In him we live and move and have our being.” In the words of St. Augustine, God is “higher than my highest and more inward than my innermost self”.
Resolution: Offer up the day’s suffering to Jesus on the cross in prayer.
Wisdom Principle #2: Live a humble and cloistered life for God.
Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in company with scoffers. Rather, the law of the LORD is his joy; and on his law he meditates day and night. Psalms 1:1-2
The word “cloister” basically means to live a life enclosed from the outside world.
There are levels with this meaning for each of us, both individual and family. The highest level would be the monks and nuns called by God to live a cloistered life of prayer and contemplation in monasteries and convents throughout the world.
The psalmist teaches us that we should all be living a cloistered life in devotion to God on some level each day. How that applies to you is between you and God.
The more you detach from the world we live in, the more you allow your soul communion with God in in prayer, contemplation, the Word, and the sacraments.
A preface to the whole Book of Psalms, contrasting with striking similes the destiny of the good and the wicked. The Psalm views life as activity, as choosing either the good or the bad. Each “way” brings its inevitable consequences. The wise through their good actions will experience rootedness and life, and the wicked, rootlessness and death. Source: USCCB
Resolution: Find your greatest joy in this life in God and the things of God.
Wisdom Principle #3: A foundation in Christ is centered in Fear of the Lord.
Fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and discipline. Proverbs 1:7
Proverbs 1:7 is the root proverb and master theme for the entire Book of Proverbs.
If this proverb was a scale, weigh you heart on it and see which side outweighs the other. Know that God is watching. One side will outweigh the other. Consider your foundation in Christ in your own life. At the four corners of the foundation we find:
- Humility
- Wisdom
- Discipline
- Order
The very center of the foundation, there should be reverential Fear of the Lord.
An example of order – Being faithful to pray the traditional Angelus Prayer with the Church bells throughout the world at the appointed times every day of the week (6am, noon, 6:00pm) will change your life, especially praying in solidarity with the Church faithful throughout the world at 6:00 am every morning, including weekends.
CCC 1831 The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. They belong in their fullness to Christ, Son of David. They complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them. They make the faithful docile in readily obeying divine inspirations.
Resolution: Work on the humility, discipline, and order in your day, and steadily increase in knowledge of God and the teachings of His Church.
Wisdom Principle #4: Love God and Neighbor.
The last word, when all is heard: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this concerns all humankind; because God will bring to judgment every work, with all its hidden qualities, whether good or bad. Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
The book of Ecclesiastes discusses how everything we achieve and do in the life is all “vanity chasing the wind” in comparison to God. The power and glory of God is beyond human comprehension, but we experience glimpses of God’s goodness during holy communion or something as simple as a friendly smile or watching the sunrise.
“Sunrise marks the hour for men to begin their toil, but in our souls, Lord, prepare a dwelling for the day that will never end.” – St. Ephrem
We would do well in life to live out the wisdom in this verse and keep the Lord’s commandments as best as we can. This is the bottom line in God’s book of life: How did we love God? How did we show mercy and be the light of Christ to others?
Wealth, pleasure, power and fame will provide no benefit at the judgement seat of God. In the words of St. Benedict, the love of Christ must come before all else.
CCC 2447 The works of mercy are charitable actions by which we come to the aid of our neighbor in his spiritual and bodily necessities. Instructing, advising, consoling, comforting are spiritual works of mercy, as are forgiving and bearing wrongs patiently. The corporal works of mercy consist especially in feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and burying the dead. Among all these, giving alms to the poor is one of the chief witnesses to fraternal charity: it is also a work of justice pleasing to God.
Resolution: Have a greater reverence for God in love and devotion, and be active in the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy of the Church.
Wisdom Principle #5: The Church Sanctuary is a Tree of Life.
The beams of our house are cedars, our rafters, cypresses. Song of Songs 1:17
Let this obscure scripture verse from the Song of Songs serve as a perpetual reminder that the house of God is holy and solidly built in Christ. You walk in any Catholic church and what do you find? Beauty and truth. The beauty is in the splendor of the design, whether it be modest or wondrous. The truth is in the tabernacle, where the body of Christ resides and quietly thirsts to see us and be in communion with us.
“The Church, which has spread everywhere, even to the ends of the earth, received the faith from the apostles and their disciples.” – St. Irenaeus
The wisdom here is to make God and His Church the first fruits of your life.
Support the Eucharist and your priests by tithing the first fruits of your income to God. Receive the Eucharist faithfully each week in a state of grace. Spend holy time with Jesus in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Be a tree of life for others by being nourished and blessed in Word, sacrament, and in charitable works of mercy.
Those, therefore, who belong to this holy communion, it is manifest, do now enjoy a certain degree of happiness and can truly say: How lovely are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! my soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord…. Blessed are they who dwell in thy house, Lord. Catechism of the Council of Trent, Article IX Communion and Other Blessings
Resolution: Spend more sacred time in the Church sanctuary (Mass, Eucharistic adoration, prayer, and the sacrament of reconciliation)
Wisdom Principle #6: Carry your cross with complete faith in God.
Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace, he proved them, and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself. Wisdom 3:5-6
Much like the verse mentioned from the Book of Job, we see here again in the Book of Wisdom that we all have our own cross we are expected to carry by God.
We must undergo spiritual purification in this life and suffer as Christ did for us.
If we give up our lives for Jesus, we also hope that we will rise on the last day and be with Him forever in heaven. Thus, no matter what circumstances you are living in, or whatever you are going through, you must know that God is there with you, and there is nothing in comparison to God. Think of St. Michael, “Who is like God?”
In the Bible, God sent his angels St. Gabriel and St. Raphael on missionary assignments. Their total focus was on completing those assignments with angelic precision, and they did. We are called to do the same and have complete faith and confidence in God along the way. Should we fall, get back up, pray, and keep going.
What we do ask is that He may deliver us from sins. This is the interpretation of St. Luke, who, instead of debts, makes use of the word sins, because by their commission we become guilty before God and incur a debt of punishment, which we must pay either by satisfaction or by suffering. Catechism of the Council of Trent – The Fifth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer “Debts”
Resolution: Fulfill the mission God has uniquely entrusted to you.
Wisdom Principle #7: Avoid Sin.
In whatever you do, remember your last days, and you will never sin. Sirach 7:36
I remember when I was child seeing a glimpse of the vast, beautiful blue water of the Gulf of Mexico sparkling in the afternoon sun for the first time on our way to Destin, Florida for a family vacation. When we drove over the bridge, I had a better view of the gulf horizon, and I thought to myself, “That is amazing, and I must get to it immediately!” We should have the same childlike expectations about experiencing the glory of God, and that day and moment will soon be in reach for all of us.
Similarly, the wisdom from the book of Sirach also teaches us that our lives are just drop in comparison to the infinite span of eternity (Sirach 18:10).
Thus, we would be wise to do all we can to relentlessly avoid all sin in our life along the way. For one day, the drop of our lives will be in the oceans of His grace, where we pray and hope to be deemed worthy to be with Him forever and ever for all of eternity.
7:36 the end of your life: Literally, “your last days”. To avoid sin, Jewish tradition advises people to remember where they came from, where they are going, and to Whom they must give an account of their lives. Source: Ignatius Catholic Study Bible
Resolution: Turn away from sin and open your heart to the Gospel.
