15 June | EVERYONE
«Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.» Proverbs 12:1
In the book of Proverbs, wisdom and foolishness are presented as two beautiful women calling human beings. The first exhibits a natural, authentic, and unpretentious beauty; The beauty of the second is artificial, fake, and deceptive. Wisdom invites. Foolishness seduces. Men and women are at the crossroads. There are two paths, two destinations. But each one must make their own decision.
Wisdom involves instruction, learning, suffering, renunciation, and often sacrifice. Foolishness, on the other hand, offers you a world without limits, but its promise is fallacious. Crowds follow enthusiastically, unaware that their end is death.
Solomon associates wisdom with instruction and rebuke. Both words carry with them the need for learning, and there is no learning without pain. It is necessary to spend hours of reflection and self-examination, to accept one’s own mistakes and correct one’s defects, to renounce cherished concepts and acquired habits, to amend one’s course, to make an effort to remove the stones from the path. Loving wisdom requires humility to accept that a professional degree does not necessarily teach how to live.
Solomon defines the person who rejects wisdom as ignorant, and ignorance is the first link in the chain of suffering. It is not the ignorance of “not knowing,” but the blind, stubborn ignorance that rejects instruction and rebuke.
God is the source of true wisdom. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God” (James 1:5), James advises. The Lord is a Father of love ready to illuminate the path of those who seek Him with a sincere heart.
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To sincerely ask for wisdom is to recognize one’s limitations. It involves humility. And that is precisely the attitude necessary to acquire true knowledge. Are you willing to sincerely ask for wisdom?