Robert Barron - What Do You Ask God For?
Peace be with you. Friends for this 28th Sunday of ordinary time. Our first reading is from the marvelous book of Wisdom. If you look in the Bible in the so-called wisdom literature, you have this book, you've got Proverbs, Sirach, and many others written toward the end of the Old Testament period. And they contain appropriately enough, a lot of fundamental wisdom. And the one for today, I think names a very, very basic spiritual truth that we can all benefit from. This is the narrator. Usually they conceive him as Solomon. Solomon didn't write the book, but they see him as the paradigmatic wisdom figure. "I prayed and prudence was given me. I pleaded and the spirit of wisdom came to me".
Now it's this old biblical trope here is if you're asking God for something or if God comes to you and says, "Hey, what do you want," what would you ask for? What would you pray for? It's a really clarifying question. Think about. Let that sink in a little bit as you listen to me. If God right now said, "I'll give you whatever you want," or if you're saying, "Boy, there's the one thing I want to ask God for," what would it be? Well, there's a lot of things would come to mind, but here's what the wise man prays for, prudence and wisdom. Now what's prudence? Prudence is the queen of the virtues. Think of the four classical cardinal virtues. Prudence is the most important one. Why? Because it's the kind of practical know-how in the moral order. It's knowing how to apply moral principles in the particular case.
I always think of a quarterback who's reading the defense. And as the play unfolds, he has a feel for what to do and he's got all this skill in him. But the prudent quarterback is the one that knows how to apply that skill to the ever-changing particular situation. Okay. So prudence and the moral order is similar. I have all these principles and I know right and wrong and what's good and bad. But now in this particular situation, what precisely do I do? That's prudence. Okay. And can you see how without prudence, the other virtues aren't going to matter for very much? You could be the most courageous person in the world, but you don't know how to apply your courage or when to use it.
Well, what good is it? You could be the most just and temperate person in the world, but you don't know how to apply justice or when exactly to instantiate it. It's not going to do any good. That's why prudency is the queen of the virtues, the most important of the virtues. So prudence, he asked for first, and secondly, he asked for thespirit of wisdom. What's wisdom? Well, not just knowledge. There's that. There's knowledge. There's technical know-how. There's knowledge about academic fields and so on. Wisdom isn't that. Wisdom, Aquinas put it this way, it's the view from the hilltop, which means it's the view of life from the standpoint of the first cause or the highest cause.
So think for a second, if you're surveying your world, well, you can look at it from a scientific standpoint. You can analyze it chemically and in terms of the principles of physics and all that. You can analyze it psychodynamically. You can analyze it politically. There's all these ways of viewing reality. But you've not reached wisdom yet. When you look at your world from the standpoint of the highest cause, that means what does God want here? What's God about in this situation? So your move from one city to another. I mean I've experienced that in my life and you could read that in a lot of different ways. But to pray actually is to exercise wisdom is to say, "Okay, what is God doing here"?
Can you see now everybody, why these are the most important things to ask for? Because if you don't know what God wants you to do in a particular situation, then what's the value of the other types of knowledge? They just sort of fritter away. If you know what God is about, what God intends, then you can integrate all the other forms of knowledge under that heading just as like prudence. If you don't have prudence, you can't apply the other virtues. So if the Lord's asking him, "What do you want"? Two very good things to ask for.
Now listen as he goes on, because it's very clarifying. "I preferred her," he means wisdom here "to scepter and throne". So again, the author's imagining this person to be Solomon, Israel's king. I preferred wisdom to scepter and throne meaning to power. There are a lot of people, if the Lord said, "Hey, ask me for whatever you want," would say, "Give me kingly power. Oh, I'd love to be in charge. I want them all to listen to me and do what I tell them. Give me power". Power is a very, very seductive thing. Again, I mentioned to you Tolkien, the ring, the ring, right, that bedevils everybody. It's a ring of power. But Solomon here says, "No. I preferred wisdom to scepter and throne". Why? Because if you got all the power in the world, but you don't have prudence and you don't have wisdom, you won't know what to do with your power.
And in fact, your power is going to turn on you and destroy you, as it did Solomon for example. Think about that. You have power. If people do whatever you want, you can manipulate things according to your will. But you don't know what God wants and you've got no moral common sense, you're going to run amok. You're going to create havoc around you. And believe me, eventually they're going to overthrow you because you'll be abusing your power for your own purposes. So if you've got one thing to ask for, don't ask for scepter and throne. Ask for prudence and wisdom. Listen now as he goes on, "And deemed riches nothing in comparison with her, nor did I liken any priceless gem to her, because all gold in view of her is a little sand".
Okay. Some people want power. Other people, if the Lord said, "Ask me for whatever you want," oh, they'd ask for wealth. I know a lot of people, they don't care about power really. What they want is wealth and what wealth can buy. And look, we all are susceptible to this. You move through the world and you see all the nice things that money can buy. You're in someone's home and it's got all kinds of beautiful things. And you see the cars they have, and they're in a private jet. They go on these wonderful vacations and, "Yeah, I want money. I want gold. I want gems. I want silver". But Solomon here says, "No, no, I don't liken wisdom to something as trivial as a priceless gem. All gold compared to wisdom is sand".
How come? Because you got all the wealth in the world, but you don't know what God wants you to do with it. You got all the wealth in the world, but you don't know how to apply it and use it in a morally upright way. It doesn't mean anything. In fact, it's worse than useless because it will turn on you. How many times do we need to hear the story? And it's in ancient literature. It's in the literature of the entire world across space and time. It's in the pages of newspapers today, on the internet today.
How many times do we need to hear the story about some young kid, sports star or movie star or celebrity who is suddenly given lots of money, suddenly they got tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars. And what happens? Because they don't have any wisdom or any prudence, the money actually destroys them because they're going to use it for all kinds of bad things and they get into addictions and they get into abusive situations, and the money eventually is even frittered away. They don't know how to control themselves. No, no, no. If you're asking for one thing, don't ask for money, ask for wisdom, ask for prudence. How about this last one, "Beyond health and comeliness, I loved her".
So some people, they say, "Look, I'm not that crazy about power, any power. I'm not really obsessed with wealth. No, no. If I were asking God for one thing, I'd ask for health, bodily health and beauty. I'd love to be healthy and attractive". Well, I mean sure. Who wouldn't? Those are good things. But the same principle applies. You're as healthy as a horse, but you don't know how to live your life. You're going to waste your health on all kinds of bad things. You're comely, to use this biblical term. You're beautiful. You're handsome. Okay. But you don't know how to use that or you have no wisdom guiding you. Your good looks are going to lead you into lots of trouble. It's interesting, everybody, the Bible knows all about that.
Shakespeare does too. You see it all the time. But the Bible knows about it. David, his son, Absalom. There are a number of cases of very beautiful people who get into lots of trouble because without wisdom and prudence, their beauty is going to turn on them and cause them trouble. Don't ask for wealth. Don't ask for beauty. Don't ask for health. Don't ask for power. Ask to understand your life from the standpoint of God. Okay. With all that in mind, I'm just going to briefly glance at that marvelous gospel for today. I preached on it before in greater detail, but just to make a simple point, this is the rich young man, as Mark describes him. So he's a good kid. He comes up to Jesus, kneels down, "Good teacher, what must I do to have eternal life"?
All right, that's a good question. Here's the thing though. Here's the God of Israel incarnate. And this rich young man has the enormous privilege of being able to kneel right in front of the God of Israel and say, "Here's what I want". And God tells him what to do. First, "Hey, do you follow the commandments"? "Yes, yes I do". And I believe him. I believe he does follow the commandments. "But there's more you must do. Sell all you have, give it to the poor and come follow me, and you'll find the kingdom of God". God is telling him what to do. Wisdom in person, the word made flesh is telling him what to do. He's been given the gift of wisdom. But he doesn't take it. He prefers his wealth and he goes away, we hear, sad. And for my money, it is one of the saddest scenes in the New Testament because typically when Jesus confronts somebody, they drop everything and follow him.
The disciples that threw their nets away and followed him. Matthew leaves his customs post and follows him. But then there's this mysterious young man who is torn between wealth and wisdom, and he chooses wealth. Of course, he goes away sad. Have you wondered? I often thought it would be a good assignment for a gifted novelist to imagine the life trajectory of this kid. He's got the God of Israel right in front of him telling him what to do, and he doesn't do it. And I could imagine he could get richer and richer maybe, more and more influential, important person, but would be haunted every minute of his life by this same sadness.
What do you want? What do you pray for? What do you beg God for? It's all kinds of candidates, and they're all here. Wealth, power, pleasure, success, health, beauty, all kinds of stuff we could ask for. Ask for wisdom. Ask for prudence. And then, listen to me, if you get those, you will know what to do with your health and your beauty and your wealth and your power, or with your lack of wealth or beauty or success or power. It won't matter to you whether you have them or don't, because you will see your life and you'll see the world from the standpoint of the highest cause. And in that you'll find real joy. And God bless you.