Summary of the Morrow's Meditation
We will meditate tomorrow upon the false wisdom of the world, and we shall see: 1st, how worthy it is of reprobation; 2nd, how, in fact, God reprehends it. We will then make the resolution: 1st, to let the world do, say, and think as it wills, and to attach ourselves to Jesus Christ as to the sole true wisdom; 2nd, often to consult our adorable Saviour, begging of Him to enlighten us with regard to all that we ought to think, say, or do. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the anathema pronounced by God against the false wisdom of the world: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the prudence of the prudent I will reject" (I. Cor. i. 19).
Meditation for the Morning
Let us adore the extreme repugnance which Our Lord shows for the false wisdom of the world and the prudence of the flesh. He combats it by His speeches, and declares that He will destroy those who take it as the rule of their conduct. Let us receive with respect and gratitude this salutary instruction.
FIRST POINT
How Worthy the Wisdom of the World is of Reprobation.
To understand this it is sufficient to consider how false it is, for truth is a need of the soul; it is its repose, its nobility, its dignity, the principle of its energy. Falsehood, on the contrary, necessarily incurs its reprobation; he who lies feels that he betrays a duty and lowers himself. Now the wisdom of the world is only falsehood and lies. It is false in its principle, false in its virtues, false in its vices. 1st. In its principle. It sets out from this dictum, that we must, at any cost, seek our happiness in this world; and hence it concludes that we must, when it is necessary in order to reach this end, sacrifice all the rest, provided that we save appearances by dint of concealments, of dissimulation, and of artifices. Now what can be more false than this principle and the consequences to be deduced from it? 2nd. It is false in its virtues. It humbles itself only in order to rise, affects to be silent only that it may be listened to more attentively, appears to be indifferent to things only in order to obtain them, patient under injuries only through want of power to avenge them, gentle only whilst waiting the moment to burst out, charitable only when it finds it is to its interest to be so, religious only when it is a means of pleasing any one; in everything it is nothing but falsehood and hypocrisy. 3rd. It is false even in its vices. It calls its incredulity strength of mind, its duplicity wise policy and a talent for business, its resentments and vengeances honor and courage, its seductions urbanity and politeness, its perseverance in guilty attachments constancy and fidelity. Can anything more entirely deserve the reprobation of every upright and Christian soul? And yet do we not possess some of its characteristics?
SECOND POINT
How God Reproves the False Wisdom of the World.
The Holy Ghost calls it, by the mouth of St. James, "earthly, sensual, devilish" (James iii. 15). If it be earthly, it is therefore not suitable for heaven; if it be sensual, it is thereby unworthy of a reasonable soul, which ought to have only noble and elevated sentiments; if it be devilish, it is a hellish wisdom, which can lead to nothing but hell. By the organ of St. Paul, the same Holy Spirit calls it a death (Rom. viii. 6); by following it, therefore, we cannot arrive at life. He calls it an enemy of God (James iv. 4); God is, therefore, its enemy. He calls it an irreconcilable enemy of the law of God (Rom. viii. 7); it is, therefore, impossible to save ourselves if we follow its maxims. He treats it as folly (I. Cor. i. 20), and declares that He has been pleased to confound it by taking, in order to convert the world, the instruments which it esteemed to be the most incapable (Ibid. 27 et seq.). Could God better show us what a horror He has of this pretended wisdom of the world, how severely He reproves and condemns it? Let us thereby learn that we must not take counsel of the world and of its false wisdom in regard to all that we have to do, but consult God in prayer and wise men filled with His spirit.
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.