Dr. Helen Titilola OLOJEDE

Friends, on this Sunday of Pentecost, we now step aside from examining the fruits of the Spirit to reflect on what I consider one of the major gifts of the Holy Spirit, which is wisdom. Wisdom helps us discern how God desires us to live and act. Counsel, another gift, enables us to make sound decisions and speak rightly, while understanding allows us to perceive spiritual realities beyond what is immediately visible.

Wisdom, however, goes even deeper. It is the capacity to exercise sound judgement while balancing personal good with the good of others. Through this gift, what we know intellectually begins to shape our hearts and actions. Wisdom nurtures a love for truth, and that love naturally expresses itself through charity and concern for others.

St Thomas Moore, who beautifully embodied the gift of wisdom, states: "Wisdom is not the possession of knowledge, but the use of it." Wisdom works closely with counsel and understanding and helps us perceive the world through the eyes of God. It enables us to recognise truth when it appears before us. Human beings often see the world through the limitations of personal assumptions, weaknesses, and sin, which can cloud judgment and distort reality. The gift of wisdom allows us to step back from these limitations and view life from a divine perspective. It opens our hearts to deeper insight and helps us appreciate situations from a broader, more truthful perspective. It is similar to wearing blue-tinted glasses that make everything appear blue. Wisdom is like someone gently removing those glasses so that the true colours of things can finally be seen clearly, free from the distortion caused by sin.

St. Thomas Aquinas says of the gift of wisdom in his Summa Theologiae thus: Wisdom is both the knowledge of and judgment about “divine things” and the ability to judge and direct human affairs according to divine truth (I/I.1.6; I/II.69.3; II/II.8.6; II/II.45.1–5). Sacred Scripture also provides powerful examples of this gift in action. In I Kings 3:16-25, King Solomon demonstrates wisdom in the dispute concerning the living child when he declares, “Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other.” In Mt 22:15-21, Jesus responds wisely with the words, “Then render to Caesar what is Caesar, and to God what is God.” Likewise, in Jn 8:1-11, Jesus speaks with wisdom regarding the adulterous woman when He says, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” May the Lord graciously grant us the gift of wisdom.

Come, Holy Spirit and fill the heart of the faithful…