Today, the Holy Father begins his catechetical series on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which will take place during his General Audiences each of seven consecutive Wednesdays.
In his first catechism, Pope Francis teaches about wisdom. You can read the full translated text here. For now, I’d like to point out a few lines that especially struck me:
And wisdom in fact is this: it is the grace to be able to see everything with the eyes of God. It is simply this: to see the world, to see situations, circumstances, problems, everything with God’s eyes. This is wisdom. Sometimes we see things according to how they please us or according to the situation of our heart, with love or with hatred, with envy … No, this is not God’s eye. Wisdom is what the Holy Spirit does in us so that we see all things with God’s eyes. This is the gift of wisdom.
With the gift of wisdom, we will be able to see all things with God’s eyes! How many times have you thrown up your hands over a situation (or bunch of situations) and said, “I don’t get it!”? I have. Plenty of times. Wisdom will help us to see those situations from a completely different perspective – from God’s perspective, not our own.
However, the Pope points out that wisdom is not something we can acquire of our own accord; it is a gift from God.
And this is not learnt: it is a gift of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we must ask the Lord to give us the Holy Spirit and the gift of wisdom, that wisdom of God that teaches us to look with God’s eyes, to feel with God’s heart, to speak with God’s words.
Over the coming week, I’ll be meditating on, and praying for, the Spirit’s gift of wisdom, following St. James’ advice:
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all men generously and without reproaching, and it will be given him,
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