Week of December 27, 2009

The Olive Branch	Fr. Seamus Murtagh, Pastor
Knowledge Versus Wisdom   Knowledge is not the same as wisdom.   I may have all the facts at my finger tips, I may be very good at Jeopardy,  I may have  all possible degrees attached to my name, but I may still not have wisdom. Whereas my grandmother may have very little knowledge or facts, but she might have wisdom beyond her years.  What is wisdom?  Wisdom is the ability to distinguish, the ability to judge and to discern. In the Bible, Wisdom is what separates the mature from the immature. Our society gives too much credence to factual knowledge. Our education system, the Internet and TV programs “glorify” memory and the marshalling of facts. Very little attention is given to developing wisdom, which includes full maturity, intellectual, emotional and spiritual.   In the story of Jesus being lost and found in the Temple the key words are that Jesus “grew in wisdom.”  He matured. The Gospels tell us nothing else about the period between the infancy and adult life of Jesus. In ancient times you moved directly from childhood to being adult. It is for this reason that Luke inserts this passage about Jesus at age 12, the  time when a Jewish boy celebrates his Bar Mitzvah.  In a society where Temple took the place of school, this sacred event marked the transition from boyhood to adulthood.  In modern times the transition from childhood to maturity is brought   about through “schooling”.  Often our schools do not enable children to think “critically” and develop wisdom. The International Baccalaureate program at St. Ann’s School however is one program that is meant to develop “critical” thinking in children. Its program of inquiry, its in-depth investigation into who and where we are, how we express and organize ourselves, and how our world functions helps the child to question, explore and reflect on roles and responsibilities, thereby stimulating the child to move beyond factual knowledge to mature wisdom.   As Alfred Lord Tennyson said: “Knowledge comes (and goes) but Wisdom lingers.”    John D'Mello Parochial Vicar
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