Colossians 1:9-11 and Turning Wisdom into Charity

“May you attain full knowledge of God’s will through perfect wisdom and spiritual insight. Then you will lead a life worthy of the Lord and pleasing to him in every way. You will multiply good works of every sort and grow in the knowledge of God. By the might of his glory you will be endowed with the strength needed to stand fast, even to endure joyfully whatever may come.”

–Colossians 1:9-11

What a Rich and Powerful Reading today!!  That first sentence should stop us in our tracks:

(1) May you attain full knowledge of God’s will through perfect wisdom and spiritual insight

What a beautiful prayer.  We should ALL pray this every day and mean it!!  When was the last time we asked God to align my will with His Will?

Or, when was the last time we asked God to show us His will and actually meant it and desired to seek God’s will?

Every time we pray the Our Father prayer, we concede to God…thy will be done.  But, can I know what God’s will is for me when I pray that prayer?  The answer is YES! And this is St. Paul’s prayer in today’s reading.  

Let’s pull out some key terms in this sentence from St. Paul:

Wisdom, Knowledge, Insight

We tend to think of Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Insight in terms of intellectual acumen and scholarly achievement.  I think St. Paul calls us to something more in this reading.

Wisdom

Wisdom is seeing things the way God sees them. 

Knowledge

The fifth gift of the Holy Spirit, knowledge is the perfection of faith, but whereas wisdom gives us the desire to judge all things according to the truths of the Catholic Faith, knowledge is the actual ability to do so.

Insight

A sudden enlightenment on some subject, as of a mystery of faith, with clear understanding and the ability to explain its meaning to others. 

Why do we lack Knowledge, Wisdom, and Insight?

Ms. Ann Maloney, OP highlights a St. Thomas Aquinas’s explanation:*

“We are born with our will turned away from God, inclined to evil, weak in regard to good, with our reason prone to error, our sensitive appetites strongly disposed to inordinate pleasure and to anger.”

Fr. Chad Ripperger (Exorcist who you can find on Youtube) states it more bluntly:  “Sin makes you stupid. The more you sin the dumber you get”

We cannot even begin to have knowledge, understanding and spiritual insight into God’s Will for us if we are mired in sin.

Our first act must be prayer.  Followed closely by receiving the sacraments so that we may receive the grace we need to turn from sin, grow in virtue, and turn back to God.

With this grace, we can now begin to see more clearly and approach our Lord with sincerity of heart to ask Him to help us grow in Wisdom and understanding that we might attain knowledge of His will for us.

(2) Then you will lead a life worthy of the Lord and pleasing to Him in every way.

At first glance, we read that sentence and think, that sounds good.  I want to please the Lord.

If we dig a little deeper and pull out the phrase “pleasing to Him”….where do we see God comment in scripture about being pleased?

Matthew: 17 – after Jesus is baptized in the Jordan river and he comes up out of the water….”And a voice came from the heavens, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Our example of how to be pleasing to God is to be just like His son in every way.  The only way we can even begin to approach that level of being pleasing is through grace and virtue.

What does it look like to be pleasing to God?  We need to act.  St. Paul tells us in the second sentence of the reading:

(3) You will multiply good works of every sort and grow in the knowledge of God.

It is not enough to just achieve intellectual and scholarly knowledge.  

We must also act.  How do we act?  Scripture tells us…

1.  Matthew 25
2.  Spiritual and Corporal Works of mercy

     (c) The Two Greatest commandments: Love of God and Love of neighbor 

St. James reinforces us to us that faith without works is dead (James 2:17)

Through our good works done with humility and in charity we will make ourselves available more and more to understand in our heart what is God’s will for us.

Today’s reading ends with this line…

(4) ..strength needed to stand fast, even to endure joyfully whatever may come

St. Paul knows what he speaks!  He suffered greatly for living the life of a Christian and  spreading the Gospel.  Jesus suffered greatly for His words, deeds, actions.  We should expect the same.  But, the key is that we endure injustice/persecution joyfully.  

How can we endure it JOYFULLY?  Because we will know that we are doing the Will of God. How will we know?  Jesus tells us:

1. in the beatitudes:  Matthew 5:11-12

Blessed (Happy) are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you [falsely] because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.  Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

2. John 15:17-19

“This I command you: love one another…If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you.”

In Today’s reading St. Paul has given us a call to action.

Let us take time tonight, tomorrow, this week, to seek with sincerity the will of God.  Let us ask God for the graces needed to grow in wisdom, knowledge and insight that we may know His will for us.

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*Eastern Province Year B Formation Materials for the Temporarily Professed, Chapter 5: Penitential Spirit: History and Contemporary Practice.