32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

 

 

32th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Lighting the Way Home

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

As I looked at the readings for this week what stood out to me was this very special gift of the spirit, Wisdom. Wisdom is a gift that is given to us especially in the sacrament of Confirmation.  But like any gift its true value becomes helpful only when we use it.   The first reading from the book of Wisdom, gives a very beautiful picture of this gift that the Holy Spirit chooses to bestow upon us.  But we must choose also to seek it, to follow after it. “Resplendent and unfading is wisdom, and she is readily perceived by those who love her and found by those who seek her. (Wisdom 6:12)                                                               As I was thinking about this particular gift of Wisdom, a question arose in my mind and perhaps has arisen in yours.  What's the difference between wisdom and intelligence. So, I set about with my trusty AI friend, Copilot, to find out what is the difference between these 2 words, and I found the following:

Key Differences between Wisdom and Intelligence

  1.  Intelligence is largely natural ability sharpened by education; but wisdom grows through experience, reflection, humility, and prayer.   Intelligence asks, "Can I do   this "or "How do I do this?  But wisdom asks, "Should I do this?" and "Why am I doing this?"
  2.  Intelligence solves the problem in front of us; wisdom weighs the long-term consequences of my actions or lack of action.  Wisdom weighs the common good of our actions both for ourselves and others.
  3.  Intelligence tends to plateau depending on education, schooling, or training.  Wisdom can keep deepening throughout life, when we seek to understand the meaning of our lives as God intended them to be.
  4. Knowledge sees the light turn red telling us to stop; but wisdom applies the brakes.

  What Scripture Teaches us about Wisdom

  1. Wisdom begins with reverence (Proverbs 9:10): "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom." Reverence is a deep respect for someone
  2. Wisdom is a gift we ask for (James 1:5): God gives generously to anyone who lacks wisdom and asks.
  3. Solomon asked for an understanding heart to serve God's people rather than riches or power. (1 Kings 3:5-14)
  4. Knowledge without love puffs us up, but through the gift of Wisdom we can learn that love builds us up." (1 Corinthians 8:1):
  5. Wisdom comes from above: "it is pure, peaceable, gentle, merciful, and sincere…."(James 3:17).

Christ came to share the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:30).  So, the closer we come to Christ through the sacraments, prayer, meditation, and reflection, the greater our understanding and wisdom grows.1                                                                                                        We can become more intelligent by our own studying or learning.  But for wisdom to grow deeper in us, besides prayer and reflection we need a community, friends, others who will be honest with us and enable us to see how the way we are living and the choices we have made or could make, reflect how wise we are.                                                                           In 1988, a retired Englishman named Nicholas Winton appeared on a British television program called That’s Life!  Nearly fifty years earlier, in 1938, when he was twenty-nine, Winton made a choice and went to Czechoslovakia just as Europe was moving toward war. He chose to become a part of an effort to get endangered children to Britain. Host families had to be found. Money had to be raised. Documents had to be arranged. Trains had to leave while leaving was still possible.   Winton made a choice, a moral choice, to be part of saving the lives of countless endangered people.                                                                     Through the work of Winton and others, 669 children reached Britain. Then the war came, and Winton’s life moved on in obscurity with almost no one knew what he had been a part of.                                                                                                                                                 A half a century later, Winton sat unsuspectingly in that television studio while his story was told. Finally, the host turned toward the audience and asked whether anyone there owed his or her life to Nicholas Winton.                                                                                              People around him stood. Winton looked behind him, and more stood.  Nothing he did that evening could have made those people stand up. The cameras didn’t cause it. Applause didn’t cause it. Recognition didn’t cause it. What surrounded him in that studio started fifty years earlier, in offices and train stations, in letters, families coming together, promises, and choices made when no one was watching.  And lives were saved!                                            The television program didn’t create the story. It simply showed what had already happened, what already had been done by Nicholas Winton and countless others.2                                           From the first reading this weekend we see that Wisdom, the Wisdom of God, invites all of us to make choices about how we wish to live.  Wisdom invites us to make choices about how we can change our lives for the better; to make choices so that we can choose forgiveness over revenge, compassion over judgement, and hope and faith over desperation.  Will we have hard times in our lives yes!  Will we know sorrow and hurt, yes!  Will we experience bad times, yes!  So, then, with wisdom and hope, let us listen again to words of our second reading this Sunday, from St. Paul’s first Letter to the Thessalonians: “But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness, for that day to overtake you like a thief. For all of you are children of the light, (i.e., wisdom) and children of the day.  We are not of the night or of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober.” (Thessalonians 5:6)                                                                                                      Yes, then, let us be alert and sober, awaiting the bridegroom who surely will come to show us the way to the wedding feast, the way home.

 

1.      1. Copilot, Difference between Intelligence and Wisdom (2026, Nov. 4)

2.      2. The Soul Knows the Way Home, Voicings.com 2026

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