Searching For Wisdom In The Modern World

Only a few weeks after we met, I asked my late wife, Cushla, what she thought life was all about. 'It's all about love,' she said to me tenderly. She then added: 'I knew that as a little girl.'. It's pretty unusual for someone so young to have had such wisdom. But,  as I got to know Cushla, I realised she had been earmarked early on as a mystic and routinely drew on Divine Wisdom for guidance.

 One of her principal gifts was what she called her knowings, a higher form of knowledge she drew deep within her soul. It was a gift she shared with well-known mystics. In his article, Experiential Knowing: Fr Richard Rohr, whose spirituality is rooted in Christian mysticism, says:

 'When I use the word "mystical", I am referring to experiential knowing instead of just intellectual, textbook, or dogmatic knowing. A mystic sees things in their wholeness, connection, and union, not only their particularity. Mystics get a whole gestalt in one picture, beyond the sequential and separated way of seeing that most of us encounter in everyday life. In this, mystics tend to be closer to poets and artists than to linear thinkers. Obviously, there is a place for both, but since the European Enlightenment of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, there has been less and less appreciation of such seeing in wholes. The mystic was indeed considered an "eccentric" (off center), but maybe mystics are the most centered of all, which leads them to emphasising love as the center, the goal, and the motivating energy of everything.'

I wouldn't say Cushla was eccentric, but she saw things differently. She didn't value what the world considered success, so in a sense, she was an outsider. Yet, she was the happiest and wisest person I ever knew.

Granted, wisdom,  it seems, is in short supply, so it's hard to come across a truly wise person. Plenty of information and all kinds of knowledge are available, but many can't discern what is and isn't important. When this lack of discernment is combined with an absence of humility and an undue pride in intelligence or education, it blinds one to the unseen and, most importantly, Divine Wisdom.

A society of weariness 

Today, we see the difference between wisdom and knowledge on full display. Science is in the ascendency, and there is latent hope that technology will make us happy and solve our problems. But as Pope Francis warned in the General Audience of May 2022:

'Science advances, of course, and that is good. But the wisdom of life is something else entirely, and it seems to be stalled.' 

 The Pope later added: 'In fact, with all our progress, with all our prosperity, we have really become a "society of weariness."  Think about it: we are the society of weariness.'

Acquiring Wisdom

It's tragic when you think of it, but without wisdom, you can waste life by placing your ladder against the wrong wall and climbing up it as fast as possible. When a business I co-owned took off after years of struggle, it wasn't long before I began to feel an awful emptiness. 'Is this it?' I said to myself. When, in earnest,  I started my search for authentic meaning, I asked Cushla for advice. Here are four lessons I learned from her:

1)    Go In

'Go in, ' Cushla would say to me, exasperated after I asked her and others the same question umpteen times about something troubling me. Instead of asking all and sundry to give us comfort and the answer we want to hear, she believed we could often find the insight and enlightenment we needed by seeking wisdom from the God who dwells within us. In point of fact, she believed that without God, we cannot make the right decision —we're like a reed shaking in the wind. As Mahatma Gandhi said, 'It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.'

One addendum to 'going in' is that we must cultivate the right environment to receive God's wisdom in our hearts. We wonder why we can't hear the Holy Spirit when we grieve Him by telling lies, letting anger control our actions, stealing, gossiping, being bitter, withholding love, and being unforgiving.

2)   Hang out with the wise.

Having said that we should 'go in' to find wisdom, we must also remember that God can sometimes speak to us through others. I was especially too preoccupied, distracted and stressed in my business to hear the Holy Spirit, who often speaks to us in a gentle whisper. But, I was blessed to be married to Cushla, who occasionally channelled vital truths and wisdom intended explicitly for me from the  Holy Spirit.

The Russian writer Leo Tolstoy says in his book A Confession and Other Religious Writings. 'To find your way, look to those who have found meaning, not to those who are lost.' We have to be careful who we listen to. If anyone gives us advice, especially on crucial decisions and the direction of our life,  we need to pay heed to their own values, lifestyle and the philosophical basis of their views. 

3)   Be Patient As You Wait On Divine Wisdom

Despite Cushla receiving supernatural messages that I needed to slow down, I'm still speeded up and impulsive to this day. I've paid the price and learned the hard way that impatience is detrimental to making wise decisions and that we need to wait, sometimes for months or longer, for an answer from the Divine.

I've no excuse. I witnessed how being patient contributed enormously to Cushla's peace of mind, happiness and wisdom. After praying, she waited patiently for the Holy Spirit to guide her. During that time, she was alert to any external pressures and instead always waited for God's peace to descend on her before taking action. She would then begin to act but in a calm, deliberate manner. Then, far more often than not, things fell into place quite smoothly.  

4) Pray

'If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.'

—James 1.5

Praying and meditation are hard work, but I haven't found a better way to acquire wisdom. After praying and even while praying, I received graces that showed me completely different solutions or courses of action that hadn't crossed my mind.

Reading spiritual and religious books and talking to wise people matters. Still, at the end of the day, we each have to go deep into our consciousness through prayer or meditation to begin seeing how God sees things and grow in enlightenment.