No one will ever confuse me for being an owl. Looking at my full track record of things done, said, and thought — all incorrectly — “wise” is not something many people would categorize me as.
Yet, in my four decades of flying around the sun, I think I’m slowly trending in the right direction after all of these years.
(Side note: When will we reach the point where we’ll have to explain what “trending” means to a younger generation?)
The Catholic definition of wisdom
The glossary of the Catechism of the Church defines wisdom as “A spiritual gift which enables one to know the purpose and plan of God; one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.”
It’s also the name of a book in the Old Testament of the Bible. It’s a writing where, according to the
USCCB, the author “speaks in the person of Solomon, placing his teachings on the lips of the wise king of Hebrew tradition in order to emphasize their value.”
Wisdom is also a charism or spiritual gift.
The Catherine of Siena Institute, which, through its Called and Gifted Discernment Process, helps people discover their charisms, defines wisdom as one that “empowers a Christian to be a channel of God’s goodness through remarkable insight that enables him or her to come up with creative solutions to specific problems and make good decisions.”
(You can learn more about an upcoming workshop on charisms in the Diocese of Madison by going to
madisondiocese.org/called-and-gifted)
Does knowing all of this make us any wiser to what wisdom is?
Not yet, because knowledge doesn’t always lead to wisdom.
Wisdom is definitely something we need to have more of or make more use of, and it’s something that needs to grow and be striven for more through the grace and blessings of God.
Kevin’s definition of wisdom
As am I often reminded, I do not have a theology degree.
Nothing I say about this topic has any binding, foundation, or perhaps, logic, whatsoever, but I’ll try anyway.
I look at wisdom as a mature use of knowledge gained either as “book smarts” or “street smarts”.
How does one know if they are growing in or gaining wisdom?
Think about your younger days. Think about things you did at age five, at age 15, at age 25, and so on.
Are you embarrassed by some of those antics and doings?
Congratulations, you’re getting wiser.
You’re even wiser if you’ve never done the things you shouldn’t have done to begin with. You were wise beyond your years.
Wisdom is the knowing when to talk and when not to.
It’s knowing when to act and when to let things play out.
It’s knowing the right thing to do at the right time.
It’s knowing that even if you did the right thing and it doesn’t look right, you did everything you could and you can’t control the whole world around you.
Wisdom is a path to joy. Wisdom is having an inherent feeling and trust in living out God’s will and following Christ’s example for humanity as He lived it here on Earth.
Does wisdom take practice? Yes and no.
The first step is to realize that we all have it inside of us from the gifts and the sacraments.
God gives us wisdom every day. Every day, we have to choose to accept it, embrace it, and use it.
It’s easy and hard, but it takes wisdom to be wise.
Don’t be like an owl
When it comes to using the gift of wisdom, be better than the owls of life.
Be better than those with leather-bound knowledge who sit high up in their perches and are thankful that they are not us walking on the ground near the dirt and getting unclean.
I realize most real owls probably aren’t really like that, but there are many people in our lives who have owl caricature characteristics.
You can be wise, share that wisdom with others, and the others won’t even know you did anything wise.
What a perfect display of humility.
Don’t stay in the perches and trees of life. Fly around and soar. Gain wisdom and share it.
Let God use you as His instrument of wisdom — that is why He made you, among other reasons.
The biggest reason He made you is that He loves you.
Be wise enough to love others as He wants you to.
Be so wise to share your gifts with others that those who are blessed by your presence, through the grace of God, will ask themselves, of those who had been the greatest blessings in their lives . . . who?
Thank you for reading.
I’m praying for you.