Wisdom: The Seed We Must Nurture
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – July 26, 2026
Let me begin by making an assumption, which you may or may not agree with: I believe we all begin projects and events in our lives (eg. getting married, starting a business, etc.), with a desire to do things in a good way. Then with enthusiasm, and assuming we have a good way of doing or acting, we proceed with some haste to reach completion quickly. The quicker we succeed, the faster we can “enjoy” success!
It’s reasonable and, perhaps, many of us have had the experience of doing so and finding “challenges” along the way. And sometimes failure. In today’s First Reading, the new King Solomon provides an excellent pathway to imitate: to ask God for wisdom.
In the Bible it sounds miraculous and instantaneous! But is that true? We learn that God was pleased with the prayer of Solomon. However, Solomon himself, says in Proverbs: wisdom is learned through discipline, fear of the Lord, and daily choices (Prov. 1:7; 4:5-7; 9:10).
In this way we should be encouraged that every person usually has the option to learn wisdom from their elders (like a gift): then we must develop it through listening, fair judgment and living faithfully through each incident that we are faced with.
However, we all know Solomon’s infamous behaviour in later life: many wives, excess living and idolatrous religious worship. And this failure teaches us something very important: wisdom can be wasted and lost if we fail to practice it on a daily basis. As they say:
there’s no fool like an old fool.
We must all be on guard to maintain our moral compass and practice wisdom every day. Such that we can say wisdom isn’t taught in the Bible as magical knowledge inserted into our heads like computer software; it is the God‑given capacity we are given to recognize and respond correctly to situations we encounter. Sometimes wisdom can challenge us to do or say something that is, usually, morally wrong.
For example, I remember a 1996 movie called Sleepers with Robert de Niro as the priest. Four good friends misbehave in the 1960’s and end up in juvenile prison: the priest encourages them to face their fears and pay the price instead of going on the run. Unfortunately, in prison they are regularly abused physically and sexually by a guard. When they get out, they plot and kill him. During the trial, the priest is called as a witness to testify whether they were with him at the time or not. I’ll let you watch and decide whether he chose the right answer.
So, as we have been talking about seeds and wheat these last two weeks, think of Wisdom as a seed: God plants it miraculously in each of us (not just Solomon). But, like Solomon, we have to recognise that it is a gift that needs watering and regular sunlight (exercising it).
The Gospel then elaborates on the First Reading by teaching us that it takes a lot of searching and effort to know what is true treasure, and that we need courage to choose it, and leave other things behind: bad habits, unchristian feelings and actions cannot coexist with Wisdom.
As we are told severally in the Bible, you cannot serve two masters: wealth and God. Substitute Wisdom for God and it fits neatly into our discussion today. God is, of course, the seat of Wisdom. So, at the end of the day, where does wisdom sit in our list of priorities? Or, perhaps we can say, how do we let wisdom instruct our conscience?
Wisdom verses Wealth? Wisdom verses Pleasure? Wisdom verses the quick fix?
What will you choose? Practically speaking, Wisdom should influence our daily conversations: do we let emotions or “being in a hurry” interfere with wise judgement to choose the right words/time to speak or respond?
Then, you might ask: how do we respond when people are not fair to us? Why can’t we “lash” out or “defend” ourselves? This is where the Second Reading can assist us: Paul reminds us that God’s Plan is not usually a straight line: if we trust God and respond wisely we can save a lot of additional pain for ourselves: choose the time, choose gentleness, choose to be absent.
Our moderate response may inspire others to come to our aid; our gentleness may bring about a transformation in the other person (evangelisation!); or, our absence may lead us in another direction with greater rewards: after Wisdom, God also blessed Solomon with great wealth.
Finally, let us make one final observation: Solomon’s first action was one of humility. The persons in the Gospel also acted with humility by choosing one thing instead of trying to embrace everything they could grab. Perhaps this is the starting point for each of us today:
so many of us are stressed trying to do so many things – usually with good intentions – that we can lose the Wisdom that should draw us closer together as a family/ community. Can we decide, wisely, to choose less and have more? To do less and BE present more?
By Gerard Conlan, OMI