20220901 INTELLECTUAL PRIDE IS THE DOWNFALL OF HUMANITY
01 September, 2022, Thursday, 22nd Week in Ordinary Time
First reading |
1 Corinthians 3:18-23 © |
The wisdom of the world is foolishness to God
Make no mistake about it: if any one of you thinks of himself as wise, in the ordinary sense of the word, then he must learn to be a fool before he really can be wise. Why? Because the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As scripture says: The Lord knows wise men’s thoughts: he knows how useless they are; or again: God is not convinced by the arguments of the wise. So there is nothing to boast about in anything human: Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life and death, the present and the future, are all your servants; but you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 23(24):1-6 |
Gospel Acclamation | cf.2Thess2:14 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Through the Good News God called us
to share the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Alleluia!
Or: | Mt4:19 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Follow me, says the Lord,
and I will make you into fishers of men.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Luke 5:1-11 © |
They left everything and followed him
Jesus was standing one day by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the crowd pressing round him listening to the word of God, when he caught sight of two boats close to the bank. The fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats – it was Simon’s – and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
When he had finished speaking he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water and pay out your nets for a catch.’ ‘Master,’ Simon replied, ‘we worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but if you say so, I will pay out the nets.’ And when they had done this they netted such a huge number of fish that their nets began to tear, so they signalled to their companions in the other boat to come and help them; when these came, they filled the two boats to sinking point.
When Simon Peter saw this he fell at the knees of Jesus saying, ‘Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.’ For he and all his companions were completely overcome by the catch they had made; so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were Simon’s partners. But Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on it is men you will catch.’ Then, bringing their boats back to land, they left everything and followed him.
INTELLECTUAL PRIDE IS THE DOWNFALL OF HUMANITY
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [1 COR 3:18-23; LUKE 5:1-11]
The greatness of man in creation is recognized throughout the scriptures. The psalmist sings praise to God, saying, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honour. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet.” (Ps 8:3-6) Indeed, this is what it means to be created in the image and likeness of God, sharing in His knowledge and His love. So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Gn 1:27)
However, the gift of knowledge is a double-edged sword. It causes man to think more highly of himself than he actually is. This is what St Paul wrote in the first reading. “Make no mistake about it: if any one of you thinks of himself as wise, in the ordinary sense of the word, then he must learn to be a fool before he really can be wise.” This temptation to intellectual pride was present since the foundation of the world. In the book of Genesis, God told Adam, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Gn 2:16f) But he did not take heed of God’s command. By eating, man was deprived of his innocence and from then on he had to make a choice between good and evil.
This temptation to intellectual pride, human knowledge and human wisdom grew in propensity. The story of the Tower of Babel is yet another expression of original sin, which is the sin of pride leading to disobedience. They said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” (cf Gn 11:1-9) In our days, this is expressed in atheism, humanism and relativism. There are many people in the world who believe only in themselves and in their knowledge. They think that scientific and technological knowledge alone can save the world. They reduce everything to reason and empirical proofs. There is no God and there are no absolutes. By so doing, they proclaim themselves as gods and relativism as the absolute truth!
Such people, St Paul says, are foolish. “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Rom 1:18-21)
This is not to dismiss the relevance and important role of reason. Pope John Paul II in his encyclical, Fides e Ratio wrote about how revelation completes the work of reason. “From the teaching of the two Vatican Councils there also emerges a genuinely novel consideration for philosophical learning. Revelation has set within history a point of reference which cannot be ignored if the mystery of human life is to be known. Yet this knowledge refers constantly to the mystery of God which the human mind cannot exhaust but can only receive and embrace in faith. Between these two poles, reason has its own specific field in which it can enquire and understand, restricted only by its finiteness before the infinite mystery of God. Revelation therefore introduces into our history a universal and ultimate truth which stirs the human mind to ceaseless effort; indeed, it impels reason continually to extend the range of its knowledge until it senses that it has done all in its power, leaving no stone unturned.” (Fides et Ratio, 14)
Pope John Paul also cited from the previous Council’s teaching. “The First Vatican Council teaches, then, that the truth attained by philosophy and the truth of Revelation are neither identical nor mutually exclusive: ‘There exists a twofold order of knowledge, distinct not only as regards their source, but also as regards their object. With regard to the source, because we know in one by natural reason, in the other by divine faith. With regard to the object, because besides those things which natural reason can attain, there are proposed for our belief mysteries hidden in God which, unless they are divinely revealed, cannot be known’. Based upon God’s testimony and enjoying the supernatural assistance of grace, faith is of an order other than philosophical knowledge which depends upon sense perception and experience and which advances by the light of the intellect alone. Philosophy and the sciences function within the order of natural reason; while faith, enlightened and guided by the Spirit, recognizes in the message of salvation the ‘fullness of grace and truth’ (cf. Jn 1:14) which God has willed to reveal in history and definitively through his Son, Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Jn 5:9; Jn 5:31-32).” (Fides et Ratio, 9)
Indeed, St Peter in today’s gospel shows how the wisdom of God transcends the wisdom of man. As a fisherman by profession, he knew from knowledge and experience where to catch fish. And so when the Lord instructed him to “put out into deep water and pay out your nets for a catch”, the immediate reaction of Peter was, “Master…we worked hard all night long and caught nothing.” It was as if Peter was saying to Jesus that he had already tried his best using whatever knowledge he had as an experienced fisherman. In other words, he did not need someone who is a carpenter to teach him how and where to fish. However, out of respect for the Lord on one hand, and on the other, perhaps, to prove Him wrong, Peter said, “but if you say so, I will pay out the nets.”
And lo and behold, “when they had done this they netted such a huge number of fish that their nets began to tear, so they signalled to their companions in the other boat to come and help them; when these came, they filled the two boats to sinking point.” It was unbelievable and unimaginable for the fishermen, especially Peter who thought he knew everything about fishing. He thought he could show off to Jesus his knowledge and that he knew better than he did. But when he saw the miraculous catch, he realized his deep secret pride that wanted to prove Him wrong. It turned out that he was the foolish one instead. Rather than trusting in the power of God, he relied on human and worldly wisdom.
Realizing his mistake and pride, he humbled himself before the Lord. “He fell at the knees of Jesus saying, ‘Leave me Lord; I am a sinful man.’ For he and all his companions were completely overcome by the catch they had made; so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were Simon’s partners.” Why did he call himself a sinful man, were it not for the fact that he was too presumptuous in his knowledge? Before the Lord, he knew that he had misjudged Him. Jesus was the presence of God, the power of God and divine wisdom. On that account, we read that when the Lord said to Simon, “‘Do not be afraid; from now on it is men you will catch.’ Then, bringing their boats back to land, they left everything and followed him.” After encountering the divine wisdom and power of Christ, Peter and his friends no longer followed their own intellectual reasoning and knowledge; instead, they left everything behind and followed the Lord. From then on, they took direction from Jesus. Obedience is always the outcome of faith.
Indeed, St Paul himself came to the realization that human knowledge alone cannot grasp the mystery of life “Because the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As scripture says: The Lord knows wise men’s thoughts: he knows how useless they are: or again: God is not convinced by the arguments of the wise. So there is nothing to boast about in anything human.” Earlier on, St Paul wrote, “For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.” (1 Cor 1:25) It behoves us therefore to remain humble before God and the mystery of life.
In the final analysis, our trust in not in man but in God. Even when we admire people in our lives, especially those who are wise and intelligent, let us not forget that their wisdom and knowledge come from God. As St Paul reminds us, “So there is nothing to boast about in anything human: Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life and death, the present and the future, are all your servants; but you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God.” Everything we have and what we are belong to all and for the service of all. This is because all of us and all that we have ultimately belong to God. With the psalmist, we exclaim, “The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness, the world and all its peoples. It is he who set it on the seas; on the waters he made it firm.”
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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