Everyone today seems to be in search of understanding, in search of meaning and purpose for their lives. Many of us look to countless self-help books, CD’s, videos and seminars to teach us how to be more positive, how to not procrastinate and how to be more effective and productive in our jobs and life in general. We look to other books and materials that tell us how to influence people and gain more friends, and how to handle the chaos and busyness that is so constant in our lives today.
The world is broken. Society is broken. And we are broken. This is no secret, and it’s not just a revelation of the 21st century. It’s just more amplified today, but this brokenness has existed for as long as people have walked this earth. And so we often look to other “experts” to tell us how to fix our brokenness and be more at peace, with a new understanding about ourselves and life, and basically, become more wise. Wisdom is what we seek, and wisdom is often what many others attempt to sell.
Now I’m not condemning or judging the books and programs and methods that are out there – I have read and enjoyed many books with the goal of improving my self so I can better impact others. And as someone who loves to write and would love to write a book one day, and the experiences I have attained through this website, I firmly believe that God works through other people – writers, speakers and the like – to reach and help others by being a conduit for the Holy Spirit to do His work. It is the same as when God works through a surgeon to heal and fix the injured or sick, and just as He speaks through the beautiful sound of a symphony, or the teacher that inspires our child in ways we never could.
But I think the most effective self-help programs that have the goal of helping us see our overall potential, our purpose and achieve another level of wisdom and understanding are those who have God as a foundation. Because through it all, God is the key, and a relationship with Christ is what makes it possible to help yourself and realize your God-given potential. Wisdom, and understanding, and truth are only attainable through Christ – no one else.
And while God may use others as a tool for conveying His message and helping others attain more wisdom, truth and understanding, ultimately it comes from Him. Which is why, when you look at it, the single best self-help book was one written over the last few thousand years by the Holy Spirit, through several different authors. And the best speaker of this truth was not the guy speaking downtown last weekend at the Hyatt, but rather a man that walked the earth 2000 years ago – a man that was also the Son of God. You want truth, understanding and wisdom? Look no further than the Old and New Testament, and the One behind it all – Jesus. We need look no further than our faith, the Church, and our teachings – and the Sacraments.
Embracing God and our faith first and foremost will have a waterfall effect on anything we do, and make everything we do have more meaning. We will realize our potential that God gave us and help us to discern what God has in mind for us, and what He wants us to do.
Today’s readings clearly point this out. The first reading from the Book of Proverbs basically states how Wisdom is seeking us, calling us to her table:
“Let whoever is simple turn in here; To the one who lacks understanding, she says, Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed! Forsake foolishness that you may live; advance in the way of understanding.”
Jesus tells us point blank in the Gospel, that He is this divine food and wine of Wisdom, and it’s only through Him that we can attain it:
“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.
And St. Paul tells us, that in this broken world, we should “try to understand what is the will of the Lord. And do not get drunk on wine, in which lies debauchery,
but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.”
Simply put – to help ourselves and achieve this wisdom and truth that we seek and discern God’s will for us, we must come to Jesus, let Him become a part of us and our very being through the Eucharist, and we must do this together as a family, and as a parish community. This is the Mass…
Last week I wrote about how God is always near, and He is never more near than at Mass. To help ourselves we must first look to God, and we must look to others, and we must surround ourselves with Christ. We must make this a habit. Every week. Sometimes multiple times a week. We must make the Sacraments a habit. We can’t read the Bible once, or go to a Mass every now and then, or go to a yearly confession and expect to be healed of all our problems. It doesn’t work that way. We need to grow the habit, build discipline and show God we are serious, and then let Him do His work in and through us.
These are the habits of a highly successful Catholic!
God works through all kinds of people with the purpose of helping others. He uses us as instruments, whether it be a writer, a doctor, teachers, or a computer programmer – instruments that work together for the service of others. We all can help each other and help be a part of that wisdom that God is providing for someone else. But with Christ as our foundation, and His Body and Blood as our saving grace, God will provide all the books, CD’s, tools, and people necessary in our lives for us to realize the potential He built into us and to improve ourselves.
A relationship with Christ is the ultimate self-help program with which we can attain a greater wisdom. But it’s really not self-help, because we can’t help ourselves or guide ourselves on our own to attain this level of understanding and balance in our lives. Only Christ can help us down this road. We need to move our self out of the way, and let Christ’s help guide us through.
