Faith Venture

A woman broadcasts nutrition “information” on YouTube. She lifted part of a study that claims oatmeal is harmful to your health that mainstream media reported.

Many published research papers show the many benefits of eating oatmeal—it has fiber of which most Americans eat way too little; it appears to help regulate glucose; it helps decrease one type of cholesterol (I am a sample of one there).

We do that with theology, too, don’t we? You know who you are. You who lifted one verse from the Bible or other spiritual work and constructed a theology around it. The end of the earth, the role of women, the superiority of certain races.

Discernment—perceive, understand, and judge things correctly. Maybe it means reading an entire paragraph, or the entire passage, or letter, or book. After finding context and checking translations, perhaps we lay people can achieve a partial understanding of the breadth and depth of God.

So many learned and intelligent men have written lengthy systematic theologies beginning with the Bible. And they all differ. What hubris do you have thinking you can know it all?

Humility is the beginning of understanding.

I had a check up with my cardiologist this week. Got a “thumbs up” from him. Reduced medications from five to two.

The important cardiologist, though, is Jesus. He was always concerned with the health of a person’s heart. “Where your treasure is, there is your heart also,” he taught.

The Irish poet/philosopher John O’Donohue writing in “To Bless the Space Between Us” adds, “And all through the Old Testament, God is interested only in the heart—not sacrifices, rituals, or rules—only the heart. Indeed, mystical tradition would suggest the heart is beautiful precisely because it is where God dwells: the heart is the divine sanctuary.”

Have you checked both the physical and spiritual hearts lately? How are you doing? 

I was at coffee with a few others and announced, “Discretion is the word of the day.”

But I was in error.

It may be my word of the month. Or even the word to ponder for 2024.

An early leader of the Christian church, John Cassian, wrote this about discretion and the Desert Father Anthony the Great (St. Anthony in the Roman and Eastern traditions).

We believe that discretion is the true light of the body. It is our sole guidance for life. We call it our divine council. Like a city that has its walls destroyed and is not fenced in, so is a man who does anything without council. Our inward house cannot be built without discretion. Herein lies wisdom, intelligence, and understanding. A house is built with wisdom, and again it is set up with intelligence. With understanding, the storehouses are filled with all the precious riches and good things. The blessed Anthony maintained that discretion leads us in stages to God. It is the mother of all virtues.

Wisdom.

Intelligence.

Understanding.

Some would add discernment—the ability to see subtle differences and choose wisely.

Reflecting on life’s experiences and on what we’ve be taught or have read yields wisdom. Thinking about what we perceive develops our intelligence. Eventually we come to understanding. And our inner house is built.