‘Teach us…that we may gain wisdom of heart” (Psalm 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14, 17). Anyone crossing the threshold of death must leave all possessions behind and go into eternity hopefully rich in what matters to God (Luke 12:13-21).
The wisdom of heart
The passing nature of our human existence is underlined by the fact that we turn back to dust where we came from. But it also signifies that we are invited and awaited by the Creator to turn back to Him at the end of this life. So, in the final analysis, it matters little how long one’s life may have been: We all return to dust, and for God, “a thousand years are like one day” (2 Peter 3:8) that passes away with a watch in the night and fades into the past as yesterday. Life is swiftly done like a dream terminated by waking up, or a grass springing up and flourishing in the morning, but wilted and withered down in the evening.
The psalm asks that the people be given wisdom; only God can provide the wisdom that lets anyone to make sense of human existence, short as it is and burdened by suffering and problems. “Numbering one’s days aright” means, however, short those days and years may be, if marked by a righteous life, they spell a meaningful existence, a life in wisdom. To be able to return to God, the psalm pleads with God to return to His people and have compassion on His servants. How much longer must they suffer chastisement? In God-given wisdom, may the people reform their ways, then surely relief would come. May the Lord fill His people with kindness and gladness as in a new dawn that begins a new life for them. Their deliverance will be seen as proof of divine mercy, blessing their work and bringing them prosperity.
The fool’s fatal mistake
Asked to arbitrate a dispute about inheritance, Jesus identifies the real issue to be greed. In this connection, He teaches the important lesson that life can be wasted when spent merely in amassing possessions. The rich man is called a “fool” because he has not learned to be wise in life. He is censured, not because he is rich or insensitive to the needs of others, but because of his greedy attitude. He just wants more and more, and not even of what really matters. At the end of his life, the man is confronted with the futility of his life. He has spent his life collecting possessions that do not last and that to him would be eventually useless. His possessions are passed on to somebody else, and he has no way to really control what happens to them.
It is, indeed, foolish to devote one’s life just collecting things of this world while neglecting the things that matter to God, to whom one must return at the end and account for everything. It is totally unwise of heart to dedicate oneself in amassing earthly wealth and be bereft of what truly insures the fullness of life that only God can give. The fool holds himself to be wise, but only in his own eyes (Proverbs 12:15). He is only constant in his own sin, and lacks the fear of God that is the beginning of wisdom. In fact, “Fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1), who judges at the end what has been done with the life given to each one.
Alálaong bagá, as the psalmist has said, Lord “teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart”—living our transitory human existence well under the gracious care of God, so that we can return to Him in a new, endless dawn when the evening of life has come. Already now we must worship and serve God alone, and not the vanity of the power and the glory of the world (cf. Luke 4:5-8). The choice has to be made; wisdom must be sought: The realization that only in union with God in His indispensable kindness can we sing for joy forever.
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