A few years ago, we wanted to improve our poultry project, so we purchased 2 strong roosters. At first, we kept them in a separate room but immediately one of them tried to kill the other. Even when we put them in with the hens, he would ambush the other rooster. Why? He wanted to destroy any competition.

Competition in the animal world usually isn’t so violent but it happens. We had a goat that killed his own kid. A human being is called a rational animal but we aren’t always so rational. Competition annoys us.

St. James talks about jealousy and selfish ambition. In today’s Gospel Jesus asks his disciples what they were talking about. They wouldn’t answer but he knew. They were talking about which one was the greatest.

For St. James, jealousy and strife as the origin of all sorts of bad behavior. The wisdom of the world tries to beat others out. There is a good form of competition in sports but every day we see a bad form of competition in politics as reported in the newspapers

St. James tells us that the answer to these evils is the Wisdom that comes from God:

Wisdom from above, by contrast, is first of all innocent. It is also peaceable, lenient, docile, rich in sympathy and kindly deeds that are its fruit, impartial and sincere (Jas 3:17).

Wisdom is innocent. It doesn’t want to hurt others. It is peaceful. It wants to live in peace with others. It is lenient not harsh. It is docile, it wants to learn. Wisdom from God has sympathy for others. They are not competitors. Wisdom from God does kindly deeds.

Traditionally, the Church has spoken of seven gifts of the Holy, among which is wisdom. They are wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, fortitude, piety and fear of the Lord. The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes the Gifts of the Holy Spirit:

The moral life of Christians is sustained by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are permanent dispositions which make person docile in following the promptings of the Holy Spirit. The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord (Catechism, 1830-1831).

When the Holy Spirit acts within us, He does not force us the way that a puppet is moved by strings. Rather the Spirit prompts us to act. The gifts of the Spirit are a disposition to receive those promptings.

Aristotle said that wisdom considers the highest causes (Metaphysics, 1:2). In knowing the highest causes, a person is able make judgements about lesser things and put things in order.

St. Thomas Aquinas distinguishes the gift of wisdom from the natural wisdom, known to Aristotle. Natural wisdom, as an intellectual virtue, makes judgements according to human reason. Wisdom, as a gift of the Holy Spirit, knows God as the highest cause, and knowing God enables a person to might right judgments about other things and keep them ordered to God. Wisdom as a gift of the Spirit disposes us to be moved by the Spirit’s promptings (1a2ae. 68, 1 ad 4).[1]

Thomas says that, in matters related to human living, a person can function by reason but still receive God’s help, “Even in these things man receive help in the shape of special promptings from God, this will be out of God’s superabundant goodness” (1a2ae. 68, 2).

In matters related to one’s supernatural life, reason leads us imperfectly, “unless it receives the prompting or motion of the Holy Ghost.” Thomas recalls the words of the Letter to the Romans: “Whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God . . . (Rm. 8:14).

One cannot reach his or her supernatural end, “… except he be moved and led thither by the Holy Ghost. Therefore, in order to accomplish this end, it is necessary for man to have the gift of the Holy Ghost” (1a2ae. 68, 2).

Thomas affirms: “It belongs to wisdom, as a gift, not only to contemplate Divine things, but also to regulate human actions” (2a2ae. 45, 6, ad 3). Wisdom begins by removing evils that are opposed to its ordering. The Scriptures declare “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Ps 111:10, Proverbs 1:7, Proverbs 9:10).

Thomas explains: “The first thing, to be done in this direction of human acts is the removal of evils opposed to wisdom: wherefore fear is said to be ‘the beginning of wisdom,’ because it makes us shun evil, while the last thing is like an end, whereby all things are reduced to their right order; and it is this that constitutes peace”

What feeds our competition? Why did the apostles want to be the greatest? Our competition comes from comparing ourselves with others. Jesus say we should become like children, accepting who we are and peaceful.

Thomas reflects: “James said with reason that ‘the wisdom that is from above,’ the gift of the Holy Ghost, ‘first indeed is chaste,’ because it avoids the corruption of sin, and ‘then peaceable,’ wherein lies the ultimate effect of wisdom, for which reason peace is numbered among the beatitudes” (2a2ae. 45, 6 ad 3).

James also says that the person guided by wisdom is “docile.” We might think that a person who has wisdom does not need instruction but, according to Thomas, “… in those matters in which he is not sufficient by himself, he should be guided by the advice of others…” (2a2ae. 45, 6 ad 3). Thomas reflects, “These two [being pure and docile] are conditions required that man may be at peace with himself” (2a2ae. 45, 6 ad 3).

As opposed to the jealousy and strife that James saw as the cause of bad behavior, Thomas says that a person, guided by wisdom, may be at peace with others, “… he should not be opposed to their good… by consenting to the good. Secondly, that he should bring to his neighbor’s deficiencies, sympathy in his heart, and help in his actions, full of mercy and good fruits… he should strive in all charity to correct the sins of others” (2a2ae. 45, 6 ad 3).

Denis Vincent Wiseman, O.P.

[1] References to the Summa Theologiae of St. Thomas Aquinas give the part of the Summa, the question and the article. If the passage is found in a response to an objection that Thomas has introduced in the first part of the article, the Latin word “ad,” meaning “to,” is added with the number of the objection. This particular reference is to the first section of the second part of the Summa, the sixty-eighth question, the first article, in response to the fourth objection.