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From: James 3:16-4:3

True and False Wisdom

[13] Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good life let him show
works in the meekness of wisdom. [14] But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish
ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. [15] This wisdom
is not such as comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. [16]
For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile
practice. [17] But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, o-
pen to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, without uncertainty or insincerity.

[18] And the harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make
peace.

The Source of Discord

[1] What causes wars, and what causes fightings among you? Is not your pas-
sions that are at war in your members? [2] You desire and do not have; so you
kill. And you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war. You do not
have, because you do not ask. [3] You ask and do not receive because you ask
wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

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Commentary:

13-18. These verses point out the qualities of Christian wisdom (cf. 1:5). After
exhorting his readers to manifest their wisdom by their actions (verse 13), he at-
tacks the signs of false wisdom (verses 14-16) and explains the qualities of the
true (verses 17-18).

St. Paul also makes a distinction between worldly wisdom—the wisdom of man
when he veers away from his correct goal—and the wisdom of God, which rea-
ches its highest expression on the Cross (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:18-3:3). St. James
pays particular attention to the practical effects of godly wisdom — meekness,
mercy and peace.

False wisdom, on the contrary, leads to bitter zeal, rivalry and resentment: it is
“earthly” because it rejects things transcendental and supernatural; “unspiritual”
(merely natural, “psychi” in the original Greek), as befits people who follow their
nature as wounded by Original Sin, deprived of the help of the Spirit (cf. notes on
1 Corinthians 2:14-16; Jude 19-20); “devilish”, in the sense that such people are
inspired by the devil, who is envious (cf. Wisdom 2:24), “a liar and the father of
lies” (John 8:44).

18. What this verse means is that the “peacemakers” of the Beatitudes (cf.
Matthew 5:6 and note) create around themselves an environment making for
righteousness (holiness), and they themselves benefit from the peace they sow.
“There can be no peace,” Bl. John XXIII says, “between men unless there is
peace within each of them: unless, that is, each one builds up within himself the
order wished by God” (”Pacem In Terris”, 165).

The “harvest of righteousness” is the equivalent of righteousness itself: it is kee-
ping the law of the Gospel, doing good works, which show true wisdom. The pas-
sage is reminiscent of Isaiah 32:17-18: “and the effects of righteousness will be
peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust for ever. My people
will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings and in quiet resting pla-
ces.”

Every Christian who strives to live in accordance with his vocation is a sower of
holiness and justice-with-peace: “Through your work, through the whole network
of human relations,” (St. Escriva says, “you ought to show the charity of Christ
and its concrete expression in friendship, understanding, human affection and
peace. Just as Christ ‘went about doing good’ (Acts 10:38) throughout Palestine,
so much you also spread peace in your family circle, in civil society, at work,
and in your cultural and leisure activities” (”Christ Is Passing By”, 166).

1. “Wars” and “fighting” are an exaggerated reference to the contention and dis-
cord found among those Christians. “Passions”, as elsewhere in the New Testa-
ment, means concupiscence, hedonism, pleasure-seeking (cf. verse 3; Luke 8:
14; Titus 3:3; 2 Peter 2:13).

St. James points out that if one fails to fight as one should against one’s evil in-
clinations, one’s inner disharmony overflows in the form of quarreling and fighting.
The New Testament often refers to the good kind of fight, which confers inner free-
dom and is a prerequisite for salvation (cf., e.g., Matthew 11:12; Romans 7:14-
25; 1 Peter 2:11).

“How can you be at peace if you allow passions you do not even attempt to con-
trol to drag you away from the ‘pull’ of grace?

“Heaven pulls you upwards; you drag yourselves downwards. And don’t seek ex-
cuses — that is what you are doing. If you go on like that, you will tear yourself
apart” (St. J. Escriva, “Furrow”, 851).

2-3. St. James is describing the sad state to which free-wheeling hedonism (spe-
cifically, greed for earthly things) leads.

“You do not receive, because you ask wrongly”: “He asks wrongly who shows no
regard for the Lord’s commandments and yet seeks Heavenly gifts. He also asks
wrongly who, having lost his taste for Heavenly things, seeks only earthly things
— not for sustaining his human weakness but to enable him to indulge himself”
(St. Bede, “Super Iac. Expositio, ad loc.”).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: Mark 9:30-37

Second Prophecy of the Passion

[30] They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And He (Jesus) would
not have any one know it; [31] for He was teaching His disciples, saying to them,
“The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him;
and when He is killed, after three days He will rise.” [32] But they did not under-
stand the saying, and they were afraid to ask Him.

Being the Servant of All

[33] And they came to Capernaum; and when He was in the house He asked
them, “What were you discussing on the way?” [34] But they were silent; for on
the way they had discussed with one another who was the greatest. [35] And He
sat down and called the Twelve; and He said to them, “If any one would be first,
he must be last of all and servant of all.” [36] And He took a child, and put him
in the midst of them; and taking him in His arms, He said to them, [37] “Who-
ever receives one such child in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me,
receives not Me but Him who sent Me”.

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Commentary:

30-32. Although moved when He sees the crowds like sheep without a shepherd
(Matthew 9:36), Jesus leaves them, to devote time to careful instruction of the
Apostles. He retires with them to out-of-the-way places, and there He explains
points of His public preaching which they had not understood (Matthew 13:36).
Here, specifically, for a second time, He announces His death and resurrection.

In His relationships with souls Jesus acts in the same way: He calls man to be
with him in the quiet of prayer and there He teaches him about His more intimate
plans and about the more demanding side of the Christian life. Later, like the
Apostles, Christians were to spread this teaching to the ends of the earth.

34-35. Jesus uses this argument going on behind his back to teach His disciples
about how authority should be exercised in His Church — not by lording it over
others, but by serving them. In fulfilling His own mission to found the Church
whose head and supreme lawgiver He is, He came to serve and not to be served
(Matthew 20:28).

Anyone who does not strive to have this attitude of self-forgetful service, not only
lacks one of the main pre-requisites for proper exercise of authority but also runs
the risk of being motivated by ambition or pride. “To be in charge of an apostolic
undertaking demands readiness to suffer everything, from everybody, with infinite
charity” (St. J. Escriva, “The Way”, 951).

36-37. To demonstrate to His Apostles the abnegation and humility needed in
their ministry, He takes a child into His arms and explains the meaning of this
gesture: if we receive for Christ’s sake those who have little importance in the
world’s eyes, it is as if we are embracing Christ Himself and the Father who sent
Him. This little child whom Jesus embraces represents every child in the world,
and everyone who is needy, helpless, poor or sick—people who are not naturally
attractive.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.