I’m sure there are times when we have all felt confused. Confusion can be frustrating and maybe irritating – for others or for ourselves. But confusion can be worse than that. When confusion affects our sense of what is real or unreal it verges into mental illness. When it affects our understanding of what is right and what is wrong then the effects can be equally devastating.
For the writer of the Book of Wisdom, wickedness is a form of confusion, and confused thinking leads to wickedness. The opposite of wickedness is wisdom. The passage we hear today is preceded by a detailed description of where the wicked have got confused:
For, not thinking rightly, they said among themselves: “Brief and troubled is our lifetime; there is no remedy for our dying, nor is anyone known to have come back from Hades. For by mere chance were we born, and hereafter we shall be as though we had not been; … “
These are the people who have lost any sense of meaning in life, who see no value in life, and are left with nothing but to try and enjoy life as best they can in the moment, but fail to do so. “Let us have our fill of costly wine and perfumes”. “Let our strength be our norm of righteousness; for weakness proves itself useless”. These people can be cruel just for the fun of it. Strength makes right.
We might think this sort of perspective is a modern failing, but this scripture shows us there is nothing new about it. It also tells us the antidote to despair and how to find a life of meaning and purpose. As the writer says at the very beginning:
Love righteousness, you who judge the earth; think of the LORD in goodness, and seek him in integrity of heart;
Because he is found by those who do not test him, and manifests himself to those who do not disbelieve him.
We may be fortunate not to suffer from this type of confusion, although for some the temptation to give up on hope and collapse into the despair of a meaningless life may be very close. As the centurion faced with the death if his daughter said to Jesus: “Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief” (Mk 9:24). We have to work at our belief, there is plenty to undermine it. If we leave the building unmaintained then eventually it will collapse.
The disciples in the Gospel are suffering from a different sort of confusion, but one that we can also easily identify in our own times – a confusion about what is important, what should motive us. This is the confusion that leads us to think that coming out on top is what matters. Since our society is largely built around this assumption – whether in sports, or in politics, or in business – we need to constantly remind ourselves that it isn’t so. Our objective as followers of Christ must be service, not success.
James is the one who, as so often, is most direct. He doesn’t leave us with any wiggle room, any space to suggest that we are immune to confusion, that others may be wicked, or confused, but we have it all sorted. Can we really claim to be immune to “jealousy and selfish ambition”? And when we succumb to those feelings the consequences are dire, as James spells out. We may not suffer from despair and a meaningless life, we may even avoid the foolishness of the greasy pole that the disciples were attempting to climb, but are we free of all delusions, all risk of confusion? This is something we have to work at. If the disciples, in the physical presence of Jesus, could be confused, then so can we be.
James gives a clear signpost by which we can judge if we are seeing straight:
But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity.
And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who cultivate peace.