Finding Favor with the Lord

In today's first reading, James 3: 13-18, St. James asks us whether we are wise and understanding and then says to us:  "...[S]how your] works by a good life in the humility that comes from wisdom."   There is no way to do this if "bitter jealousy and selfish ambition" dominate our hearts. How do we know whether these motivations have entered our hearts? Their presence reveals itself when we give in to boasting and abandon truth. In James words: [D]o not boast and be false to the truth. Wisdom of this kind does not come from above but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice."  And we see the effects of jealousy and selfish ambition every night when we listen to the nightly news.  Our country has stooped, I believe, to a new low where selfish ambition is applauded and rewarded, where earthly wisdom darkens our minds and hearts and will. Yes, there is a aura of the demonic clouding, I believe, the U.S. Every kind of disorder and...foul practice" are the order of the day, it seems.

But what about you and I personally? Because we live in this kind of climate does not exempt us from taking James words seriously!  You and I as Christians are called to be wise and understanding, to live "a good live in the humility that comes from wisdom, divine wisdom that is, not earthly wisdom.  When you and I act from divine wisdom, we are relying upon the Holy Spirit for guidance and strength to make right choices, to follow, in the words of today's  the responsorial psalm, Psalm 19, "the law of the Lord."  Only God's laws and decrees are "trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple,...rejoicing the heart,...enlightening the eye....The ordinances of the Lord are true, all of them just."   With the psalmist, we pray:  "Let the words of my mouth and the thought of my heart find favor before you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer."