– Te Rama Aroha The Light of Love Cross Themes –
Whakaaronui Wisdom
Whakaaronui Wisdom is seeing with the eyes of God. In Scripture and the Tradition of the Church it is often referred to as a gift from God. It is also reflected, particularly in the Religious Education context, as the knowledge, understanding, Tradition and teaching of two thousand years of being Church. It captures what the Church lives and teaches from the perspective of invitation to embrace wise words, ideas and concepts, and to develop a Catholic worldview. It highlights the relationship of the Church with divine wisdom as she articulates what it means to be members of God’s family and disciples of Jesus. Whakaaronui translates as
deep thinking, as broad and expanded thinking, beyond myself or my immediate environment. It allows me to sit in silence and listen to God’s voice saying, “Be still and know that I am God.”
Young people will develop an understanding of the Tradition and teaching of the Church, including awareness that this Whakaaronui Wisdom has relevance to their lives in terms of what is offered by God, what is expected of members of God’s Church, and what is valuable as advice for living in today’s world.
• Luke 2:52 — And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature.
• Luke 21:15 — I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.
• 1 Corinthians 1:30 — He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
• 1 Corinthians 2:6-7 — Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish. But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages.
• Ephesians 3:10 — So that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known.
• Colossians 1:9 — For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding
• Colossians 3:16 — Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.
• James 3:13 — Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom.
• The Wisdom Books: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Wisdom, Sirach / Ecclesiasticus(1).
(1). The Book of Wisdom and Sirach are books of the Catholic Bible which are not found in most Protestant editions of the Bible.
• This is wisdom: it is the grace of being able to see everything with the eyes of God. It is simply this: Seeing the world, situations, conjunctures, problems, everything with God’s eyes. This is wisdom. Often we see things as we want to see them or according to our heart, with love, with hate, with envy. No, this is not God’s eyes. Wisdom is what the Holy Spirit does within us so that we can see everything with God’s eyes. This is the gift of wisdom. (Pope Francis, 2014)(2)
• The presence of the Spirit gives Christians a certain connaturality with divine realities, and a wisdom which enables them to grasp those realities intuitively, even when they lack the wherewithal to give them precise expression. (EG #119)(3)
• This is why I want a Church which is poor and for the poor. They have much to teach us… We are called to find Christ in them, to lend our voice to their causes, but also to be their friends, to listen to them, to speak for them and to embrace the mysterious wisdom which God wishes to share with us through them. (EG #198)
• It is important for the Church to give proof today, as she has done at other periods of her history, of evangelical wisdom, courage and fidelity in seeking out and putting into operation new methods and new prospects for catechetical instruction. (CT #17)(4)
• Young persons speak a language into which the message of Jesus must be translated with patience and wisdom and without betrayal. (CT #40)
• It is vital that we give every generation of Catholic young people the vision and essential teaching of Jesus, the wisdom of the Church’s tradition, the key principles that underpin our actions, and the skills to enable them to engage in this transformative Kingdom work(5).
(2). 2014-04-09, Vatican Radio.
(3). EG refers to the 2013 document Evangelii Gaudium by Pope Francis.
(4). CT refers to the 1979 document Catechesi Tradendae by Pope St John Paul II.
(5). Paul Devitt, quoted in: Rymarz, R., & Belmonte, A. (2017) Religious Education in Australian Catholic Schools: Exploring the Landscape. p.170.
It is important to reflect on the experience and examples of Whakaaronui Wisdom in your own context. In terms of your own school and wider community within Aotearoa New Zealand:
• What are some past examples of wisdom?
• What are some examples of the opposite of wisdom?
• Where do you see wisdom today at your place, and elsewhere in this country?
While teaching and learning within Content Areas is based on specific Cross Theme Achievement Objectives, the following provides foci for supporting awareness of where Touchstones connect to the Cross Themes in a whole-school Catholic character context.
Young people will develop an understanding of the Tradition and teaching of the Church, including awareness that this Whakaaronui Wisdom has relevance to their lives in terms of what is offered by God, what is expected of members of God’s Church, and what is valuable as advice for living in today’s world.
