Jul 26 Sun
How do I know what God wants me to do?
The man who discovered a treasure buried in a field could not ask other people what to do, so he had to counsel himself.
- Judgment means to decide what among the many possibilities is best, meaning what will be both moral and likely to be effective. In some cases, the prudent thing will be to do nothing.
The man who found the treasure reasoned that the best course of action was to sell everything he had and buy that field.
- Decision means to finally take action. Based on what your reason tells you is best, you then tell your will to do it.
The man did sell his worldly possessions and bought that field, and so got the treasure.
The Lord says he will give Solomon anything he asks for. Solomon does not ask for a long life, or riches, or the life of his enemies, or any of the other valuable things people want.
Instead, he asks for prudence so he can govern Israel. That is what he means by “an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong.” He means practical wisdom; this is the cardinal virtue of prudence.
Prudence, or practical wisdom, or sound decision-making, is the ability to know what to do in any situation and to act on that knowledge.
Prudence leads us to choose what God wants. At first, virtually no one fully welcomes God’s will. The reason is our concupiscence or inclination to sin. This attraction will put us in conflict with God’s will. Therefore, the first victory of the human being over himself is to say yes to the will of God. That is the first positive level of the spiritual life, and it is good. It is good to say yes to God’s will and no to your own when the two conflict.
But we must not only accept God’s will, but love it. We must see God’s will as not only right because God commands it, but also precious, a delight, desirable, and wonderful.
To realize that God will judge me for the good and evil I do in this life is the beginning of prudence if it moves me to repent of the evil and to do good.
Thomas Aquinas identified three steps or activities within prudence. They are counsel, judgment, and decision.
- Counsel means to deliberate about what to do, to think it over, to pray about it, to ask for advice, to use your intellect to try to discover the best course of action.
Prudence is necessary for us to be good citizens of this earth and to prepare to be good citizens of heaven.
We are faced with choices every day and from time to time with very big decisions.
- The most prudent thing children can do is obey their parents and teachers.
- The most prudent thing a teenager can do is to have a close relationship with God and to discover one’s divine vocation.
- The most prudent thing an adult can do is always to ask, “What does God want me to do?” God will always want what is moral and what will be effective.