Hearth & Altar

If you receive my words and treasure my commands; if you turn your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding; if you call out for intelligence and raise your voice for understanding; if you seek her like silver and search for her as hidden treasures - then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

Proverbs sets the condition in the accumulation of ifs before the then. The seeking is active, sustained, and costly - like digging for silver, like searching for hidden treasure. The wisdom does not come to the passive. But the seeking is not self-directed: for the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

Peter asks the question that most of us are thinking but do not say aloud: we have given up everything - what will there be for us? And Jesus gives a real answer: a hundredfold. Everyone who has given up houses, brothers, sisters, parents, children, lands for my name will receive a hundred times more and inherit eternal life.

The hundredfold is not primarily about the next life. Jesus says it is about this present age and the age to come. The receiving begins now. The household that is asking the Peter question deserves the Jesus answer.

• For our family, that we would seek wisdom like silver - with the full engagement of the ear, the heart, the voice, the searching - and find in the Lord's mouth the knowledge we are looking for, we pray to the Lord.
• For those who have given up houses and relationships for the name and are waiting for the hundredfold, that the receiving would be visible to them in this present age and not only in the age to come, we pray to the Lord.
• On this feast of Saint Benedict, for those who have chosen the Rule as the structure for wisdom-seeking - that the daily rhythm of prayer, work, and hospitality would keep producing the fruit it was designed for, we pray to the Lord.
• In this Precious Blood month, for the price that makes the hundredfold possible - the Precious Blood poured out by the one who promised what Peter asked for, we pray to the Lord.

Seek her like silver, search for her as hidden treasures. Wisdom in Proverbs is not a skill or a content area; she is a treasure that requires the full commitment of ear, heart, and voice. Name one specific wisdom you are searching for in this season of your family's life. Apply the heart to it this week.

Everyone who has given up anything for my name will receive a hundred times more. The parents who have given up comfort, freedom, or the life they imagined for the sake of their children and for the sake of the Gospel deserve to hear this answered honestly. The hundredfold is real. The receiving is in progress.