I certainly don’t think that learning or wisdom is always perverse. Motive matters. But sometimes I allow the pursuit of learning and its accolades to define who I am, instead of letting who I am define how I learn and teach.

It’s also important that Jesus says it is difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom, but not impossible with God. Likewise, Paul says “not many wise” according to the world’s standards are called, but he doesn’t say not any. As Pascal puts it in the epigram, it is the “wise people full of pride” who have a hard time knowing God.

I’ve been reading Saint Augustine’s Confessions lately, and this post springs in part from my reactions to Augustine’s own struggles to cast away the baubles of worldly prestige and academic standing (”what passes for wealth in this world” is the way he puts it in this quote). So much of what he says, particularly at the beginning of Part II, resonates with some of my own feelings and experiences.

Of course, it is most likely the case for most of us that the answer is “some of both”, but that gives us guidance for our prayers and repentance.

Might wealth be like this? Or is it a special case? My intuition in past has been that it is the former, but more and more I think it is the latter. At any rate, it at least dominates our imaginations and our lives today, so it is difficult to think of examples of saintly use of money.

Thanks again for this reflections and ‘recollections’.