Discernment, Discretion and a mind for thinking

The texts of the Roman Catholic Lectionary today bring some seeds to develop thoughts on the nature of the cognitive gifts which are given by God to humanity. The text from the Book of Sirach enumerates the gifts the Creator left with humanity after the expulsion from Eden. The nature of the thinking relationship with the Divine is presented in different ways. One translation describes the gift as discretion, perhaps the ability to choose, or to value options. Another uses the term discernment as the gift for thinking. This is to discern Good and Evil and or to uncover the vocation to which the Divine is calling us. The mind for thinking may seem strange in a relationship with infinity and eternity in the Divine. One writer has compared the relationship of the Father to Humanity as like that of parents or grandparents. The grandfather does not cause the child to conform to his thinking and ways, even though the argument can be made that he is drawing from decades of lie experience, but the grandparent “delights” in the development of the child as a being who will live the journey as he or she is called to do so. The temporal existence is to live and to live intensely. The discovery of our being through development is the path we are on. The life we have is the gift. We approach the opportunity for intimate relationship with the Divine through our indwelling Spirit as the children described in Mark’s “expecting everything and deserving nothing”.