Training to be both simple and shrewd

“BEHOLD, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.” (Mt 10,16) Clear indication from Christ that practically obliges us to seriously take this training of how to be both simple and shrewd in a world that getting more and more complicated and challenging.

Even just considering the more simple material and temporal aspects of the developments of our times, we already have a formidable challenge to face. There are just so many things to attend to that we somehow are forced to do some multi-tasking and to do that mind-boggling task of orchestrating the different tasks that often compete with each other.

Things can be truly straining and demanding on how to put order to all of them! We need to learn how to be discriminating without being discriminatory in setting the priorities of the different options we can have at hand. We need to know which ones are to be given priority over others. We need to know which ones to choose and which to set aside.

And when we consider the more complex spiritual and moral aspects of the developments nowadays, the challenge becomes even more exacting. Here what is needed is nothing less than to be truly and vitally identified with Christ, animated by the Holy Spirit.

Yes, it is indispensable that a good working knowledge of the spiritual and moral doctrine of our faith. But a lot more is needed. We need to be truly a spiritual man as opposed to a carnal man, able to discern the different kinds of spirits behind every event, circumstance and situation.

This is a big challenge for us all. We have to learn to think, speak and act in a spiritual way, and not just mainly conditioned by our sensual, material and worldly aspects.

When we see a person, thing or event, we should not get stuck in knowing their physical appearance or external characteristics alone. We should go beyond them, discerning the spirit that animates them. In this we have to train ourselves endlessly. We need to check if the spirit behind them is of God or not.

In this, we have received enough warnings from Sacred Scripture. “Beloved,” St. John, for example, in his first letter tells us, “do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (Jn 4,1)

There are many kinds of spirits roaming around the world, and we have to learn how to discern them. There is the spirit of God, the spirit of Christ as opposed to the antichrist. There is also the evil spirit, and the spirit of the world that is dominated by the evil one.

St. Paul distinguished between the fruits of the Spirit of God and the works of the flesh dominated by the evil spirit. The former include love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. (cfr Gal 5,22-23)

The latter include fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing. (cfr Gal 5,19-21)

We have to learn to walk in the Spirit rather than to walk in the flesh. We have to train ourselves to think, speak and act in terms of our faith, and in intimate relationship with God and the saints. This is always possible and very doable.

This is the only way we can manage to be both simple and shrewd as we try to sort out the increasingly complicated spiritual and moral challenges of our times.