Many of us have seen the “Old Woman/Young Lady” optical illusion. In this illusion, there are two images, an “Old Woman” and a “Young Lady” merged into one picture.

Which person do you see? It depends on where you focus. Sometimes you will see an old woman. At other times, a young lady.

Hint -The tip of the “Old Woman’s” nose is the bottom of the “Young Lady’s” chin.

Shifting our focus helps us see what might not be noticed at first.

Like Jesus, Pope Francis often offers hints that help us shift focus and see what is not so obvious to us at first.

Pope Francis’s hints for seeing as God sees

Wondering what Pope Francis said about the feast of Pentecost, I discovered his seven master classes on the gifts of the Holy Spirit  A quick refresher –  wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.

I remember memorizing these gifts as a child. I had to if I wanted to be confirmed. Beyond that, I don’t remember spending much time in seminary classes. I may have preached about them a few times.

Reading Francis’ seven short reflections, I was able to shift my focus and see more clearly what each of these seven gifts look like. I found much food for thought and personal prayer. Too rich for just one post.

What struck me about the gift of WISDOM

God’s wisdom vs. human wisdom

The first gift of the Holy Spirit according to this list is wisdom. But it is not simply human wisdom, which is the fruit of knowledge and experience.

Wisdom is precisely this: …  to see the world, to see situations, circumstances, problems, everything through God’s eyes. This is wisdom.

Limitations of human wisdom

Sometimes we see things according to our liking or according to the condition of our heart, with love or with hate, with envy…. No, this is not God’s perspective.

God’s wisdom

Wisdom is what the Holy Spirit works in us so as to enable us to see things with the eyes of God. This is the gift of wisdom.

The Holy Spirit thus makes the Christian “wise”. Not in the sense that he has an answer for everything, that he knows everything, but in the sense that he “knows” about God, he knows how God acts, he knows when something is of God and when it is not of God; he has this wisdom which God places in our hearts.

Wisdom as a gift

This is something that we cannot invent, that we cannot obtain by ourselves: it is a gift that God gives to those who make themselves docile to the Holy Spirit.

This is the wisdom the Holy Spirit endows us with, and we can all have it. We only have to ask it of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, we must ask the Lord to grant us the Holy Spirit and to grant us the gift of wisdom, that wisdom of God that teaches us to see with God’s eyes, to feel with God’s heart, to speak with God’s words.

Questions about the gift of wisdom

• Do I see the picture within the picture of my life?
• Have I asked God to help me to see my life with God’s eyes and focus my life accordingly?

Originally posted on Vincentian Mindwalk