By MITCHELL KALPAKGIAN
The Proverbs Explained: A Blueprint for Christian Living, by Fr. Mitch Pacwa, SJ (EWTN Publishing, Inc.: Irondale, AL, 2017), 141 pp.; paperback $14.95. Available at www.Sophiainstitute.com or call 1-800-888-9344.
In a politically correct world dominated by moral relativism and scornful of traditional values and timeless moral truths, the wisdom of the Book of Proverbs restores moral sanity and simple common sense. God in His divine Providence gives man’s mind the light to guide him in the paths of righteousness and happiness and to protect him from many errors that lead souls astray.
Divided into three parts, this excellent book examines the realms of human living that all people encounter — Family, Justice, and Virtue — and selects proverbs from each of these categories that offer special insight into modern living with its masterful exposition of the traditional moral precepts that bind all men in all times and places.
For example, on the topic of Family, the Book of Proverbs offers invaluable advice on marital life that addresses a multitude of problems that undermine the harmony of marriage. Repetitious complaining on the part of both men and women is like an irritating drip or sound that never stops or gives relief: “A constant dripping on a rainy day and a contentious woman are alike” (Prov. 27:15).
Fr. Pacwa explains that touchy irritability is the bane of marital peace because it causes the dilemma of endless bickering (“nit-nit-nit picking”) that only produces unresolved arguments. The proverb, he elaborates, teaches the difference between irrational anger and courteous communication: “Rather, you must communicate in a way that informs the other of the difficulty — something he or she probably didn’t even recognize — without blaming.”
The temptation to blame and judge rather than communicate or inform inevitably leads to resentment and rancor, and “that drip, drip, drip goes on.” Murmuring never leads to peace in the home.
In another gem of wisdom on the Family, Proverbs teaches the importance of gratitude for the gift of a loving spouse: “He who finds a wife finds a good thing” (Prov. 18:22). Like many things that are inherently good in and of themselves as precious gifts, the goodness of God blesses persons with a husband or wife who is “a good in itself,” that is, not something useful, practical, beneficial in some economic or utilitarian sense but as “a favor bestowed by God” and as a source of abounding joy.
This blessing of a good wife or husband, however, is not some idol on a pedestal. In Pacwa’s words, marriage is “not just some job or a task that you perform; it’s a vocation….He calls you to your spouse.”
This vocation is ordered, not to some imaginary idealization of the other person, but to a closer bond with God who grants to men and women the deepest desires of their heart — the joy of loving and being loved. Without this understanding of God as the center of marriage and the source of the gift of the beloved, spouses will imagine the husband or wife to be perfect or have unrealistic standards — to “expect that person to be as good as God. No human person or institution is capable of being as good, wise, or powerful as God.”
The wisdom of the proverb provides the sober reminder that no man or woman can possibly be the source of infinite or everlasting happiness to another person — a fact that explains the vocation of marriage as bound with patience, humility, and forgiveness.
On the topic of Parents and Children, the author comments on this wise counsel: “Folly is bound up in the heart of the child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him” (Prov. 22:15). While children of course need to be educated, civilized, and taught manners and morals, they especially need common sense, an awareness of the human condition or the nature of things.
Pacwa identifies the two types of folly where children especially need instruction, intellectual and moral. By intellectual folly, he means naiveté, gullibility, and imprudence: “Quite simply, children need to be taught about the world. They need to understand what’s dangerous, what’s helpful, what words mean (and what words not to say!), and so on.”
Moral folly, on the other hand, the author identifies as the willfulness of original sin that St. Augustine describes in his own youthful folly: disobedience to parents, the temptation to sloth in the failure to study, the habit of lying, the inclination to selfishness, and the uncontrollable pursuit of pleasure.
The authority parents exert requires the vigilance to correct bad behavior immediately and consistently to prevent the habits of vice that easily follow without this discipline. It is simple common sense to assume that children “have all the inclination to sin that adults have, but lack the strength to carry it out.”
Therefore, parents play the important role of bulwark and become “a firm, virtuous door frame” that resists the force of children’s irrational or stubborn demands. The home, then, must have high standards and set noble ideals before children and reinforce them with authority.
On the subject of Justice the book selects the theme of wealth and poverty that appears often in the wisdom books of the Bible: “Two things I ask of you; . . . give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that I need, or I shall be full, and deny you, and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ or I shall be poor, and steal, and profane the name of my God” (Prov. 30:7-9).
Observing that modern culture with its seductive advertising and consumerist spending habits constantly tempts man to desire more things, expensive luxuries, and unnecessary, unaffordable possessions, the author clarifies the dangers associated with riches — the worship of Mammon as a false god and the loss of gratitude to the Lord as the giver of all good gifts. Man, living for money as the be-all and end-all, easily neglects the spiritual life and neglects the goal of salvation:
“Not only are we tempted to forget Him for sustenance — that is, ‘our daily bread’ — but we also forget that what we have was ultimately given to us by Him.”
The deception of riches never ceases to lure man into equating wealth as the ultimate good.
Likewise, poverty poses its own temptations like despair, rejection of God, stealing, loneliness, and envy, and those who oppress the poor or disregard their desperate condition provoke God’s anger by their injustice because unfair wages “cry to Heaven” for vengeance. Employers who do not pay living wages and loan companies with usurious interest rates rob honest hardworking people of the dignity of a human life that must rise beyond mere survival.
Proverbs does not idealize or glamorize poverty as a more perfect condition for a life of virtue: “Poverty is not romantic, as can be seen in the sickness, hunger, and other deprivations suffered by the poor.” While one of the Beatitudes praises “the poor in spirit,” that does not mean destitution but contentment with moderation and temperance.
Wisdom, then, directs man to be content with the sufficient and acknowledge the limit of “enough” — a difficult golden mean for the corporate world of profits and more profits always at the expense of a middle class that struggles to save.
Spiritual Works Of Mercy
On the subject of Virtue, Proverbs frequently considers the importance of speech and silence in daily life: “The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence” (Prov. 10:11).
The image of the fountain, Pacwa observes, demonstrates that “good words are not idle but can be truly life-giving” — as life-giving as water for thirst or spiritual food for those starved for God. He offers the illuminating insight that the Spiritual Works of Mercy all depend on the right speech and choice of words.
Speaking the simple truth in all its eloquence instructs the ignorant. Speaking words of hope and encouragement that counsel the doubtful lifts their hearts. Appealing to the conscience and explaining the teaching of the Church on matters of divorce, contraception, and abortion can admonish sinners. Being a peacemaker and seeking reconciliation with kind, forgiving words shows mercy and heals human relationships.
Showing sympathy for the grieving with condolences, expressing kindness by providing meals, and uttering comforting words that inspire faith and hope console the afflicted.
Likewise, praying for the living and the dead invites graces from God who is always touched by the prayers of the faithful, as the example of St. Monica especially illustrates. In her constant prayers for Augustine’s conversion from his life of carnal sin, a priest’s words reassured Monica of God’s intervention: “As you live, it is impossible that the son of these tears should perish.”
In these days of talk shows, the influence of the press, and social media, the healing and harmful effects of words need the wisdom of Proverbs to make words become Spiritual Works of Mercy.
God in His mercy always gives fallen man the light of truth in many ways. From the Revealed Word of God, the Ten Commandments, the Book of Proverbs, the Word made Flesh, the Beatitudes, and the Magisterium, man receives divine truth, human wisdom, unchanging moral truths, and universal common sense.
This lucid, practical book on Proverbs shows modern man that ancient proverbial truths never cease to be among the clear lights that rescue man from the ideology of political correctness and the domination of moral relativism that never lead to peace, joy, wealth, justice, or salvation.
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