Only Wisdom, Himself Saves Our Ignorance
March 24, 2026
Last Sunday I was fortunate
to have a car and a driver to run some errands and take time to look around and
familiarize myself once and for all with the places where I could easily find
the things when needed. The first
encounter of the day was an e-trike suddenly backed up and scratched the door
of the car on my side. I saw it just
when it was sliding back and scratched us. So the driver of the car went down
to look and smelled the e-trike driver and said “Lasing ka kasi. Inatrasan mo kami.”
“Hindi ako umatras,” sagot
ng e-trike driver. I opened my window
and said “Nakita ko umatras kayo. Umatras po kayo huwag na ninyo ikaila. Kitang
kita ko po.”
Then the driver of the car said “Huwag mong galawin.”
But the e-trike driver
moved the e-trike forward.
“Bakit mo inabante?” the
car driver retorted.
Then one by one the ‘usis’, the ‘merons’, his ‘colleagues’ approached the car. One said ‘umatras ka!’ and another one asked ‘umatras ka?’ I said “Umatras po siya.” The e-trike driver continued to deny “Hindi naman ako umatras. Hindi ko alam kung umatras ako.”
The security guard has been taking shots from different angles since the beginning. According to the driver of the car, he was able to take a shot of the e-trike touching the car before the e-trike driver moved it forward. Meanwhile the security guard called the police because the car driver also wanted a statement to present to his office as evidence it was not his fault but the e-trike driver’s fault.
The ‘colleagues’ (co-e-trike drivers) went close to the car whispering “magpakumbaba ka na. Matapang ka pa. Dapat lang humingi ka na ng tawad. Mam, wala naman siya talagang ibabayad.” The e-trike driver moved closer to the car and said sorry po Mam. Patawad na po. Wala akong ibabayad kung gusto po ninyo sa inyo na po itong e-trike ko.
The car driver butted in “Hindi yung e-trike mo ang kailangan dito. Kailangang magsabi ka ng totoo at huwag ka ng magsinungaling pa. Lasing kayo at umatras ka.”
The e-trike driver answered “Nakainom lang pero hindi lasing.”
To cut the long story short, the police came, looked at the situation, and with all the previous investigation of the policewoman who arrived earlier, the policeman asked us to go to the traffic office. I asked the car driver his assessment of the damage and he said “Mam, wala rin mangyayari. Aberiya lang, tapos wala namang ibabayad.”
So I just told the policeman, “Hindi bale na lang po kasi may appointment lang po kami lalo pa kami matatagalan. Kailangan lang po sabihan yung e-trike driver na huwag na siyang magsisinungalin, aminin na niya agad ang kanyang kamalian at huwag niyang ipaglalaban ang kasinungalingan niya. Lalo nang nakakagalit po.”
“Sige po.”
Then when we were going on our way, the driver and I were talking about the whole incident, etc. This first word of Christ on the Cross ran through my mind and I said, “Kung alam nung driver nayun na may mangyayari na ganoon, iaatras ba niya yung e-trike niya? Pasalamat na lang tayo nawala nang iba pang nanyaring mas grabe.”
“Aayusin ko na lang po.” In the end, the car driver already reported the incident to the owner. I do not like to dwell on the situation anymore. I am just grateful nothing more serious happened. Accidents happen no matter how careful one is because the others are not as careful. It is still a wake up call.
Following now is the first word of Christ on the Cross (From The Cries of Jesus from the Cross, A Fulton J. Sheen’s Anthology).
Father, Forgive Them, for They Know Not What They Do!
It seems to be a fact of human psychology that when death approaches, the human heart speaks its words of love to those whom it holds closest and dearest. There is no reason to suspect that it is otherwise in the case of the Heart of hearts. If He spoke in a graduated order to those whom He loved most, then we may expect to find in His first three words the order of His love and affection. His first words went out to enemies: “Father, forgive them”; His second to sinners: “This day you will be with me in paradise”; and His third to saints: “Woman, behold your son.” Enemies, sinners, and saints — such is the order of divine love and thoughtfulness.
The congregation anxiously awaited His first word. The executioners expected Him to cry, for everyone pinned on the gibbet of the Cross had done it before Him. Seneca tells us that those who were crucified cursed the day of their birth, the executioners, their mothers, and even spat on those who looked upon them. Cicero tells us that at times it was necessary to cut out the tongues of those who were crucified, to stop their terrible blasphemies. Hence the executioners expected a cry but not the kind of cry that they heard. The scribes and Pharisees expected a cry, too, and they were quite sure that He who had preached “Love your enemies,” and “Do good to them that hate you,” would now forget that gospel with the piercing of feet and hands. They felt that the excruciating and agonizing pains would scatter to the winds any resolution He might have taken to keep up appearances. Everyone expected a cry, but no one with the exception of the three at the foot of the Cross expected the cry they did hear. Like some fragrant trees that bathe in perfume the very axe that gnashes them, the great Heart on the Tree of Love poured out from its depths something less a cry than a prayer, the soft, sweet, low prayer of pardon and forgiveness: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Forgive whom? Forgive enemies? The soldier in the courtroom of Caiaphas who struck Him with a mailed fist; Pilate, the politician, who condemned a God to retain the friendship of Caesar; Herod, who robed Wisdom in the garment of a fool; the soldiers who swung the King of Kings on a tree between heaven and earth — forgive them? Forgive them, why? Because they know what they do? No, because they know not what they do. If they knew what they were doing and still went on doing it; if they knew what a terrible crime they were committing by sentencing Life to death; if they knew what a perversion of justice it was to choose Barabbas to Christ; if they knew what cruelty it was to take the feet that trod everlasting hills and pinion them to the limb of a tree; if they knew what they were doing and still went on doing it, unmindful of the fact that the very blood that they shed was capable of redeeming them, they would never be saved! Why, they would be damned if it were not for the fact that they were ignorant of the terrible thing they did when they crucified Christ! It was only the ignorance of their great sin that brought them within the pale of the hearing of that cry from the Cross. It is not wisdom that saves; it is ignorance!
There is no redemption for the fallen angels. Those great spirits headed by the Bearer of Light, Lucifer, endowed with an intelligence compared with which ours is but that of a child, saw the consequences of each of their decisions just as clearly as we see that two and two make four. Having made a decision, they made it irrevocably; there was no taking it back, and hence there was no future redemption. It is because they knew what they were doing that they were excluded from the hearing of that cry that went forth from the Cross. It is not wisdom that saves; it is ignorance!
In like manner, if we knew what a terrible thing sin was and went on sinning; if we knew how much love there was in the Incarnation and still refused to nourish ourselves with the Bread of Life; if we knew how much sacrificial love there was in the Sacrifice of the Cross and still refused to fill the chalice of our heart with that love; if we knew how much mercy there was in the sacrament of Penance, and still refused to bend a humble knee to a hand that had the power to loose both in heaven and on earth; if we knew how much life there was in the Eucharist and still refused to take of the Bread that makes life everlasting and still refused to drink of that Wine that produces and enriches virgins; if we knew all the truth there is in the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ and still turned our backs to it like other Pilates; if we knew all these things and still stayed away from Christ and His Church, we should be lost! It is not wisdom that saves; it is ignorance! It is only our ignorance of how good God is that excuses us for not being saints!
Dear Jesus! I do not want to know the wisdom of the world; I do not want to know on whose anvil snowflakes are hammered or the hiding place of darkness or from whose womb came the ice, or why the gold falls to the earth earthly, and fire climbs to the heavens heavenly; I do not want to know literature and science, or the four-dimensional universe in which we live; I do not want to know the length of the universe in terms of light-years; I do not want to know the breadth of the earth as it dances about the chariot of the sun; I do not want to know the heights of the stars, chaste candles of the night; I do not want to know the depths of the sea or the secrets of its watery palace. I want to be ignorant of all these things. I want only to know the length, the breadth, the height, and the depth of Thy redeeming love on the Cross, sweet Savior of men. I want to be ignorant of everything in the world — everything but You, dear Jesus. And then, by the strangest of strange paradoxes, I shall be wise!
— The Seven Last Word
Why, of course, You and I should want nothing more than Wisdom Himself who saves the ignorant! I want to be ignorant of everything else. Seeking, finding, knowing Jesus is all the wisdom I want to possess. He is my beginning and my end.
Once again let us reflect on the above thoughts and consider them during the quiet moments we have set aside every day to talk with Jesus about Himself and ourselves, and everything that is happening around the world. Although He knows everything and He allows things to happen for the good, it is also good for you and for me to talk to Him about whatever we hear in the news. Let us listen attentively and be enthused to heed whatever He tells us.
See you in the next post, “May tomorrow be a perfect day; may you find love and
laughter along the way; may God keep you in his tender care; ‘til He brings us
together again.”
Affectionately,
Guadalupinky
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