Cycle A - Year I

12 November 2023: Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time 

(Liturgical color: Green)

Readings:

First Reading:        Wisdom 6:12-16

Second Reading:   1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Gospel:  Please read  Matthew 25:1-13 

Keeping our lamps lighted!

When is the best time to pray? A wiseman answers, "the day before you die". But no one knows the day of death. Then pray every day as the best answer. Because we need to stay awake and keep watch with vigilant faith.

Our Lord Jesus tells us another story on the Parable of the Ten Virgins to explain the great day of Christ's second coming. Several of Christ's parables and other teaching touch on His second coming, and the need for His people to be ready for that event, expectant to the point of being prepared for it to happen at any time.

In Jesus' time, Jewish wedding took place in the house of bride's father. The virgins are young unmarried girls, bridesmaids who are in the bride's house waiting for the bridegroom to arrive.

The Parable teaches that entering God's kingdom will be like the ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom who comes at night time. Five of the virgins were wise, taking their lamps with enough reserved oil for the night. But the remaining five were foolish and did not have reserved oil the last the night. The bridegroom was delayed in coming, so the foolish ones run out of oil and need to go out to buy more. At the time that they were away the bridegroom arrived, and so only the five wise virgins were on hand to welcome him.

Now, the Parable centers on the attitude one should adopt up to the time when the bridegroom comes. In other words, one has to be on the watch and be preparing for Christ's coming by doing good works.

We know that the Son of Man will come as a surprise when people less expect Him. It can be today, it can be tomorrow, that is why the warning of the Parable of the Ten Virgin is: "Stay awake and keep watch..." because no one knows the day nor the hour of the Lord's second coming.   

Staying awake, in practice, means having the light of faith, which is kept alive with the oil of charity.  Jesus is teaching His listeners about patience and hope that is an integral part of living in the waiting time until our Lord Jesus returns.

The moral of the Gospel narrative is very simple, and the lesson evident. Our Lord Jesus warns us to be alert and must keep the flame alive in our heart. And this flame is lit with the oil of charity and prayer, charity performed through and for the love of God.

So we must keep our lamp of faith lighted with patience and hope as an integral part of our Christian living in the waiting time until the Lord returns.  The Good News is that the Lord invites everyone to the wedding feast of the Bridegroom. It is our decision to patiently and prudently prepare for it... when the Bridegroom comes at a time when we least expect.

A blessed Sunday to us all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!