THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
8 NOVEMBER 2020
Saint
Paul’s Letter to the Thessalonians is the earliest writing in the New
Testament. The members of that Church
expected that Jesus Christ would come again in their lifetimes. That is why Saint Paul responds to their
concern in today’s second reading. Those
who were mourning the death of loved ones were concerned that they had died
before Christ had come again. What will
happen to them? Saint Paul tells them
that they should grieve the loss of their loved ones. But they should grieve in hope, because
Christ has already won the victory over death.
By the time
Saint Matthew had written his Gospel, it was clear that the second coming of
the Lord would be delayed. Jesus uses
the setting of a Mediterranean wedding feast to warn the Church about the danger
of being complacent about his coming. In
the ancient world, marriages were arranged by parents. When it came time for the actual wedding, the
wedding party would process from the bride’s family to the groom’s family,
where the new couple would live. In the
parable, Jesus does not give the reason for the bridegroom’s delay. Instead, he contrasts the wisdom of the five
virgins who had brought extra oil for their lamps with the foolishness of the
five virgins who did not. By the time
the foolish virgins ran to the convenience store to buy more oil, it was too
late. The door to the wedding feast had
been closed.
This
parable is addressed to the Church today, because our Bridegroom, Jesus Christ,
has delayed his coming for two millennia.
In addition, our secular culture avoids paying attention to the reality
of our own deaths, when the Lord will come for us. For those reasons, we must make sure that we
have plenty of oil. The oil represents
our deeds of righteousness. In
performing good works, we do not earn our salvation. The Lord has already won that salvation for
us. Instead, our good works are a
response to his presence and action in our lives. When we perform those good works (giving
humble service, respecting the dignity of each human person, attending the
needs of the poor, putting the needs of others before our own), we allow the
light of Christ to shine through us into a world filled with darkness. The Lord’s message is clear. We need to be prepared for the end by doing
good works now. We cannot be caught
without oil in our lamps when Jesus returns.
But we do not prepare ourselves by cowering in fear. We do so by expressing our deep relationship
with Jesus Christ by our deeds of righteousness.
Every year,
our Diocesan Office of the Propagation of the Faith assigns every parish a
mission preacher. Last year, Father
Larry Kanyike was our mission preacher, and we responded generously to assist
him with his deeds of righteousness in his parish in Uganda. This year, we have been assigned the Holy
Cross Mission Center. Because of the
pandemic, they have asked me to make their case for them. Please read the information in the bulletin
and online.
I have had
personal experiences with the work of the Holy Cross Congregation in
Africa. Over thirty years ago, I visited
their new center in Jinja, Uganda. They
had already opened a school for the children in the area, and they were
establishing a seminary to attract African vocations. They lived in a very humble dwelling, and I
slept in a tool shed. We also met
refugees from the Holy Cross mission in Rwanda.
They had escaped with their lives.
They may have shared the waters of baptism. But they had been born into the wrong tribe,
threatened with genocide. At the end of
the trip, we stayed at the Holy Cross parish in Dandora, a very poor suburb of
Nairobi, Kenya. They were building a
church, and they lived among the poor. I
can testify to the deeds of righteousness, the good works, of the Holy Cross
Missions in Africa and trust that they are doing good work in Mexico, South
America, and Bangladesh. On behalf of
the Holy Cross Mission Center, thank you for your support.
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