THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
12 NOVEMBER 2023
During
November, while the farmers are harvesting the crops they had planted in the spring,
we remember those loved ones whom God has “harvested” in death. We began the month by celebrating the
Solemnity of All Saints. All those
countless men and women, both canonized and those we have known, are interceding
for us and giving us examples of holiness.
On the next day, we prayed for all our loved ones who have died. We continue to pray for them, because we
trust in God’s mercy. They may be going
through the process of being purified, with the fire of God’s love burning away
what might separate them from God and the saints.
In praying
for the dead, we become more aware of our mortality. Each of us will be gathered by the Lord,
either in our individual deaths, or at the end of the world. We cannot know the day or time. This is the concern that Saint Paul addresses
in his Letter to the Thessalonians. They
had expected the Lord to return in their lifetime. However, that second coming has not
occurred. They have expressed their
concern to Saint Paul, who tells them to grieve in hope. Their hope lies in the Paschal Mystery –
Christ’s death and resurrection. Saint Paul
promises that those who had died with Christ throughout their lives will share
in his resurrection, even though he has not returned in glory. He says, “then we who are alive, who are
left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds.” He is using symbolic language to assure us
that we too will share in the fullness of his resurrection if we share fully in
his dying. He is not talking about what
some Biblical readers call “the rapture.”
Today’s
parable directly addresses each of us as disciples of the Jesus Christ. It is based on the wedding practices of the
first century in the Holy Land.
Marriages were arranged by the fathers of the bride and groom, who would
go through a time of betrothal. When the
time had come for them to be married, there would be a procession of the bride
from her family’s house to the family’s house of the groom. Sometimes, that procession would be delayed
as the fathers made final agreements.
That seems to be the situation in this parable. The bridegroom and his party have been
delayed. The ten teenage virgins had
fallen asleep. But when the groom and
his party arrive, the five wise virgins use the extra oil that they had
brought. The five foolish virgins had
not planned ahead do not have enough oil.
They have to run to the local Martin’s and come back too late. They are locked out of the wedding banquet.
This
parable is addressed directly to us. We,
the disciples of Jesus Christ, the faithful bridegroom, need to be prepared for
his coming for us, who are his bride, the Church. He has already delayed his coming for over
two thousand years. He will come for us
at the end of our lives, as he has already come for so many of those whom we love. We must make sure that we have plenty of
oil. The oil represents our spiritual
vigilance, our willingness to put our faith into action by persevering in good
works. Those good works cannot be
shared. The wise virgins are not selfish. The parable invites us to be honest about how
often we are foolish today. We are
foolish when we come to Mass on Sunday and do not put into action in our daily
lives the Mystery of the Lord’s dying and rising that we celebrate here. We are foolish when we refuse to respond to
invitations to be humble servants. We
are foolish when we pass up opportunities to be reconciled with those we have
offended. We who are waiting have time
to change our ways to become like the virgins who brought extra oil. The parable is not designed to make us afraid
of death. Instead, this parable and this
month of November challenge us to evaluate how much we put our faith into
practice. Armed with this oil, we can be
prepared to meet the Lord when he comes, so we can participate in the eternal
wedding banquet.
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