November 12^th 2017. Thirty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Matthew 25, 1-13

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

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GOSPEL: Matthew 25, 1-13

Jesus told his disciples this parable:
"The kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins
who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.
Five of them were foolish and five were wise.
The foolish ones, when taking their lamps,
brought no oil with them,
but the wise brought flasks of oil with their lamps.
Since the bridegroom was long delayed,
they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
At midnight, there was a cry,
'Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!'
Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps.
The foolish ones said to the wise,
'Give us some of your oil,
for our lamps are going out.'
But the wise ones replied,
'No, for there may not be enough for us and you.
Go instead to the merchants and buy some for yourselves.'
While they went off to buy it,
the bridegroom came
and those who were ready went into the wedding feast with him.
Then the door was locked.
Afterwards the other virgins came and said,
'Lord, Lord, open the door for us!'
But he said in reply,
'Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.'
Therefore, stay awake,
for you know neither the day nor the hour."

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . The Gospel presents ten people to us: five of them invest everything in order to encounter their Spouse, whilst the other five expect to encounter Him without making any preparation. How often we trip along in life, improvising and hoping to land on our feet! This Gospel teaches us that we must make an effort to be open and receptive to the grace of the Lord. Too often we are absorbed in our own projects and in our own times and we are not attentive to the times of the Lord. The Lord may be planning an important appointment with me today, a chance to enable me to make an important step forward in life. But if I am absorbed in myself, then how can I hear the Lord or be ready for him when the moment arrives? God is generous with his grace, but we must be generous with our time and resources if we are to receive his grace. The five wise virgins invest themselves in the hoped-for encounter. They bring significant reserves of oil so that they will be ready for their spouse when he comes. In the same way we must invest ourselves in being attentive to the Lord; we must be ready to abandon our self-absorbed projects if we are to allow the plan of God for me to be realised.

In order to encounter God we must make ourselves available to him. God makes appointments with us every day and we must be receptive if we are going to enter into those encounters.

Both the first reading and the Gospel for Sunday speak of an encounter. The first reading from the book of Wisdom tells us that those who make an effort to seek wisdom will find her without any difficulty. Certain acts will enable us to find wisdom. This is more or less the story of how grace works. The grace of God is not an imposition from above. Rather, it is something that must be encountered. It requires reciprocal action from us, the efforts of searching for grace and welcoming grace. Grace is not forced upon us, but when we welcome it and begin to dialogue with the Holy Spirit, then grace begins to enter even more powerfully into our hearts. Life is all about relationship, and we are called to be attentive in our dealings with God. The events that confront us every day can be thought of as divine appointments in which we meet our true spouse.

To receive grace we must be attentive to the times and seasons of God, and this requires abandoning our own times and seasons.

The Gospel, in fact, is that of the ten wise virgins and ten foolish virgins who are on their way to the wedding feast. The Kingdom of Heaven is like an unusual appointment in which we are challenged to be prepared in the correct manner. The virgins each have lamps because the meeting with the bridegroom could well happen in the dead of night. The meeting that is spoken about here is the very kind of meeting that gives meaning to life. When one raises a child, there are certain moments in life when certain things can be accomplished, and only during those moments. There is a time when it is essential to speak to our children because the time may come when they will not listen any more. To love a woman for all of her life requires being able to respect her times and seasons. This can be very difficult for a man to understand. Woman often have many things going on in their minds simultaneously whilst men tend to focus on one issue at any one time. To enter into grace, we must be attentive to the times and seasons of God. The prophet Isaiah writes, “Seek the Lord whilst he is to be found; call on him while he is near”. To do that, it is essential to abandon our own ways - our ways are not his.

If I am a slave to my own self-absorption then I will not hear the Lord when he knocks on my door on a daily basis

These ten girls must enter into the rhythm of encounter with the bridegroom. It is in a sense the secret of life. The times of the Lord do not correspond to my hurried way of doing things. If I am to be of service to someone, then I need to be attentive to the times of that person, not the times of my schedule. In the parable, all of the girls fall asleep. But it was only the foolish ones who did not expect the waiting time to be so long and had no oil with them. They expected a quick outcome for their efforts, an instant entry into the marriage banquet. But in reality waiting was necessary. When we are enslaved by our own self-absorption, encapsulated within our own times, then we do things purely according to our own way of looking at things. The other person does not enter into our reckoning. Life, however, is full of unexpected things. Our Spouse arrives at unexpected times. He calls us whenever he calls us. The wise virgins have placed themselves at his disposal. They have kept a reserve of oil apart, and this enables them to enter into a relationship of love.

God is generous with his grace, but we must be generous in return if we are to receive his grace. Today the Lord might have planned an appointment with me, a gift that will enable me to make an important step in life, but how can I meet the Lord and receive his gift if I am so absorbed in my own projects?

It is important to be less mean that we are usually. We must place everything we have at the disposal of the Lord. The foolish girls made no preparation whilst the wise girls invested themselves in preparation for this relationship. The Gospel of Luke speaks of being dressed for action and with our lamps burning. This is not an attitude that we embrace for one day or every now and then: it is an attitude that must be permanent. Unfortunately we tend to improvise, to stumble along and hope to fall on our feet. The plan of God has been prepared from eternity to save us all and it is a generous plan. We need to be open to receive this generosity, to encounter the Lord in the things and events of life with total availability on our part. The five women are received into a spousal relationship with the Lord whilst the others remain outside. They were already outside in the sense that they did not attribute importance to this encounter, they did not prepare themselves for it as if it were something vital for them. Every day might be a day in which the Lord calls us, but not simply in the biological sense. God might call me today to make an important step forward in life, to enter into something truly new. We must be ready, we must put all of our oil at his disposal and be ready to abandon every single project of ours in order to allow God’s plan for us to be realised.