Second Sunday of Advent (December 4^th 2011)   

Mark 1:1-8

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

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1. Whose ways need to be straightened? The Lord's, or ours?

2. In what sense do we make it difficult for the Lord to enter our lives? In what sense do we "make crooked" the entrance of God into our daily existence?

3. What are the daily compromises in my life that impede the Lord from coming?

4. Is the Advent transformation from ambiguity to authenticity a painful process, or can it also be a life-giving and uplifting experience?

The Gospel is built upon the foundation of a period of conversion

Advent refers to the time of arrival of the Lord himself. The first line of the oldest of the Gospels – that of St. Mark – speaks of the "beginning" of the Good News of Jesus Christ. The word for "beginning" in Greek signifies "foundation". According to St Mark, the foundation of the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus consists in the sending ahead of a messenger who will prepare the way of the Lord - a voice crying in the wilderness that will make His paths straight. Jesus, apparently, cannot come until John the Baptist has prepared the way; God cannot enter our lives unless our existence goes through a transformation of a certain sort, and this transformation is initiated by a messenger - one who has the role of preparing the way. The English text uses the term "messenger" to translate the original Greek word "angel". An angel is one who has been sent; one who must announce or proclaim a message.

Whose ways must be straightened? The Lord's, or ours?

God enters our lives through this character, John the Baptist, who has been given the role of preparing the way, of straightening the path. Whose ways does the text intend to refer to? Sometimes when we hear this Gospel we think that it is our ways that need to be straightened. We surmise that we are being asked to straighten out a few personal problems and bad habits. But this is not the full story. The fundamental point is that we must prepare the way for Him. In the ancient text from the prophet Isaiah, the verb "prepare" ("prepare in the wilderness a way for the Lord") means to "turn one's face" to the ways of the Lord; to stop being fixated with our own ways and to be attentive to the ways of the Lord. To begin to turn away from our own projects and plans and to turn towards His plans. To "prepare the way of the Lord", thus, does not so much mean to sort out a few bad habits before the Lord comes, but to make ourselves available for what He wishes to do with us, what He wishes to accomplish in our lives. So we have to make the Lord's way's straight. But why? Are the Lord's ways crooked? They are only crooked in the sense that we have twisted them! We have "domesticated" the Lord's ways and subordinated them to our own designs. The human being tends to view the world from the point of view of his own interests, and he tries to manipulate reality towards his own ends, his own rewards, his own needs. In this way, he transforms reality into a thing into which the Lord cannot enter. Man organises his existence in such a way that he has as much control over it as possible. In this way he makes crooked the way of the Lord and impedes God from entering. On the face of things, God might appear to have a place in this world of our own making. Perhaps we have relegated Him to forty-five inattentive minutes on a Sunday. Often, we domesticate God into an artificial corner of our lives and prevent Him from having a significant influence on our existence.

John the Baptist asks us to confront the comprises that impede the Lord from coming

We are experts in making the ways of the Lord crooked. The fact is that we fear the eruption of God into our lives, and we expend much effort in making His entrance as tortuous as possible. Then along comes John the Baptist who says: "Stop twisting the ways of the Lord. Stop turning prayer into a supplication for what you want, instead of what the Lord wants from you. Stop pretending that obedience to the Lord consists in a few external, publicly-seen, acts. Stop pretending that your attachment to worldly goods is compatible with the message of the Gospel."

            Our lives are composed of a series of compromises that impede the Lord from entering in a meaningful way. We distort the workings of our conscience and fail to form it in an honest and healthy way. We fail to place before our consciences the ways of the Lord. The Lord cannot come into our lives because we have barricaded the entrance, and sometimes the barricades themselves are elements of our lives that we have purportedly constructed in His name! To allow the Lord to enter we must descend into the profundity of our being and confront the ambiguities that make His entrance all but impossible. It is through these small and hidden "corrections" of the twisted path that the Lord will find a way in, not in ostentatious acts or attitudes.

Conversion necessarily involves painful detachment from old ways

John the Baptist invites us to open wide the doors and to undertake a baptism of conversion. Conversion is a fundamental notion that the church places before us at significant times of the year, such as Advent and Lent. Conversion is the transformation and transfiguration of man, and we are being constantly called to mature, develop, and bring to fruition the best of ourselves. This involves abandoning the ambiguities of our lives. The word "baptism" is a Greek term meaning to "immerse oneself", and it involves the complete annihilation of that which went before. We must leave behind in the water our old stagnant ideas and false Gods. Change of this sort involves pain, the pain of detachment from old ways. It is not possible to arrive at something new without leaving behind the old. For that reason John the Baptist is a necessary step for the coming of the Lord.

The transformation from ambiguity to authenticity is beautiful and life-giving

Why did the inhabitants of Jerusalem flock to John, to hear a message so austere and severe? The human being is always searching for the clear message of John, for something greater than the mediocrity of our existence, for a message that invites transformation from the crookedness of our lives, to live a live full of beauty and meaning. When Francis of Assisi embarked upon his life of penitence and simplicity he was persecuted by the middle-class families of Assisi because their children began to follow him. These young people could see the attractiveness and beauty of the life that Francis had to offer. The mission of John the Baptist involves a similar call to live authentically, to live simply, instead of twisting the message of the Lord to our own ends. John ate locusts and wild honey and dressed in camel hair. This was a man who had returned to the life of the desert that was so much a part of Israel's history. The time in the desert for Israel was a time of transition and transformation, the transformation that all of us are desperately in need of. We are misshapen and deformed in our lives of compromise and comfort. All of us need the time of transition that is the meaning of Advent.

             Someone is arriving that is "greater" than John, someone who alone has the right to be our spouse. The expression "to undo the sandal strap" refers to a Jewish custom in the situation where a man was betrothed to a woman but for some reason was unable to marry her. Before she could be given in marriage to someone else, the new spouse had to undo the sandal strap of the original candidate. John's statement emphasizes the fact that he is unworthy to take the place of the true spouse. That true spouse is coming, someone who is more powerful than the cleansing water of the Jordan, one who brings the new life of the Holy Spirit.

            Let us wake up this Advent! Let us try to take our lives in hand and get rid of the ambiguities that litter our existence. How beautiful it is to get rid of the dross and return to clear and simple lives of authenticity! Let us ask the Lord for an Advent brimful of straight ways, and for genuine conversion.

First Sunday of Advent (November 27^th 2011)      

Mark 13:33-37

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

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1 Is keeping vigil a dread-filled experience, or does it involve the thrill of waiting for something wonderful to happen?

2. Is keeping vigil over the property of the master a frightening experience, or does it involve being entrusted with life-giving power?

3. Do I keep watch over the right and wrong aspects of my life, or do I live haphazardly, exercising no discernment over the direction of my life?

4. Who is my real master? Who do I "keep vigil for"? The things that this life has to offer, or Christ?

Is keeping vigil a dread-filled experience, or does it involve the thrill of waiting for something wonderful to happen?

We start the adventure of the new liturgical year with this passage from the Gospel that asks us to wake up. "Be on your guard. Stay awake!" we are told. To stay awake or to keep vigil sounds like hard work! Parents of newly-borns are sleep deprived and - as they can testify - it is not a very pleasant experience! On the face of it, this Gospel seems like an invitation to tension and anguish. Are we to feel threatened by the fact that we don't know at which exact moment the Lord will come? Do we have the sense that this Gospel is weighing us down with negative feelings towards the future?

            The funny thing is that, when it comes to entertainment, we love tension and suspense! We watch thrillers avidly, we love suspense-stories, we revel when there are spine-tingling twists and turns in the plot! Waiting to see what will happen with bated breath is extremely entertaining in these situations. Why so? Because we feel that something important is going to happen and we can't wait to find out what it is.

            Similarly, to understand this Gospel we must learn the art of waiting for something momentous to happen. A biblical figure that has much to teach us in this art of waiting is Simeon in the Gospel of St Luke. He waits all of his life to hold the child that is the fulfilment of the promises of the Lord. Simeon was a master in the art of knowing how to wait for something good.

To keep vigil over the property of the master is to be entrusted with power

In the passage of the Gospel that we reflect on this Sunday, the master leaves his house to go on a journey, gives each servant a particular task, and asks the doorman to stay awake. What does it mean to stay awake and wait for the return of the master? In this case, to stay awake is equivalent to being entrusted with power. The master has left his very own property in the care of the servants. Staying awake in this case does not involve taking huge doses of caffeine and waiting with anguish for something terrible to happen! Instead, staying awake means being attentive to the precious things that we have been entrusted with. It means being bestowed with the power of God and with the responsibility to exercise it fruitfully. To stay awake means to perform the wonderful task that we have been given.

To be entrusted with the role of watchman is to be given the amazing authority to make choices between right and wrong in our lives

The job of the doorman is usually to stay at the entrance and decide who can enter and who cannot. Thus, to be a doorman is to exercise the power of selection. It is to make a decision about what is good and right, and what is not. What an amazing duty! What an interesting life! Being awake in this sense is not a tension-filled state of mind, but to be alive, to be people entrusted with power to make positive decisions in life. Staying awake, being attentive to what is good and right, is the very thing that gives dignity to our lives. Our master has given his own power to us; he has given us wonderful tasks to do; and he has given us the authority to say yes or no to what we allow to enter our lives.

            What kind of life would it be if we were not to exercise this power? The opposite of staying awake is to fall asleep; to be, in a sense, switched off, and not to do anything of significance. The origin of the word "depraved" means to live a life that "does not put things to the proof"; in other words to live without distinguishing the good from the bad; to live haphazardly  without giving significance or profundity to the things we do.

In the Bible, keeping vigil is always linked to the wait for the liberating coming of the Lord

We do not know when the master will return, in the evening, at dawn, or at midday. These are the traditional times of the changing of the guard. What do they refer to in the Gospel? In the biblical world, keeping vigil is always liked to the Passover. "This night shall henceforth and for all time be a night of vigil for my people". The Lord comes in order to liberate! This is why it is important to be "awake" and to be attentive to the things of the Lord, instead of being busy doing things that are meaningless.

Who is my real master? Who do I "keep vigil for"- the things that this life has to offer, or Christ?

It is very important to keep in mind that the master of all things is someone else, and not myself. This is not demeaning for us, but it is the simple dose of reality that all of us need. We are not masters of our lives, and we must await the arrival of the real master. We are not the ultimate meaning of things; that ultimate meaning can only come from God. And we must prepare ourselves for encounter with this ultimate truth of our lives. This is not something negative, but something beautiful and liberating to reflect upon.

            If I seek the final meaning of things within myself, then I fall hopelessly short. I am insufficient in myself to provide an ultimate answer for my own existence. To find that answer, Christ must be my master and Christ must be the one that I keep vigil for. What use is it to stay vigilant for the paltry recompense that this life has to offer! Am I overly-vigilant for the attention or good-opinion of others? What I should be vigilant for, instead, is my relationship with Jesus. That is what gives sense to my life. My whole existence is a journey towards him. I must measure every aspect of my existence against him because he is my true master.

            You know, a Christian should not be shy to say this openly every now and then! I answer only to Jesus, not to a world that threatens me and tries to make me conform to an impoverished image of humanity; a world that is incredibly vain and wallows in the banal. My master is not the world but Jesus. It is He, and He alone, that gives sense to my life.

Thirty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (November 20^th 2011)  

Feast of Christ the King

Matthew 25:31-46

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

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1. How does the vision I have of the future influence my concrete acts in the present moment?

2. Is the message of this Gospel threatening or is it something fundamentally positive?

3. What are the opportunities that I have on a daily basis to enter God's Kingdom?

4. Why are the good people in the parable completely unaware of the good actions they have done for the Lord?

5. Are acts of charity great acts of benevolence and charity on our part, or are they privileged moments of encounter with the Kingdom of God?

This Gospel challenges us to reflect on the ultimate purpose of our lives and to relate it to the ordinary things we do every day

The Feast of Christ the King marks the end of the liturgical year, so it is appropriate that the Gospel this Sunday should be concerned with the end of all things. At the end of any year, we are always inclined to reflect on the way things are changing and passing away. It is also an opportunity to reflect on more profound things like the ultimate purpose of our lives. It is sometimes said that the human being can be understood in terms of where he is going. If the vision I have of the future is based on something false or frivolous, then my whole life now in the present will be disordered. The vision I have of my future is related to the vision I have of myself. Everything a human being does is done with some sort of intention, and if I do not have an enlightened vision of my future, then my behaviour in the present moment will be misguided as a result. What kind of vision of the future does this Gospel place before us? How does it relate that future to concrete acts in the present?

A Gospel that clearly describes the tragic consequences of selfish actions

We are presented with the image of a Shepherd King who is busy putting everything in its proper order. The problem with this Gospel is that it gives a menacing, threatening description of the consequences that await us in the future if we fail to behave in a certain way. And there can be little doubt that the Gospel does intend to give a severe warning of the negative consequences of our acts. On a human level, we need to be aware of these consequences or otherwise we might never be motivated to alter our behaviour. It is a fact of life that we do engage in evil acts, and we need to be attentive to the repercussions that follow such acts.

A Gospel that embodies a warning but which has a fundamentally positive message

This Gospel can justifiably be understood to embody a tragic warning of the consequences that await our behaviour. But this is not the only purpose of this passage. The parable also holds up to us the fact that the most ordinary of acts can have a wonderful significance. It shows us how the Kingdom of God can be breached without us even being aware of it. It highlights how all of us are willed by God to enter paradise, despite our constant obstinacy with regard to doing good. Our heavenly Father has no other purpose for us except that of our fulfilment and happiness. In the end, damnation is a consequence of the frustration of God's plan for us. If there was no possibility of us failing to carry out God's will, then our freedom of choice would have no meaning or substance.

The Lord has surrounded us with opportunities to enter His Kingdom!

How should this text be understood in the context of its positioning at the end of the liturgical year? What it tells us is that God surrounds us with opportunities to go to Paradise! The Lord has not left us without ample occasions and means to enter his Kingdom. These opportunities can be found in the sick, the homeless, the poor and the imprisoned. We should not think that those in need are a nuisance that we would be better of without. They are our gates to Paradise! This is a fundamentally positive message that should motivate us towards acts of charity. Situations of need are not irritating or troublesome states of affairs, but are moments of grace. In a sick person there is grace for us. In a prisoner, there is grace for us. In a down-and-out who needs to be dressed, there is an opportunity to enter a wonderful kingdom. These people are doors that God opens to us. They should not be thought of simply as situations that make demands on us. Instead, they should be seen as occasions when the Kingdom of Heaven is close at hand.

Why are the good people in the parable unaware of the good they have done?

In the parable, both the good and the bad are ignorant of the repercussions of their actions in the sense that neither is aware of the true significance of what they have done. The good ones ask the King, "But when did we do these things?" It is a fact that when we do something good, often we do not feel that we are doing something great or significant. Instead we do the act in the realisation that there is a value here that must be respected. This is an important point. What brings us to Paradise is the simple intuition of the precious value of the other person. This is the gate of the Kingdom of Heaven. In fact, the One who gives us the gift of Paradise is the One who considered us so precious that He gave His life for us. It must be the same for us.

We are called not only to serve the needy but to identify ourselves with them

When we read this text, we do so as Christians, a people that God has set apart, the Holy People of God. When we encounter this figure of the Shepherd King at the end of time, it will not be the first time that we meet him. It will be no surprise to us to hear that the gate to the Kingdom of Heaven is through acts of love to needy people that surround us. The Church has always made it abundantly clear that in the sick or needy there is the figure of the Lord Jesus himself. Saint Camillus always served the sick either standing or on his knees because he was aware that Jesus was present in that person. We have the privilege of being in possession of this wonderful truth – that Christ is present in those who are in need – so let us not waste it. We must also remember that we are not simply called to serve the needy; we are asked to identify ourselves with them. We must hunger and thirst with Christ for justice. We must be, with Christ, the persecuted and the imprisoned, in the sense that we suffer with them and ache for liberation. When all is said and done, why are the needy identifiable with Christ? Because He was the one who was thirsty, imprisoned, and without clothes. Every man and woman who wishes to follows Christ on the way of the cross must be ready one day to be the one who is rejected. Through our acts of love, service, and doing good, we must be ready to find ourselves marginalised and rejected as Christ was.

The ultimate purpose of life is brought into the present by concrete acts of mercy

To look after the people around us who are suffering is the minimum that we are asked to do. That is why the good people in the parable didn't even realise that, in carrying out this minimum, they were serving Christ. They had simply done what they had discerned to be the right thing. In so doing, they had unknowingly made contact with the ultimate purpose of life. Every act of charity is a gate to Paradise. Whenever we have the chance to practice charity, let us not think that we are doing great acts of benevolence. Let us be mindful of the fact, rather, that the opportunity to carry out such acts is a great privilege. Through them we encounter the wonderful reality of the Kingdom of God.

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time (November 13^th 2011)     

Matthew 25:14-30

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

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1. The Parable of the Talents: Is it an exhortation to use our abilities better, or is it something different?

2. Do the talents refer to our own personal capacities, or to the spiritual goods that have been bestowed on us?

3. What is the problem with the relationship of the third servant to his master?

4. Is this a parable of the moralistic sort, that makes us feel wary of the demands placed on us by the Lord, or does it wish to emphasize the Lord's bounty?

The Parable of the Talents: Is it an exhortation to use our abilities better, or is it something different?

We are inclined to interpret the parable of the talents as being an exhortation to use one's own talents to the full. As we read the parable, we tend to feel a sense of obligation to use our own abilities better, and we feel guilty that we have used them so badly up to now. But if we read the parable carefully, we see that Jesus actually intends to speak about a different matter entirely. We are presented with three servants, one of whom has a wrong relationship with his master. Jesus wants to challenge us to reflect on the behaviour of this third servant and use it to reflect on our own relationship with God.

Do the talents refer to our own personal capacities, or to the spiritual goods that have been gifted to us?

The talents spoken of by this parable are often understood to symbolize human qualities, like intelligence or artistic ability. But there can be no doubt that Jesus actually intends them to refer to something else. A man leaves on a journey and entrusts his own property to the three servants. Therefore the story is not referring to the something that belongs to the servants, but to something that belongs to the master. This distinction is important if we wish to understand the relevance of this parable to the Christian life. What are the goods that we as Christians have received? The sacraments, the Word of God, the gift of the church community with which we share the faith, the gift of the Magisterium of the Church and leaders of the faith like the Holy Father, the possibility of receiving forgiveness for our sins, and - the greatest gift of all - the Holy Spirit that has been poured into our hearts. Once we reflect on the goods that have been entrusted to us, the parable begins to lose its moralistic air and instead becomes a meditation on the wonderful bounty of the Lord, and the joy that comes from receiving it well.

What is the problem with the relationship of the third servant to his master?

The problem with the third servant can be intuited from the things he says to his master. "Lord, I know you are a hard man, reaping where you do not sow and gathering where you have not scattered. I was afraid, and I hid your talent under the ground. You gave it to me and now I restore it to you. I did not take possession of that which you gave me. In fact, I don't think well of you at all. As far as I'm concerned, you are trying to entrap me and use me for your purposes. You want to make me do things that I don't want to do, so I keep your gifts at a distance from me, buried underground".

            The reason why many people do not progress in the faith is because they place themselves before God with the same identical attitude as this third servant. They feel that God is someone to be feared, someone to be kept at a distance. Their image of God is of someone demanding, someone who places excessive burdens on us. All of us share something of this third servant's attitude towards God. We feel that God is someone who basically wants something from us. But if we reflect on the behaviour of the master towards the first two servants, we see that this is not the correct way to view God at all. He gives them everything! Those servants used his property well and now he gives it to them to keep forever! He invites them to partake, not only of his possessions, but of his own joy and happiness.

A talent is not a demand placed on us, but an entrustment with something positive and beautiful

The talent that the Lord gives us, therefore, must not be viewed as a demand or burden placed by God on us, but as an entrustment with something positive and beautiful. We must open our eyes and appreciate this fact clearly! We must stop fearing that God might be asking something of us, and instead consider the paternal trust that the Lord is showing towards us. He is giving us the things that belong to him. He is placing life-giving trust in us. We did not ask for the gift of life but it was given to us, and it is God's great act of entrustment towards us. We can use it well or not.

            If life can be understood as a talent, then the faith is also a talent. There is no snare hidden within it with which the Lord wishes to entrap us. The suspicion that we have towards the Lord that he wishes to exploit us, that he wishes to use us as instruments for his own purposes, is completely mistaken. The Lord is not trying to ensnare us with his demands, but is entrusting us with his joyful bounty.

            What does it mean to be the parent of a child? It means to be entrusted by God with something positive and beautiful. Often people are fearful of becoming parents because they see it as a burden that will take away from their lives. But in reality it is something that will give even more life to them. To be a minister of the Church is to be entrusted by God with a special gift. Often ministers need to reflect on the fact that what they have been given is God's trust, not a wearisome task, and they need to live out that trust in the joyful awareness that God is with them.

The parable of the talents should not make us wary of the "excessive" demands of the Lord, but instead make us reflect on his enormous bounty

In short, we should not think that the Lord is making demands on us and that if we don't fulfil these demands we will get a slap on the wrist. Instead we need to see that the Lord is giving us his gifts and that the correct use of these gifts will lead to incredible joy. It is wonderful to live our faith; it is a wonderful thing to preach the Gospel; it is wonderful to bring the new generation up in the faith; it is great to forgive each other; it is marvellous to live according to the ways of the Lord. Let us leave behind this accursed attitude of suspicion towards the Lord! The words of this parable are indeed terrible towards the third servant, but these words must be interpreted in the light of what the servant lost as a result of his failure to accept and possess the gifts of the Lord. A talent in biblical times represented thirty-three kilos of gold. Therefore it represented riches on an immense scale, and points to an enormous generosity and trust on the part of the master that we would do well to make the most of.

Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time (November 6^th 2011)   

Matthew 25:1-13

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

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1. If we are all invited to the wedding banquet of salvation, then why are the five foolish bridesmaids refused admittance?

2. What do the flasks of oil in the parable symbolize?

3. How can we keep our flasks of oil full?

4. Why is it impossible to share my flask of oil with someone else?

Redemption is likened to a nuptial banquet

This passage in Chapter Twenty-Five of the Gospel of Matthew comes on the heels of the so-called "eschatological" discourse of the previous chapter, which discusses the end times and the destruction of Jerusalem. The parable that appears in this Sunday's Gospel is one of three that present us with apparent judgement-day situations. A wedding feast is about to begin and the bridesmaids must get ready to meet the bridegroom. The symbol of the wedding feast occurs often in Scripture and can represent salvation or the Eucharist. The book of the Apocalypse speaks of the wedding feast of the Lamb. Redemption in this parable is likened to a nuptial banquet. We are called to be part of the banquet and one does not enter the feast by default. One must accept the invitation by availing of an opportunity that presents itself to us. First one has to wait until the opportune time arrives, and then, when that moment arrives, one must be equipped in the appropriate way in order to gain admittance.

The period of waiting before the banquet begins

First, there is the period of waiting. Periods of waiting often involve a vigil of some sort during which one must remain awake. In the parable, however, all ten of the bridesmaids fall asleep! This fragility of our nature is something that all of us must confront regularly during our lives. Weakness is something that can be overcome when the opportunity arises, but in order to overcome it we must have the reserve of oil that the parable speaks of.

The flasks of oil possessed by the wise bridesmaids

The image of the oil in small flasks represents the occasions of life in which one builds up a certain fuel. On these occasions we store up our own light, our own luminosity. Just what are these flasks of oil in the life of the Christian? All of us have multiple and continual opportunities in which we can replenish our store of oil. In the Old Testament oil is a symbol of consecration and holiness, but it is also referred to in relation to the seven lamps that were kept burning in front of the Holy of Holies in the Temple of Jerusalem, the place that represented the presence of God in the world. These had to be kept perpetually alight. Oil, therefore, is connected to a world of sanctity and the presence of God.  Where can these flasks of life be found in the life of the Christian? Where can we obtain the resources of fuel to set ourselves alight and overcome our own weakness in the moment when we must meet the Bridegroom? These resources are to be found in the everyday occasions that form the life of the Christian. Our lives are made of simple acts of conformity to the will of God. Daily prayer in the morning and the evening, fidelity to the Sunday Eucharist, acts of charity towards others, sobriety, fasting - small things in which we manifest our fidelity to God. One should never think that the Christian life is composed of great or extraordinary events. Married life, for example, is made up of a series of small acts that maintains the relationship and forms the basis of the stability of the family. The real substance of marriage is not to be found in great declarations of love, or great feelings of enthusiasm, but in daily fidelity to small things. The religious life, similarly, is made up of the same attention to mundane matters. We may or may not have the opportunity to do world-shattering things during the course of our lives, but we will certainly have the opportunity to be faithful in small daily matters, and these must be our priority. We must always take care to keep these small flasks of oil full to overflowing.

Who are the five bridesmaids that have no oil?

The five bridesmaids that have no oil are people who possess everything but do not have this reserve that is based on fidelity in ordinary things. They are people who probably thought that, when the moment came, they would be able to measure up to the situation. They weren't concerned with conformity to the will of God in mundane matters, but felt that when the great occasions arrived they would be able to rouse themselves and do whatever was needful. This is a common but misguided conception. If we neglect to be faithful to God in small matters, then each neglected opportunity places a burden upon our ability to be obedient to God in future situations. Many Christians live disorderly lives of just this sort in which they do not bother to conform themselves to the will of God in small daily matters. When the Bridegroom comes, such people are distracted, doing something else, and they fail to encounter him.

           

Why do the wise bridesmaids refuse to share their oil?

It is natural to feel a bit aggrieved at the behaviour of the five wise bridesmaids in the parable. When the Bridegroom eventually arrives, they refuse to share their oil with the five who had none. How could they be so selfish, we think indignantly! This refusal, however, reflects a necessary fact of life. I cannot give my oil to anyone else because I cannot live someone else's life for them. I can pray for a person, and I can wish them well, but I cannot say their "Yes" to God for them.

            The five wise bridesmaids tell the others that they cannot share their oil because, if they did so, there would not be enough to go around for everyone. What does this saying symbolize? Sometimes people who are close to us are living disorderly lives. At moments, we might be inclined to think that the best way of showing solidarity with them is to neglect our own spiritual lives temporarily and immerse ourselves in their lives and practices. But our main concern in life should always be, in the first place, to conform our own personal lives to the will of God. This is not to promote an individualistic approach to spirituality. There is a correct order of things in spiritual matters. I must have my own house in order before I can assist anyone else. The oil represents my own personal intimate relationship with God and it cannot be compromised or played around with. In that sense, it cannot be "given" to others. We cannot put our own opportunities for fidelity to God in second place out of a misguided wish to exercise solidarity with others. To have a reserve of the sacred oil that represents our own obedience to God in mundane matters must always be our prime concern.