Watch, Pray, And Get Ready!

Thirty Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

Wis 6.12-16;  
I Thess 4.13-18;  
Matt 25.1-13

Today’s readings anticipate some of the great themes of Advent, looking forward to the Second Coming of Christ in glory, at the end of time.  The main lesson of today’s parable from Saint Matthew’s gospel concerns the need to be on the alert.  On Our Lord’s Day, it was the custom among the Jews for weddings to take place in the house of the bride’s father.  The bridesmaids went to the house shortly before the time appointed for the wedding and waited there for the bridegroom to arrive so that the wedding ceremonies could begin as soon as he came.  This period in the parable is the equivalent of the present age, and we Christians are like the bridesmaids. We are invited to the wedding, to honor the divine bridegroom when He arrives.
Our Lord Himself has warned us in the parable that He will not come at a given time just because we are expecting Him: “The bridegroom was delayed.”  What happens next in the parable? All ten maidens fell asleep, both the wise and the foolish. In other words, Christians both good and bad, begin to think of the Christ’s Coming as something remote and unreal.  So we lose interest.  We fail to remain on the alert.  The parable warns us that we will be taken by surprise. There will be a cry: “Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.”  Then some of the bridesmaids realize that they are not ready.  But it is too late to do anything about it.  The bridegroom has arrived. Some of the bridesmaids remain in the house and enjoy the celebrations.  The others cannot enter but are excluded forever.  The wise are those who although taken by surprise just like everyone else, were nevertheless prepared.  They had kept their lamps burning.  They had kept the light of faith.  In his epistle, Saint James tells us the sign of a living faith; “Faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”  We keep our faith alive through charity, by doing good works.
 
The first reading speaks of divine wisdom.  We are told it is easily found by those who look for it.  Wisdom looks for us. Wisdom goes about seeking out those who are worthy.  We have seen this to be true in the incarnation of Christ.  The wisdom of God, the Word of God, took flesh and came to look for us.  He came to teach us the splendor of God’s truth, and He continues to teach us still.  To those who are listening to His voice, He is still saying, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”
 Writing to the Thessalonians, Saint Paul says that it does not matter whether we are alive or dead when Christ comes in glory.  Those still alive will have no advantage over those who have died.  All will face the same question: did you persevere in faith, to the end?  So what matters is not speculating about things that we cannot know; what matters is to live in such a way that when they do happen, the heavenly Bridegroom will find us ready, in a state of grace, with the flame of faith alive in our hearts.  This means living every day as if it were our last, always ready, our lamps of faith burning brightly with the oil of charity.

Commenting on this parable, Saint Augustine exhorts us in these words: “Watch with the heart, watch with faith, watch with love, watch with charity, watch with good works; make ready your lamps, make sure they do not go out; renew them with the inner oil of an upright conscience; then shall the Bridegroom enfold you in the embrace of his love and bring you into his banquet room, where your lamp can never be extinguished.”  In our efforts to follow his advice, we can turn for help to Our Blessed Lady, Seat of Wisdom. She will help us to concentrate on the two moments in our lives that matter. The first moment is now when we can still do something about it when we can keep our oil stocks of charity replenished. The other moment is the hour of our death, the moment when we hear that cry “The bridegroom is here!”  If we work on ‘now’, we shall have a good chance of persevering in faith until the end.  Our Lady’s prayers are indispensable.  The prayer which we say so often, the Hail Mary, is the best way to ask for her help: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death”.

Fr Joseph Osho