Thirty-second Sunday Ordinary

Thirty Second Sunday Ordinary
November 6, 2005

"She (Wisdom) makes her own rounds, seeking those worthy of her..." (Wisdom 6: 12-16). "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...." (Matthew 25: 1-13).

Jesus tells the story of young women, attendants to a bride waiting for the groom to arrive at the bride's house to escort her to her new home with him. They all fall asleep with their oil lamps burning. Some of them have the foresight to bring extra oil with them. By the time the others, who did not, obtain more oil they are too late to be admitted to the wedding feast. This is a story about the wisdom of being prepared and the foolishness of neglecting to anticipate the unexpected. None of the girls could stay awake, but some of them were smart enough to prepare for a long wait. Divine wisdom made her rounds and found some of them worthy of her. As a close friend of mine has said to me many times, "them that has, gets". Those who act wisely seem to receive more wisdom.

Matthew intends this story to be applied to being prepared for Christ's coming again at the end of time. Note again the warning not to try to predict when it will be. Believers of that generation were sure it would happen within their lifetime. Unless I missed something, it has not happened yet. The second coming seems to have been postponed indefinitely. Not so for us as individuals. All of us will be meeting God face to face quite soon. Divine wisdom counsels us to begin early, like the girls in the story to be prepared for her coming.

There is an art to doing this without undue anxiety about all the awful things that might happen between now and the end. Wisdom reveals that what we most often fear never happens, and what we fail to anticipate can indeed occur. Recently I have had conversations with several people with "terminal illness" who are living with the reality that our lives as we know it now will soon be over. What makes any of us foolish enough to think that we are not terminal? I find in these conversations a combination of dread and peace about what St. Paul called the sleep of death.

We all are sometimes suddenly, sometimes gradually, awakened from the forgetfulness of sleep. Divine wisdom teaches us by the experience of the unexpected. What kind of condition will she find us in when she makes her rounds? Like the wise young women, it behooves us to be prepared. We are all going to sleep and we will all be awakened to a new and fuller life than we could have possibly imagined.