Reflection for 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

Today’s readings remind us of the old Boy Scout adage, Be Prepared! “Whoever keeps vigil will quickly be free from care.” Paul reminds us that the Lord will come again. When Scripture refers to a wedding feast, it is almost always referring to the Kingdom of Heaven. So, when the five foolish virgins don’t have oil for their lamps – when they are unprepared - they aren’t simply excluded from the party; they are excluded from a life for, in and with God. “I do not know you.” What strong words! They are on the outside looking in at what might have been had they had their lamps burning. In the past, when I’ve heard this parable, I’ve often thought that the wise virgins were pretty selfish. I thought that we were supposed to share. But our decisions during a time of waiting for Christ to come again are ours; no one else can give us access to the feast.

Christ coming again. How often do we think about that? How often do we think about waiting for that to happen? People in the early Church really believed that the second coming of Jesus would be soon and it was important to be prepared. Well, they were wrong, and ever since then there have been people predicting that the end of the world would happen at a certain time. Remember Y2K? They, too, were wrong. Our faith tells us that there indeed will be a generation in history that will experience the second coming of Christ. There will be a time in history when a person may have but a moment to ask the question – am I ready? Am I prepared? And even if we’re not the generation to experience the second coming, we all must face the day of our death, something we don’t think about very often, especially if we’re young. And there, too, we will ask ourselves – am I ready, am I prepared?

I never really thought about death that much, but in this past year, with heart issues, hospitalization, age and the pandemic, I have thought about it a lot more. Sometimes those can be pleasant thoughts, sometimes they can be scary thoughts. With the busyness of life it is easy to dismiss our mortality and put off what should be our continuing preparation for the death we must all face. With the busyness of life it is easy to disregard the interconnection of our daily choices and not recognize the impact they may have on our ability to face God in right relationship. Choices matter! We are faced with a multitude of choices to make each day which may seem insignificant by themselves. However, they often add up to pointing us in particular directions - sometimes good, sometimes bad.

How do we prepare ourselves? How do we get ready? How will we be sure that the Lord will recognize us? What are the right choices to make during our day? Are our many everyday decisions pointing us in the direction of making us ready? If you knew that that day was close, would you change anything in your lives? Would you go and mend any broken bridges? Would you hurry to tell someone, “I love you,” or “I’m sorry”? Would you pray a little more often? Would some of your priorities change? Jesus says, “We know not the day nor the hour.” Perhaps we should do some of those things now.

As we said, the parable is not about weddings; it’s about being ready. Although we do not know the day or the hour of the second coming of Christ; although we do not know the day or the hour of our own death, we have been told what being prepared and staying awake and alert entails. It is up to each of us. The day will come when we are at the gate, saying, “Lord, open the door for us.” Will God say, “I don’t know you”? Rather than worry about if God will know me then, perhaps I should ask, does God know me now?

If you have a brief faith reflection on today’s reading that you would like to share, please send it to me at deaconruss@holyspiritunoh.org.