Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 154
Reading 1
Resplendent and unfading is wisdom,
and she is readily perceived by those who love her,
and found by those who seek her.
She hastens to make herself known in anticipation of their desire;
Whoever watches for her at dawn shall not be disappointed,
for he shall find her sitting by his gate.
For taking thought of wisdom is the perfection of prudence,
and whoever for her sake keeps vigil
shall quickly be free from care;
because she makes her own rounds, seeking those worthy of her,
and graciously appears to them in the ways,
and meets them with all solicitude.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (2b) My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
O God, you are my God whom I seek;
for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts
like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water.
R. My
soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Thus have I gazed toward you in the sanctuary
to see your power and your glory,
For your kindness is a greater good than life;
my lips shall glorify you.
R. My
soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Thus will I bless you while I live;
lifting up my hands, I will call upon your name.
As with the riches of a banquet shall my soul be satisfied,
and with exultant lips my mouth shall praise you.
R. My
soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
I will remember you upon my couch,
and through the night-watches I will meditate on you:
You are my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I shout for joy.
R. My
soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Reading 2
We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters,
about those who have fallen asleep,
so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose,
so too will God, through Jesus,
bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
Indeed, we tell you this, on the word of the Lord,
that we who are alive,
who are left until the coming of the Lord,
will surely not precede those who have fallen asleep.
For the Lord himself, with a word of command,
with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God,
will come down from heaven,
and the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive, who are left,
will be caught up together with them in the clouds
to meet the Lord in the air.
Thus we shall always be with the Lord.
Therefore, console one another with these words.
or
We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters,
about those who have fallen asleep,
so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose,
so too will God, through Jesus,
bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Stay awake and be ready!
For you do not know on what day your Lord will come.
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
Gospel
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."
MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,
We truly do not know the hour, day, or time when Our Lord Savior Jesus Christ will come again in all of His glory. Regardless of what anyone says or proclaims we must remember what Jesus Himself said,”
“ But of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the son but the Father alone.”
This is a pretty definitive statement and one that should be taken into account in our faith-life. Anyone who proclaims that they know when Jesus is to return is speaking against Jesus Christ the Son of God. There is no middle of the road here. Jesus made this statement and those who say that they know more are actually speaking against the Teachings of the Gospels regardless of what they say. We should not listen to them and should instead dismiss them because they are very much like the false prophets: what they are seeking is self-gratification and self-adulation. Nothing good can come from what they say.
As Christians we should not look forward into the future but instead concentrate on the present and on our relationship with Jesus Christ. Anything in the past has no bearing on where we are now and nothing in the future can change where we are now. It is the NOW that is the most important moment in our lives. What God can do for us is limitless. So here we are now, in the present, where we dwell in the most important moment in our lives. It is in the present where we are able to encounter God and experience a relationship with Him. It is in the present where we can transform ourselves into a new creation; developing ourselves into the person that God wanted us to be all of the time. The past is the past. It cannot be changed. The future never comes. It is here and now where we can be changed through a relationship with God.
God has called us to love Him as He has always done and always will. He has made every effort to repair the relationship with us that we had broken through the exercise of our poor decisions and free will. He is constantly calling us to come back to Him and to love Him as He intended in the first place. Unfortunately we are very selfish and have chosen for much of our lives to ignore that call and instead pursue our own wants and desires above His even though all of these have brought us in a bad place. Yet, God still tries to repair that relationship and make us better even though much of our lives is spent ignoring what He is trying to say to us. God knows better. That is a fact. We in our arrogance tend to forget that and make decisions without God. Making decisions without God means that we are making decisions without the utilization of our intellect and the wisdom we have obtained through our experiences and our accumulation of knowledge throughout our lives. In our arrogance, even though we know better, we tend to dismiss God in favor of our own decision-making process which does not include Him.
This is definitely something to consider. From the moment that we could think for ourselves we have naturally asked ourselves if there was a God. Did God exist? This in itself can be evidence of the existence of God. Why would we even contemplate if God existed if the concept of God of God Himself has never been present in our lives? It is Satan and the corrupted norms of society that has placed doubt where validation and elation should be present. We are our own enemy in this area because, in our arrogance, we attempt to continuously put ourselves above God who only wants the best for us and who only wants to love us.
Wisdom is something that we are able to obtain from our experiences and through the attainment of knowledge. First we learn things then we apply the knowledge that we have gained to our decisions and create a fuller picture of what this life is all about. God needs to be at the center of this picture. It is through God that this whole reality makes sense. Without God it means nothing. There is no in-between here. It is impossible to comprehend this world and universe as we know it without the presence of God. The reason is simple: God created the universe and without Him at its center there is only a big question make which has no answer. Starting from the perspective that God is behind everything cases everything to fall into place. When God is not at the center of everything is when things start to not make sense.
When we attempt to play God ourselves or to think we know what He wants is when we start to get into trouble. When we start to use God as an excuse for our bad decisions or to justify the bad situation that we find ourselves in is when we can find ourselves in the most trouble. Nothing bad comes from God. He is always here to love us and to help us through the challenges that we face but He never creates the challenges that we face. He is the one who creates opportunities to get out of the predicaments that we tend to put ourselves into. He is the solution; not the creator of the problem. It is through knowing God and gaining wisdom through a relationship with God that we are provided with the tools to get out of the situations that ultimately we put ourselves into. God is the key. We just have to turn the key.
Our lives should be a life filled with preparation. This preparation is for the betterment of us and to make ourselves right with God. Many will tell us that this preparation will be for the time when Jesus will return but it more for us to receive Jesus now into our hearts so that we may live the Christ Experience now. If we look too much into the future we will miss what is happening now. The Risen Christ is amongst us and He has the capability making us into new creations now. The now is as important as where we will end up. Both of these time periods can and should include Jesus if we are to be complete and eventually perfect. Jesus Christ will truly come again in all His glory but we must realize He is here with us also ready to experience life with us in the now and forever.
Deacon Tom
My Brothers and Sisters,
Jesus Christ is the font of all wisdom. We learn this from Sacred Scripture, especially when the Gospel of John proclaimed from its beginning, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. With that understanding, we as Christians are encouraged to interpret any passage mentioning wisdom to relate it directly to Jesus Christ. In the First Reading today, we can then take encouragement in the knowledge that when we focus our lives around Jesus Christ, we are all the more open to receive Him and a higher awareness of God’s Creation around us. Things will be revealed to those who seek the Lord and remain hidden to those who do not. These things revealed all lead to the truth which centers on Jesus.
A life without Jesus is a life without wisdom. What is experienced is only a small percentage of what is promised through Jesus. We need to invite Him in so as to live our lives the way that God intended: with full joy and full understanding. I feel that we all can reflect on our most important relationships that we have had and continue to have today. Are these the relationships the same as they were when they were first formed? Of course not. The same can be said about our relationship with Jesus Christ. The more time we spend on getting to know Jesus the more we will come to understand Him and how He can affect everything we say and do. The closer we get to Jesus Christ the more we will be able to experience His love and the wisdom that He has to offer. Life is a journey and a life with Jesus Christ makes it all the more fulfilling because He was the one that gave us this life. To know the Son is to know the Father through the Holy Spirit which binds us and Him together.
The Gospel Reading today gives us a celebratory picture of a relationship with Jesus Christ. There is joy in the present while there is joy also in expectation of the future when Jesus Christ will come again in all of His glory bringing with Him a New Heaven and a New Earth. All of His enemies will be put beneath His feet and a joyous celebration will ensue. We are reminded that our lives should be formulated around what is now and what is yet to come. Are we to be foolish with the knowledge that we have obtained through our relationship with Him or are we to utilize it prudently and with wisdom? If we concentrate on the present with that same love He has for us while acknowledging what our true destination is going to be as Christians, then there should be no dread of the future or unexpected surprises that will catch us off guard. As Jesus said in the Gospels, “I remain in you and you remain in me.” Understanding that state of being will enable us to be the best version of ourselves all the while we are being shaped by the one who loves us the most.
We have been warned and counseled. We cannot be taken off guard but what is happening now and what lies for us in the future. An awareness and understanding of our relationship with Jesus Christ leads to less anxiety for what has yet to be revealed and what we are experiencing now.
Deacon Tom
My sisters and brothers in Christ,
“Wisdom is readily perceived by those who love her, and found by those who seek her.” As we come to the last Sundays of Ordinary Time, we are invited to seek wisdom and to love wisdom.
The first reading comes from the Book of Wisdom and invites us to reflect this Sunday on wisdom in our daily lives. Wisdom is not a college degree nor does it require us to read books or memorize things. Rather, wisdom is a capacity to live well and to make good decisions about things. Such wisdom is only possible with good judgment coming from experience and everyday knowledge. There are many people with advanced academic degrees who have very little wisdom and there are lots of people with no academic degrees who are true wisdom figures and reflect the wisdom of God.
Each of us can think in his own heart and mind right now about the people that we might ask for advice in our lives. Those people are usually wisdom figures for us. They are people whose practical judgments we would trust and also whose spiritual advice could be helpful. This first reading reminds us that we need to seek wisdom and once we find some wisdom, we must treasure wisdom.
The second reading today is from the First Letter to the Thessalonians. In this section of the letter we are reminded that our whole faith is based on the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. If Jesus died and did not rise, then our faith is worth nothing. Jesus Himself tells us that He is the Resurrection. Jesus is clear that our death is only a passing to a new life in a new way, with God the Father, with Jesus Himself and with the Holy Spirit. If we begin to think of our faith as simply good decisions made in the light of the teachings of Jesus, who was an enlightened religious man—then we have no faith at all. Rather we believe that Jesus is fully God and fully man and leads us to the Father. We want to live completely the teachings of Jesus so that we have life eternal—Resurrection.
The Gospel from Matthew today brings us back to wisdom. The parable that Jesus gives to us illustrates the practical nature of wisdom. All ten of the virgins wanted to meet the bridegroom but five of them did not bring enough oil to keep their lamps burning. This is the wisdom aspect! A person who knows about oil lamps will know that extra oil must be taken along if the wait is going to be long. That is simply a practical piece of knowledge. But five of the virgins did not have that wisdom. And so when the bridegroom was delayed, then they ran out of oil.
The whole point of this parable is that we must be ready for the Lord. To be ready for the Lord, we must be willing to wait for the Lord. To wait for the Lord, we must be willing to do all the things that will allow us to be ready as we wait. Probably all of us who are here really want to be with the Lord. Do we live our lives in such a way that we are always ready for Him?
Your brother in the Lord,
Abbot Philip
Wisdom is an unusual gift. Most of us probably remember the stories about King Solomon, the son of King David. Solomon was renowned far and wide for his wisdom. When God appeared to Solomon and asked Solomon what gift he wanted, Solomon asked for wisdom. And Solomon became known for his wisdom.
But we also realize that the wisdom of Solomon didn’t stop him from making all kinds of unwise decisions. Wisdom is the kind of gift that must be used and cultivated over and over in daily life. Wisdom is a gift that must be asked for daily.
Our faith is the same kind of gift: faith must be cultivated and used every day.
So we find stories in the Gospels about people being given gifts, being given money to use wisely. Only those who work to increase their money or their talents or their gifts will be able to retain the use of that money or talent or gift.
We see in today’s Gospel the story of the five wise virgins. These wise women were prepared for long wait for the bridegroom and were thus able to go out and meet him when he came. The foolish women didn’t have enough oil and ended up not prepared for the bridegroom when he came.
One could ask why the wise did not share their oil! But the person telling the story was only trying to make the point of preparedness, not a point about sharing. That is how the stories in our Scriptures go. So often we have other questions—and sometimes quite good ones!—but the questions that we have are not the point that the story-teller is trying to make.
Today we are being given some very important advice in these readings. This is advice about living well, about living in faith. If we listen attentively and try to live our lives with this advice, we shall live more and more profoundly. God wants us to have wisdom in living. It is up to us to be faithful to that wisdom, to use it every day, to ask for it every day and to give thanks every day.
Perhaps we shall truly know Jesus Himself, the Wisdom of God. May His love draw us to His kingdom.
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