Homily for the
32d Sunday of Ordinary
Time
Nov. 12, 2023
Matt 25: 1-13
Ps 63: 2-8
Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier,
Bronx[1]
“The bridegroom came, and those who were
ready went into the wedding feast with him” (Matt 25: 10).
In the Creed we profess that Jesus Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead. In these last weeks of the church year, we focus on Christ’s 2d coming and the final judgment of human beings. The parable Jesus tells today is about being ready for his coming—at the end of time, and of more immediate concern, at the end of our personal time—and joining him in the feast of the kingdom of heaven.
In the Scriptures, eternal life is often
compared to a great banquet or specifically to a wedding feast. Today’s Psalm looked toward the Lord,
exclaiming, “As with the riches of a banquet shall my soul be satisfied”
(63:6). We find this in the Book of
Revelation: “The wedding day of the Lamb
has come; his bride has made herself ready.
Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb”
(19:7,9). We echo those words before
Holy Communion when we acclaim, “Blessed are those called to the supper of the
Lamb.”
Likewise, Christ calls himself the Church’s
bridegroom, and the Church is his spouse.
He’s the Lamb whose marriage we share, for we—the Church—are his
bride. That’s what Revelation referred
to. In Jesus’ own ministry, some people
asked why his disciples didn’t fast like the disciples of John the Baptist and
the Pharisees. He replied: “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the
bridegroom is with them? The days will
come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast”
(Matt 9:15). So the Church fasts at
certain times now that Christ isn’t physically among us as he was during his
earthly life. We fast during Lent to get
ready for Easter, and we fast briefly as we wait for Jesus’ sacramental
presence in the Holy Eucharist.
So, in this parable Jesus presents 10 virgins
waiting for the bridegroom to come so that they can light his way into his
house for the start of the wedding festivities.
Jesus tells us that 5 of the young women were foolish, and 5 were
wise. The foolish ones had their lamps
but neglected to bring oil so they could light the lamps and keep them
lit. Imagine bringing a flashlight on a
camping trip but not putting any batteries into it.
Now we might think the 5 wise virgins should
have shared their oil; but they object, wisely, that there might not be enuf
oil for all 10 of them.
Sharing isn’t Jesus’ point. He tells us at the end, “Stay awake, for you
know neither the day nor the hour” (25:13) when the bridegroom will come. That is, always be prepared for his arrival.
Every day you can read in the Daily News
and some other papers about sudden tragedies, sudden deaths: a horrible chain-reaction accident on a foggy
highway; a massacre at a youth music festival; someone gunned down in the
Bronx; someone run over in a crosswalk in Brooklyn; someone shoved onto the
subway tracks; a youth collapsing at football practice.
Be prepared.
You know neither the day nor the hour.
How do you prepare? Have oil for your lamp! Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount
that his followers are to be the light of the world. We are light if we take him as our master,
our teacher, our redeemer. We do that by
repentance (for we are all sinners) and by doing our best of live
virtuously: by loving our families, our
neighbors, and those who are in need; by worshiping God faithfully—Sunday Mass,
daily prayer; by being honest; by being chaste in our thoughts and actions; by
respecting God’s created world, using resources responsibly; by supporting
public policies that accord with God’s law.
When the bridegroom comes on the Last Day—the
last day of human history or the last day of our personal history—we won’t be
able to borrow oil from someone else. It’ll
be too late to run to the store and get what we need, a life faithfully
lived. We’re all responsible for our own
lamps, for the way we’ve lived our own lives.
If our lamps are empty, if our lives have been dark with sin, then no
amount of knocking on the door will gain us admittance to the Lamb’s feast (25:11-12). If we’ve got brightly burning lamps, we’ll
enter the marriage feast. Then we’ll
bless the Lord while we live, and with exultant lips praise him (Ps 63:5-6),
forever.
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