🙏 SUNDAY INSIGHTS - THE 32ND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 🙏

First Reading - Wisdom 6:12-16 ·

Second Reading - 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 

Gospel - Matthew 25:1-13

A Sunday school teacher was testing the children in her class one morning to see if they understood the concept of “getting to Heaven.” She said, “If I sold my house and my car, held a big garage sale and gave all my money to the Church, would that get me into Heaven?”

“NO!” the children answered.

“If I cleaned the Church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would that get me into Heaven?”

Again, the answer was, “NO!”

“Well, then, if I was kind to animals, gave candy to children and loved my husband, would that get me into Heaven?”

Again, they all answered, “NO!”

“Well,” the teacher continued, “how do I get into Heaven?”

A five-year-old boy shouted out, “YOU GOTTA BE DEAD.”

Today's readings bring the usual warnings about preparation for the end of our own world, the end of our own time, and our passage to another world. They tell us that a searching, watching, and growing heart is essential for a lively, dynamic Faith in God. They ask us whether we are ready for these events and how we are preparing for them.

The first reading chosen for today is one which personifies wisdom as a woman. The author advises Jews in Alexandria not to envy the wisdom of the pagan philosophers, because they themselves have true wisdom in their Sacred Scripture, a wisdom which regulates not only this life but the next also. Hence, they must live their lives in strict conformity with the Divine wisdom given them so generously by God. 

In the second reading, Paul offers Christian wisdom, assuring those Christians who expected Jesus’ second coming in their lifetime that the death and Resurrection of Jesus is powerful enough to save even those who die before Jesus’ second coming. But they need to be alert, well-prepared, and vigilant. 

In the Gospel parable of the ten virgins, the foolish virgins represent the “Chosen People of God” who were waiting for the Messiah but were shut out from the messianic banquet because they were unprepared. The parable teaches us that, like the five wise virgins, we should attend to duties of the present moment, preparing now, rather than waiting until it is too late.

Dear friends, we need to be wise enough to remain ever prepared. Wise Christians find Jesus in the most ordinary experiences of daily living — in the people they meet, the events that take place, and the situations in which they find themselves — and they carefully make their daily choices for God. They are ready to put the commandment of love into practice by showing kindness, mercy and forgiveness. 

Let us be sure that our Lamps are ready for the end of our lives: Spiritual readiness, preparation, and growth are the result of intentional habits built into one’s life. We cannot depend on a Sunday Mass or morning service to provide all our spiritual needs. We cannot depend on Christian fellowship to provide us with spiritual development. The meeting of spiritual needs and spiritual development itself come through routine, mundane attention to ordinary spiritual disciplines — making sure we have enough oil or spiritual fuel: oil of compassion and mercy, oil of patience, sympathy, and forgiveness. We open ourselves to receive these graces by taking time for prayer, and being alone with God; by reading God’s Word; by living a sacramental life; by offering acts of service to others; by moral faithfulness, by loving obedience, and by spending time with other Christians for mutual prayer, study, and encouragement. When we receive the graces we need, we thank God for His generous love. As taking these ways becomes habitual, they cease to be a struggle and begin to be a source of strength and blessing. They make our lives powerful against the onslaught of the world.