Homily for the Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
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.-1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
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.”-Matthew 25:1-13
As Fall has surely set in here in the Northern hemisphere and as Advent approaches everywhere, the Church sets her mind on the last things: death and judgment, heaven and hell, and the final resurrection.
The epistle lesson and the Gospel lesson for this Sunday present different aspects of the spiritual attitude we should have toward these events, which are upcoming for all of us without exception.
St. Paul’s words provide us with the overarching and underlying realities that should be foremost in our minds as we confront these experiences and prepare for them. For Christ’s triumph over sin and death and the full revelation of this triumph are the fundamental fact presented to all Christians.
Note that the apostle here refers only to the resurrection of the triumphant just; he says nothing here about the fate of the unjust. This is because ultimate salvation is considered to be the normal destiny of Christians who have died in Christ in baptism and so will rise in him on the last day. This is the perspective of the whole Church year, which flows from and leads up to the celebration of Easter. Christ has overcome sin, death, hell, and the Evil One. Christians are partakers in that victory. This is taken for granted. We have great and precious promises and firm hope in the crucified and risen Lord that he will take us to himself now and at the end of the ages.
In the parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, Our Lord provides another aspect of our waiting for the things that surely must come. He shows us that it is possible, by our own fault, to meet those things unprepared, and to run the risk of loss. This is a sobering and humbling meditation, that we could hear those dreadful words, “I know you not.” We have been warned.
And so we must be ready by the practice of a Christian life, and this means the habitual and frequent use of the means of grace. Confession, the Holy Mass and Communion, daily prayer in the rosary and spiritual reading, the fulfillment of our duties in life, especially those which concern our love of neighbor, bodily penance: these put the oil in our lamps to greet the Bridegroom when he comes.
Yet we must not forget that the parable is about an invitation to a wedding feast—an invitation to joy and celebration. The overarching and underlying theme of Easter triumph is always there, even as the Savior warns us to be ready and not to miss out.
The moment we repent and renew our good intentions, we become forthwith Wise Virgins, and our lamps are replenished. We may need to repeat this repentance over and over again, and this continually renewed repentance has another name: perseverance. This perseverance is the final grace we seek at every moment. We have to wake up each time we fall asleep spiritually in our sins and distractions. We have a good and glorious Bridegroom who earnestly desires our salvation. We have every reason for confidence and hope, no matter what our struggle may be.
In this month of November, the month of the Holy Souls in purgatory, we would do well to remember that none of them is asleep, except in bodily death; they are fully alive and ready to receive the Bridegroom whenever their liberation takes place. We can fill our lamps and theirs by our prayers, works of mercy and self-denial for their intentions, by the gaining of indulgences for them with the abundant oil left by the satisfactions of the saints with the Savior and his Blessed Mother, and so gain their grateful prayers in the kingdom.
Let’s make friends with these wise virgins and later join them in the wonderful, never-ending banquet of eternal life in the resurrection. Could we ever be lost if we have the gratitude of those we have helped into heaven?