32ND Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A, 2023

Wisdom 6:12-16; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Matthew 25:1-13

In the history of humanity, the American election is the most expensive, most protracted, and most watched. Events of the last American presidential election kept most Americans on their toes, watching anxiously for accuracy and validity of votes, searching for possible areas of litigation,  with conscientious reporting by journalists, spirited debates on air, in the streets and at homes around the election. Many Americans went from door to door to campaign for their political parties; the candidates themselves canvassed for votes by selling their manifestos. One has the sense of active participation by most Americans and non-Americans alike. All these because of democracy, the age of democracy! Could these levels of interest, participation, and exuberance be transferred to Christian faith and practice?

If the highest expression of democracy is participation in elections, in which citizens choose their leaders, “communion with God” is the highest expression of Christianity. This Sunday is “Communion Sunday”. The question is, how do we know the will of God and live in fellowship or communion with God? The answer is WISDOM! We need the wisdom of God in order to be in communion with God. God’s wisdom creates a fellowship and communion among Christians. Today, the search for Wisdom is proposed to us. The search for Wisdom, according to our first reading, requires three steps: goal, love, and research. The human person must make a conscious decision to want to possess wisdom. This is the first step: “She makes herself known even in advance to those who desire her with all their hearts” (Wisdom 6:13). This is the human GOAL, the attainment of wisdom. But having a goal is not enough, one must LOVE one’s goal, wisdom: “Wisdom is readily perceived by those who love her” (Wisdom 6:12). Only those who LOVE God worry about wisdom. Those who are in love with God take the final step—to seek God’s wisdom: “Wisdom is found by those who keep seeking after her” (Wisdom 6:12). The search for the will of God must not be an afterthought, it must engage the human life from birth to death: “The one who can’t sleep at night because he’s consumed with thinking about Wisdom will soon be free from worry . . . Wisdom comes to them in each of the ideas that they think” (Wisdom 6:15-16).

What better way to have communion with God than “Wisdom comes to them in each of the ideas that they think” (Wisdom 6:16)? Imagine that your ideas and mine are always governed by God’s wisdom—this would be perfect communion with God! As a matter of fact, it is the contrast between the presence of “wisdom” and its absence that connects today’s gospel to our first reading—foolishness! In order to contrast the virgins of our gospel, five of them are called foolish (môrai—μωραὶ). This is the reason some translations talk about five wise virgins and five foolish virgins. The wise virgins were able to anticipate delays in the arrival of the bridegroom and made provisions for extra-oils for their lambs—their ideas/plannings were governed by wisdom/God. This wisdom of theirs paid off because the foolish were fooling around for oil, while the wise went into the wedding banquet. In fact, wisdom comes in handy when the going goes tough.

The advantage of “wisdom” is its ability to lead to the recognition and knowledge of God. The wedding invitees were to go and meet and welcome the bridegroom. How does one welcome the person he/she doesn’t know? The wise virgins knew the nature of weddings and what could go right or wrong! Their preparedness shows they were ready for every eventuality! They realized that “wisdom” is that part of God, like a GPS, that leads human beings to God. What is tragic in the gospel is the bridegroom’s response to the foolish virgins: “‘Lord, Lord, open the door for us!’ But he said in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.’” “Foolishness” or the absence of God’s wisdom is the absence of the knowledge of God. Fundamentally, lack of “wisdom” could cost us eternal life! This is what happened to the foolish virgins, and the meaning of the warning in the last statement of our gospel: “Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour” (Matthew 25:13).

The Church wants us to realize that our successes on earth, without “wisdom”, are relative to our eternal redemption. Our second reading emphasizes this in the following words: “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” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). Only a  person who hopes in the resurrection and in eternal life knows how to navigate earthly existence. God’s wisdom helps us to navigate the uncharted paths of life. Our weeping and worrying and fighting against death, by wanting to leave forever on earth, will be otherwise were we to believe and hope for eternal life.

Tragically, Jesus’ invitation to a wedding banquet of today and the need for “wisdom” haven’t garnered as much traction as the American election. Many of us prefer human intelligence to God’s wisdom. Even five out of the ten virgins invited to meet the bridegroom, in our gospel, show insufficient preparations. One does not see many Catholics moving from door to door to share the wisdom of God with others in order to prepare them for God’s wedding banquet. Very few persons see the importance of spending their money for the promotion of the gospel.

You and I have to decide whether we want to be numbered among the foolish or wise virgins. It is up to us whether to seek, love, and make wisdom the goal of our lives or not. As long as you and I can’t move from house to house to talk about God to others, spend our resources for the evangelization of the world, participate actively in establishing communion and fellowship with God, we waste precious moments that could turn tragic, should we die without God’s wisdom. Today, God calls us to communion with himself; he awaits your response and mine. Now is the time to get all the extra oils we need for our lamps as we await our meeting with God, the Bridegroom, at an unexpected hour!

 Assignment for the Week:

Talk to someone about God this week.