THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (2023)

THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (2023)

Readings:

Wisdom 6:12-16

Psalms 63:2-8

1 Thessalonians 4:13-17

Matthew 25:1-13

As was indicated last week, the letter to the Thessalonians is the oldest book in the New Testament, predating even our earliest gospel of Mark.  Paul could clearly see some of the issues that affected one of the earliest Christian communities, a community that was so convinced that Jesus’ second coming was ‘around the corner’ that they worried about those loved ones who may have died before the parousia.  What happens to their souls?  Are they victims of a clock which stops for no one?  Do they unfortunately miss the opportunity of being swept up to heaven with the others?  Furthermore, so convinced were they that Jesus’ second coming was going to happen in their lifetime that they decided to not trouble themselves with working, since what is the point?  Better to fold one’s arms, and sit back and wait to see Jesus arrive in all His glory!

Few of us have any burning expectation that Jesus is coming again soon – it could happen, and while we believe in a second coming and Last Judgment, most of us do not believe it is going to happen in our lifetime.  It takes the occasional charlatan to stir people into a frenzy and convince them that Jesus’ second coming is related to some notable date.  For the people of the early church, however, it seemed like a real possibility, and the when and where of the arrival of God’s kingdom, not in part but in full, was a matter of great interest.

Matthew, in the penultimate time his gospel will speak to us in Ordinary Time, chooses to relate a parable about the arrival of the kingdom that Jesus shared with His disciples.  The parable is set in the context of a wedding feast, and the “bridegroom,” who is Jesus, “is long delayed” (some 2-3 decades or more since Thessalonians was written), causing the attendants entrusted with the task of going out to meet Him of “becoming drowsy and falling asleep.”  The ten attendants, virgins, are labeled half “wise,” and half  “foolish,” a characterization which only works well in the context of the parable.  Indeed, in any other context, the “wise” virgins might truly be seen as the “selfish” virgins, or the hoarding virgins.  If the oil is a metaphor for all that is good (it is oil that anoints kings; it is oil that is a sign of baptism), then a surplus of that oil for a person of faith would be seen as the oil of Elijah, an oil that never runs out.  In any case, parables are never meant to be read literally, and the point of the parable is found in  “the last sentence: “stay awake,” stay vigilant, be ready, “for you know neither the day or the hour” that Jesus will come and ask for an accounting of our lives.

Time was moving on by the time of Matthew’s gospel, and it is safe to say that few of his readers felt that Jesus’ second coming was around the corner.  In the gospels there are numerous parables that emphasize the vigilance recommended in today’s gospel.  Christians have no fear of the end time if they have done what they can to build up a storehouse of good deeds.  The kingdom God brings is offered to all of us – there is no price to be paid – it is freely given.  Indeed, the so-called foolish virgins did their utmost to find the oil of gladness in order to be part of the wedding feast.  It is hard to imagine the Savior we have come to know through the Scriptures of locking the doors of the kingdom and keeping anyone who truly wants to be part of God’s kingdom out, especially because of the undue selfishness of others.  We all strive, during the time allotted to us, to draw as close to the Lord Jesus as possible, so that we are ready to meet Him when ever He should come.