Homily: Be Ready

Year A / Ordinary Time / Week 32 / Sunday 

Readings: Wisdom 6.12-16 / Psalm 62.2abc, 2d-4, 5-6, 7-8 / 1 Thessalonians 4.13-18 / Matthew 25:1-13

Sisters and brothers, imagine that we are facing death. I wonder if we will look back on our lives at that moment and ask this question, "Have I lived my Christian life well enough that I am ready to meet God?"

In today’s parable, Jesus focuses us on preparing for his coming. He is the groom whose arrival we do not know the day or hour. We are the bridesmaids waiting for his coming. Some of us have prepared well and are ready to join him in celebration. Some of us remain foolish and are not readying ourselves. 

Wise are we who hear Jesus’ teaching and ready ourselves well. We can do this by living in such a way that enables us to stay focus on the things that matter and will last. Of all these, the most important is the truth that God loves us and wants us to be with Him eternally. Do we want God as much too?

Wisdom is not preparing for God when we are older or when we have accomplished everything we want in life. Rather, wisdom is to be looked out for or sought for as we hear in the First Reading. You and I will find wisdom in how we spend the present moment — this time of waiting for God — well. Well enough by readying ourselves to welcome Jesus not just when life ends but even now in everyday life.  

How should we prepare, especially as our souls thirst for God as our psalm rightly expresses? By daring to wait in God’s time and longing for God’s presence as we wait.

To wait in God’s time is to dwell in God’s present-ness with us. With God, there is no past or future, only the present for here God is. And because God is, God simply wants to dwell with us as we are now, no matter how good or bad we think are. 

To long for God’s presence is to make ourselves more attentive to God’s good labour in our lives, no matter how deserving or unworthy we feel we are to receive God's goodness.

These two actions should make us appreciate God even more and prepare ourselves better by living in God’s ways as Jesus teaches. They will enable us to persevere in our preparations for God and practice vigilance in our waiting for His coming. 

The sensible bridesmaids exemplify this kind of waiting and longing. They prepared well, remained alert, and longed for the bridegroom’s coming. We must live like them if we want to ready ourselves for God. Are we? 

One way Christians can live more purposefully for God is by serving others. St Ignatius reminds us that deeds not words matter if we are serious about living the Christian life. The foolish bridesmaids returned with lit lamps, crying, “Lord, Lord, open the door for us.” But the doors remain shut.  Deeds not words do matter to the Lord.

Today, Jesus offers us more than a choice. He is giving us the wisdom we need to prepare well. Wisdom that guides us to keep our hearts open to God and to let God’s love form us for Him alone. 

This wisdom is Good News. It invites us to let God’s grace of not yet work in our lives. 

In school, “If you get a failing grade, you’d think, ‘I’m nothing, I’m nowhere’. But if you get the grade ‘Not Yet’ you understand that you’re on a learning curve. It gives you a path into the future” (Carol Dweck, ‘The Power of Believing You Can Improve’).

The grace of not yet gives us time to stay alert, prepare well and welcome God in Jesus into our life. This gives us hope to persevere in our waiting and embolden us in our longing. 

This hope grounds our faith.  It gives us confidence not to give up on our preparation to make our lives worthy for others, and through them, for God – for God who never fails to come, love and save us in Jesus.

This is why we can and we must live differently by using the time we have now to prepare well for Jesus. Will we?

Preached at St Ignatius Church, Singapore

Photo: peoples-results.com (internet)