32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Parable of the Ten Virgins (Mt 25:1-13)

Wedding custom
Friends will meet the bridegroom at his house. They then fetch the bride. They return to the bridegroom's house where the wedding will take place. The wedding took place at night. They carried torches and lamps for the procession.

Delay
This is not surprising as people of the East rule their time and not time ruling them.

In the early church, Jesus was expected to come soon. But he did not.

Oil
Symbol of repentance

I do not know you.
I will have nothing to do with you.

The point of the parable

The secondcoming of Jesus is uncertain. We have to be alert. Otherwise, we might find ourselves not ready and therefore, excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven.

REFLECTION

The Lord will come at the end of time. But he will also come to us at the moment of death. But he also comes to us everyday. I will focus on prayer as that sacred moment and sacred space when we come to the Lord and the Lord comes to us.

Someone asked: where do you hide God so that man will not find him?

In outer space? But man will build a space ship to reach him.

At the bottom of the ocean? But man has submarines to reac him.

At the ends of the earth? But man has vehicles to reach him there, too.

Where will you hide him then? In the heart of man. Why there? Because man has forgotten to pray.

What is prayer then? It is going into the inner recesses of one's heart to meet God who is already there.