32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time Year A - Hearts Burning Within

The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation for Ordinary Time

Wisdom 6:12-16

See background on the book of Wisdom here.

6:1-21 is an exhortation to seek wisdom and v12-16 within that are a statement on the accessibility of wisdom. We are urged to seek what can be found!

This passage gives us a beautiful image of a God who is seeking us, even before we desire God, much less go off seeking her. And it assures us that the God we seek is the God who wants to be found.

V12 says that wisdom is “readily perceived by those who love her.” That’s because to search for wisdom is actually an indication of already being wise. Wisdom, much like God, is not something esoteric that can never be obtained. It’s right under our noses all the time.

V14 says all that again with a different metaphor: “one who watches for her at dawn will not be disappointed.”

How has Wisdom made herself known to you?

This passage is pure poetry which can lead us to a meeting with our Risen Lord. Read through the passage, substituting “Jesus” or “Christ” for “Wisdom.” How do the poetic qualities apply? In what ways have you experienced them?

There are some beautiful metaphors about watching and waiting in this reading. Pick one that appeals to you and see what it has to say about your waiting in this particular season of life.

Matthew 25:1-13

During Ordinary Time, I’ll cover the Old Testament and then the Gospel readings as a pair so that we can better see the connections.

This passage is from the section on the coming of the kingdom. That section parallels chapters 5-7 which taught about entering the kingdom. Today Jesus will tell us about the urgency of watching for the kingdom.

The passage just before this, at the end of chp 24, is a very similar parable from a more masculine perspective, while today’s reading is a feminine perspective. It is less about absolute vigilance all the time and more about readiness for any time. It’s less about watching the security cameras all the time for the thief breaking in and more about proactively making it so a thief can’t break in in the first place.

It helps to know a bit about ancient marriage customs: a couple would be betrothed which was as legally binding as marriage, but they would live apart. At an agreed upon time, the groom would go to the bride’s house and negotiate the dowry which the bride’s father would then pay. Then the groom would take the bride back to his home for the actual wedding ceremony.

Wedding negotiations sometimes took a while because all the dowry had to be exchanged and everything agreed upon. The bride was supposed to be ready to go as soon as the groom came for her.

The parable starts off talking about ten virgins. Ten is a Biblical number indicating fullness or completeness (i.e. 10 commandments). In Judaism, a minimum of ten men are required in order to have a prayer service. Ten symbolizes fullness or completeness of something.

We see in verse 2 that the group was neatly divided between the wise and the foolish. The wise ones have come prepared with extra oil for their lamps while the foolish ones brought nothing.

Verse 5 says that the group falls asleep. No matter how wise or prepared you are, sometimes you have to rest! There’s enough of a delay that they have time to nap. The unprepared ones could have taken action and gotten more oil at this point. But apparently they choose not to.

In verse 6, the bridegroom comes at midnight. We could find lots of scriptural evidence about midnight being the time of divine manifestation. Two passages in particular are Exodus 11-12 where the angel of death sweeps through Egypt; and also Acts 16 when Paul and Silas were miraculously freed from prison by a midnight earthquake.

We often think of Jesus’ coming as a surprise but notice how sternly Jesus warns us again and again that it will happen. The time will be a surprise but the fact of the event should not be.

Once the announcement is made, the maidens get up and try to get their lamps ready. The wise ones, of course, came prepared with extra oil. The foolish ones are in a bind so they ask to borrow some. Their response reminds me of something I’ve been known to say to children and coworkers alike: “A failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.”

Does this bother you?! Remember that this is not a parable about generosity. We know Jesus’ teaching about that. The “oil” here is usually interpreted as good works or good deeds – a transformed life. From that perspective, this makes sense: it’s not a lack of charity or not wanting to be helpful but rather, you can’t transfer good works or life transformation – it doesn’t work that way.

The foolish women go off to try and make up for their lack. In the meantime the bridegroom comes, collects the bride and takes her to the feast. The imagery of a feast is often an allusion to the last days.

The shut door means admission to the kingdom is not automatic. This is the same message as the parable of the wedding feast at the beginning of chp 22. You can be invited but you have to have the right garments – the good deeds – the conversion of life – to go along with it. This echoes Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

Verse 12 gives the parabolic twist: yes, the unwise virgins (probably young girls and most likely family – cousins or even sisters) made a mistake, but to say “I don’t know you” was to completely cut them out of the community – a very harsh judgment. We’ve seen this elsewhere in Matthew: God is patient but that patience will not last forever.

Remember that all ten fell asleep – even the wise ones. So staying awake is more about being vigilantly prepared to the best of our ability.

There’s some good news and there’s some bad news. The good news is Jesus is coming and we have time to get prepared for that. The bad news is we don’t know when that will happen.

The good news is we have a chance to reform our lives, to get the right garments on, to be clothed with good deeds. The bad news is, all too often, we think we’ll get around to it tomorrow.

One important insight about this parable I owe to a favorite preacher and author, Barbara Brown Taylor. She points out that Jesus’ stories are about communities, groups of people, rather than individual persons. For most of history, this is how these stories were read. It’s only with the advent of our individualistic American culture that we began to read these parables as applying to a lone individual. You might reread this parable and think about the different groups it might apply to and what it has to say to those groups.

Increasingly over the next few weeks as we move into the Advent season we’ll get this feeling of urgency. We want to pay attention to that. We might not have tomorrow. Now is the time.

Could we theologically posit that a loving God would condemn no one eternally? Absolutely – we could make arguments around that. But should we use that as a basis for delaying our own metanoia?

Imagine Jesus appearing in front of you right now? Take some time to actually visualize that. What does Jesus look like? Where is he standing and what is he doing? Now imagine something in your life that you want to push out of sight so that he will not see it. What is it? What if you bring it out of hiding and ask him to transform it today, right now?

In what ways do you know you are ready for the coming of Christ? In what ways do you still have work to do?

Old Testament / Gospel Connection

How are the Old Testament and Gospel readings connected? Each week I will offer my views on this but I encourage you to first read the passages and look for your own connections!

Both readings speak of the necessity of being ready, of being prepared.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

See background on this letter here.

I don’t know about Catholic funerals but this passage is almost always read at Baptist funerals. It feels very suitable for that type of occasion – being comforted by remembering that someone who has died will have new life.

The historical context of this passage is the fear that someone who has died will miss out on Christ’s return and be left in some sort of limbo state or worse.

Remember that Paul spent time with this community preaching to them and most likely a big part of that preaching was for them to prepare themselves for Christ’s imminent return. And then someone dies. What happens to them at Christ’s return? Do they miss out on eternal life because they are already dead? You can see how this might cause a crisis of faith.

Paul says absolutely not! No one’s missing out on anything. In fact, those who have already died are going to have the best seats in the house for the event of Christ’s return!

I like to use this passage to talk about the development of doctrine and theology. Paul had preached a message to the community and maybe he even said something like “believe this and you’ll be united with Christ when he returns.” Now there’s this new question that Paul hadn’t anticipated in his earlier teaching. So he expands his theology to accommodate it. The answer is in line with the previous theology and teaching but it’s been expanded to answer new questions.

This has taken place throughout Christian history and it’s part of the reason why we as Catholics don’t rely solely on Scripture to answer all of our questions. There are questions we ask today that St. Paul would have dreamed of! John Henry Newman wrote a pivotal essay on this topic in 1878 which you can read here. For a modern treatment of this topic, you could check out A Church That Can and Cannot Change: The Development of Catholic Moral Teaching.

In verse 13 Paul uses a common euphemism for death: sleep. Keep in mind that a Jewish belief in some sort of afterlife was not firmly or widely held at this point in time. It was beginning to develop but it wasn’t universal. Mostly, death was seen as an annihilation. Paul writes this letter not only to answer the doctrinal question but, pastorally, to provide comfort and hope to those who are grieving.

Verse 14 starts out “if we believe” but a better translation is “since we believe.” “We believe that Jesus died and rose” is almost like a mini-creed. And the implications of that creed are that those who die will likewise be raised.

Jesus died and Jesus rose: remember from the previous chapter, Paul is big on imitation. If we’re expected to imitate Christ then, we too, can be expected to rise again.

In verse 15 Paul uses the word parousia, meaning a coming or arrival. Paul uses it to mean the second coming of Christ. The Latin Vulgate translated the word parousia as adventus. In Christian theology, this word has taken on even more meaning to encompass the idea of the final coming of the kingdom and the eternal reign of God. Sometimes it’s used as another word for heaven or paradise.

“We who are alive” is a clear indication that Paul expected the imminent return of Christ and he expected to witness it himself. V15-17 are an explanation of the parousia based on Jesus’ teaching, either the oral teaching circulating or perhaps from Paul’s direct vision of Christ.

Paul says those who are alive at that point – at the parousia or adventus – will have no advantage over those who are dead.

V16-17 are poetry rather than a blueprint. These verses draw heavily on common apocalyptic images. Paul is not trying to give an actual description of Christ’s return.

In verse 17 Paul gives the image of a royal homecoming, which was what the Greek word parousia usually referred to. In such a royal “coming,” or parousia, the subjects would meet the king in welcome and then form an escort en route to the destination.

“Caught up” is a phrase from verse 17 that the Vulgate translated as rapio. Modern evangelicals view the rapio or rapture as something that will happen mysteriously, where people will just disappear. But the taking up or rapture that Paul describes here is in the context of Christ’s final and very visible return.

Paul closes this passage by urging the community to “console” one another, the Greek parakaleó. It’s the same word as in the beatitudes: blessed are those who mourn for they shall be parakaleó. It is also the same word used in John’s gospel for the Holy Spirit: ” I will ask the Father, and he will give you another parakaleó, who will never leave you.” (John 14:16).

This passage may invite you to recall loved ones who have died. I think Paul would urge that remembrance to be tinged with Joy.

Paul drew from his culture to describe what Jesus’ return might look like. What images might you draw on to describe this joyful reunion?

Questions to ponder

What do these readings say about how to live day in and day out as Christians?