32nd Sunday of the Church Year – Matthew 25: 1-13 – Focus: Are You Truly Wise, or Foolish? - Fr. Chris Heller
Several years ago, I was swimming in the ocean, & a riptide started dragging me away. I was frightened, but I remembered the wisdom some great Long Islanders offered: in a riptide, think differently! Don’t try to swim directly to shore, but parallel to the shore: I’m happy to say this wisdom worked: it was successful, which true wisdom usually is! I eventually got back to shore, & have shared and encouraged others to also follow that wisdom.
By contrast, the day after Election Day, I put on early morning television to get election results. I definitely hit the wrong channel button on the remote: on came a program with nine talking heads! And they were ALL talking at the same time about the elections & the results. I had a Headache! Then I laughed as I thought: all this noise is the opposite of wisdom: it blocks the truth! You may remember the Tower of Babel from the Hebrew Scriptures. And then it hit me: all that talk reminded me of a Charlie Brown cartoon special, & Charlie’s teacher’s voice, which was something like: wah, wah, wah, wah! Now, I was wise enough to turn that station off, & turn on a quieter one where I could hear. So, in that case, I knew I had to clear out some of the noise in order to hear the truth.
But that raises the bigger question: the question raised in today’s Gospel: what’s the basis for true wisdom, and for wisdom that’s good for here on earth, and wisdom that leads us onward to heaven? In all things, we will not go wrong if we keep our eyes on Jesus, his words & actions. Jesus’ wisdom included getting in personal prayer time with the Father early each day: how many times did the Apostles have to go looking for him? Dozens, until they understood: Jesus hungered for time alone with the Father because God hungered to spend time w Jesus. For me, that’s crucial in our relationship.
What does that tell us? That Jesus had to clear out the noise of competing sounds! That’s true: there are LOTS of voices competing for our attention: we can’t listen to all of them: which voice is the most important for us? Jesus. On whom shall we build our life-plan? Jesus! Going forward: if I can highlight one important symbol in the midst of today’s beautiful Scripture readings, it would be the OIL that the wise virgins had in such abundant supply. Why the oil? Because the OIL in the Gospel story represents the young women’s love, obedience, attentiveness, & service toward the bridegroom, who for our purposes stands for Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Mary.
The question today’s reflection leaves with me is this: who can I help this coming week? Who can benefit from the Jesus wisdom that I am trying to live & practice each day? Could I be the listener to the lonely person who needs someone to not judge them? Could I be the delivery person who makes sure groceries get to an elderly neighbor? Could I be the witness to Jesus, sharing a bit of His Gospel good news, even on the phone? You get the idea: wisdom is like love: in the grand divine design it’s meant to be shared. May Jesus help us this week to become a wiser member of God’s People, in His Body; & as we receive the Eucharist, may we be inspired to do simple good things for others. As we hear at the end of Mass: “go in peace to love and serve the Lord.”
