32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A
This is the antepenultimate Sunday of the Year of Grace 2011. By liturgical custom and design, these final three Sundays focus our spiritual attention on the End Times (theologically known as the Parousia), or in practical terms, on our own mortality and judgment by God. Life, as we are accustomed to living it, will come to a conclusion at some stage. That is reality. But, for those of us who have any liturgical and ecclesiastical memories that predate the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council (1962-65), the healthy, Catholic attitude towards the Parousia has changed and evolved away from a fear-filled judgment towards the idea of an encounter with the overwhelming Love of God, aka, the Beatific Vision. The 21st Century intelligent Catholic Church is no longer an apocalyptic Church, even though we use some apocalyptic language in our devotional and liturgical prayers. For example in the Lord’s Prayer, we pray “Thy kingdom come!” which is an apocalyptic acclamation taught by Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel. St. Paul refers to “the Day of the Lord” (see next Sunday’s second reading) when we will be caught up “in the clouds” (see today’s second reading from 1st Thessalonians). The short presidential prayer (the Embolism) between the Lord’s Prayer and the minor doxology at Mass reads, “as we wait for the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” But, in practical terms, we do not expect or fear an apocalyptic End of the World. Catholic and Orthodox faiths are founded on the profound love of God the All Loving and Compassionate, so we hope to live reasonably long and prosperous lives, and we pray that each has a “happy death,” i.e., to die naturally and peacefully, maybe even surrounded by family and friends. Apocalyptic language in the scriptures comes from times of violent persecution and travail for both Jewish and Christian believers. It loses almost all of its significance when proclaimed in times of relative peace, as we do today. Fundamentalists and millennialists aside, healthy, balanced and intelligent Catholic faith rejects an apocalyptic way of life and attitude because apocalypticism as preached today is founded on fear. It is contrary to the Gospel social message and Gospel Christology at its core. Those in our modern era who predict the world’s destruction and end with specific dates fail seriously to grasp the Gospel as a social, ethical, and Christological proclamation of Good News! God is the creator of goodness, not the destroyer of the imperfect! God forgives as a rule, and delights in mercy, compassion, and justice as lived by us at our best. I assert also that God is also good humored, and, I also hope that God laughs with a great divine belly laugh at the religious crazies who over-focus on the End Times! The trouble with apocalypticism is that it instill fear into those who are religiously vulnerable, and it often manipulates them into living foolishly and superstitiously. Some modern day so-called Christian apocalypticism holds hands with religious and cultural terrorism which causes so much grief in our world.
Balanced and intelligent Christianity stands in the ancient apostolic and catholic sacramental and intellectual Tradition and focuses on God’s Wisdom, that is, on the very Spirit of God, the Spirit which inspired the disciples on Pentecost and ever since then. Today’s first reading is an eloquent apotheosis of Wisdom and an assertion that God’s Wisdom is not rare, but glorious and ubiquitous. The lector ought to prepare this text well, for it is poetic and lyrical. The first and last words set a tone: Resplendent ... solicitude. To pray for Wisdom for oneself is a fundamental prayer. We ought to likewise pray that all we know and love can seek that same Wisdom (not to make us all the same, but to help us wisely appreciate all our differences). We who are brave and trusting in God’s goodness and love will also pray for Wisdom even for those we dislike or worse. God’s Wisdom can change us and them. The truly reformed, repentant, reflective, and renewed heart and mind has been touched by nothing less than God’s Wisdom and love.
Our second lesson from 1st Thessalonians finds Paul teaching by using his Paschal Imagination. In the first few chapters of the letter he had praised the Thessalonian Christians for how well they had embraced the Gospel Paul had proclaimed and how affectionate he was to them, and they to him. Now, he engages an issue which had become important to them. Evidently, some among the new Christians had died (the euphemism used is “fallen asleep”). The expectation common among early Christians was that the Risen Jesus was to return to them very, very soon so as to take them out of their harsh world and put them in God’s kingdom. Thus, an anxiety arose about those who had died. Would they miss the Parousia? Would they be omitted form that ultimate salvation? Paul’s response was that both the deceased and the living would be saved in that final sense of salvation. His imagination tried to paint a visual image of what this transition from earthly life to heavenly life would look like. He has believers floating up into the clouds, in much the same way that the evangelists would eventually describe Jesus’ Ascension back to God after his Resurrection. The image helps us engage the profound mystery of salvation. But, the literal details (i.e., floating in the clouds) might be rather too unsophisticated for intelligent people. Such a transition is a challenging as measuring life dynamics when a person’s spirit departs from his or her body at death. It is simply beyond our abilities to know and understand!
The Gospel text is the first of three eschatological parables from Matthew 25 which we will hear on these final three Sundays of this liturgical year. They are each famous for their ways of focusing our attention on how to live life in this world while preparing for life in the next world, in God’s kingdom. In fact, they are not about giving up earthly life, but rather, about how to engage this life ever more fully, responsibly, and thoughtfully! The ten virgins (other translations read: bridesmaids) had genuine work to do at the ancient Jewish wedding celebration. They did not merely dress up to look pretty; rather they were the ceremonial acolytes, the oil lamp bearers who’s task it was to provide light for the festivity as the celebration proceeded all through the night until sunrise. To have insufficient oil to keep the lamps lighted was a sign of serious failure to help celebrate the wedding. To have been conscientious enough to have brought a reserve of extra oil, showed the depth of affection and appreciation for the bride and groom. The apocalyptic exhortation at the conclusion of the parable is apt for us today: “Stay awake”! The challenge for healthy, intelligent, and balanced Christians all (Catholics included) is to engage our ordinary, daily lives as fully as we are able while at the same time being mindful of our Christian vocation to God’s kingdom. Paul writes in Philippians 3 that we are citizens of God’s kingdom now, i.e., already! Our task is to be good citizens both of God’s kingdom and of God’s creation. We do not reject the created universe. We embraced it as a gift from God who placed us in it. Ours is to love and celebrate, always thoughtful and aware of life . . . and thankful for it!
Stay awake! Or as Paul writes elsewhere, Now is the hour to wake from sleep!