Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour

32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time: 2023 Year A

Matthew 25,1-13. ”Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

Imagine that the world would end as we end this very Mass. That Christ will come to meet you now at Holy Communion. That as you come forward you will have to present to Him your soul and He will either receive you like the 5 wise virgins who were waiting for Him or say, as He said to the foolish virgins who were not ready, “I do not know you.”

Our life here on earth is to prepare for the day we will meet our God. Our Lord with many parables has warned us to be ready for that day. In fact there are at least 15 different parables about being ready for the day of the coming of the Lord, when we will stand before God.

Are you ready today to welcome the Lord? Have you been faithful to the Gospel? Living a life worthy of the name of Christian? Having repented of our sins, Prayed your daily prayers? Lived your faith truly? Loved God and our neighbour?

Or would you like to have a little more time to prepare? Maybe go to confession? Maybe say a few more prayers? Maybe do some more acts of charity helping those in need?

Only 5 of the 10 Virgins were ready when the bridegroom arrived. Will we be like the wise who prepare for the day you meet Christ or will we be like the foolish virgins who leave preparations to the last minute.

The Gospel message is clear, that we do not indulge in the thought that you can live in sin now and that you will go to confession before you die and that will be enough to be saved. That you can enjoy the pleasures of sin now and then will truly and properly repent (have real sorrow for having lived such a wicked life) before you die; that you can feed unholy desires now and have the strength to overcome them some time in the future, trying to break the habit of drinking, drugs, pornography, anger, laziness or whatever at some later date. God can call us at any moment.

St. Vincent de Paul says: Ah! A great many persons live constantly in the state of damnation!

St. Augustine says: As a man lives, so shall he die.

If God or the Church were not part of your lives, you will probably die without God or His Sacraments which the Church offers. If you lived a life of faith, praying frequently, being close to the Church and the Sacraments you will probably die with a prayer on your lips and in your heart having received last rites.

Though the lamps were burning while it was still light out when the darkness of night had come and midnight had arrived the lamps of the foolish virgins were dying and in need of more oil. Though the light of our faith may shine when things go well, when the darkness and the time of trial comes does our faith begin to falter and waver and fail?

St JEROME says. Their worthy confession calling Him, Lord, Lord, is a mark of faith. But what avails it to confess with the mouth of Him whom you deny with your works? [and life]

How can we say to God that we love Him if we live a life ignoring Him, neglecting Him and cheating on Him by idolising the world and worldly things. What is more important to you? God or money, celebrities, sports, beauty, technology, social media, work and career, instant gratification, etc? If you had to choose between God and the world, which would you choose?

St. Louis Marie de Montfort Be one of the small number who find the way to life, and enter by the narrow gate into Heaven. Take care not to follow the majority and the common herd, so many of whom are lost. Do not be deceived; there are only two roads: one that leads to life and is narrow; the other that leads to death and is wide. There is no middle way.

Heaven is immensely more wonderful than earth, the difference being more definite than a model globe to the planet earth. Let us prepare for that. For happiness without the shadow of sorrow. Always new and always more beautiful. If you think the adventures and life here on earth are great just wait until you see those in heaven which are reserved for those who loved God.

― C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle “I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now...Come further up, come further in!”

― C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle “All their life in this world and all their adventures had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”