Friday of Week 21 of Ordinary Time – Gospel

Commentary on Matthew 25:1-13

The second chapter of the Eschatological Discourse consists of three long parables, all of which are familiar to us. They have the common theme of preparation for the final coming of the Lord, whenever that will be.

Today’s reading is the parable about the wise and foolish bridesmaids. The story likely reflects common wedding customs of the time. The bridesmaids who attend on the bride are waiting for the bridegroom to come. The time of his arrival is not known. Perhaps, at that time, it was his way of asserting his male authority from the very beginning of their marriage.

In the story there are 10 bridesmaids altogether. Of these we are told five were “wise” and the others were “foolish”. The “wise” young women all brought an extra supply of oil with them while the “foolish” ones only had their lamps. The lamps consisted of oil-soaked rags at the top of a pole and needed to have oil added every 15 minutes or so.

The bridegroom was long in coming. The implication is that he was taking much longer than expected. In fact, he was so long in coming that the bridesmaids all fell asleep. Suddenly, in the middle of the night, the call went up:

Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.

Immediately the young women got ready and trimmed their torches. The charred edges had to be cut away and the rags soaked in more oil. The foolish ones immediately realised they were running out of oil. They ask their companions to share some of their oil. These refused on the grounds that there was not enough to go round and none of them would have enough. The foolish ones were told to go off and buy some more for themselves.

However, while they were still away, the bridegroom arrived. Those who were ready went into the marriage celebration with him and the doors were shut. When the foolish bridesmaids finally arrived with their new supply of oil, they found the doors closed in their face. They cried out:

Lord, lord, open to us.

But the bridegroom answered:

Truly I tell you, I do not know you.

Again this is a parable warning us all to be ready when the Lord comes. In the early Church, he had at first been expected to come in the very lifetime of the early Christians. This belief is reflected in the First Letter to the Thessalonians (read during the weekdays of the Cycle 1 First Readings), which is the earliest writing of the New Testament.

But Jesus did not come and, by the time Matthew’s Gospel appeared, people were beginning to realise that his coming could be in a more distant future. It is in this context that today’s parable gives a warning. If the Lord was not going to come soon, then some people might begin to take things easy and become lax in their living of the gospel. Today’s passage suggests that that is not a very wise way of behaving.

The bridegroom may not have come when expected, but he did come. And, when he came, half of the group were not ready. In other places, Jesus has warned that the:

..day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. (Matt 24:36)

Because:

the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
(1 Thess 5: 2)

The only policy is constant readiness. If we are not ready and he does come, then we may find the doors closed and hear what are perhaps the most chilling words in the whole Gospel:

…I do not know you.

In John’s Gospel, Jesus says that, as the Shepherd, he knows his sheep and they know him. Not to be known by Jesus means to have broken our relationship with him through sinful and loveless behaviour. To be in that state when he comes is truly tragic. The choice is ours, as we have been given adequate warning.

While the Gospel is speaking about the final or eschatological coming of Jesus as King and Lord, it would be very complacent of us to think that there are no signs of its happening in the near future. That would put us in the same category as the foolish bridesmaids! While the final coming may still be far off, our own rendezvous with the Lord can be at any time. For all practical purposes, that is the time for which we must be prepared.

Our news media is full of reports of lives being cut short by accident, illness or violence. Any of us could be one of those victims, young and in perfect health with a whole life before us. But the Lord calls when he calls.

Will I have ‘oil in my lamp’? That is, what would I be able to show the Lord in terms of gospel-centred living? Maybe we think the “wise” young women in the story were selfish not to have shared their oil, but there are some things which we have to bring to the Lord on our own. We cannot borrow the good life that someone else has led. It has to be totally ours.

Clearly, the best way to prepare is not to think anxiously of the future, but to concentrate on the here and now. Let us learn to live totally in the present, to seek and find God there. If we can do that, then all the rest will take care of itself. And, whether the Groom arrives early or late, it will not matter. Because he has been constantly part of our everyday lives. And, apart from the insurance that it gives, is it not by far the best way to spend our days?

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Friday of Week 21 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8

The latter part of Paul’s letters usually includes some practical exhortations to the particular church to which he is writing. Here, he tells the Thessalonians that to conserve their holiness they are to recall what the apostle taught them in the name of Christ at the time of their conversion.  

Specifically, all forms of sexual misconduct are to be avoided, in consideration of the truth that God sanctifies his faithful by the presence of the Holy Spirit in them. He begins by making his appeal and exhortation in the name of the Lord:

…we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus…

He does not talk to them arrogantly, but does speak with authority in the Lord Jesus.

When he was with them he had instructed them on how to live in ways that please God and he is happy that they are so doing, but he urges them to make even more progress in the way of the Lord.  Paul uses this metaphor often of the Christian way.  It points to steady progress in a forward direction. They are well aware of the instructions Paul and his companions gave on the authority of the Lord Jesus. 

The word ‘instructions’ is used of authoritative commands and has a military ring. God wants all of the Thessalonians to be holy.  ‘Holiness’, as we saw yesterday, means ‘set apart’ (Greek, hagios), being different from other people who live according to different standards.  It is identifying with God’s will, which comes to us through Christ and makes us holy.  It is the work of the Holy Spirit in us.  But taking the English root, ‘holiness’ is related to ‘wholeness’.  The ‘holy’ person is a ‘whole’ person, in which every part speaks of unity and harmony with God, with those around one, with the environment and with oneself.

Paul then spells out a particular area of being holy with which he is concerned.  He exhorts the Christians to sexual integrity and self-restraint.  The implication is that, from what Timothy has told him, there are some problems in this area.  Therefore, he wants them to keep away from all sexual immorality and each of them to guard their body in a way which is holy and honourable.  This can refer either to a man’s own body or that of his wife, as in several rabbinic texts.  For a married man to have sex with another person is to violate his wife. Paul’s doctrine on moral behaviour, which is based on the earliest Christian teaching, invests ordinary day-to-day life with a new depth: it has the seal of Christ on it. 

In the first century AD moral standards were generally very low, and chastity was regarded as an unreasonable restriction, especially by men (but under the same standards of the time, married women were expected to remain faithful to their husbands; unmarried women to be virgins before marriage). Paul, however, would not compromise on God’s clear and demanding standards. They are not to give way to:

…lustful passion, like the ‘gentiles who do not know God’…

The warning was needed, for Christians clearly were not immune to temptation in a hedonistic environment.

Unrestricted sexual activity is to use others for one’s pleasure and totally in conflict with the commandment to love others and to respect their dignity and personal integrity.  It is to degrade the dignity of one’s own body and that of others. So Paul says that no one should ever sin by taking advantage of a brother or sister in such matters, because the Lord always “pays back” sins of that kind, as Paul had emphatically stated in the past.

Sexual sin harms others besides those who engage in it.  For example, in adultery, the spouse is always wronged.  The Lord’s ‘vengeance’ is in the price that one pays for betraying one’s own integrity and the dignity of the other person.  God punishes such behaviour insofar as it carries its own punishment.  Such behaviour can never bring happiness and, at its worst, can result in debauchery, injury, disease, and death.   This is so evident in the rampant spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

On the contrary, God has called all to be holy and not immoral. And anyone who rejects this teaching is rejecting not human authority, but God who gives us his Holy Spirit. 

The prophet Ezekiel foretold that the Spirit would be given to the messianic people.  This reference draws attention to the continuity between the church of Thessalonica and the giving of this gift to the early Christian community on the day of Pentecost.

And here is still another reason for chastity: sexual sin is against God, who gives the Holy Spirit to believers for their sanctification.  It is a kind of sacrilege where not only the object of sexual desire, but the Spirit within that person is violated.

We live in a world rampant with sexual licence and it is easy to be affected by it.  Love and affection and some form of expressing our sexuality are important in everyone’s life, but it must never be done at the expense of one’s own integrity or the integrity of another person. We do not make our human values; we recognise and acknowledge them as coming from a source beyond ourselves.

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