Nov. 6, 2011: 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

I have pondered about how the Gospel message of the wise and the foolish virgins applies to our lives. The message that Jesus wants us to draw from the parable is that we need to be vigilant and ready in our service to the Lord. What does it mean to be vigilant and ready? I think two women I encountered in the past describe just that.

A few days ago, I visited an elderly lady to anoint her and bring her communion. Previously, her relative had instructed me that when I arrived at the house I was to strike the wall near the window with the water hose because the lady had lost most of her hearing. As I approached the front door of her house, I saw a sign that read, 'Knock hard. Hard of Hearing. Knock on the side wall.' I walked around to side of the house near the water hose and I noticed there were dents on the wall and thought that they may have been made by the water hose. I did not want to hear from the owner that a priest damaged the wall, so I knocked with my knuckles instead. A diminutive elderly lady greeted me and we sat down to visit. She spoke at length and I listened. I tried to chat with her, but she could not understand me so she brought me a small dry-erase board to assist us in communicating. Amazingly, in this age of high technology gadgets, this low-tech tool worked beautifully.

She said to me, "Father, I had a good life. I also had a hard life. I was one of ten children, and when I was twelve years old, my dad left our family. At age twelve, I had to go out and work to help bring food to the table. We were poor, but we took care of each other. I married young at 19 years old. I married a man with three young children, whose mother had left them." At that point, her stepdaughter chimed in, "Technically, she is my stepmother, but for me, she is my mother because she took care of us like our real mother." The elderly lady continued, "I took care of my younger sister in my house until she met her husband." Looking around the house, I noticed that it was a very modest home with no signs of luxuries, and it had a very small kitchen. I recalled that her niece had mentioned to me that when her aunt was younger this very house was buzzing with people as her aunt cooked every day and fed whoever came to the house. I wondered how she could have fed so many people working in that small kitchen.

In Baptism and Confirmation we received all the gifts of the Holy Spirit necessary to serve the Lord and our neighbor. While we have been given everything we need, some choose not to use their gifts, and Our Lord grieves when we choose not to use our gifts. In the Gospel today, Jesus gives us the image of wise virgins and foolish virgins who were waiting for the arrival of the Bridegroom, and the wise virgins had filled their oil lamps and were ready him. The elderly lady I visited has used the gifts that she has been given--her kindness, generosity, and compassion—to care for her family and friends. These are the gifts with which she filled her oil lamp. As I spoke with her I noticed that she was not bitter about the hardship that she had experienced throughout her life and she did not complain about what she did not have.

For most of us when we face difficult moments, we have a tendency to complain. Mother Teresa had an interesting image to describe this--a walking stick. She said, "To complain is very easy, but to be happy to be anybody's walking stick is very difficult. What a lot we lose when we grumble; what a waste of energy. How foolish we are. We must all watch out because we are all inclined to it--let not our likes and dislikes be the measure of our actions. Remember, we have come to do the will of Him who called us. You must train yourselves to be happy by always saying "yes" to God. Try to give a hearty "yes" to God in your life and you will find yourself coming closer and closer to God."

A while back, I visited a lady who was in her eighties and who had plenty of reasons to grumble. She had been to the hospital more times than she could remember because of heart troubles. At one point, she could barely walk a few steps without getting tired and so she spent most of her time at home feeling trapped. For a while, she begged Jesus to take her home, but then the unexpected happened when she had a heart attack. Unfortunately, she had a second heart attack two years later. With both heart attacks, she coded (died) and had near-death experiences. She said that during her first near death experience she arrived at a beautiful place that she described as "paradise." She went on to say that she felt a great peace and joy that she had never experienced. While in this paradise, she was only too happy to see her deceased family members, but they all looked at her and shook their head as if to say to her, "It's not your time." Then Jesus appeared to her and said, "You need to go back", but she told him, "I don't want to go back. It feels so wonderful here." Nevertheless, she was sent back, only to come back to the same place two years later following the second heart attack. Again, Jesus told her that she needed go back. She pleaded with Him, "Why?" Jesus replied, "Your 13-yr. old granddaughter needs you."
      
When I met this lady, she was not bitter. Neither her heart condition nor the frequent trips to the hospital changed her. She knew, like the wise virgins who had their lamps filled with oil, that anytime of the day, Jesus was asking her to love her granddaughter the best way she could. It no longer mattered to her that it could be next month or the next 5 years that Jesus would call her home. What mattered to her was that she was prepared to say "yes" to Jesus. I am fortunate to have met two great examples of 'wise virgins' who are vigilant and ready in service to the Lord. We each need to look into our lives to see if we are using our gifts to be vigilant and ready in service to the Lord.