32nd Sunday of Ordinary
Time – November 8,
2020
We know from experience that things do not always work out the way
we expect them to. We can plan for something, but then discover that it does
not happen, or it happens in a different way to how we had expected it to
happen. The unexpected can come along and knock our plans off balance. The
parable Jesus speaks in today’s gospel reading
reflects that human experience of the disturbing impact of the unexpected. The
ten bridesmaids had a reasonable expectation that the bridegroom would arrive
at a certain time for them to escort him to the wedding banquet with his bride.
However, as is often the case at weddings, the unexpected happens. The
bridegroom arrives much later than expected. Five of the bridesmaids, in their
wisdom, had planned for this possible scenario and five had not. Those who had
anticipated the unexpected had brought enough oil to ensure that their lamps
kept burning through the long unexpected hours of waiting.
I heard recently about Herbert Hoover, who served as President of
the United States from 1929 to 1933.
President Hoover was in office during the Great Depression and at the
time of the Wall Street crash. Reflecting back on that time, many years later,
he said, “Wisdom consists not so much in knowing what to do in the ultimate as
in knowing what to do next.” President Hoover
learned that wisdom too late. He did not win a second term; people judged he
didn’t handled the unexpected events of the depression and the Wall
Street collapse.
The wisdom of the five bridesmaids wasn’t anything
extraordinary; it was very practical. It consisted not so much in knowing what
to do in the ultimate as in knowing what to do next. They had the resources of
oil that enabled them to do what had to be done next, even though the
circumstances were not ideal, and things had not worked out quite as they had
expected. We all need resources that enable us to do what has to be done in the
day to day circumstances of life, including those unexpected circumstances that
are part of life.
The wise bridesmaids had resources of oil that enabled their lamps
to remain bright during the long and dark hours of unexpected waiting. We all
need those inner resources that keep our faith, hope and charity burning
brightly in those moments when we find ourselves having to deal with the
unexpected. For us as Christians the inner resource that keeps our own lamp of
faith, hope and love burning is the Spirit of Jesus. It is that resource that
gives us the wisdom we need to do what we have to do, regardless of the
circumstances in which we find ourselves.
Our first reading from the Book of Wisdom reminds us:
Wisdom is radiant and
unfading, and she is easily discerned by those who love her, and is found by
those who seek her. She hastens to make herself known to those who desire her.
One who rises early to seek her will have no difficulty, for she will be found
sitting at the gate.
The fourteenth century German mystic, Meister Eckhart, said that ‘Wisdom consists in doing the next thing you have to do, doing it
with your whole heart, and finding delight in doing it’. It is our
relationship with the Lord that opens us up to that kind of wisdom because the
Lord himself is rich in that kind of wisdom. This wisdom of dealing with the
unexpected is not something obscure; it is not for a select few. It is the Lord’s gift to all of us, offered and available to all of us. This is the
wisdom of God, the wisdom of the Lord, which is freely given to all who seek
for her.
Hoping you are able to enjoy the unexpected pleasant weather this week.
Fr. Don Webber,
C.P.