Opting to Wait; Opting to be Ready

Homily: Thirty Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)
Matthew 25:1-13
08 November 2020

Fr. Ricky Montanez

Opting to Wait; Opting to be Ready

In this parish, I know a vibrant group of senior citizens with such a zest and appreciation for life. Maintenance meds and a variety of aches and pains don’t get in the way of their desire to live life to the fullest. They love to dress up, shop together, dine with each other, dance, and watch movies, concerts and stage shows. They are also regular daily massgoers and often at the forefront of parish and social outreach programs. When the country went into lockdown all their activities came to a sudden halt. They stayed home for their safety but after nearly eight (8) months into the quarantine they’ve begun to wonder when they will be allowed to go out?  They tell me how they yearn to be physically present at mass again and to go on little adventures with each other, drawing in the sights and sounds of the city and basking in the energy of humanity. With a shrug of my shoulders, I can only tell them to wait. And to do so patiently. 

Waiting. For many of us, it is rather a challenge and we’d much rather skip it if we can. This pandemic has forced us all into a lengthy period of waiting for life to return to some semblance of normalcy. Every day, more and more people get wearied and tired from the psycho-emotional effects of this worldwide crisis. Nonetheless, we have no choice but to wait for a vaccine, or any solution that offers salvation from this dire situation. We must learn how to wait. 

To be sure, we have had to deal with waiting and delays in life even prior to 2020. However, living as we do, in a society which demands instant gratification of our needs, and where everything is geared to take the waiting out of wanting, we’ve managed to find ways to eliminate the process of waiting. Why else do you think we have fast food centres, online banking, instant noodles, instant microwavable ulam (viand), etc?  When buying things online, there’s always the express delivery option for those who would pay extra so they can get their purchases sooner! And what about the culture of paying a little extra under the table or in the form of gifts to bypass the bureaucracy in an office? We want everything resolved the soonest possible time. It presupposes two things — first, that we believe we can control everything, and second, that we have the arrogance to believe only our time matters. 

This Sunday’s set of readings offers us a bit of an insight to help us deal with the “delays” we have to face in life and those that we are experiencing at present brought about by this health crisis. In the Gospel, the ten virgins are tasked to wait attentively for the bridegroom’s arrival. Five of these maidens are identified as ‘wise’ while the other five as ‘foolish’ as exhibited by their degree of preparation for the big event. Notice that all ten came prepared.  To be certain, they had been advised of the possible ETA of the bridegroom and so they dressed appropriately, knew when they needed to be present at the entrance and what they needed to bring.  Let us note that the “delay” we all perceive is from the frame of reference of the 10 maidens waiting. Technically, how can the bridegroom be late when the party only officially starts with his arrival?  Without him, there is no party. ‘Pack up na!’ The guests go home sad. Right?  I believe the five wise maidens were self-aware, acknowledging that they were there to do a job —- to meet and welcome this prestigious guest. They recognized that it was the bridegroom’s affair, his honour, and not theirs and since they were at the mercy of the uncertainty of the situation, they thought it best to be ready and bring extra provisions to sustain them and keep their lamps burning should there be delays.  

Often times we worry so much. We forget that many things are beyond our control. As humans we are beset by many limitations of time and space.  Not everything will always go as we wish. No matter how smart or powerful we are, we cannot manipulate every variable to ensure all outcomes are in our favour. Jesus, himself, advises the worriers among us, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:34) If anything, this pandemic reminds us that everything remains within God’s providence, within God’s design, within God’s purpose. We may think this situation has dashed our dreams or put on hold all our plans but the truth is, everything we have, every blessing and opportunity has always been a gift from God. Job shows us perfectly the kind of attitude we ought to have when he says, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”  (Job 1:21) This applies to everything under the sun, especially the fragility of human life. The Thessalonians in the second reading were obsessed with the second coming of Christ and were grieving the loss of their loved ones whom they believed to have missed it altogether. They bewail that Jesus is “late” and their loved ones have missed His triumphant return.  St. Paul tells them “not to grieve like the rest who do not have hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). What they failed to understand was that Jesus is the resurrection and the life and whenever He chooses to arrive, He is sure to bring life.  It is for us to nurture that hope in the coming of our Saviour.  

In episode 7 of the recently-concluded K-Drama series “Record of Youth”, the character of Sa Hye-jun receives a book as a gift and in it is a wisdom-laden inscription. It cleverly advises whosoever waits for a breakthrough in their life to always remember that “the most precious present in the world is living in the present, learning from the past and planning your future.” This is to say that to live life fully we must focus on making the best of the present.  We need not stress over what we perceive as delays to a future we desire or expect. We ought to draw from the lessons of the past to help us deal with the struggles of today, trusting fully that the present is preparing us to receive the future. This is where we must learn how to wait with purpose.  Why wait in idleness and futility? We can opt and make a conscious choice to maintain a healthy and Christianly-productive perspective of waiting. Given the limits of our situation, we can still help ease the suffering of our very own family, friends and neighbours. Tapping on our inner reserves, we recall the words of the Prophet Isaiah: “Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear.” (Isaiah 58:7-8) 

Going back to the senior citizen barkada, I mentioned at the start of the homily.  I was happy to report that they are using their waiting time wisely. They each have their own hobbies, be it gardening, crafts, watching K-drama or cooking. They have also since, managed to learn zoom and videoconferencing to be able to check in on each other to ascertain their friends are doing okay. They have also learned to access livestreamed masses on FB and religiously attend sometimes more than one mass a day. They delight in the presence of their families especially at meal time and they’ve initiated family prayer in their homes. To help the community and society, they were also able to donate generously, according to their capacity, to outreach programs for the poor and the frontliners. They are a wise bunch for having learned to enjoy the gift of the present moment with hope in their hearts for the future. After all, who is to say when they are to be called back to the Father before the pandemic ends?  In fact, they already lost a few of their friends in the months under quarantine. The present is all they have. It is all we have.  By being fully present in the moment we can at least achieve a level of peace of mind and heart that helps anyone cope with the life interruptions brought by this most uncertain time. 

In closing, I urge you, as Jesus does, to be prepared, be vigilant and to stay awake because we do not know the hour nor the day of His return. Let us strive to live with a clear conscience and to conduct all our affairs as we would in the presence of the Lord. We pray for the grace to be humble and allow the Lord to work within us as He pleases, the keenness to wait patiently and wisely for God’s time, and the sensitivity to recognize when God is already taking the lead.