2345AFC111023 – ARE YOU READY YET?
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Wisdom 6:15 – 15 To fix one’s thought on her [Wisdom] is perfect understanding,
and one who is vigilant on her account will soon be free from care
Psalm 63:4 –
4 So I will bless you as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands and call on your name.
1 Thessalonians 4:13 – 13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
Matthew 25:10 – 10 And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. Aloha pumehana, a me ke akua ho’omaika‘i ‘oe, ʻŌmea! Warmest Aloha, and may God bless you, Belovéd. What I’m about to do ordinarily would be done in large gathering rather than an essay. The basis of this comes from a homily delivered several years ago by Fr. Rex Rilviera. He opened with a question – I’m going to have to paraphrase since that engram is long gone. It went a bit like this:
- Fr. Rex – How many of you want to go to Heaven?
- Most of the assembly raised their hands
- Fr. Rex – How many of you want to be a Saint in Heaven?
- Quite a few hands went up, but fewer than previously
- Fr. How many of you want to be a Saint in Heaven today?
- According to witnesses at the scene, only one hand was raised. Yep. It was mine. I was arrogant enough to think I was ready. That’s our focus for today – ARE YOU READY YET?
This Sunday will be the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time in Cycle A. This set of readings causes me to smile – usually because I love the readings – but also because of that exchange with Fr. Rex. Today, they speak to a deeper understanding, especially when I hear so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. This has been a season of grieving for tens-of-millions across the globe. Here in Hawaiʻi, we have daily reminders of the immense and tragic loss of lives, history, property, and beauty left after the wildfire that wiped out Lahaina on Maui. We grieve for the lives lost in two terrible wars – one in Ukraine and one in Gaza. We grieve for the lives lost in the recent earthquakes (← Check it out! IMPORTANT!) in Afghanistan, Nepal, Indonesia, and lesser quakes with lesser consequences around the world (use the link above. It’s an eye-opener!) We grieve for the lives lost in mass-casualty shootings (↔ Learning Link) – now over 550 this year in the USA alone. Even more deeply do we grieve for the 600,000+ abortions every year in the US. We are pummeled daily with this sort of news – death and destruction, hate and violence, and unspeakable evil. It could make life look hopeless – except we have the Greater Hope. If we continue on with the Key Verse from the epistles, we read in 1 Thessalonians 4:14 – 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. That is indeed good news and great Hope! Jesus was known as The Man of Sorrows, (↔ Music Link) and yet in his Death we have Hope!
20-week-0ld HUMAN
But that hope does not take away the pain and suffering of loss. For most of the World, grief is a response to the loss of persons, places, or things that we hold dear. Every life is precious in God’s eyes, and every life must be respected as a life God allowed to be conceived. I want to share a quote from the Catechism of the Catholic Church §2378 :
2378 A child is not something owed to one, but is a gift. The “supreme gift of marriage” is a human person. A child may not be considered a piece of property, an idea to which an alleged “right to a child” would lead. In this area, only the child possesses genuine rights: the right “to be the fruit of the specific act of the conjugal love of his parents,” and “the right to be respected as a person from the moment of his conception.
It is not the parents’ right to give birth to or to abort a child. Pregnancy begins with HUMAN DNA which progresses through maturation to become a human person. In the occurrence of a pregnancy, it is only the CHILD that has any rights – the right to live as God intended inside and then outside of the womb.
In all of these examples, the persons who lost their lives were deprived of the liberty to continue living safely without harm or danger. It is that for which we also ought to grieve – not just that someone we loved is gone, but that someone whom God Loved had their life “cut short.” They did not get the opportunity of answer that question about readiness. How do we get ready? Jesus’ The Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids in Matthew 25:1-13 gives us another example – one that is similar to the Parable of the Wedding Feast (↔ Learning Link). It is similar because the message focuses on “Constant Vigilance.” ALWAYS be ready to go! What does that mean? Remember the song “Leavin on a jet plane?” – All my bags are packed / I’m ready to go / I’m standin’ here outside your door …” Well, if we are going to be ready to go, we’d better have our bags Unpacked! “Ya can’t take it with ya” is a very true aphorism and it applies to all our earthly possessions as well as our earthly connections. When we’re gone, we’re gone, and that’s that. “But why? Because God needed another angel?”
No, certainly not. It doesn’t work that way. We refer back to that Big Blue Button with the Big white H. If you take a few moments to look back to 1745AFC111017 – God Did That, you can find the answer, but I’ll give you a hint. The 5 Foolish Bridesmaids we not ready. They lacked the wisdom to bring extra oil, and so they were left out! Or as we have heard in popular culture lately, they were left behind. God does do that. He shuts the door and tosses the foolish into the darkness, each bound hand-and-foot where there is “wailing and gnashing of teeth.” God shut the door on the Ark, and he will shut the door on us if we are not ready. What can we do? We can call upon God’s Friend, Helper, and Life Coach – Wisdom! To fix one’s thought on her [Wisdom] is perfect understanding, and one who is vigilant on her account will soon be free from care (my emphasis). How do we acquire this Wisdom? Well, of course, we look in the B.I.B.L.E. and read all the Wisdom Books: Proverbs, Job, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom, and Sirach. If we do that, and place ourselves in the story about the bridesmaids, we will be the ones who prepare. We would put a little oil in our lamps (↔ Music Link) – hint: it’s FREE in the B.I.B.L.E. – and keep it burning. We know not the day nor the hour, (← Check it out!) but the wise can see that now is the birth pangs (← Check it out!) and we can proceed with confidence because we are prepared through God’s own Wisdom. We become completely ready when all we have left is our Light having laid all else aside to wait for the Groom. This is possible because we don’t abide by Sinatra’s anthem, but by Jesus’ tender song for our hearts so that he might have our lives HIS way. (↔ Music Link)
The illumination we need comes to us via the Holy Spirit, the LORD, the Giver of Life and Light. Even if we have days when we have to endure a hard and painful struggle, (See Romans 5:3-5 about endurance) the Light is also our strength and guide. It is the Light of Love, the brightest and best of all Light. When his Light shines from you, you can live out the Gospel as in Matthew 5:14a, 16b – “You are the light of the world…let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” SO shine on! (↔ Music Link) We not only reflect the Light of Christ, we radiate that Light from our Sprit-Filled hearts. And what does that look like?
Some of my favorite examples of shedding the Light of Life on the World are found in the book of Psalms. Today’s Key Verse from Psalm 63 (↔ Music Link) is one of those examples: My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God. I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on your name. In this passage the antecedent of “you” is God. “How can I bless God? He’s God and I’m not worthy to even speak his name!” True, but again I ask that we look back to 1540AFC100415 – Bless God! where we find this dialogue:
Q: What can my puny existence add to his Glory?
A: Nothing.
Q: What does God need from me?
A: Nothing.
Q: Then what can I give to God?
A: Everything.
Huh?
Q: If he’s got everything and he created everything and he is everything and he’s in everything, and everything I have comes from him … how can I give him anything much less everything?!?
A: By extolling, praising, exalting, applauding, revering, lauding, adoring, worshipping, glorifying, and thanking God. That is how we bless God.
And Belovéd, when once we begin to Bless God, then Worldly things begin to pass away so that we have oil in our lamps which is Eternal. Then we will be ready for the Groom to come to his Bride – the Church – and when the Door is shut at last, we will be safe in the Court of the Lord. Blesséd God forever in his Angels and his Saints! The thing about Heaven is that everyone is dying to get there! One last thing, though.
I know you’re a busy person, and you have a lot of demands on your time. Still, I’m going to ask you to read the entire ninth chapter of The Apostle Paul’s letter to the Hebrews. (Follow this link) This is such an important letter! It is masterfully written and portrays Christ as the sole mediator between God and all earthlings. This chapter describes how the sacrifices made by the Priests under The Law were inadequate insofar as having redemptive power. He demonstrates that there is no longer any need for that kind of sacrificial offering because Christ’s sacrifice atones for all sin. The enlightenment, illumination, of which Paul speaks comes through Baptism and the Word. While at some point the recipients of this Epistle to the Hebrews had endured persecution and loss of wealth, prestige, and security, Paul urges them to persevere, to hold on to the Truth, or we might say to stay in the Light of His Glory and Grace. (↔ Music Link)
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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