Meditation of His Beatitude Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista: XXXII Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
Below you can find the Meditation of His Beatitude Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, for the XXXII Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A, Sunday 12 November 2023.
Mt 25:1-13
Before reflecting on today's Gospel passage (Mt 25:1-13), I would like to review what we heard last Sunday (Mt 23:1-12).
Jesus had warned his disciples and the crowd in front of him about the behavior of the Pharisees and the leaders of the people. Speaking of them, Jesus had pointed out an aspect of their life, which was marked by a certain paralysis: Those who occupy ranks or attend banquets, say and not do, not moving the burdens they place on others not even with a finger... This seems strange within the history of God's covenant where everything resembles a journey, where salvation is a journey of walking humbly with God, and where God himself walks with his people.
To understand today's parable, we will begin from this imagery of a Journey, which returns persistently in the 'Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins'. The ten virgins go out to meet the bridegroom (Mt 25:1), then, at midnight the bridegroom arrives, so the virgins are called to go and meet him (Mt 25:6), but those who have no more oil for their lamps cannot continue their journey and must turn back (Mt 25:10).
All are therefore on the way to a destination, but not all reach it: only the wise arrive at the meeting for which they set out. While the foolish, like the Pharisees and the leaders of the people in last Sunday's passage, stop at some point.
Why? What does it all mean?
The parable says the difference is the oil: at a certain point, in fact, night-time comes, and walking in the night requires the light of a lamp.
The wise virgins had a sufficient supply of oil with them, which resembles those who assume that the wait can be prolonged. The others did not store enough oil, like those who don't know that every good thing demands waiting and that every important goal demands a journey.
Actually, a law deeply rooted in human being's way of life reveals that everything needs time to mature, that nothing is given immediately, instantaneously, and that every relationship, event, and goal must be built patiently along the humble passing of the days: it takes months of gestation to be born, it takes years of study to graduate...Everything has its own path.
Even peace is a path.
That is why the wise virgins cannot give their oil to the foolish, because oil is produced over time: there is no need to seek a shortcut, but it is necessary to set out again and begin again (Mt 25:9)…
This Meditation was already published on the website of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Please click here to read the full text.