Scripture Study for
Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Wisdom 6:12–16 / Psalm 63:2b / 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 or 4:13–14 / Matthew 25:1–13
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Understanding the Word
By Br. John R. Barker, OFM
The figure of Woman (or Lady) Wisdom constantly seeks to instruct anyone who will listen. As “the spotless mirror of the power of God, the image of his goodness” (7:26), she is the perfect teacher. She is not aloof or inaccessible, but is available to anyone who seeks her out, watching for her, keeping vigil, as she moves through life making her presence known. But only those who work to master her teachings and conform their lives to them are “worthy of her.” Those who do so will gain prudence and wisdom and thus become “righteous.” Those who forsake her teaching, on the other hand, will be remain “foolish” and therefore “unrighteous.”
The Thessalonians were apparently concerned that those who had died before the return of Christ had perished. Paul reminds them that the resurrection of Christ was only the beginning, that all the baptized would be raised as Christ was. This is why Paul can refer to the dead as having merely “fallen asleep.” In fact, at the glorious coming of Christ, the dead, having been raised, will be the first to join Christ in his glory. Drawing on standard apocalyptic images (angels, trumpets, Christ coming on clouds), Paul paints an image of the parousia, the hinge-point between the present age and the coming age. Paul’s audience is assured that, dead or alive, those who are in Christ will be with him forever.
The parable of the ten virgins draws on the biblical wisdom motif of the distinction between the wise and the foolish. The wise are those who seek to understand the will of God and to live accordingly; they are the righteous. The foolish are not necessarily intellectually stupid, but they are “spiritually” stupid, often wicked, and certainly on the wrong path. In the parable, the foolish virgins represent those who are unprepared because they have failed to heed Jesus’ teaching. Readers sometimes fault the wise virgins for being stingy, but the point is that the wise are able to do nothing for the foolish when they wait until it is too late to order their lives properly.