Reflection on Today's Readings, Friday of 21st Week in Ordinary Time, Year 1, and the Memorial of St. Monica, August 27th, 2021
Texts: 1Thess. 4:1-8; Ps. 97:1.2b.5-6.10- 12; Mtt. 25:1-13
St. Paul, in today's first reading, says, "Brethren, we beg and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you learned from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, you do so more and more." Just as the people learned from Paul how to please God so also we learned from the Church how to please God. St. Paul reminds us that God sanctifies us when we do His will and that the will of God is that we avoid immorality, embrace self-control in holiness, kill the passion of lust and be careful not to sin and wrong one another. We are to know that God called us to be holy and the way to achieve the holiness is to be faithful and obedient to the instructions of the Church.
In today's gospel reading, Jesus teaches us to be ever ready and prepared to go extra length. We should prepare to go extra length with God and with man. In faithfulness, in love, in patience, in all virtues and good things, we should be ready and prepared to go extra length with God and with man. We should be ready and prepared to go above what is obtainable by human power and conventional. The energy of the five Virgins were not depleted and their enthusiasm was sustained because they earlier prepared to go extra length. They were not weighed down by the delay because they prepared for it beforehand. It is the will of God that we prepare to go extra length in all circumstances because it affirms the presence of His grace in our lives. Whenever we decide to stay within the limits of our human power we undermine the power of God's grace in us. Let us shows the grace of God in us by being prepared to go extra length in doing good and in virtues.
The oil in the parable could be seen in the light of energy. The five wise virgins prepare for extra hours; they were not depleted in energy when there was delay. Their enthusiasm and eagerness to meet the bridegroom were still intact and ever sustained because they had extra energy.
The extra oil could also be seen in the light of grace; they did not count on human effort but God's grace for success. They knew beforehand that the success of the mission dependent on God's grace. It is by the grace of God that we go beyond what is humanly possible and attainable. When we count on God's grace we will have the perseverance to continue in good deeds till the end. We cannot practice good without the grace of God. We may be able to do good without God's grace but the practice of good is impossible without the grace of God. To practice good is to persist in good act till the end. Hence, it is by God's grace that we fulfil the exhortation of St. Paul in today's first reading: "we beg and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you learned from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, you do so more and more."
Saint Monica, whose memorial is today, was the mother of St. Augustine. She prayed for the conversion of St. Augustine for so many years before God answered her prayer. She was a woman who prepared to go extra length with God. Her detachment from material things was remarkable. St. Augustine recalled her saying to him thus: “For my part, my son, I no longer find pleasure in anything that this life holds. What I am doing here still, or why I am still here, I do not know, for worldly hope has withered away for me. One thing only there was for which I desired to linger in this life: to see you a Catholic Christian before I died. And my God has granted this to me more lavishly than I could have hoped, letting me see even you spurning earthly happiness to be his servant. What am I still doing here?” In her life, we learn to detach ourselves from material things so as to give ourselves wholeheartedly to God. She is also a source of hope and encouragement to those whose children are wayward.
Lord our God, strengthen our hearts and resolve to go extra length for you, in doing good and in virtues. Amen.
Fr. Andrew Olowomuke
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