Fr. Paul Weinberger
St. William’s Roman Catholic Parish
Greenville, Texas
11 / 6 / 2005 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Afterward the other Virgins came and said, “Lord, Lord open the door for us.” But He said in reply, “Amen I say to you, I do not know you. Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen
This scripture is always good to hear right before the homily.
STAY AWAKE!
The Readings today, next Sunday, and on the 20th are talking about the “Last Things” and winding down the calendar of the Church because on the Sunday after Thanksgiving the Church calendar begins anew with the 1st Sunday of Advent, on November 27th. The Readings are all about the end of the world and how quickly this will come upon us. Look at the 2nd Reading.
For the Lord Himself, with a word of command, with the voice of an Archangel and with the trumpet of God, will come down from Heaven and the dead in Christ will rise first.
There is not a lot of wiggle room there.
”Excuse me, can you hold that right there before I get taken up into mid air? I need to go to Confession!”
Confession is not possible at that particular time. The Gospel today is clear, very clear with the five wise virgins and the five foolish virgins. If you go to the gas station and you see someone at the next pump and they are visibly holding two or three twenty dollar bills in their hand and they notice you are filling up your tank for a trip to Dallas and they say to you,
“Would you put some of that gas in my car?”
You would be like Archie Bunker and tell them to get away from you, right. They are holding sixty dollars in their hands and yet they want you to give them gas. That scenario at the pump doesn’t work today and it didn’t work in the parable 2000 years ago. This truth is as fresh today as it was back then. Some people can look at this and say,
“Those people were so mean; they wouldn’t share some of their oil.”
To make that statement is to miss the point all together and we are praying for you. The fact is, is that the center of this Gospel is not any one of the ten virgins. The center of this Gospel is the Bridegroom and a wedding banquet that is ready. These virgins are to light the way for the Bridegroom’s triumphal entrance into his wedding feast.
The picture that you see over there is part of a very large Altarpiece; it could easily fill and overflow the back wall of this Church. The Altarpiece is in a Church in Belgium and is called “The Adoration of the Mystical Lamb.”
There is more to the painting than what is depicted here that extends above, below, and to the sides of it. The very center of this part of the Altarpiece is called the “Wedding Feast of the Lamb”. In the center of this picture is an Altar and standing on the Altar is the Lamb, and from His wounded side blood flows out into a Chalice that is never overfilled. Behind are the Angels with the implements of the Crucifixion of Our Lord. In the front are two Angels with thuribles and the smoke is rising up. That’s right, there is incense in Heaven and if you don’t like it then there is the “other place”.
In the foreground you can see a fountain with water spouting. This and the water and blood coming from the lamb on the Altar are symbols of Jesus; the Lamb of God Who as He slept the sleep of death on the cross and the soldier pierced His wounded side whereby blood and water came forth. The Blood symbolizes the Eucharist and the water, Baptism. Blood and water together symbolizes the very first moment of the Sacramental Life in the Church, which began at that point. Around the Altar of the Lamb are the guests at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. If you want to learn more about the wedding Feast of the Lamb read the Book of Revelation; it is all about the Wedding Banquet, the Wedding Feast of the Lamb has begun.
The Sacramental Life in the Church is something that has been misunderstood down through the ages; not only misunderstood but also ignored. How sad! The Lord Himself, from His wounded side established the Sacramental Life in the Church, therefore I must pay attention to the life-giving grace that comes to me through the Sacraments. I thank God that I had teachers that taught me about this from my earliest years and with all my problems and difficulties over the forty six years I have lived, I know that which has sustained me has been the Sacramental Life of the Church. It is a filter through which everything is seen and experienced; it is a way of life even greater than this. Words fail in describing the Sacramental Life in the Church.
This is a time of anniversaries and important dates. For example, November 1st, All Saints Day, would have been my mother’s only sister’s 66th birthday. My aunt Mary would have been 66 had she lived. May she rest in peace. The day before November 1st is the Eve of All Saints, All Hallows Eve. There was an Augustinian Priest of the Roman Catholic Church, who lived in Germany, and his name was Father Martin Luther and on October 31, 1517 he tacked his 95 Theses on the door of the Cathedral in Germany. One could trace the history of the Protestant revolution to that moment. Yes, people call it the Protestant Reformation but people alive at that time called it a “revolt”; a revolution against abuses in the Catholic Church. I have a news flash for you. There were abuses in the Church when Jesus was alive. How do you think he was betrayed? How do you think the Apostles disappeared when he was arrested, save St. John?
There were abuses in the Church but they are and were not due to the One Who founded the Church. The Church is imperfect in her members and perfect in her foundation. I am not perfect and you are not perfect. People stretching all the way back to Adam and Eve after the fall have not been perfect and everyone born after us will not be perfect will not be perfect. There is only one exception and she is the Blessed Mother, the Immaculate Conception. I checked before coming over today and I am not the Immaculate Conception, neither are you!
The Church understands our great needs and so the Sacraments are here to help us prepare for that omega point. If you look on the front of the Altar, to your left is the first letter of the Greek alphabet and to your right is the last letter of the Greek alphabet. Alpha looks like an “A” and Omega looks like an upside down “U”. In our alphabet it would be A to Z and in Greek it is Alpha to Omega. The omega point in our lives and in this world is what the Church is concentrating on in this reading of the Gospel today as well as the First and Second Readings. All of this is about those who are wise heeding the voice of the Church, Who is Mother and Teacher to all of us. There are those along the way, sad to say, that have misinterpreted or aired in teaching about the Sacramental Life of the Church.
With Fr. Martin Luther’s change in teachings, Sacraments began to be cut away, books of the Bible began to fall out and things began to change. This is not how it has been from the beginning. The Sacramental Life of the Church is there to strengthen us along the way to take us from our Alpha point, Baptism, all the way to the point where we die or the end of the world, which ever comes first. We have no idea of the day or the hour. If we are wise we will partake of the Sacramental Life of the Church and we will follow where our Mother and Teacher directs us so that we will be strengthened for whatever comes.
Fr. Martin Luther tacked those 95 Theses on the Cathedral door on October 31, 1517. November 9th is next week. November 8, 1519 is a very historic date. It was the day that Cortez entered into the Royal Court of the Aztec ruler, Montezuma. It is symbolic of the culture of life meeting the culture of death. Now, I am not about to say that Cortez and his four hundred odd conquistadors were altar boys. Altar boys aren’t even altar boys. We know they are up here but they are from our families and we know they are not perfect so why should we consider Cortez and his men as four hundred monks who are encroaching on the Royal Court of Montezuma in 1519? Of course not! But as a representative of the Catholic King of Spain, Cortez brought to the Royal Court, the culture of life.
Montezuma and over twenty million Aztecs had been worshipping the devil for over one hundred years.
“Father, no one mentions Aztecs anymore. Why do you bring them up?”
Look at the front section of the Dallas morning News today and you will see that someone at SMU is receiving the “something, something, Azteca award.” Of course everyone knows all about the Aztecs right? The devil worshipping part and all that stuff. Yea right! So I guess the Southern Methodist University is granting that award in that vane. I don’t think so.
When the Spaniards finally conquered Mexico, priests came and began to teach the Aztec people and introduce them to the Sacramental Life of the Church with limited success. Between 1519 and 1531, during that twelve year period about two hundred thousand were Baptized out of twenty million. But on December 12, 1531 Our Lady of Guadalupe left her miraculous image and then over then next ten years more than nine million sought Baptisms. You see, historians today have taken a second look at the Americas at the time of Fr. Martin Luther and Protestant Revolt and many consider that there were more people alive in the Americas than there were in Europe. So the Sacramental Life of the Church apparently in Europe sprang a leak and they were looking at how many left the Church but on the other side of the world less than two years later, people began coming into the Church. Between 1531 and 1541 nine million came into the Church. It is quite possible that one could easily argue that more came into the Church at this time than left the Church, regardless of those speculations.
The people of these Americas were introduced to the Sacramental Life of the Church and were called from their devil worship and given the same opportunities that those in Europe had. The Sacraments are given despite status or stature and bank accounts. You see a great liberality in dispensing the Sacraments. I have to say that the Sacramental Life here in Greenville was not as impressive the first month I was here. When I arrived in January 2004, sometimes I would be in the confessional feeling like the Maytag repairman, the loneliest guy in town. I have to add that it changed in the intervening months.
When Fr. Tom Sullivan was here from the Fathers of Mercy, he made note of that as well. He who goes around preaching in different places in our country notes that people are very reluctant to go to Confession or they are cool and indifferent to Confession. Parents, what are you saying to your children when you go to Communion week after week, but week after week your children say,
“Mom and dad, you are not going to Confession.”
What do you say?
“Sorry honey, maybe you have not noticed but we are perfect.’
That doesn’t happen does it? Children can tell you about the time you did this or that and you tell them to be quiet, get away and go do some work. If you don’t reveal your faults your children will. But, the Sacramental Life of the Church here in Greenville has increased. Last Tuesday on All Saints Day, a Holy Day of Obligation, the majority of our parishioners came to Mass. I was so impressed. Sixty-two showed up in Quinlan and I don’t even think sixty-two people live there. But here, the majority of parishioners came to Mass; not everyone but the majority.
Over the intervening months since January 2004, there have been Holy Days come and Holy Days go and people have not shown up for the Masses. I am pleased to see that the Sacramental Life of the Church is taken more seriously because the Sacraments sustain us along the way and prepare us either for our death or the Second Coming, which ever comes first. This Sacramental Life of the Church helps us and helps us to help others. For example, I am not perfect and neither are you. Our families in the past weren’t perfect either and when some of them died, they died unprepared. Perhaps there was no mortal sin but still some attachment to sin, some imperfection and some penance that had yet to be preformed. Nothing imperfect can enter the presence of God and as St. John’s Gospel, chapter nine, Jesus says,
After death the night comes and no man can work.
Well what does that mean? That is one of the basis for the Doctrine of the Church on Purgatory. After someone dies they can no longer merit or do anything. They can suffer and do their time in Purgatory in a sense; they can be perfected in purgatory by the passage of time and then are guaranteed Heaven. Our prayers, sacrifices and giving to the poor can help them on their way. Or receiving the Sacraments can be offered to help them on their way as well. When we receive Holy Communion we can offer Holy Communion for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. This is a very worthy offering indeed.
This is part of the Sacramental Life of the Church, that we help our brothers and sisters in need rather than sitting back with the attitude that they are going to make it to Heaven anyway so why bother. No, the Sacramental bid us to pray for them and sacrifice for them, giving to the poor on their behalf. This enlarges our heart and helps them. Once they arrive in Heaven they are praying at the Throne of God and praying there for those who helped them on their way. This is the Sacramental life of the Church at work and we should take the Church very seriously as She teaches us.
We have all heard today’s Gospel before, one that is so incredibly simple that no one can go before God, and with a straight face say,
“I just didn’t understand this one.”
You know there is that Gospel about the wedding feast where the King’s son is to be married so he throws a great feast and everyone is invited. Some decide they had better things to do so the King sent out his servants to bring in anyone, rich or poor. They brought them in and filled up the hall with wedding guests and the King came through and saw a fella that wasn’t in a wedding garment. The King asked him how he got in without the wedding garment and the man remained silent. The king then ordered him to be tied up and thrown outside into the darkness. Wasn’t that mean of the King? No, it wasn’t. See, we in our supreme wisdom fail to recognize that this man was even given a wedding garment to put on and all he had to do was use it but no, he couldn’t be bothered. He just showed up the way he wanted to and he spent his life outside the wedding banquet when everyone else was inside.
We can easily follow the example of the world; those in the world who have cut down Sacraments to one or two or a few. We could easily follow the example of those who are cold and indifferent to the Sacramental Life of the Church.
“Who cares about the Sacramental Life of the Church? Is the game on?”
This is cold and indifferent to the Sacraments. But the Sacraments are here to get us ready for our own passage, our own omega point but as the opening prayer said, we have work to do; we have God’s work to do in this world. Part of it involves praying for the dead gone on before us and part of it is concentrating on those around us who are alive as well as those who will come after us.
Too many people fail to read the lives of the saints. I could say that a million times and it wouldn’t be enough. The saints help us in many ways. Many people might say that the “other team’ doesn’t bother them. How many people have bought new shoes and at the end of the day they say that they didn’t realize that the shoes were pinching their feet and made a blister. Gee, all day long it was pinching their foot and they didn’t even notice it. People say that the devil isn’t bothering then now and they say he probably won’t bother them tomorrow or the day they die. You really don’t know if he isn’t bothering you but the day you die the “other team’ might take a great interest in you.
November 11th is another historic day because it is my grandmother’s birthday; she is also my Godmother. It is Armistice Day as well. Today we call it Veteran’s Day. We don’t know what veterans are.
“Aren’t those people from other countries?”
Yea, Foreign Wars or something like that. Anyway, November 11th is the Feast of St. Martin of Tours. He died in 397 and was a soldier in the Roman army. You have seen pictures and statues of St. Martin on his horse with a sword and he is taking his cape and cutting it in half with the sword so he can give half to a naked beggar on the ground to cover himself. Soon after that, St. Martin left the Roman army and entered into the Sacramental Life of the Catholic Church. He was Baptized and began to live a very different life. He is considered by the Catholic Church and along with St. Benedict, to be one of the founders of Western Monasticism in Europe so much so that the Church spread across Europe through the monasteries.
On November 11th we have the reading from eyewitnesses on the day St. Martin died. So there he is and all the monks are surrounding him and praying for him. It says,
It happened that some priests that had gathered at his bedside suggested that he should give his poor body some relief by lying on the other side. He answered, “Allow me brothers to look toward Heaven rather than at the earth so that my spirit may set on the right course when the time comes for me to go on my journey to the Lord.
In other words, he wanted to look up to Heaven so his soul would go to Heaven. How many people, when they die, their soul goes right into the television? Right?
“Oh look! It is a commercial for That 70s Show. There it goes.”
Or worse; you are looking at one of those stupid commercials and you die! Boy, I want the TV on when I die. Anyway, St. Martin is very instructive; he wanted to concentrate.
“Soul! That way!”
As he spoke these words he saw the devil standing near and he cried out to the devil, “Why do you stand there you blood thirsty brute? Murderer! You will not have me for your prey. Abraham is welcoming me into his embrace.” With these words he gave up his spirit into Heaven.
“You mean St. Martin was attacked the last moment before he died?
Yea, and how could he be so strong? He was strong due to the Sacramental Life of the Church, which prepared him every day for whatever came and for that omega point. This cannot be drilled in enough.
Our Lady of Fatima; would you trust Our Lady of Fatima? You have to ask yourselves these questions. Do you trust Our Lady of Fatima? Remember I talked about her before; she appeared to those three children in Portugal. She asked again and again for prayers for the conversion of sinners, for the Poor Souls in Purgatory, for peace in the world and to bring the wars to an end. She asked for these specific intentions and asked us to pray the Rosary every day for these intentions. Before I can over today I looked and we have peace in the world, there are no wars, everyone is in Heaven and every sinner has been converted. Isn’t that great? And you have drifted off during another one of my homilies and everyone is looking at you…[laughter]
If our Lady of Fatima and Our Lady of Lourdes, the same Blessed Virgin Mary, has asked us to pray the Rosary every day it is because she wants us all to be meditating on the Life, Death, and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. So I ask you, if you are not praying the Rosary everyday, then I guess you and your family have some other way that you meditate on the Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus together? The prayer at the end of the Rosary says,
Oh God whose only begotten Son, by his Life, Death, and Resurrection, has purchased for us the rewards of Eternal Life. Grant we beseech Thee, that while meditating on the mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we may imitate what they contain and obtain what the promise through the same Christ Our Lord.
Obtain Heaven is what we pray. We have to be focused on Heaven; the Sacramental Life of the Church, prayer focuses us everyday on heaven and if we brush Our Lady of Fatima aside as if she is not worthy of our trust and confidence, if we brush aside the Sacramental Life of the Church, that day when Our Lord comes to judge the living and the dead or the day when you go to meet your Maker will be a very difficult moment. The Church doesn’t want us to live in such a foolish manner.
How many of you would consider mortgaging everything that you have, taking it and going to Las Vegas and putting every dime on 13 red and letting the roulette wheel go? If you win, you win real big but if you lose you have lost everything.
“Well, I just didn’t know about this Kingdom of Heaven stuff! I mean…it is too complicated!”
Our Lord tells us not to be foolish. We have every opportunity of keeping our lamps lit so that when the Bridegroom comes we can welcome him. But don’t try knocking, don’t try,
“Lord, Lord! Let us in!”
When he says,
“Amen I say to you…”
That is a vow; He is vowing…
“I tell you, I do not know you. Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour. ”
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen