The bridegroom and the wedding attendants
Today’s Gospel reading touches on something, which we all hate to discuss and consider it a taboo – death. It is the story about the bridegroom and the ten wedding attendants.(Refer to the reading below Mathew 23:1-13)
The moral of the story is that we must be all prepared for death as it can come anytime without any warning whatsoever. If we are not prepared then the door to eternal life as we know will be closed to us.
A good friend of mine who is very well versed with the bible tells me that the end of the world is near and Jesus will return in glory soon for the final judgment. Many laugh and some even ridicule him. There even some who say he is mad.
Well I do not know whether the world will end soon and I am not so interested to know either. On thing I know for certain is that death can come to us anytime and when it comes it will be the end of the world for us. We may be alive now but dead the next minute.
When death come is not important. What is important is, as Jesus said, is to be prepared for that “ So stay awake, because you do not know either the day or the hour.”
History has shown that all great men and women have accepted death in the right spirit as they were prepared at all times by doing good. They accepted humbly their weaknesses and always tried their utmost to overcome them.
It may be timely for us today to reflect whether we are prepared to meet death if it were to come suddenly. Many of us may be prepared financially and legally to transfer our wealth and possessions but are we prepared to meet God to give an account of how we spent our life on earth? Can we justify all our thoughts and deeds during our short stint here?
Being believers of life after death, I would like to share the words of Steve Jobs the late CEO of Apple Cooperation, who died at the prime of his life at 56 after a long battle with cancer.
“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.”
We do not know for sure what is there for us after death but what we know for certain is Jesus was real and His teachings were real and as His followers we must try to live the way he wanted us to. Are we doing that?
Gospel, Mt 25:1-13
'Then the kingdom of Heaven will be like this: Ten wedding attendants took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.
Five of them were foolish and five were sensible:
The foolish ones, though they took their lamps, took no oil with them,whereas the sensible ones took flasks of oil as well as their lamps.
The bridegroom was late, and they all grew drowsy and fell asleep.
But at midnight there was a cry, "Look! The bridegroom! Go out and meet him."
Then all those wedding attendants woke up and trimmed their lamps,and the foolish ones said to the sensible ones, "Give us some of your oil: our lamps are going out."
But they replied, "There may not be enough for us and for you; you had better go to those who sell it and buy some for yourselves."
They had gone off to buy it when the bridegroom arrived. Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding hall and the door was closed.
The other attendants arrived later. "Lord, Lord," they said, "open the door for us."
But he replied, "In truth I tell you, I do not know you."
So stay awake, because you do not know either the day or the hour.
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