Feast of Saint Augustine
Scripture:
1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
Matthew 25:1-13
Reflection:
Are you a foolish virgin or a wise virgin?! Today we hear the well-known scripture from Matthew about the wise and the foolish virgins. The five wise virgins took time to prepare for the bridegrooms coming by having their oil lamps ready as opposed to the five foolish virgins who were left out in the dark because they had not planned well. At first glance we could say this would have been a perfect opportunity for the wise virgins to share their oil with those who did not have any! BUT would that have taught the foolish ones to be any better prepared for the next time!? Maybe some would have become better planners or maybe not!
It seems to be that so much of our lives have to do with timing along with faith! Faith helps us to ‘stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour.’ In the absence of faith our sense of timing always seems to be off, we are always running out of oil! We seem to be totally overwhelmed by the fact that things are just not working out right. We become easily perplexed and frustrated. When we put our faith and trust in God’s timeline, Gods’ plan for us, and we remember God is in charge of our live and we are not, then things seem to fall into place so much easier.
Yesterday we celebrated the feast of St. Monica and today we celebrate the feast of her son, St Augustine. We know Monica kept her lamps full and relied on God to hear her lifelong prayers for her son’s conversion. Again, this conversion all happened in God’s time. St. Augustine led a licentious life and moved restlessly for a long time until his conversion. His famous quote, ‘ my heart is restless until it rests in you, my God’ reminds us to place our faith and trust in our God who knows us better than we know ourselves.
May we place our focus on becoming wise virgins whose lamps are always oiled and ready to lead us along the path that God has set before us.
Theresa Secord is a Pastoral Associate at St. Agnes Parish, Louisville, Kentucky.
