Thirty-second of of Year A
October 2011
For today and the next couple of weeks the message of the Gospel reading is a reminder of what the future holds for all of us - death, resurrection and Eternal Life with our God.
For us human beings the best possible preparation for what the future holds is a belief in Jesus of Nazareth which effects our everyday life.
Many will say; ‘Oh I do believe in God’ but it is often just a belief like saying I believe in the existence of a place called Ouagadougou, with no interest in finding out where it is or ever going there.
Faith is a belief in the existence of God which effects my everyday life.
It effects my attitude to myself and to other people.
It effects what I do and how I do it.
If this does not happen then my so called ‘faith’ is not Faith, just a simple belief with no effect whatever on how I think or how I conduct my life.
The story of the five wise and the five foolish bridesmaids illustrates this point very clearly.
Most of us are paying good money to insurance companies to cover all sorts of eventualities, many of which will never happen.
Today’s Gospel urges me to take out insurance about something which will certainly happen.
To me that sounds like good advice.