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Prepared for the bridegroom

By Catherine Cavadini • 10 Nov, 2023

“Amen, I say to you, I do not know you” (Mt 25:12). These are the words of the bridegroom to the foolish virgins of Matthew 25. And they give us the key to understanding this Sunday’s readings about the kingdom of heaven. In his parable of the ten virgins, Christ tells us that the first five are wise — they are prepared with plenty of oil for their lamps. Thus, when the bridegroom arrives in the middle of the night, they are ready to go with him to the wedding feast, lighting the way in procession with their lamps. But the other five, the “foolish virgins,” were not properly prepared. They did not have enough oil for their lamps to light the way to the wedding feast. And so it was to these “foolish virgins” that Christ said, “I do not know you.” Not prepared for the bridegroom Put differently, it wasn’t that the “foolish virgins” were not prepared for a feast, but for the bridegroom, himself. They were not prepared to encounter with Christ. Indeed, he said, “I do not know you,” and neither did they know him. In one of his Sunday audiences, Pope Francis commented upon this parable in Matthew (Nov. 12, 2017). Pope Francis tells us, “The lamp is the symbol of the faith that illuminates our life, while the oil is the symbol of the charity that nourishes, that makes fruitful and credible the light of faith.” Thinking along these lines, the “wise virgins” of Christ’s parable know Christ in faith so well that their love for him makes his presence known to others — they light the way of the nuptial procession. The “foolish virgins,” however, only offer darkness. And so I would like us to consider for a moment the Christ, the bridegroom, whom we are asked to know through faith and in love. Like what you're reading? Sign up to receive our daily email! In his (voluminous) commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis reflects on Matthew 9:36, which we have already read this liturgical year. In Matthew 9:36, Christ beholds the crowds of the diseased and the sick flocking to him in faith. Matthew describes Christ’s reaction, “seeing the crowds, [Jesus] had compassion on them.” But Leiva-Merikakis says the attention to the language of the original text tells us more than this. According to Leiva-Merikakis, Matthew 9:36 reads “and [Jesus’] insides were moved with pity for them.” Thus, Christ is the “compassionate one”; he is affected by our suffering elementally. There is “no possibility here,” writes Leiva-Merikakis, “of a distanced display of ‘charity’ … Jesus looks at the crowds, then, and is viscerally moved. What power in the gaze of a Savior who pauses in the midst of his activity in order to take into himself the full, wounded reality about him!” (“Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word: Meditations on the Gospel According to St. Matthew, Volume 1”, Ignatius Press, $34.95). Known by our faith This, then, is the bridegroom of Matthew 25:1-13, for whom the virgins wait. Known by our faith, our bridegroom is “the compassionate one,” who loves us most viscerally, more deeply than we can even know or feel in this present life. In his own gaze, fueled as it is by charity itself, Christ sees and knows us; he takes us into himself. Thus, the “wise virgins,” going in procession to the wedding feast, are going with the bridegroom to the kingdom of heaven. For what is heaven, if not union with God — with, that is love itself, in love? Christ’s presence with, and even in us, by our mutual love, is heaven. So let us build a store of charity’s oil, and “stay awake,” waiting in faith for Christ’s encounter. Then, “As with the riches of a [the wedding feast] shall [our souls] be satisfied” (Ps 63:5). November 12 – 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Wis 6:12-16 Ps 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8 1 Thes 4:13-18 Mt 25:1-13 This article comes to you from Our Sunday Visitor courtesy of your parish or diocese.

November 10, 2023

10 Nov, 2023

Lk 16:1-8 Jesus is less focused on the steward’s dishonesty that he is on the man’s clever pursuit of security in his future. It is this point that Jesus uses to teach the “children of the light” about making focus on the kingdom the priority in their life plan. For us “life plan” is primarily about financial and material security. Help us to make our eternal life our constant focus. St. Leo, pray for us. This content comes to you from Our Sunday Visitor courtesy of your parish or diocese.

The heart of the relations

10 Nov, 2023

“[Jesus] is at the heart of the relations among the disciples and sets himself as the fulcrum of each one’s life. Thus, receiving ‘Jesus’ yoke,’ each disciple enters into communion with him and participates in the mystery of his Cross and in his destiny of salvation.” — Pope Francis Reflection : What word best describes your personal relationship with Jesus: close, distant, friendly, or nonexistent? Would you use this same word to describe your relationship with other Christians or the Catholic Church? Why or why not? This content comes to you from Our Sunday Visitor courtesy of your parish or diocese.

How to become a mystic amid the popular media culture

By Sister Nancy Usselmann • 08 Nov, 2023

(OSV News) Integrating our faith with our media use is a real challenge, particularly as adverse media messages often run so contrary to our values. How can we bring faith into our digital media dialogue without losing who we are as Christians? How can we become holy within a culture that often tempts us toward the opposite? I believe we are each called to be mystics in the time and circumstance God has placed us which, today, means within a media culture. The popular cultural understanding of mysticism frequently centers on self-centered new age practices, but true mysticism is a transformative encounter with God in Christ. It changes how we see ourselves and the world, enabling us to see God at work everywhere, especially in the existential hungers of humanity. We don’t have to look far to notice (in movies, television, video games and social media ) the common human desires for communion, connection, meaning and hope. Social media is populated with people seeking to connect and create relationships. How can mystics look at the yearnings of humanity and see the cultural longing for God? Taking a sacred look Developing a sacred outlook means we go beyond the shallow experiences of media culture and look to the needs of humanity. It takes a prayerful vision to reflect on the yearnings for truth and human dignity that accompany the social struggle against sin. Greed in Netflix’s “Painkiller” fuels the origins and development of the opioid crisis; lust — and lust for power — perpetuates child trafficking in Angel Studio’s “Sound of Freedom.” Yet humanity longs for redemption, and when cultural stories show that redemption is possible, then we can enter the mystery of human questioning that seeks a Savior and propose Christ as the answer. Taking a sacred look means engaging prayerfully with what we are consuming, as I did with “The Shawshank Redemption.” Despite the rough prison setting, the story connected me with the human need for hope in God, and it affected my whole approach to evangelization , focusing it on bringing more hope into the world. Cultural mysticism develops our sacred seeing through the spiritual exercise of finding God’s presence in the artistic questioning that ferments in popular culture. What does this look like? The more attuned to God we become as we prayerfully engage media culture, the more we develop a sacramental vision — the ability to see God in all things. Just as through the sacraments of the Church, the symbols we encounter in popular media provide meaning and can convey transcendent truths. The symbol of water in “The Shawshank Redemption,” after Andy breaks from prison, crawls through sewage, and out into the rain, represents cleansing from his past to find new life, new freedom. Many stories reveal grace in the world if we are open to seeing it. In the Apple+ series “ Ted Lasso ,” the handmade “believe” sign Coach Lasso tapes above in the locker room for his AFC Richmond soccer players, is meant to motivate them to win games, but more importantly to believe in themselves and in each other. Belief in something that we cannot see betrays our true yearnings for God. By finding the presence of grace in these stories, we transform how we look at the world and the culture. We develop the spiritual sense to see beyond the material to the supernatural realities. Cultural Mystics Most superheroes believe the fight between good and evil depends solely on them. Diana Prince in “Wonder Woman” realizes that the struggle to choose the good is in every human person. She alludes to the core of Christian mysticism when she declares, “only love will truly save the world” — Christ’s self-sacrificing love. We are called to a transformative encounter with Christ so that we can discover grace at work even in the most secular-seeming stories in media. With a sacred look, we discover humanity’s common search for answers. Through our profound union with Christ, we see — as he does — that the desire for hope and meaning ultimately leads to God. When we respond with love and mercy, we become cultural mystics. This article comes to you from Our Sunday Visitor courtesy of your parish or diocese.