At 12 noon today, the Holy Father Francis appeared at the window of the study in the Vatican Apostolic Palace to recite the Angelus with the faithful and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square.
These are the words of the Pope in introducing the Marian prayer:
“Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
This Sunday’s Gospel passage ( Mt 25 : 1-13) invites us to prolong the reflection on eternal life, which began on the occasion of the Feast of All Saints and the commemoration of the faithful departed. Jesus narrates the parable of the ten virgins invited to a wedding feast, a symbol of the Kingdom of heaven.
At the time of Jesus it was customary for weddings to be celebrated at night; therefore the procession of guests had to proceed with the lamps on. Some bridesmaids are foolish: they take the lamps but do not take the oil with them; the wise ones, however, together with the lamps also take oil. The bridegroom is late, late in coming, and they all doze off. When a voice warns that the bridegroom is about to arrive, the foolish ones realize at that moment that they have no oil for their lamps; they ask the wise ones, but they answer that they cannot give it, because it would not be enough for everyone. While the foolish go to buy oil, the bridegroom arrives. The wise girls enter the banquet hall with him, and the door is closed. The others arrive too late and are rejected.
It is clear that with this parable, Jesus wants to tell us that we must be prepared for the encounter with him. Not only for the final encounter but also for the small and large daily encounters in view of that encounter, for which it is not enough. the lamp of faith, the oil of charity, and good works are also needed. The faith that truly unites us to Jesus is that as the apostle Paul says, “which becomes active through charity” ( Gal5.6). This is what the attitude of the wise girls represents. Being wise and prudent means not waiting for the last moment to correspond to God’s grace, but actively doing it right away, starting now. “I… yes, then later I will get converted…” – “Get converted today! Change your life today! ” – “Yes, yes… tomorrow”. And the same says tomorrow, and so it will never come. Today! If we want to be ready for the last encounter with the Lord, we must from now on cooperate with him and carry out good actions inspired by his love.
We know that unfortunately it happens that we forget the goal of our life, that is, the definitive appointment with God, thus losing the sense of waiting and making the present absolute. When one absolutizes the present, looks only at the present, he loses the sense of expectation, which is so beautiful, and so necessary, and also throws us out of the contradictions of the moment. This attitude – when you lose the sense of waiting – precludes any perspective on the beyond: you do everything as if you never had to leave for the other life. And then we only worry about possessing, emerging, settling down … And more and more. If we allow ourselves to be guided by what appears most attractive to us, by what I like, by the pursuit of our interests, our life becomes sterile; we do not stock any oil reserves for our lamp, and it will be extinguished before the encounter with the Lord. We must live today, but today that goes towards tomorrow, towards that encounter, today full of hope. If, on the other hand, we are vigilant and do good by corresponding to God’s grace, we can calmly await the arrival of the bridegroom. The Lord can come even while we sleep: this will not worry us, because we have the reserve of oil accumulated with the good works of every day, accumulated with that expectation of the Lord, that He will come as soon as possible and that He will come to take me with Him.
Let us invoke the intercession of Mary Most Holy, so that she may help us to live, as she did, an industrious faith: she is the luminous lamp with which we can cross the night beyond death and reach the great feast of life.
[01343-EN.02] [Original text: Italian] – Vatican New – Bulletin
