Friday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time
All three of my daughters have said words this week that I imagine are familiar to many of us: "No fair!" Sometimes their sense of fairness was offended because they thought another person got a bigger treat. But sometimes their sense of fairness was offended because another person was more talented than they were. My oldest daughter excels at reading; my middle daughter is a terrific dancer; my youngest daughter is proud of helping set the table.
As adults, we also find ourselves thinking things aren't fair - or maybe comparing ourselves to others. I especially compare myself to other people I think are holier, or are doing things I wish I could do, too: drop everything and go on a mission trip, or build an urban farm, or spend every waking moment running a Catholic Worker house like Dorothy Day.
Today's readings help us think about fairness and comparisons about holiness. Today's gospel reading (Matthew 25:1-13) is a story about ten bridesmaids, five who were wise and had extra oil for their lamps, and five who were foolish and had no extra oil. Bridesmaids were really important people in middle eastern marriage rituals. They were the ones who lit the path of the bridegroom as he went to the house of his bride. They were the ones who shone light on the bridegroom and the path he walked. I think Jesus asks us to be bridesmaids for the Kingdom of God. We are meant to shine the light of Jesus, and we are meant to prepare the way of the Lord.
We might be disturbed by these foolish bridesmaids, and especially by the fact that the bridegroom says he does not know them. Yet think a bit more about what this oil might represent in our own lives. When we share the light of Christ with others, it is light we share in our own unique way, with our own actions. While I can pray FOR other people, I do not replace their own prayers. I cannot do a Bible study on my daughter's behalf. Other peoples' good deeds do not cover up less good things I might do.
In other words, I am a unique person, with a unique contribution to make. Just because there are other bridesmaids who also carry the light - other disciples who share my love of Jesus - they cannot take my own place in God's Kingdom.
My own place - at least for right now - involves parenting young children and teaching theology to college students. It involves marriage and Catechesis of the Good Shepherd and donating gifts of food and time on occasion to soup kitchens. But I am not Dorothy Day. She's important, of course - and I can and should learn from her - but her way of showing the way of the Lord isn't the one God has in mind for me.
The second reading (1 Thessalonians 4:1-8) gives us some general indications of what our light might look like. But notice - Paul doesn't get very specific. There are lots of ways to live lives of holiness, lots of ways to conduct ourselves to please God. It makes me grateful for the vast variety of saints and witnesses who have gone before us.
Today, let us reflect on the way God calls each one of us to carry our light our own unique way! And let us give thanks for all the people that surround us with their own lights!
- Jana M. Bennett