THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

A Good Life and a Peaceful Death

First Reading (Wis 6:13-17): Seek wisdom and you will find it
Second Reading (1 Thess 4:13-18): Those who believe in God will rise from the dead
Gospel (Mt 25:1-13) : Parable of the ten bridesmaids
Chinese Classics
The story of “Sleeping on firewood and tasting the bitter gall” (1)

Jesus once compared the Kingdom of Heaven to ten bridesmaids carrying lamps who went out to meet the bridegroom. Five were foolish, five were wise. Their attitudes towards life were different and resulted in different fates.

The story went like this. “When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, “Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.” Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” But the wise replied, “No! There will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.” And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, “Lord, lord, open to us.” But he replied, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.”’

When Jesus ended the story he drew this conclusion: “Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” (Mt 25:13)

We can say life is long or we may say life is short. In my limited life as a priest, I have seen many kinds of people and many kinds of death.

I have presided at the funeral of a child, attended the wake of a teenage student, and anointed a student dying of cancer. Shortly after I was ordained, within two years I administered three Sacraments to a new family: their new marriage, the Baptism of their newborn child and the funeral of the new father.

Once I attended the one-hundredth birthday of a fellow-priest. Perhaps there was too much happy excitement – a few days afterwards God called him to the next life.

In Hong Kong there were two very energetic priests, one an over- forty-year-old Maryknoll priest who died suddenly. Separately, there was a PIME priest a little over fifty who had just undergone a physical examination with excellent results. Shortly after he returned to his own country, he was out in a rural area and died suddenly.

The saddest funeral I ever had was the one in Tanzania where the only son of a widow was drowned at a beautiful beach.

When will God call us? When will the bridegroom come? We do not know. Never, never say ‘I still have a great deal of time’, or ‘I am still in my youth.’ The examples I cited above were all natural deaths. If we add to them the many accidental deaths, it would be beyond counting. We have no way of knowing when and where we will leave this world.

There was a Bishop in Taiwan who was talking on the phone when he suddenly dropped the phone and died right there. Some people go to sleep at night and never wake up the next morning.

We truly must always be alert and be prepared at all times!

In The Historical Records, there is a story about a king sleeping on firewood and tasting bitter gall. The King of Yue, Fu Cha, often slept on firewood as a constant reminder that he should avenge the loss of his country. He also hung gall beside his bed and licked it regularly to remind himself that he must wipe out the shame of his defeat. Here, our attention is not on revenge. The lesson is that some people spend a long time lying on firewood and tasting bitter gall, struggling quietly in order to remind themselves not to forget to do important things.

The story of “Sleeps on firewood and tasting the bitter gall” (1) serves as a constant warning to us. We should always be aware that life and time are not within our grasp but are in the hands of God. We can never be sure when God will come. But we can be certain of one thing and that is that God will definitely come.

I remember when I was in secondary school there was a very good tradition, ‘practicing for a good death.’ For a half-day every month we would practice, for example, meditating, go to Confession, do some good works of mercy, etc. to prepare ourselves how to face death, how to attain a ‘good death’ die peacefully and joyfully.

There was a seminarian in Taiwan who placed a skull in his room. He had studied about one of the church's saints who had done this to constantly remind himself: “Yesterday this was he, today it is I; tomorrow I will be what he is today.”

We do not know when this life of ours will end. ‘Practicing for a good death’ will help us continually to prepare to see God peacefully at any time and place.

Once the young St. Aloysius was energetically playing ball and someone asked him jokingly, “Aloysius, if you knew God would call you tonight, what would you do now?” Aloysius answered, “I would continue playing ball.”

For Aloysius, to do each assigned task as well as possible was the way one would be able to eventually see God.

If we can eat, study, play as well as possible for the sake of God would there be any time that we would not be ready to go and see God?

(1)臥薪嘗膽。