November 9, 2026
Paulist Fr. Rich Andre preached this homily for the 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year A) on November 8, 2026 at Old St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Chicago, IL. The homily is based on the day’s readings: Wisdom 6:12-16; Psalm 63; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; and Matthew 25:1-13.
Many universities have a tradition of asking a retiring professor to give a special “last lecture.” The thrust of the lecture is supposed to be, “what wisdom would you share with your students if you knew it were your last chance to speak to them?”
Our last three weekends of the liturgical year, starting today, feature Jesus’ final teachings before he heads to the Last Supper. This is the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus speaks a total of only 5 sentences after his Resurrection. It seems pretty clear that Matthew intends the three teachings we hear this month — today, next Sunday, and on Christ the King the Sunday after thsat — to serve as Jesus’ last lecture. What wisdom does Jesus want to impart to his disciples, including all of us?
Today’s portion of Jesus’ last lecture is about… wisdom. It’s the allegory of the wise and foolish maidens. Our first reading is also about wisdom. In fact, it’s from the Book of Wisdom.
As we gather, let us ask the Holy Spirit to help us befriend God’s wisdom.
Lord Jesus, you make your wisdom known to those who seek you:
Lord, have mercy.
You raise from the dead the faithful ones who believe in you: Christ, have mercy.
You satisfy the thirst of the souls who love you: Lord, have mercy.
The more we envision today’s gospel passage playing out as a real story, the more disturbing it becomes. The details do not fit the little we know about first-century wedding customs. Bridegrooms didn’t delay their arrival to the wedding banquet, especially without mentioning the bride. There weren’t any all-night convenience stores that sold lamp oil. Five of the maidens may be wise, but they are not very nice. It is understandable that they can’t share all their oil, but couldn’t each wise maiden offer to have a foolish maiden hold her lamp with her? Why don’t the ten maidens pool their money and send the two fastest maidens to run to the store to buy five flasks? The wise maidens don’t vouch for the foolish maidens when they return to the locked door. And then we’re told that Jesus says the lesson is to stay awake… even though all 10 maidens fell asleep.
The key here is to realize that, even though the Gospel of Matthew is filled with parables, this story is probably not a parable. A parable is a story with a twist that can have multiple interpretations. This story is likely an allegory, where each person and object in the story represents only one concept.
Clearly, the bridegroom is Christ, and his arrival is Parousia, or the end of time. The maidens represent all people, continuing Matthew’s ongoing theme that you can’t tell wheat from weeds, good fruits from bad fruit, or good fish from bad fish, until the end. All the maidens are dressed alike — the wise can only be distinguished from the foolish by their quantity of oil.
So what does the oil represent? Scripture scholars say that the oil is not wisdom. As is going to become even clearer over the next two weekends, those who are rewarded are those who take action. The oil most likely represents acts of love and mercy. The more acts of love and mercy we have done, the more our light will shine. As we’ll hear next weekend, the more we use our God-given talents, the more we will be rewarded. And as we’ll hear in two weeks, the people who feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned, and care for the sick will enter into the heavenly kingdom.
The maidens who have adequate oil — that is, the maidens who have completed many acts of love and mercy — are described as wise. What does that mean, to be wise? The Books of Wisdom, Proverbs, Baruch, and Sirach all have extensive passages that personify God’s wisdom as a woman. In scholarship, we often call her “Lady Wisdom” or “Sophia.” Lady Wisdom was present with God at the creation of the world, and she passed through the Red Sea with the Israelites. In each of these books, the authors urge their readers to befriend Lady Wisdom. Then, they will be blessed by her abilities and her companionship.
As Christians, we have come to understand Lady Wisdom as another personification of Christ. No, not the Holy Spirit, but Christ. This may sound odd to some of us, so let us review some Christology. Christ is the totality of the second person of God. Christ was present with the Father and the Holy Spirit at the creation of the world. Christ is the Word (Greek: logos) through whom God created the world. Jesus of Nazareth was a historical person who lived in a specific time and place. We believe that for those years, Christ was fully embodied in the person of Jesus. Therefore, Jesus was and is both true God and true human.
So, to state it once again: Christians understand Lady Wisdom as a personification of Christ, the totality of the second person of God. Anyone who is wise — be they maidens awaiting a bridegroom or ordinary people like us — anyone who is wise is someone who has befriended Christ, God’s wisdom. The proof of that friendship is the harvested wheat, the good fruit, the good fish: our good deeds and our acts of mercy.
This must have seemed to be an odd gospel to hear for those of you who are celebrating the Rites of Welcome and Acceptance with us today. We had you stand outside a closed door today and then we allowed you entry. That does not mean that we’re guaranteeing your entrance into the heavenly banquet. But it is a recognition that you have reached the point in befriending God’s wisdom that we are honored to journey with you as you prepare for the sacraments of initiation. We are thrilled that you are among us, and we are ready to support you on the way.
Maybe some of us don’t feel as if we’ve adequately befriended God’s wisdom. But it can happen in unexpected ways. I’ve been the pastor of Old St. Mary’s for 28 months, despite how unprepared I still feel for this job. Priests are trained in scripture, sacraments, church history, spirituality, and pastoral care. But being a pastor is also about finances, personnel, legal matters, and administration, four fields in which I have received no formal training. And yet, thus far, it seems as if things are going relatively smoothly. It was about a year ago that I decided that it wasn’t sheer luck. Something or someone is guiding me to ask the right questions of the right people, and to move forward on the right projects at the right time. Perhaps it’s Christ himself, in the form of Lady Wisdom, who’s been silently guiding me to take the right actions.
When Christians talk of social justice, we often cite verse 8 of chapter 6 of the prophet Micah. I think it summarizes well what it means to befriend God’s wisdom: “You have been told what is good and what the LORD requires of you: Only to do justice and love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.”