Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara
Homily for the Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN
Sunday, November 8, 2026
In the Introduction to Scripture class, I learned that the Bible is the Word of God expressed in human words. I also learned that the Catholic Church regards the Bible as the inspired, inerrant (incapable of being wrong) Word of God, written by human authors under the inspiration, guidance, and superintendence of the Holy Spirit. What makes the Bible—called “ta biblia” in Greek, meaning “the book”—unique is that it tells the story of God’s profound longing and thirst for us, the human race. As I said in a previous homily, the Bible is not the story of our quest for God; rather, it is the story of God’s relentless quest for us. Visit the spirituality section of any bookstore, and you’ll find plenty of books about humanity’s quest for God. But the Bible tells a different story; it is not that kind of book. Its central principle is the primacy of grace. In the spiritual order, God always takes the initiative and sets the tone. God is always the Master of the conversation. God created us in love and sustains us in love. When we lost our way, God found us. That is why the Bible is often called the Good News. The true God of the Bible is neither a distant spiritual force or principle that we must struggle to find, locate, and relate to, nor a demanding moral taskmaster whom we can reach only through heroic effort. God found us first and continues to seek us out.
How does my preamble connect with this week’s Gospel passage? Today’s Gospel, Matthew 25:1-13, contains two of the saddest lines and one of the hardest truths in the entire Bible. The first is: “Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.” Can we still call the Bible the Good News? Yes! Is God still searching for us? Yes! However, the Bible’s news is good only for those who accept it. God is indeed a relentless lover and tireless seeker, indefatigable in his quest for humanity. But salvation can happen only when God’s relentless quest for us meets our longing for him. No marriage between God and us can happen until we accept God’s proposal. The phrase, “I do not know you,” does not mean that the Almighty, omniscient God has suffered memory loss or developed dementia or Alzheimer’s. Rather, it means: “I have looked at you but cannot find my life in you.” At baptism, we receive divine life—God’s own life within us. What adversely affects the divine life in us? Sin! According to Saint Pope John Paul II, mortal sin destroys sanctifying grace and wipes out the divine life within the human soul. On the Solemnity of All Saints, I said in my homily, “The moment each of us was baptized, our names were written in God’s book of life. The goal of the spiritual life is to retain our names in that book. Sadly, some scratch out their names from the book of life because of what Saint Pope John Paul II called “the loss of sanctifying grace.”
The second saddest line in our Gospel is, “Then the door was locked.” That door is death, which closes off any further chances. If you are unprepared for other things in life, you might get a second chance. But no one gets a second chance after death. If you die inside the wedding feast of the Lamb, you are inside it forever; if you die outside it, you are outside it forever. Whatever needs attention in your life, be it spiritual or social, do it now. Don’t wait until tomorrow. In a commencement address at the University of Pennsylvania, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies, Siddartha Mukherjee, shared a touching lesson from his experience treating terminally ill patients. He explained that, in their final moments, almost everyone seeks to make four specific offerings: “I want to tell you that I love you;” “I want to tell you that I forgive you;” “Would you tell me that you love me?” “Would you give me your forgiveness?” After sharing these insights, he urged the young graduates not to wait until they are facing death to express appreciation, let go of grudges, or show vulnerability, but to make these practices of love and forgiveness part of their daily lives now.
And here is one of the hardest truths in the Bible: the divine life, once cultivated, cannot simply be shared with someone else at the last minute. The wise virgins are not being difficult, self-absorbed, selfish, or stingy when they tell their friends they cannot help. A saint cannot simply pour his life into another; it does not work that way. Some things cannot be borrowed. We can borrow material things from friends, but we cannot borrow a relationship with God. No man or woman can borrow good character; each must cultivate it and wear it like clothing. We can borrow clothes from a friend, but we must clothe ourselves in God's righteousness. We can borrow a car from a friend, but we need to ride with Jesus in his boat to heaven. We can borrow water from a neighbor, but we need to possess the Water of Life. We can borrow salt from a neighbor, but we must be the salt of the earth. We may borrow a pair of shoes, but we must walk in the footsteps of Jesus to be admitted to the Lord’s banquet.
Like the ten virgins in the parable, we await the arrival of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Groom. Perhaps Jesus told this parable because he knew his Church would have to wait a long time for his Second Coming. What should we do while we wait? Attend Mass regularly. Pray always. Spend time with the Lord. Grow in faith and become mature Christians. Educate yourself in the faith. Work hard to overcome habitual sins. Confess your sins regularly through the sacrament of confession. Forgive those who have offended you. Complain less and be more grateful. Cultivate patience—with God and with others. Participate in the Eucharist. Perform the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Become a person of love—a cross-shaped love, vertical and horizontal: love of God and neighbor. I tell you, if we neglect and ignore these things, we will be like the foolish virgins.
God bless you!
