1 Thess 4:1-8 / Matthew 25:1-13
Paul reminds his readers that we sometimes get so caught up with life that we forget the main reason why God put us here.
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Where does personal holiness stand on our list of priorities? "Be holy for I, the LORD, your God, am holy." Leviticus 19:2
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In the first reading, Paul admonishes the Thessalonians to journey to God in right moral living. In this passage, he stresses purity, as impurity was typically a pagan vice. Christianity is not in the first place a morality, but moral living in accordance with the Gospel. This is expected because we participate in the death to sin and resurrection to life of Christ. In this, we are ready for the kingdom.
The key point of the parable of the wise and the foolish virgins in today’s Gospel is not so much vigilance as foresight, but readiness for the kingdom, and only then, consequently, vigilance.
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Opening Prayer
Lord our God, source of all wisdom, you invite us to be wise and to encounter your Son with burning lamps in our hands. Help us to be prepared to meet him in the events of daily life and in people around us, that we may enter with him into your feast that lasts forever. Amen
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Saint Augustine
In his famous autobiography Confessions, Augustine tells of his struggle to find God. He was born in what is now Algiers in North Africa. His mother, Monica, was a devout Christian. His father, Patricius, was an ill-tempered pagan. Augustine excelled in school when he wanted to, but he also went with a bad crowd and got into many worthless activities. When he was older, he began living with a woman whom he never married, but who bore him a son. For a while, he also followed a heresy called Manichaeism.
After he finished school, Augustine was first a speech teacher in Rome and then a professor in Milan. His mother followed him to these places, pleading with him to return to the Christian faith. In Milan, Augustine often listened to the sermons of St. Ambrose, the local bishop. Through them, he first learned to read Scripture prayerfully. He enrolled as a catechumen but wavered back and forth about being baptized.
Then one day while Augustine prayed to be free from his sins, he heard a child’s voice chanting, “Take up and read.” Augustine opened the Bible and read the first thing his eyes fell upon, Romans 13:13-14, which told him to give up his life of sin. Augustine was baptized at Easter and began reforming his life. With his mother he planned to return to Africa, but Monica died.
Augustine reached home and gave away all he had. Then he lived a quiet, prayerful life with a group of friends. This changed when Augustine visited the city of Hippo in 391. Valerius, the local bishop, was preaching on the shortage of priests. The crowd began shouting, “Let Augustine be our priest.” Augustine became a priest and then took Valerius’ place when he died.
As bishop, Augustine worked tirelessly for his people. He fought false religious teachings, protected the people from corrupt officials and invaders, and cared for the sick, the poor, and those in prison. His many sermons, letters, and books reflect the ever-deepening love he felt for God. He wisely observed: “You have made us, O God, for yourself, and our hearts shall find no rest until they rest in you.”
He wrote and advised bishops, popes, and councils. His influence on the Church and his fight against heresy were exceptional. He was loved by many, for he had struggled much and could help others who were struggling.
In 430 Vandals invaded the province. For three months Augustine inspired Christian hope in his people. Then he died of a high fever.
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Augustine's Prayer of Conversion:
Late have I loved you, O Beauty, ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me but I was outside, and there I sought for you, and deformed I ran after those things that you have made. You were with me, and I was not with you, Lord. Those things held me back from you, things whose only being was to be with you. You called, and cried out to me and broke through my deafness; You shone forth upon me and chased away my blindness.
“You became fragrant, and I inhaled and sighed for you. I tasted you, and now I hunger and thirst for you; you touched me, and now I burn for your embrace.
