JUST IN CASE

1 thessalonians 4:1-8; Ps 97 Rejoice in the Lord, you just; Matt 25:1-13

Today we celebrate the memorial of St Augustine, doctor of the church.

We hear the exhortation of St Paul in today's first reading, "This is the will of God, you holiness..."

What does it look like to be holy?

In the gospel we have the parable of the ten virgins awaiting the return of the bridegroom.  Five brought extra oil just in case and the other five did not.  Five were foolish and were left out of the banquet standing in the dark with no party to be had while the other five danced the night away.


First the gospel.  God arrives in unexpected moments and in unexpected times and ways.  Just when we think no one was watching, here he comes.  Just when think we its too late here he arrives.

As christians we need the mentality of Just in case.  That is we should be prepared and always attentive to our surroundings and to the people we meet along the way.  Just in case God makes an appearance or showing.  We need to be ready for the unexpected.  Be prepared and alert.

This isn't so much about external preparations as it is about internal preparations.  We need to be always anticipating the arrival of God who comes as guest.  We need to be inwardly prepared.

St Paul invites us to be holy this is exactly what he is saying.  Holiness is the obedience that puts us at God's disposal whenever he calls.

Holiness is about being the best version of ourselves as we were created to be not as secular society would invite us to be.

We can't understand holiness by watching TV sitcoms or looking toward hollywood.  We can only be truly our best version by going to the source of life itself.  We look to the bible and the teachings of the Church.  They remain very relevant if we are going to be th best version of ourselves daily that is holiness.

Here are a few words form St Augustine, doctor of the church.

"God loves each of us as if there were only one of us."

"Since we can not do good to all, all at once; then we need to pay attention to the the one that represents the all that is nearest us at any given moment."

If we love one then we love all.  If we neglect one then we neglect all. At least this is my take on these words.

"Pride changed angels into devils; humility makes men as angels."

"Since love grows with in you, so beauty grows.  For love is the beauty of the soul."

"There is not one who does not love something, but the question is, what to love.  We must choose the object of our love.  But how can we choose unless we are first chosen?  We cannot love unless someone has loved us first.  We love Him, because he has first loved us.  The source of Man's love for God can only be found in the fact that God loved him first."