Daily Reflections ...

In today’s gospel Jesus teaches us the importance of time and how we spend it, through the parable of the Ten Bridesmaids, five wise and five foolish.

Often when we are late for appointments we are met with mercy and understanding by the person we are meeting, at the very least, our appointment is rescheduled. So why in today’s gospel does it seem like there is no place at the banquet for the five bridesmaids who took no oil for their lamps?

Today’s gospel is not telling us of a Lord who is ready to smite us the second we make a mistake. This isn’t who God is. Rather, Jesus teaches that if we spend our time on earth continually choosing other things or people over God’s ways (foolishly not taking the oil), then there are consequences.

C.S. Lewis in his book ‘The Great Divorce puts it this way:

“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find.To those who knock it is opened.”

Time is a gift from God, it allows us space to learn from our mistakes and to set our sights on the ways of God. Perhaps in today’s prayer we can ask “God, what is one good habit I can develop in my faith life, that prepares me to meet you in paradise?”

by Emma Kruse