Jesus told his disciples this parable:

“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.

Chapter VII of Vatican II’s Lumen gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, has the title “The Eschatological Nature of the Pilgrim Church and Its Union with the Church in Heaven.” It begins:

“The Church, to which we are all called in Christ Jesus, and in which we acquire sanctity through the grace of God, will attain its full perfection only in the glory of heaven, when there will come the time of the restoration of all things. At that time, the human race [and the rest of the] world, which is intimately related to man and attains to its end through him, will be perfectly reestablished in Christ.”

Like St. Ignatius, each of us is a pilgrim, and together we are the Pilgrim Church. As pilgrims, we do not just aimlessly roam about, not knowing where we are going. Our destination is “the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come,” in the words of the Nicene Creed.

We travel through this world and our moment in human history as members of the Church which is “the sacrament of salvation” for the whole human family. And, like the wise bridesmaids of today’s Gospel reading, we prepare for the heavenly wedding feast we will all share with the Lord Jesus, the Bridegroom of the Church.

—Fr. Bob Hagan, SJ, is a member of a community of senior Jesuits at Saint Ignatius Hall in Florissant, Missouri. He does limited spiritual direction, mostly online; gives sacramental care to the lay Catholics in the adjacent retirement community; writes occasional reflections for Jesuit Prayer; posts various daily items and a longer weekly reflection on the Sunday Mass readings on his Facebook site at Bob Hagan SJ; and drives fellow Jesuits who no longer drive wherever they want to go.

Enlighten your Church, O God, and brighten our hearts with faith and hope in the promise of your kingdom. May we hasten with lamps undimmed to greet our Bridegroom’s return and enter his wedding feast. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.

—Based on the ICEL Collect for the 32^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)