Good 32nd Sunday in Ordinary to you. Today, we are again invited to a Wedding Feast, except that we are now taking on the important task of being “bridesmaids” to welcome & accompany the bridegroom joyfully to the festivities.
As bridesmaids waiting on the True Bridegroom, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Collect at Mass today rightly asks God: “Almighty and merciful God, graciously keep from us all adversity, so that, unhindered in mind and body alike, we may pursue in freedom of heart the things that are yours …”
For most of us, there are days & nights when waiting feels almost endless. Perhaps we may be facing a ‘dark night of the soul’, struggling in great distress & adversity. We wait for news, for healing, for a breakthrough & change that never seems to come. We may even wonder whether God has forgotten us. Into that long waiting, Jesus speaks a promise: “The Bridegroom is coming.”
The heart of the Gospel is not that we must somehow earn God’s attention, but that Christ comes to meet us & bring us free from impediments of mind and body into his joy. He loves us, gave his life to save us, & lives beside us & inside us, even now. The Christian life is learning to welcome the One who has already drawn near.
In Jesus’ parable, ten bridesmaids wait throughout the night for the bridegroom. All become tired; all fall asleep. The difference is not that some never feel weary, but that some have brought oil for their lamps. When the cry comes at midnight – “Here is the bridegroom!” (Matthew 25:6), they are ready to go out & meet him. Jesus ends with the urgent invitation to stay awake, because we do not know the day or the hour.
This is not a call to live anxiously, scanning every moment for a sign of the end. It is a call to live in relationship with Christ, so that his coming is not the arrival of a stranger but the arrival of the One we love. The oil is the power & presence of the Holy Spirit we have all received at Baptism & Confirmation. The oil cannot be borrowed at the last moment: faithfulness is formed over time, through the daily turning of our hearts toward God & our receptivity to the Holy Spirit. We cannot live on someone else’s encounter with Jesus. We need to know him ourselves – in prayer, in the Gospel, in the Eucharist, & in love of the people he places before us.
Note that the parable’s urgency is held within the warmth of a wedding feast. The destination is not darkness; it is communion & joy. The bridegroom does not come to extinguish our hope, but to gather us to himself. Even when he seems delayed, he has not ceased to love us. The kerygma, the first announcement of our faith is precisely this: Jesus Christ loves us; he gave his life to save us; & he is living at our side to enlighten, strengthen, & free us.
That promise matters especially when we grieve. In our 2nd Reading, St Paul does not tell Christians not to mourn; he tells them not to grieve as people who have no hope. Our hope is not a denial of death or a claim that loss does not hurt. It rests on Christ, who has entered & defeated death, & is risen. Because the Lord is alive, death does not have the final word over those who belong to him. The same Bridegroom who calls us to the feast is our hope when the night is deepest.
The 1st Reading gives us another image for this life with God: Wisdom is radiant & unfading; she is found by those who seek her, & she comes to meet them. To seek God, then, is not to chase after someone unwilling to be found. God’s grace is already at work, drawing near & awakening desire in us. We seek because he has first come looking for us.
So today, hear the Gospel not merely as a warning, but as an invitation: The Bridegroom is coming—prepare to meet him. If your faith feels dim, bring that dimness to Jesus. If you have wandered, turn back to the One who calls you. If grief has made the night long, hold fast to the risen Lord. He is not only waiting at the end of life; he is beside you now, offering mercy & new life. Let the Response to the Responsorial Psalm be your heartfelt prayer to Jesus: “For you my soul is thirsting O God, my God.” (cf Psalm 63:2)
Our Parish will be having time of Eucharistic Adoration & Mass based on this clarion call of today’s reflection: ‘Behold the Bridegroom! Come out to meet Him!’ on Friday 20 Nov at 7.30 pm at our Main Church with our Main Celebrant & Minister Fr Lionel Thomas, Parish Priest of St Peter’s Church, Melaka.
Please click here for your invitation scroll: EUCHARISTIC ADORATION AND MASS 20 NOV 2026 — Church of the Holy Family
As we end today’s reflection, let us renew our ardent plea to the Lord for the grace to keep our lamps burning – not through fear, but through trust; not through self-reliance, but through daily welcome of Christ. The night may be long, & we may grow weary, but we do not wait alone. Jesus is Alive! Alleluia! He is coming to meet us. And his feast is open to all who receive his love and follow him.
Article by Damian Boon, HFC Blog Team Lead