To say that God is the unexpected God can mean two
things: Either He is the God of
surprises whose ways and thoughts are far beyond human reckoning or He is the
God whose presence many of us are not eager about.
The early Christians certainly awaited the God of
surprises. They waited vigilantly for
the surprise second coming of our Lord.
Initially, they believed in the imminent Parousia—that the Lord will come again during their generation as
evidenced in today’s second reading, Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians (1 Thes
4:13-18), where Paul consoles the
community by assuring them that the beloved dead will rise again in Christ as
He comes and those who are living “will be caught up together with them in the
clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (v. 17).
In this context of their belief in the imminent coming of our Lord, to
be prepared is the order of the day. The Lord’s coming will happen just
anytime. It will be a surprise. So,
everyone’s on their toes.
The Parable of the Ten Virgins (Mt. 25: 1-13), then, is
obviously not about the moral value of virginity. Thanks be to God! Rather, the parable is all
about preparedness as the manifestation of wisdom. This is exemplified by the
five wise virgins who prepared enough oil for their lamps to last them through the
groom’s unknown but imminent arrival. Foolishness is exemplified by the other
five virgins’ lack of foresight and vigilance which caused them their eventual
exclusion from the banquet. The moral of
the parable is clear: Be wise. Be prepared for surprises! The Lord will come
but no one knows the day or the hour.
The contemporary attitude towards God, I submit, lacks
the wisdom of the urgency with which the early Christians manifested towards
the prospect of the Lord’s coming. Today, the “unexpected God” assumes the
second meaning: He is the God whose
coming to our lives is not met with eagerness. We are not expectant about God’s
coming. We are contented in maintaining
a rather lackadaisical relationship with Him, that if we ever have one. It is as if we have run out of oil for our
lamps—that inner disposition of vigilance to match the surprises of God.
Today’s difficulty is not so much the unbelief of modernity. It’s the indifference of this age. There is respect for one another’s religious
belief, only as recognition of freedom. But most people do not really care
about relationship with God much less about setting the precepts of God as the
norm for our social life. Nowhere is
this religious indifference more manifested than in the superficiality of the
concerns of the youth of today. This age
is more concerned about the externals and matters that last for a moment than
about the invitation to interiority, depth, and lasting commitment. This is because the former is fun and cool. The
latter is perceived to be weird and boring.
Today’s readings are an invitation to be wise. Amid this prevalent religious indifference and
superficiality around us, wisdom gives us the proper perspective and the
ability to discern what is essential from among our overwhelming passing
fancies. To be wise means to order our
life concerns towards its proper end—God.
To be wise is to have that interior disposition to recognize the
surprises of God whenever He comes into our lives unexpectedly.
God is the unexpected God. He is the God of surprises. The wise are always prepared whenever God
comes into their lives. Wide-eyed, they
welcome Him and his grace. The foolish,
with their indifference and superficiality, remain clueless about what they are
missing.
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