32ND SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME HOMILY YEAR A 2026
FAITHFUL AND WICKED, WISE AND FOOLISH ALIKE – BE PREPARED! LOOK OUT!!
Mt 25.1-13 Wis 6.12-16 1Thess 4.13-28
Who said “A week is a long time in politics”? Apparently, it was British PM, good old Harold Wilson (PM 1964-1970, 1974-1976), around 1964. I think that could be said this week, given the events that have shaken things up around the world, not just in one place. Harold MacMillan (1957-1963), when asked what the most troubling problem of his Prime Ministership is said to have replied “Events, dear boy, events!” Well, we’ve seen a few events changing things this past week, which affect all of us in some way or other, however distant we might be.
I don’t know about you, but I certainly felt a great sense of relief, when the tide turned in a big way, where finally there was a swing towards acknowledging that there should be more concern for truth, respect and decency in public discourse, for one thing, and that big money should not be the determining factor in who has power, and that service of the whole community should be a fundamental principle for elected representatives. Surely these are Gospel principles?
Now, today’s Gospel takes a leap after Jesus has outsmarted the scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees, then proclaiming the law of love as the greatest. In the meantime, he directly warns them, with his woes upon them, for their hypocrisy, for making life more difficult for ordinary people, placing burdens on them rather than assisting them in their needs. He then warns against false prophets and speaks of future times of trials, tribulations and end times.
Meanwhile, his message is to persevere as faithful disciples, despite the difficulties along the way, and not to just hide in fear, awaiting the end, which they thought would come sooner than later, back there in the early church. There’s nothing to be achieved hiding in fear and holding our breaths now either!
Then he tells a double parable, the second half of which we hear today, following the one about the faithful, servant, conscientiously going about his duties, contrasted with the unreliable and irresponsible servant ignoring his responsibilities, and just having a good (or bad, in one sense!) time, while the master is away. Likewise, the wise bridesmaids, who plan ahead by bringing additional oil for their lamps, are compared with the silly ones, who don’t think beyond the present and the party. It was some bridal party, with 10 of them lining up, but where’s the bride? Once again, the primary point to be made is about personal responsibility, looking to the future, and not just living for the day and the good times. It’s really a reminder to you and me to be prepared, and to think ahead, even though we can’t determine what is going to happen. At the same time, we can make a difference.
As the JBC (Jerome Biblical Commentary) suggests: “The oil stands for good works… The foolish ones lack good sufficient works… The refusal by the wise does not constitute lack of charity or helpfulness. Their good works are not completely transferable.” Brendan Byrne SJ says: “The oil represent the kind of good deeds that Jesus commends – ‘justice , mercy and faith (Mt 23.23).”
The world has become a darker place over the last 10 years, with expanding wars, resulting in increased human suffering, particularly for innocent civilians caught up in the middle of it all, but also the combatants, or ‘cannon fodder’, while powerplays from above try to determine future directions, without respect for the ordinary people, especially those doing it hard.
Just a few weekends ago, we had the Gospel summing up the law of love of God and neighbour, at the heart of Jesus’ teaching, along with the Beatitudes we heard again last week, for All Saints and Souls, in the context of the Gospel.
James Talarico in Texas, as a newly elected senator, in an extraordinary victory speech, had this to say, and I believe it’s worth quoting here, in precis form. It’s more a homily than anything else!
“We just showed that a politics of division is no match for a politics of love. My granddad was a Baptist preacher in South Texas, and when I was little, he told me that we follow a barefoot rabbi who gave us two commandments, love God and love neighbor, because there is no love of God without love of neighbor…
Every single person bears the image of the sacred. Every single person is holy, not just my neighbor who looks like me, not just my neighbor who prays like me, not just my neighbor who votes like me. I am called to love all of my neighbors the way I love myself.
The real fight… is not left versus right. It is top versus bottom… The people at the top divide us by party, by race, by gender, by religion, by culture, so we don’t notice that they are picking our pockets. It is the oldest strategy in the world, divide and conquer…
It tears families apart. It ends friendships and it leaves us all feeling terrible all the time. People across the political spectrum are hungry for a different kind of politics. Not a politics of hate, not a politics of fear, not a politics of division, but a politics of love.
My faith teaches me that love is the strongest force in the universe. Love is not passive. Love is not neutral. Love is not weak. Love requires that we stand between the bullies and the bullied. Love requires that we look evil in the eye and not blink. That kind of love has always been a threat to the powers that be. That kind of love is revolutionary. That kind of love is creative… What hate can’t do, love can…
Before the world changes in ways you see on TV or read about in newspapers, the world changes person to person, neighbor to neighbor. In each moment when you choose to be kind, in each neighbor we choose to love, in each prayer that we save for someone who would not pray for us in return… We must bridge the divides between us and repair the ties that bind us.
2,000 years ago when the people at the top hurt his neighbors, that barefoot rabbi didn’t stay in his room and pray. He walked into the seat of power and he flipped over the tables of injustice.”
And, again, Brendan Byrne SJ reminds us: “The parable and the Gospel as a while, remind us that the words of dismissal at the Eucharist, ‘Go in peace to love and serve the Lord’, are no perfunctory conclusion to the rite, but a programme for living the twin commandment of love of God and love of neighbour (Mt 22.37-40).”
So, look out, scribes and Pharisees and all leaders, religious and otherwise!
john hannon 8th November 2026