be prepared
Are We Ready?
32nd Sunday Ordinary Time
Fr. Joonbin Lim
Preached: November 8, 2026
When I was young, I had a cousin who was very close to me. He was only six months younger than I was, and we grew up almost like brothers. His family lived about two hours away by train, but I always enjoyed visiting him. In the summer, we swam in the river and caught fish together. In the winter, we roasted sweet potatoes and spent time together.
One summer, when I was seventeen, my cousin came to visit my family. I usually went with him to the train station when he returned home. But that day, I was tired and didn't feel like going. So I stayed home and fell asleep. The following evening, we received terrible news. My cousin had died in an accident.
It was the first time I had experienced the death of someone so close to me. For a long time, I blamed myself for not saying goodbye to him at the station. But what troubled me even more was something else. I loved him very much, but I had never told him how much he meant to me. I had never said, “You are very important to me.”
Those were simple words, but I ne ver said them because I thought I would always have another chance. I never imagined that it would be our last goodbye. We often believe that tomorrow will come and that we will have another chance to express our love. But tomorrow is not guaranteed.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us the parable of the ten virgins. All ten were waiting for the bridegroom, and all of them fell asleep. But five were wise, and five were foolish. The difference was not that some fell asleep and others stayed awake. The wise virgins had prepared enough oil for their lamps. But there is something difficult to understand.
When the foolish virgins asked for oil, the wise virgins refused to share it. Were they being selfish? Jesus is not teaching us to be selfish. Rather, he reminds us that our personal relationship with God is something no one else can live for us.
God’s grace is a gift, not something we earn. But each of us must freely respond to that gift. We can pray for others, help them, and guide them in faith. But no one can love God in our place.
Even the faith of parents cannot replace the personal faith of their children. God calls each of us personally, and each of us must respond to his call. The oil reminds us of the faith and love we are called to live each day. Even now, I sometimes clean and organize my room, not only to keep it tidy, but because I know that the tomorrow I expect may not come.
And this makes me ask myself: We prepare our rooms and our belongings, but how well do we prepare our hearts? Being ready for the Lord means responding to God’s grace today, loving others, and forgiving those we need to forgive.
Dear brothers and sisters, we do not know whether tomorrow will come. But today, we have the opportunity to love. So let us tell the people we love how much they mean to us. Let us not delay forgiveness or reconciliation.
The best time to love is today.
Be Awake, Be Alert!
19th Sunday Ordinary Time
Fr. Mark Gatto
Preached: August 7, 2022
Are we in the end times? When will be the second coming? These questions do not seem very useful to me, they do not interest me at all. The only useful question is, “am I ready to welcome God coming to me today, in this moment?” Are you ready to be a host for God?
Last Saturday night Fr. Patras, our Associate Pastor, William, our seminarian and myself hosted a couple guests for dinner. I put William in charge of preparing for this. He set up a menu, did shopping for groceries, had the table prepared for dinner. He did the cooking and we were prepared with drinks to offer when they arrived. I told him that hosting a dinner with guests is good training for a seminarian! We were all prepared when the guests arrived.
Hosting guests to your home requires some preparation, some work. You need to make sure there is food and drink in the house, you do some cooking, probably clean the house. You want to be ready for when they arrive. Imagine knowing that guests were coming to your house, but you did nothing at all. The moment they arrive at the door you are in bed, in your pyjamas. You answer the door like that. Then you go to the fridge and you do not have anything to prepare a meal and no drinks to offer. How would your guests feel?
For each one of us, the spiritual life is about being ready, being awake, preparing ourselves to welcome the Divine Creator into our lives. Listen to the words Jesus uses in this Gospel today, “Be dressed for action,” “will the master find you alert?” We are to become a host for the living God. Make a home within ourselves prepared for this guest in our life. What will God find us doing when coming to visit us?
Every day be ready to host God in your life. Pay attention, be awake. How is God coming to you in this moment, in this day, in this person? The important question is not, “are we in the end times? or when will the Lord return?” The important question is if we will be ready and paying attention when the Lord comes to us in this moment.
We have church buildings, we have sacraments, we pray, as ways to prepare our hearts to be a host for God. But, it is not that God is only found in churches, or religious events or when we are praying. God can be experienced and found in every place, in every person, in every experience. But, we need to be awake, we need to pay attention, we need to have ourselves prepared for the experience of God’s grace visiting us.
Be alert to the ways God will be visiting you. In good and bad times. In ordinary and unexpected moments. Perhaps in a piece of music that moves you, or in a movie that causes you to reflect, or in the meeting of a stranger, or in a simple meal shared at home with family
So, do not worry about the end times or when the Lord will return. Only be sure to prepare your heart and soul to be a good host for God visiting you in your life. As Jesus says, “will you be found alert?”