12 April 2027 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” Matthew 25:13
James writes to poor Christians, many of them labourers who waited at the end of the day for wages that did not always come. He does not tell them to stop waiting; he teaches them how to wait. “Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains.” Every farmer in Kerala knows this patience. He ploughs and sows, and then he can only look at the sky and wait for the rains of June and the rains of October; no amount of worry will bring a cloud one day sooner. Yet his waiting is not idle. He mends the bunds, he weeds, he watches. That is the waiting of a Christian in the Easter season. The Lord is risen; he has ascended to the Father; he will come again in glory. Between his rising and his return we live like farmers between sowing and harvest. “You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.” James then names the sin that grows quickly among people who are tired of waiting: “Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors!” When we are anxious, we turn on each other. He points instead to the prophets and to Job, who suffered without letting go of God, and to what Job discovered at the end: “how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.” Finally, a short word about speech: “let your ‘Yes’ be yes and your ‘No’ be no.” A person who lives before the coming Lord does not need oaths to be believed; his plain word is enough.
The Gospel tells the same truth in the language of a village wedding. In the custom of the time the bridegroom came, often late at night, to bring his bride to his father's house, and young women went out with lamps to light the procession and enter the feast with him. “Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.” Notice what is not different between them. All ten were invited, all ten had lamps, all ten were waiting, and all ten fell asleep: “As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept.” The difference is the oil. “When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.” Then the cry at midnight: “Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.” The foolish ask to borrow, and they are refused, not out of meanness but because some things cannot be lent. No one can lend me his faith, his love or his years of prayer at the last minute; the oil must be my own. The ending is the most serious line of the parable: “and the door was shut.” This is not a story to frighten us but to wake us up. In the Easter season the Church hears it with new ears. The Bridegroom who was “taken away” on Good Friday (Matthew 9:15) has come back from the grave, and the wedding feast has already begun at every altar. Our lamp was lit at Baptism, from the light of the Risen Christ. The oil that keeps it burning is charity, daily prayer, the Holy Qurbana and confession. In many Kerala homes a lamp is still lit at dusk and the family gathers before it to pray; the parable asks whether the lamp of the heart is burning as faithfully as the lamp in the front room.
James and Matthew fit together. The farmer waits with patience and keeps working; the wise bridesmaids sleep, but they are ready when the cry comes. Christian waiting is neither panic nor laziness. It is the calm readiness of people who know that the One who is coming is not a stranger but the Bridegroom who loves them, the Risen Lord who has already shown them his hands and his side. “Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” That is not a threat to those who love him; it is an invitation to live every ordinary day as a day on which he might knock.
Theme: “Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”
The patience of the farmer, the lamps of the bridesmaids, and the Risen Bridegroom who is coming.
“Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!” Psalm 27:14
“You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.” James 5:8
Apply: Replace one grumble today with a prayer for the person you were about to complain about.
“I slept, but my heart was awake. Listen! my beloved is knocking.” Song of Songs 5:2
“When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.” Matthew 25:3–4
Apply: Choose one daily practice of prayer and keep it faithfully this week.
“For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.” Isaiah 62:5
“But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’” Matthew 25:6
Apply: Come to the next Qurbana as to a wedding feast, ready and glad.
We wait for the Risen Lord like farmers who keep working and like bridesmaids whose lamps are full.
He is not a stranger but the Bridegroom who loves us; every day may be the day of his knock.
Take-home resolution: This week keep your lamp burning with daily prayer, and turn every grumble into a prayer.
Dear friends, St James says: be patient until the coming of the Lord. Look at the farmer. After he sows, he waits for the early and the late rains (James 5:7). He cannot hurry the clouds, but he does not sit idle either. He watches, he weeds, he keeps the field ready.
That is how a Christian waits in the Easter season. Christ is risen; he will come again. While we wait, James warns us: do not grumble against one another. Impatient people turn on each other. Let us strengthen our hearts instead, and let our yes be yes and our no be no.
In the Gospel Jesus tells of ten bridesmaids. All ten were invited, all had lamps, and all fell asleep while the bridegroom was delayed. The difference was the oil. Five had brought it; five had not. And when the cry came at midnight, the foolish could not borrow it.
Some things cannot be borrowed. No one can lend you faith, love or a life of prayer at the last minute. That oil we gather day by day: in prayer, in the Holy Qurbana, in confession, in kindness to the poor.
The Bridegroom has already come back from the grave, and his feast has begun at our altar. Let us keep the lamp lit at our Baptism burning, so that whenever he knocks, we are ready to go in with him. Alleluia! Amen.
Children, Jesus told a story about girls with lamps waiting for a wedding. The wise ones brought extra oil. Your prayers and your kind acts are oil for the lamp in your heart!
Tonight, when the family prays, look at the lamp or candle and say: ‘Jesus, keep my heart shining for you!’
Lord Jesus Christ, Bridegroom of the Church, you rose from the dead and you will come again in glory. Give us the patience of the farmer who waits for the rain, and the readiness of the wise who kept oil in their lamps. Keep us from grumbling against one another, make our yes a true yes, and let the light lit in us at Baptism burn with love until the cry is heard at midnight and we go in with you to the wedding feast. Amen. Alleluia!