5th Week After Holy Cross

Philippians 2:12-18
So then, my beloved, obedient as you have always been, not only when I am present but all the more now when I am absent, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work. Do everything without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine like lights in the world, as you hold on to the word of life, so that my boast for the day of Christ may be that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. But, even if I am poured out as a libation upon the sacrificial service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with all of you. In the same way you also should rejoice and share your joy with me.

Matthew 25:1-13
“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones, when taking their lamps, brought no oil with them, but the wise brought flasks of oil with their lamps. Since the bridegroom was long delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight, there was a cry, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise ones replied, ‘No, for there may not be enough for us and you. Go instead to the merchants and buy some for yourselves.’ While they went off to buy it, the bridegroom came and those who were ready went into the wedding feast with him. Then the door was locked. Afterwards the other virgins came and said, ‘Lord, Lord, open the door for us!’ But he said in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

O Lord,
as your rested on your cross you cried out:
“Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
We, therefore, commend our spirits into your hands, O Lord,
tonight and all the days of our lives,
but especially at the hour of our death,
represented now by our sleep.
To you we abandon our bodies, thoughts, feelings and all the we are.
Keep us without stain
that our sleep may glorify you.
At the end of our days,
may a peaceful sleep carry us to you,
who neither slumbers nor sleeps.
To you be glory, for ever. Amen.

Meditation on the Sunday of the Fifth Week after the Holy Cross:
The veil of ignorance that hovered over humanity due to sin is lifted by Jesus Christ and his Holy Cross. If the oldest understanding of sin in Holy Scripture is “missing the mark”, then human sinfullness can be understood as “missing the mark” in knowing, loving, and following God, to the extent that a veil covered our ancestors before the Incarnation of the Lord made Flesh, and this veil created an environment of being truly lost in following our calling to be sons and daughters of a loving Father.
From the Holy Cross Jesus utters, “it is finished” meaning that “now” the will of Divine Providence in creating us in His “Image and Likeness” can be completed. Jesus the God-Man reveals to us what it means to be not only the God of Love but also to be Fully Human. Being made in the image and likeness of God, being called to be God’s sons and daughters means that we are called to the same selfless love that Jesus poured out upon us by his death on the Holy Cross; and he never leaves us alone in the task, in this calling, but the Holy Spirit is given to us so that in taking up our own Crosses and uniting them to the Lord’s Cross we can be transformed, reach full stature as the children of God, as members of his Holy Church. – Rev. David A. Fisher