Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 08 November 2026
Wisdom 6:12-16  ><}}}}*>  1Thessalonians 4:13-18  ><}}}}*>  Matthew 25:1-13

As we enter into the penultimate month of 2026, notice how we show our complete folly in our Christian faith. Every year in November during Undas while we troop to cemeteries and churches to pray for our departed loved ones, there are still many who parade their children as vampires in complete ignorance of the true meaning of Halloween that is literally “hallowed evenin'” or holy evening. When what is truly wise is to dress their children as little saints, some parents imitate the benighted souls in the West celebrating horror and evil masked in trick or treat.

This cycle of folly is spread by some news media stories of buildings haunted by evil spirits while some schools with the most Catholic names encourage their students to submit scary stories of their paranormal experiences in their campus supposed to have been blessed and most likely where Masses are regularly celebrated. Most absurd and stupid of all is a hospital with the Blessed Virgin Mary as patroness having spooky Halloween decorations of bats and vampires at their ground floor offices and facilities.

These follies continue into December every year in the Metro Manila Film Festival that always feature a film or two dealing with either diabolic or irreverent themes at the time the whole Christendom is celebrating the birth of the Son of God who saved the world from evil and sin! All these on top of the complete commercialization of Christmas led by G-cash shamelessly advocating gift-giving in monetary terms.

Why all the “like” for what is low and gross, for social media contents that are lewd and obscene when we are supposed to be Christians who are wise?

Jesus told his disciples this parable: “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 (Matthew 25:1-5).

Sorry for the “rant” but this Sunday’s parable is very timely especially for us today if you examine why Jesus chose to mention first the foolish virgins and not the wise ones: is it because being foolish is one problem we all have, a sort of cancer or contagious disease afflicting everyone like during his time?

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.

Many times there are nuggets of truth in social media like those posts claiming the problem in the world today is that there are more foolish people than wise ones. What makes this reality so bad is how the foolish ones are often the most confident and noisy with the tragic result of having more followers who elect them into into politics or appoint to head government offices without any competencies at all.

Being foolish like those five virgins who did not bring extra oil for their lamps is to live as if there is no God, that there is no final reckoning with God at the end of time, acting impiously with what the psalmist says, The fool says in his heart, “There is no God” (Psalm 14:1).

The fools are always the most self-centered, selfish people who think only of themselves, believing the world revolves around them, so foolishly convinced they are indispensable in life not realizing we would be better off without them actually. They may have lamps lighted for a while but are soon dimmed because inside they are empty and shallow, with nothing substantial really to keep their lamps.

And what is the most substantial oil we need in our lamps, in this life that even if we drowse or fall asleep, we can still keep going through? God, of course!

Resplendent and unfading is wisdom, and she is readily perceived by those who love her, and found by those who seek her… For taking thought of her is the perfection of prudence, and whoever for her sake keeps vvigil shall quickly be free from care; because she makes her own rounds, seeking those worthy of her, and graciously appears to them in the ways, and meets them with all solicitude (Wisdom 6:12, 15-16).

How lovely is the author’s portrayal of wisdom as a person, the very person of God always present among us, so willing to be with us to help us in life. But, who searches her? Who really desires her?

To be wise is to desire God always. Without any desire for God and his holiness and attributes is complete folly. It is living only for the moment, living to eat and drink, then die. Without any desire for God is to not have any hope at all which is the opposite of love because without any hope, that is when we start destroying lives and things, exactly what those violent protesters did in Paris recently. Or anywhere else.

People without hope are like the foolish virgins in the parable who do not bring extra oil for their lamps because they see everything in darkness, who could not find things and life could still get better like those involved into extra-judicial killings, terrorisms and yes, leaders and nations who wage wars because they find the world so bad and evil that they have lost any hope for a better tomorrow, no room for dialogue and diplomacy that their only solution is to kill and annihilate others. So sad and tragic that these continue in our own time despite our being “modern” and advanced.

To think of wisdom, to desire God brings true freedom because that is when our mind and heart are no longer encumbered with concerns about worthless things in this life and world we keep on foolishly pursuing. The best part of it is that God is never far from those who truly seeks him!

Again, we congratulate and thank most of all, the great Alex Eala in her recent victories in Hong Kong especially in her interview after her match with Tereza Valentova when she said that being tired is a blessing.

Who does not get tired fighting in this cruel world?

Of course, we all get tired. Jesus tells us today that like those ten virgins, it is normal to fall asleep, to falter and fail sometimes. What makes the wise so unique from the foolish is that extra oil they have within, that glimmer of hope in the darkest nights of life fueled by our deep faith in God that there would always be something good in the battles we wage daily in life.

Here Alex Eala is the modern wise virgin with a lot of extra oil for her lamp, illumining the many dark areas in our lives especially of those those striving to live decently, patas na lumalaban sa buhay. Hindi korap!

Being wise is to believe in final judgement, in the resurrection of the dead at the end of time which nobody knows when would come. The wise simply goes on in life, living to the fullest, believing firmly in God, hoping fervently in him, and serving others in love like him as St. Paul reminds us the second reading.

Rest, my dear friends. It is a blessing to be tired, to fall asleep. Don’t forget to have that extra oil within always, Jesus Christ we receive in the Holy Eucharist to keep that fire burning to light us in the many darkness of life. Amen. God bless!