Are successful businessmen considered wise? What about university professors? Are they considered wise? If a person has a PhD or some Academic Doctorate in some area of specialisation, is that person considered wise? It seems as if many of us have equated wisdom with knowledge, intelligence and good business acumen. A man who knows how to save, how to make good investments, who becomes rich as a result of hard work and intelligence, who has many influential friends and colleagues, or even a person who has many followers, seems to be considered by many as wise. But what is wisdom really?
Wisdom is when we realise that all comes from God and all will return to God. Wisdom reminds us that the most important things in life are not just having friends, or having lots of children or grandchildren, or even having prosperity and luck. All these are impermanent, temporary and cannot be brought with us when we die. Instead, when we begin to realise that our faith and trust in God is what really matters, when seek treasures in heaven instead of focusing only on treasures on earth, then we begin to understand and strive towards true wisdom.
When it comes to worldly investments, many of us seem to be ready to make preparations and sacrifices, all for the sake of making life easier for ourselves, for our children and hopefully for our descendants. But how many of us have been making preparations and sacrifices, when it comes to spiritual investments? We seem so eager to make preparations for any eventuality in this life, but how eager are we in preparing for death and eternal life? In today’s gospel, we see an example of how prepared we could be. In the Gospel, Jesus contrasts the foolish bridesmaids with the sensible ones. The sensible ones are prepared to meet the bridegroom at any time. The foolish ones thought that they had enough oil, they had enough time. But time waits for no man or woman, and if we are not prepared or careful, we may find ourselves outside the door, like what had happened to the foolish bridesmaids in the parable, since we have not enough oil burning in our lamps.
So let us strive towards true wisdom, by investing for eternal life. Let us be ready and prepared to meet the Lord at any time, as Jesus cautions us in the Gospel: “So stay awake, because you do not know either the day or the hour.” May we not be caught off-guard or unprepared, because our eternal future and happiness is clearly at stake.