32A23.   Wisdom 6:12-16.    Jesus said to Peter in Matthew 16:23b:  “You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”  Wisdom is to think as God thinks, to know as God knows.  Wisdom is “found by those who seek her.”  God gradually enables us to be of one mind and one heart with him as we grow to love him more and more.

Matthew 25:1-13.   The parable of the ten virgins is an ‘end-time’ parable in which Jesus seeks to prepare us for the end of our time on this earth.  The oil that the foolish virgins lack and the wise virgins have is the spiritual life of the Lord that we grow in daily by living with the Lord as the center of our life.  Being lost in the physical tasks of this earth and ignoring the Holy Spirit’s life within us leaves us unprepared to go with the Lord when he calls us from this earth.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.  The early Christians assumed that the Lord would soon be returning a second time (that is, some time after his ascension) to take up to heaven all the living who remained faithful to him.  The Thessalonians thought that those who died before Jesus’ Second Coming would not be taken up to heaven because they were not still living at the Second Coming.  Paul assures them that, whether dead or alive, all the faithful would be taken up.  The point is that the Lord will take up all who are faithful to him and leave the rest behind.