FR TOCHI SERIES

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My priesthood is a gift and an invitation 

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Today's Gospel presents a familiar and challenging parable: the ten virgins waiting for the bridegroom. Five are wise, and five are foolish. At first glance, the difference between them seems small. All ten are invited. All ten have lamps. All ten are waiting. In fact, all ten fall asleep. The difference lies in one detail: the wise virgins bring extra oil.

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All Souls' Day is a day of hope. It is not merely a day of mourning or remembrance of the dead. It is a day when we proclaim our belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the promise that death does not have the final word. As Jesus tells us in the Gospel: "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live." These words form the foundation of our Christian hope. Death is one of life's greatest mysteries and often its deepest sorrow. Many of us carry the memory of parents, spouses, children, relatives, friends, and parishioners in our hearts, and we still feel their absence. Grief reminds us how deeply we have loved. Yet faith reminds us that death does not destroy those bonds of love. In Christ, they are transformed.

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Today, the Church lifts our eyes to heaven and invites us to celebrate the great multitude of saints who stand before the throne of God. As St. John tells us in the Book of Revelation, they come from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They are known and unknown, canonized and uncanonized, famous and hidden. What unites them is not that they lived perfect lives, but that they allowed God's grace to transform them.

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A scholar of the law approaches Jesus with what was regarded as one of Judaism's most important questions: "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" Jesus answers with remarkable clarity: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." He then adds a second commandment: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." He concludes, "The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments." Jesus does not give two separate commandments. Rather, He reveals two inseparable dimensions of one reality: love. The love of God and the love of neighbor are so deeply connected that neither can exist authentically without the other. Loving God with Our Whole Being: Jesus calls us to love God with our entire heart, soul, and mind. In other words, God is not to occupy merely a corner of our lives. He must be at the center of everything.

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Sometimes the most dangerous questions aren't really questions. The Pharisees come to Jesus today pretending that they want an answer. But Matthew tells us immediately what they are doing: they are trying to trap him. “Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” If Jesus says, “Yes,” he risks appearing to support Roman oppression. If he says, “No,” they can accuse him of rebellion against Rome. It looks like there is no safe answer. But you cannot trap divine wisdom.

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Jesus’ parable of the wedding feast reveals God's radical generosity and the serious responsibility of discipleship. The Kingdom is a banquet, yet we must arrive clothed in the life that reflects the invitation we have received.

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The Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary invites us to rediscover the Rosary not as a string of repeated prayers but as a pathway into the heart of the Gospel. Each decade is a doorway into Christ’s life: His joys, sorrows, glory, and mission. Saint John Paul II called the Rosary “a compendium of the Gospel” because, in praying it, we allow Mary to take us by the hand and show us Jesus again and again. The Rosary is not about reciting prayers; it is about entering into mysteries.

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The vineyard image dominates today’s readings. Isaiah sings of a God who lovingly plants, protects, and cultivates His vineyard, Israel- only to find that it yields wild grapes, fruit that is sour, unruly, and unworthy of the care invested. The Gospel extends this image: Jesus tells of a landowner who entrusts his vineyard to tenants, expecting a harvest of justice and righteousness. Instead, the tenants respond with violence, greed, and rejection, even killing the landowner’s son. The vineyard is God’s world, God’s people, God’s Church, and yes, our own hearts. The question today is simple but searching: What kind of fruit are we producing for God?

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Individuality is a gift, but individualism destroys relationships.