One of my favorite parts of ministry is that I have the privilege of visiting a variety of patients at UPMC each week. I am honored to minister to different individuals in their struggles, joys, and everything in between. However, one of the most common difficulties that I hear from many patients is the aspect of waiting – waiting to receive results, waiting for the next appointment, waiting for family or friends to visit, waiting to go home. All of these aspects of waiting are understandable and, if I’m being honest, I would probably respond the same way.

Waiting can be one of the most difficult aspects of our lives. After all, we live in a rapidly changing world where we can get almost anything immediately or with Amazon’s two-day shipping. However, there are still a great deal of occasions when we have to wait with patience and persistence: earning a degree, finding that dream job, accepting the loss of a loved one, searching for healing, learning to give or receive forgiveness, and the list could go on.

Every instance of waiting and patience contains an aspect of faith, but we never have to do this alone. As Christians, we believe that being prepared with our faith is always a communal reality and that is exactly what we hear in this Sunday’s gospel (Matthew 25:1- 13). Jesus shares a parable about ten virgins waiting for the bridegroom with their oil lamps. Five of the virgins are unprepared, unable to wait, and leave the community in search of more oil. Each time we gather as a community we are being given and prepared with the oil of faith to light our journey in life. It is when we can’t wait and go out in search of anything else, that we might just miss those sacred moments when Christ opens his door to us.