SABADO, PEBRERO 10, 2024

In praise of housewives – models for watchful waiting in the Lord

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Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 15 November 2026
Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31  ><}}}}*>  1 Thessalonians 5:1-6  ><}}}}*>  Matthew 25:14-30

Mother’s Day is still six months away but I wish to begin our reflection this Sunday in praise of housewives now called “homemakers” extolled in our first reading from the Book of Wisdom.

We find our first reading so appropriate in this time with the recent confessions of the tech billionaire Jensen Huang of infidelities to his wife – allegedly with two women! – that forced him to resign from the famed Nvidia company that manufactures microchips used in every computer we use on the planet. Then last month in our home front, a female broadcaster declared unabashedly that unless a woman earns by herself, she cannot be regarded as empowered.

Whoa!!! Lahat na lang ba talagang pera-pera na lang?

I came from that generation who wrote “housewife” as our mother’s occupation in every school form. And there was no shame nor embarrassment to have a mother described as a “plain housewife.” Whatever modern women and men say these days, a housewife has the most essential “job” in the human race in all times. Theirs is a 24/7 job without any pay that has rewarded mankind with great captains of industries, scientists and inventors, leaders in every aspect of life from politics to arts and the Church. Housewives are the first catechists and teachers of everyone, the first to open our eyes and ears to the beauty of words and colors and music, making us feel first from them love and care and kindness beginning in their wombs.

When one finds a worthy wife, her value is far beyond pearls. her husband, entrusting his heart to her, has an unfailing prize. She brings him good, and not evil, all the days of her life. She obtains wool and flax and works with loving hands. Shen puts her hands to the distaff, and her fingers ply the spindle. she reaches out her hands to the poor, and extends her arms to the needy (Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20).

Surely, many are surprised with our Sunday first reading, even causing a few smiles among you because it is an image of a “perfect” wife who does not exist nor that exactly corresponds to our modern time; it is not advocating a particular status for women nor trying to determine the tasks befitting them and within which they must be stereotyped.

Our first reading from the Book of Proverbs is simply stating the fact that this kind of housewife is praiseworthy because she accomplishes her work to perfection so that in the final analysis, we find – and readily agree – that appearances like “charm” and “beauty” do not matter with the former so deceptive and the latter vain.

What we have here is a woman – embodied later by the Blessed Virgin Mary – as the model for people faithful to God diligently fulfilling the humble daily tasks entrusted to her without forgetting to be charitable with the poor and needy.

Our first reading this Sunday from Proverbs tells us not to seek perfection elsewhere than in faithfulness to everyday duties like most mothers and housewives, that we must all be humble handmaids of the Lord, humble servants of God in the fulfillment of the duties of our state which Jesus emphasized too in his parable of talents.

Jesus told his disciples this parable: “A man going on a journey called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one – each according to his ability. Then he went away. After a long time, the master of those servants came back and settled accounts with them…” (Matthew 25:14-19).

See the seamless relationship of Christ’s parable with the first reading: it does not really matter how much we have accomplished or done and achieved in life but who we have become as faithful stewards of God’s many gifts and blessings.

Did we put into wise use God’s gifts to us or like that third servant, did we just keep and buried it that it went into waste bearing no fruits at all?

Like the perfect housewife in the first reading, Jesus is teaching us diligence to whatever is entrusted to us like the first two servants. There is no need to whine and complain of the many difficulties in life because as Jesus had mentioned in the parable, we are given and entrusted with gifts according to each one’s ability. God will never ask us to do something we cannot fulfill; God does not call the qualified but qualifies his calls.

Life is about being consistent in our duties and responsibilities in whatever state of life and profession we may be. Of coming in, reporting daily whatever the weather and situations may be. Like the perfect housewife who wastes no time in being idle or preoccupied with mundane things because any time her husband and kids would be back, the two servants maximized their time into productive use in that interval between their master’s departure and uncertain arrival or return.

Remember those “heroes” on board the FlyDubai flight to Israel last month who thwarted the terrorist attempt of their co-pilot who stabbed his captain? They were all ordinary folks without any training in martial arts but were there to help simply because of the need to help, to sacrifice.

That’s fidelity to the most ordinary things in life, of caring and loving for others. Most of all, of fighting evil and sin, of not allowing darkness and death to prevail in the world that has grown hopeless of the future because many have turned away from God, refusing to accept the fact they are so irresponsible and good only in complaining and whining in life.

Unlike during the time of St. Paul when Christians were so worried with the Second Coming of Christ (parousia), ours is so different that hope for the Lord’s return plays so little or no role at all in the lives of many who are so busy with work and play, without any qualms at all in skipping the Sunday Mass. Many are even unmindful of not praying at all, even at least before eating. How sad many are so busy scrolling and texting their cellphones without any time at all to pray or even converse with others. Everyone is on a rush for everything except for Christ’s Second Coming.

The only good news we can glean from this latest string of news of infidelities by the super-rich tech giants in the West like Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and now Nvidia’s Huang is the high premium the world still gives on values like fidelity and sincerity, not really money and influence because that is the truth about life, of being good and faithful and true.

Jesus reminds us today as we approach the final Sunday of our liturgical calendar with the Solemnity of Christ the King next week that he is indeed coming again, that there is an end of time where each one will be judged individually and asked for an accounting of talents entrusted to us. Are we ready? Remember St. Mother Teresa’s words, “we are called to be faithful, not successful.” Amen. Have a blessed, faithful week!