Parable of the Ten Virgins- Mt. 25-1-13

In this passage, Jesus tells us of ten virgins who were called upon to bring their lamps and to await the arrival of a “bridegroom”. As we know, Jesus uses these parables as teaching devices. They are meant to reveal deeper messages than are provided by the surface or literal details in the stories. The characters and the details provided in Jesus’ parables are meant to get us to see deeper meanings, and to get us to reflect inwardly upon our own lives.

In this parable, Jesus tells of ten virgins, five of whom were foolish and five of whom were wise. We are given a couple more details as well: each of the virgins has a lamp, but only five of them, being prepared, brought oil in their lamps, the other five did not. And we are told that the bridegroom was delayed, so the virgins fell asleep. But when the “bridegroom” arrived, late into the night, the five who did not have oil asked the others to give them some of their oil. Instead, they are sent off in the middle of the night to purchase their own oil. On the literal level this seems cruel, but we are asked to peer more deeply into the parable’s meaning.

Jesus is referring to himself as the ‘bridegroom” in this story. We are to see the virgins as representing us. But what is the oil supposed to represent? We get an idea when the “wise” virgins tell the foolish virgins that they cannot give them oil from their lamps and that they need to, “Go instead to the merchants and buy some for yourself.” What does this mean? The wise virgins cannot share their oil because it is impossible to do so. Why? Because the oil does not represent some material object, rather, it represents the wise virgins inner realities that cannot be shared or simply handed over to someone else. Those “inner realities” are their virtues, their hard earned inner righteousness, gained through their constant, vigilint preparation for the coming of the “Bridegroom”.

The message here is that we should, like the wise virgins, be prepared for the coming of the Bridegroom. How do we do that? How do we prepare our whole minds, our whole hearts, our whole souls for His coming? We do so by developing the daily habits of prayer, of reading and reflecting on the scriptures, and of regularly attending church, and by keeping God’s commandments. We prepare ourselves also by practicing things like the corporal works of mercy. What are the corporal works of mercy? To find the answer to that question, we can read and meditate on Matthew 25:34-45, then begin to put that attitude and those actions into practice in our own lives, until such ways become our habitual ways of being. Or, practicing the spiritual works of mercy: instructing others about God, advising, consoling, and comforting those burdened by life’s troubles. In doing these things we fill the lamps of our souls with oil that will never run out. We will become more and more like the wise virgins, prepared for the coming of the Bridegroom. And we do not know when He will come.

This is what Jesus is telling us in this parable. We can choose to grow more deeply in love with Jesus by praying, by detaching ourselves from social media and spending more time with Him in solitude and silence, by striving more and more to live in accord with his commandments of love, loving God above all, and our neighbors as ourselves, and choosing more and more often to love others as he loved us. In deepening our relationship with Jesus in these ways, our lamps grow brighter, more robust, more able to withstand the surprising “winds” that come unbidden into our lives all too often. Then, when the Bridegroom comes, we can be counted among those who will be called the “wise virgins”. To do otherwise is, of course, foolish. For the Bridegroom will say to those not prepared, “Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.” Mt. 25:13