Dear friends,
Today’s gospel telling us the story of the ten virgins, five of whom were prudent and wise and five who lost out on a grand time because they were not. Two things to think about here: the call to be awake and vigilant, and the invitation to cherish our relationship with God.
Let us start with the call to be awake. This one will take us back to Saint Paul who reminds us that we are only in this life for a short time, since “our citizenship is in heaven.” The wedding celebration lasted for days and/or weeks in Jesus’ time, contrarily to our time when time and date are all set, and this for a very short time. The wise virgins have all this in their minds. “We never know,” they thought. Therefore, there should be some foresight. They brought extra oil with them, just in case, right? But the just in case became the saving foresight. The foolish virgins did not see it coming. They just thought of immediate celebration, not taking into consideration the “we never know” that led the wise to prepare for the unexpected. Put in Jesus’ perspective, we are taught about everlasting life. We are told that the wise person thinks ahead, they know some day they will have to meet their maker and they are practical. They make sure that they will be prepared when the Lord shows up on their doorstep. Thus, we are reminded to always keep in mind that we are on a journey, and therefore we need to make sure we get prepared for the just in case things do not work based on our own calculus. The foolish virgins worked based on their own calculus and everything went bad at the end.
Then comes the oil situation. We would be misled if we interpreted the oil in the story too literally. As a matter of facts, if we think of it as just a material thing or object to be shared, then we would be misled, because we will focus simply on how selfish the wise virgins would be and seemed to be. On the contrary, we are to think symbolically about it as something intangible that cannot be given to someone else. The oil here is something that we have worked for, such as a loving relationship with God, the good works we have done, or even the wisdom we have gained through prayer and meditation. In fact, the person we have come to be through God’s grace, for example, is not something we can just put in a bottle and give it to someone else. These are things we keep with us to get into the wedding feast with the groom.
As we can see, today’s gospel reading reminds us that if we would like to be wise about our journey to our true City we long for, we need foresight over short thinking that will keep us focus on the passing and ephemeral things around us. Moreover, we must protect the grace of God in us that has transformed us to a better person in our relationship with God and our neighbor. These are the fruits of our life journey that we will keep and take with us to the wedding feast of the Lord.
As we strive to respond to that call to discipleship by focusing on the goal that lies in front of us, which is eternal life, let us continue to pray for one another and for our parish family.
Fr. Emery