Friday in the 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, August 30, 2024

Matthew 25, 1-13

Jesus told his disciples this parable: “The Kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones, when taking their lamps, brought no oil with them, but the wise brought flasks of oil with their lamps. Since the bridegroom was long delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight, there was a cry, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise ones replied, ‘No, for there may not be enough for us and you. Go instead to the merchants and buy some for yourselves.’ While they went off to buy it, the bridegroom came and those who were ready went into the wedding feast with him. Then the door was locked. Afterwards the other virgins came and said, ‘Lord, Lord, open the door for us!’ But he said in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

One of the most interesting aspects of the Lord’s parables is how they preserve snapshots of ancient Jewish life.  They teach us about customs and ideas that largely disappeared after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and scattered the Jewish people within a generation of the Lord’s Death and Resurrection.  In the present parable, the Gospel Reading for today’s Mass, for instance, we learn about the conclusion of the typical Jewish wedding in the first century A.D.  At a designated time following the wedding agreement between the man and the woman in the presence of the bride’s parents, a reception was held at the house of the bride’s family, following which the groom would lead his bride to his house, where the wedding feast took place.  The feast began only when the bride and groom arrived.  There was no set hour for this.  It only occurred at such time as the reception at the bride’s house ended, and there was no set time for this.  Thus, the virgins with lamps along the road.  These friends of the bride or the groom, between twelve and sixteen years in age, would light the way for the couple as they neared the house.  Servants within the house would keep a look-out for the first sign of the lit lamps so that they could open the doors to the newlyweds the moment they arrived, and the music could begin.  As in any wedding ritual, to be chosen for a task by the bride and groom constituted an honor prized by the recipient.

“Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!”  The cry may have come from a herald.  The wedding party was conveyed by lamp-bearing attendants from the bride’s house to a point halfway to the groom’s house, where the attendants from the groom’s house took over.  If the cry did not come from a herald, it would have come from a servant or even a guest from the groom’s house who had started walking up the road to see if there was a reason for the groom and bride being delayed.  Not seeing the virgins and their lamps, his cry would be meant to rouse them.

“Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.”  The foolish virgins panic as they realize their lack of preparation will be seen — as it should be — as lack of respect for the bride and groom.  They would incur disgrace in the town as a result.  Their attempt to get the wise virgins to give them some of their oil already comes too late.  “No, for there may not be enough for us and you. Go instead to the merchants and buy some for yourselves.”  The wise virgins should not be accused of selfishness: they are thinking of the service they owed to the bride and groom.  The lamps did not function as mere ornaments in a town without public lighting, but were necessary in order to guide the wedding party along the street without danger of falling into holes or puddles or stumbling over stones.  In their increasing panic the foolish virgins had to go into town with their flickering lamps, wake up the merchants who sold the oil, and persuade him to sell them oil at that inconvenient hour.

But long before the foolish virgins returned, “the bridegroom came and those who were ready went into the wedding feast with him.”  This included the wise virgins.  Likely, the groom would have noticed that only five of the virgins he had arranged to light the way had appeared and wondered what had happened to them.  Whatever the case, after the whole party had gone inside, “the door was locked”.  Not just closed, but locked, as was the custom late at night.  

“Lord, Lord, open the door for us!”  The remaining virgins seek entrance even after they had failed in their appointed work.  There is no reason for them to go into the house, and no place for them there, either.  Their earnest seeking to enter the house in spite of the frosty reception they could expect from the groom speaks not of affection for him and the desire to apologize for their dereliction but only of their self-absorption.  “Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.”  The verb is in the perfect tense.  This tense indicates a completed action in the past, the effects of which continue to the present.  I have not known you.  It is as if the groom is denying that he had invited this particular virgins to act as his lamp bearers and that they had usurped the position.  This would lend clarity to their lack of seriousness: they had joined the wise virgins not out of consideration for the groom, but simply to get into the wedding feast.  They had not brought extra oil because they had expected the groom to show up at a reasonable time: they were not going to the expense of buying extra oil and lugging it around.  Thus, the groom’s resolute refusal to let them in.

“Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”  This warning is for those who indeed are called to be lamp-bearing virgins at the wedding feast of the Lamb.  Not only will interlopers be excluded from it, but those who fail in their appointed duties will be, as well.  These will wail and gnash their teeth together in the darkness outside.  Each of us of the baptized are appointed particular duties for the Groom while we live our lives on earth, according to our age and condition.  Let us not be caught “asleep” when he comes at the end of our lives, but let us be faithful virgins — free of sin — performing our tasks on that unexpected day.