This Sunday’s Gospel is part of the sermon delivered by Our Lord on the Mount of Olives, shortly before the Passion, after He had left the Temple and prophesied that not one stone would be left upon another.

It is a response filled with parables, addressed to the disciples, who had asked Him: “what will be the sign of Your coming and of the close of the age?” (Mt 24:3).

The keynote of His sermon is the exhortation to daily vigilance while awaiting the end of a world – the death of each of us and our coming before God – and the end of the earthly world, when the Lord Himself “will come to judge the living and the dead,” as we proclaim in the Creed.

This is what we find in the parable of the five wise and the five foolish virgins – or, as the Latin puts it, fatuæ (dull-witted, inane, senseless) – virgins. The narrative centres on one of the phases of the celebrations observed for Jewish marriages.

Following legal agreements between the families of the betrothed, it was the groom’s duty to prepare the new home. Once all preparations were complete, he would go to the bride’s residence to escort her to their new home in a nighttime procession, during which the bridesmaids – the virgins – carried lamps to light the way.

Upon arrival, specific blessings were pronounced before ten witnesses, and the marriage union was solemnized. The wedding festivities took place over the following seven days.

Now, in Our Lord’s parable, where is the bride?

She is not identified with a single person; rather, she is represented by the ten virgins collectively – signifying the entire Church Militant, as St. Augustine argues1 – journeying toward an eternal betrothal as yet unconsummated.

All Christian souls bear the title of virgin – as St. Paul declares: “I betrothed you to Christ to present you as a pure bride” (2 Cor 11:2) – because they must preserve the integrity of faith and purity of heart.

This entails abstaining from the misuse of the senses, shunning iniquity, and performing good works – symbolized by the lamps.

Yet, it is not enough for these lamps to shine “before men” (Mt 5:16a); their light must lead others to glorify the “Father who is in Heaven” (Mt 5:16b). In other words, our actions must be directed toward our ultimate end: God Himself.

Therefore, the works that endure beyond the sleep of death – that moment when all of us, whether wise or foolish virgins, “nod off” and “fall asleep” – are those springing from a heart filled with piety, a heart that always carries the oil of charity with it.

While we are still awake, let us be sure to store up this oil and thus enter with the Bridegroom into the eternal wedding feast. There, once the uncertainties and afflictions of this valley of tears have passed, the words of the Psalm will be fulfilled: “As with the riches of a banquet shall my soul be satisfied” (63:6). 

 

1 Cf. ST. AUGUSTINE. Sermon 93, n. 2.