The Wise and Foolish Virgins
One
The Parable
Toward the end of His public ministry, Jesus began to tell a lot of parables about being vigilant, about being ready to meet God because you do not know the day nor the hour when He will come to earth on the last day, or when you will go to Him on your last day.
One of these parables about being vigilant is the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. You probably remember it.
There are ten virgins, waiting for the Bridegroom to come, and let them into the wedding feast. Now five of these virgins are foolish and five are wise. The wise ones have extra oil to keep their lamps burning as long as need be, the foolish ones have very little oil.
It gets late, the Groom still hasn’t come, and the ten virgins fall asleep. Then they hear the call, “Here He is! The Groom is coming!” They all wake up, and the foolish virgins see that their lamps are going out, they can’t enter the feast in darkness. They ask their companions to share their oil but the wise virgins say, “No, there may not be enough for both of us. You’ll have to go find someone you can buy oil from.”
And while the foolish virgins are out looking for oil, the Groom comes, he leads the wedding party to the feast, and the foolish virgins are locked out of the celebration.
Jesus ends the parable with, “Watch, therefore, for you do not know the day or the hour.”
Two
The Oil of Good Works
So the first question about this parable is this: what is the oil? What does the oil stand for? What is the oil that keeps your lamp burning, that allows you to enter into the wedding feast, that keeps you from being locked out of the heavenly wedding feast?
The traditional answer is pretty unanimous: the oil represents charity. It represents love. Love of God, love of neighbor. Loving one another as Christ has loved us. That’s your ticket into Heaven. That’s what qualifies you to spend eternity with the Bridegroom, who is love incarnate.
So what are we doing to build up our store of oil? We acquire oil by doing acts of love, acts of charity. So do we do a lot of that? Do we have plenty of oil or not much? Are we living wisely or foolishly?
Three
The Sleep of Death
In this parable, all the virgins fall asleep, both the wise and the foolish. Now, as St. Augustine points out, the scriptures sometimes speak of death as sleep. Everyone dies. The wise and the foolish, the holy and the unrighteous.
When you’ve closed your eyes in the sleep of death, that’s the signal. Because when you’ve closed your eyes in the sleep of death, you’ll wake up to someone crying out, “Behold, the Bridegroom is here!” Those who have filled their lamps with the oil of charity, of good works, they will run joyfully to meet Him. Those who haven’t, they’ll run away into the darkness.
Four
No one can choose another’s destiny
But why can’t the wise virgins share their oil with the foolish virgins? Why can’t holy people share enough of their merits that even completely ungodly, uncharitable people can get into Heaven?
The answer is that even though we’re all connected, the fact remains that each of us has our own, unique faculty of the will. What that means is that each of us has to choose our own destiny. No one can make that final decision for us.
Rudyard Kipling has a poem about a man named Tomlinson who dies, and comes to the gates of Heaven to meet St. Peter. Tomlinson wishes he could phone a friend to get him into Heaven, but St. Peter tells him that’s not how it works.
St. Peter says,
“For that you strove in neighbor-love, it shall be written fair
But now ye wait at Heaven’s gate, and not in Berkeley Square;
Though we called your friend from his bed this night, he could not speak for you
For the race is run by one and one and never by two and two…
Oh none may reach by hired speech of neighbor, priest and kin
Through borrowed deed to God’s good meed that lies so far within.”
Again, the point is that it is our decision that will ultimately shape our character. And it is our character that will ultimately determine whether we get into Heaven. Other people can help. But at the end of the day, the oil can’t be transferred. If we choose love, we become good, and we will be saved. If we don’t, well, then no one can do it for us.
Five
Whom are you going to serve?
Now is the time to practice charity. Now is the time to acquire the oil of salvation. After we fall asleep in death it will be too late.
We acquire oil through acts of love by serving God and others. We serve God through the liturgy, (the word “liturgy” means service). So, are we frequenting the sacraments? Sunday Mass for sure but would you consider loving and serving God at daily Mass? Are we being faithful to daily mental prayer to make sure our mass attendance and our confessions bear fruit? Are we doing real acts of charity to those God has placed in our lives?
If we love our spouse, our kids, our elderly parents, and our co-workers then we will do this: think of what they need and take action to give them what they need before they have to ask. We can become so wrapped up in ourselves that we are not aware of the needs and good desires of the people around us. The sad result is that the people around us don’t experience or feel cared for. Then they have to live independently and take care of themselves and this leaves everyone isolated and lonely.
Instead, anticipate what the good desires and needs of the people in your life have and take action. Then they will feel cared for and the result will be fantastic relationships. You might say, “But they never think of me. Who will take care of me.” And you might struggle with resentment.
To this John of the Cross says, “where there is no love, put love, and you will draw out love...”
Are we really trying to be generous to our coworkers? And do we serve those in need? Are we generous to the poor? Do we take time to talk to lonely people? We only have a little time left to get oil. And who knows how much oil will be enough? Which of these acts of charity should you increase? Whom should you be serving more? Because that will determine whether we make it into the wedding feast.