Friday
of the 21st Week in Ordinary Time - Matthew 25:1-13
In the Gospel reading today, Jesus tells his disciples the
parable of the ten virgins. This is a
parable that is familiar to most of us.
The ten virgins took their lamps and went out to wait for the coming of
the bridegroom. Jesus tells us that five
of these virgins were foolish and the other five virgins were wise.
The custom at the time of Jesus was that the bridegroom
typically took off to party with his friends after the wedding. Then late in
the night, the groom would come and collect his bride. When the bridegroom finally appeared, the custom
was for the bridesmaids to light the way to his house with lamps.
Jesus’ version is a bit different. At midnight, the virgins
were awakened when the sentinel cried out: “Behold, the bridegroom! Come out
and welcome him!” Immediately, all ten
of the virgins went out to meet the bridegroom.
However, five of the virgins had not anticipated that the bridegroom
would dally or party so long. Foolishly,
the virgins had not brought any extra oil for their lamps; thus, when the
bridegroom finally arrived, their lamps no longer had any oil in them. There lamps were dark; they could not escort
the bridegroom to his bride!
Now the other five virgins were wise and prudent women. They had planned well and brought along some
extra lamp oil, just in case it was needed.
Thus, they could escort the bridegroom to the bridal chamber.
Today’s Gospel invites us to ask ourselves: Am I wise or
foolish? Or am I a bit of both,
depending on the circumstances? Within
us, we each have a wise person and we all have a foolish person within us.
Today, we also are waiting for the bridegroom to come to
each one of us. Do we have our lamps
lit? Are we prepared and alert? Or has our oil been used up and our lamp dark? Or perhaps we have fallen asleep?
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