Gospel Commentary: Virgins, Foolish and Wise

By Fr. Jack Riley
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What about caring and sharing? Shouldn't the wise virgins in this week's Gospel have given some of their oil to the foolish? Why are those poor and foolish maidens locked in the darkness outside of the Wedding Banquet? The story seems to justify selfishness.

We are at a definite disadvantage as we listen to the parables of Jesus. Two thousand years and more than 6,000 miles removed from the culture and context in which our Lord first related them, we listen as products of "sophisticated" Western society. At times we are confounded by these elementary stories which spoke so directly and profoundly to the minds and hearts of the simple Easterners of Palestine who first heard them from Jesus' lips.

The English word "parable" is taken from the Greek words "para" (beside) and "ballo" (I cast). In telling these plain and homely stories, Jesus skillfully orchestrates human language and experience to provide brief glimpses into the most profound mysteries of God and His Kingdom. As Christ presents the images, His hearers are challenged to make the connection with the spiritual reality beside which He casts His story. In our prose and poetry, we are inclined to use such literary devices as the simile — a comparison using "like" or "as" 9e.g. "My love is like a red, red rose."). Other literary devices include the metaphor — a statement that one thing is another in order to note a connection or relation between the two (e.g. "Time is money"); or the analogy — the use of a circumstance or character in a story is understood to represent another thing (e.g. in the story of the "The Ant and the Grasshopper," where the ant symbolizes those who diligently work to provide for the future and the grasshopper those who subscribe to the "don't worry … be happy" philosophy). An allegory takes this technique even further, employing a sustained set of analogies, each representing a particular reality (e.g. as George Orwell's Animal Farm is an allegorical portrait of the intrigues of the Russian communist regime in the 1920s).

Jesus' parables cannot be neatly bracketed into a single literary category. Throughout the Gospels, and particularly in His parables, Our Lord employs an abundant variety of similes, metaphoric images, symbolic analogies and extended allegories. At times there is a continuous, allegorical, on-to-one correspondence between His analogies and their "targets" (e.g. the parable of the Sower — Mt 13:3-9 and 18-23). In other parables, Jesus uses the plot and characters primarily to frame a single and powerful point, while the other elements of the story have little or no importance — as in the parables of the Unjust Steward (Lk 16: 1-9) or the Unjust Judge (Lk 18:1-8).

The single theme of the parable of the Ten Virgins is brutally apparent … "Watch, therefore because you do not know the day or the hour." The five wise virgins, who have carefully anticipated their Master's arrival, do not share their oil with the foolish — they keep it for themselves that they may fittingly honor the Bridegroom and his party. Jesus' intention in this simple analogy is not to justify selfishness, but to emphasize the indispensability of watchfulness … (for exhortations on generosity, check Lk 16:19-31 or 21:1-4). We can lose our place at the Eternal Banquet if we do not live this life with reference to the next. Preparedness and the pursuit of holiness are essential to embracing our destiny with God. If we do not seek sanctity, and yield to foolishness, carelessness or stupidity, we may be effectively "included out," finding ourselves blind and dumbfounded with those whose lanterns have burned out for lack of oil.

If we all considered each day we live as our final opportunity to love and to serve God in Himself and in others, we would certainly find ourselves and others behaving in the saintliest manner. One Irish sage-priest, Father Seamus O'Reilly, used to summarize the theme of the parable of the Ten Virgins quite succinctly — "Live every day as if it were you last … and one day, you'll be right!" Amen.

Fr. Riley is parochial vicar at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Warrenton and professor of Sacred Scripture at Christendom College in Front Royal.

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