Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!

 "Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.  Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish.  Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.  But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.  And at midnight a cry was heard:  'Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!'  Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.  And the foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.'  But the wise answered, saying, 'No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.'  And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.  Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open to us!'  But he answered and said, 'Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.'  Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming."

- Matthew 25:1-13

It is Holy Week in the Gospel readings, and Jesus is in Jerusalem.  At the present time in our readings, Jesus is engaging in the discourse outside the temple, speaking to His disciples.   This discourse began with Saturday's reading, in which He began speaking of the time to come in Jerusalem, after His Passion and death and Resurrection.  In Monday's reading, He began to speak of His Second Coming.  In Tuesday's reading, He spoke of the preparedness for this event, the way of being ready for His return in this time to come.  Yesterday, Jesus continued:  "Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?  Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.  Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods.  But if that evil servant says in his heart, 'My master is delaying his coming,' and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites.  There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

 "Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom."  Of this parable, my study bible tells us that it illustrates preparedness, or lack of it, while the bridegroom was delayed (verse 5).    It says, "The Old Testament prophets portray the covenant between God and Israel as a marriage covenant.  The marriage will finally be consummated when the Bridegroom returns at the end of the age and the righteous form a wedding party to go forth to meet Him.  The Bridegroom represents Christ in His Passion, who dies out of love for His Church (Eph. 5:25-27)."  Ten virgins, I would venture to say, clearly indicates the wedding of a great King.

"Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish.  Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.  But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept."  My study bible says, "That the wise virgins also slumbered and slept suggests that once prepared, a person rests as needed."  Surely the delay of the Bridegroom, in this story, is the parallel to the perceived "delay" of the return of Christ.  The real question becomes, "What do we do with this time of the perceived delay?"  How are we prepared?

"And at midnight a cry was heard:  'Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!'  Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.  And the foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.'  But the wise answered, saying, 'No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.'  And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.  Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open to us!'  But he answered and said, 'Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.'  Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming."    My study bible says of the wise virgins in the story:  "Their refusal to give oil to the foolish ones is not a lack of love.  It portrays the fact that spiritual preparedness cannot be conveniently given or borrowed.  This parable encourages the proper use of God's gifts:  to bear fruit.  Some interpreters say lamps indicate the gift of purity and holiness, and oil, works of mercy -- the grace of the Holy Spirit.  Traditionally, virginity has been considered a special 'lamp,' and almsgiving or help to the poor a special 'oil.'"

The story of the wise and foolish virgins gives us something to think about in this time of awaiting Christ's return.  Surely we can't help but think of this Bridegroom's "delay" ourselves.  But it also gives us a hint about the purpose of this time.  There's a great play on words here in the notions of "alertness" and sleeping portrayed in the readings of the past couple of days.  What does it mean to be alert or wakeful?  We've spoken in the past couple of commentaries about remembrance, or memory.  Remembrance and memory play a great part in Christian worship.  In our liturgical services, we enact the great sacrifice that Christ will make in His Passion and death on the Cross.  We take the sacrament of bread and wine as body and blood of Christ, as Jesus instructed when He taught that His disciples must "do this in remembrance of Me."  We could even extend that "memory" to each time we "eat bread" and remember the One who died for us, the One who asks us to be good stewards of all that we are given, of all that is truly His.  Memory is a necessary part of our faith, in so many dimensions.  And here, memory plays an important part in defining just what we do with this time when the Bridegroom seems to be delayed.  We have time to prepare, to consider what we need -- the oil of mercy and grace with which we fill our lamps.  A few readings ago we spoke about the holy fire of love that appears in so much literature of saints and mystics.  An individual lamp is something like that fire that belongs in each of us, an individual soul.  With what energy does it burn, how does it shine?  And we remember again Jesus' teaching about His disciples (here in Mathew's Gospel, part of the Sermon on the Mount), how they are to be like lamps which "give light to all who are in the house."  Memory, again, plays a role in our understanding of this Gospel, of these teachings, and the many ways one teaching will reflect upon another, Jesus' words echoing themselves to teach us, to enforce, to bring to mind, to understand.  Our alertness, our awake state, our alacrity, are the things we therefore must treasure in this time of the delay of the Bridegroom.  It's all tied in with remembrance:  remembrance of the things that the Master wishes us to be about (as in yesterday's reading and the parable of the "wise and faithful servant"), to remember our Master who is true owner of all that we are given and all that we have, to remember that He's coming at an hour we don't expect, to remember what it is to be prepared.  My study bible points out that oil is often considered an analogy to acts of mercy and grace, and if we look closely at the Greek, we'll understand why.  "Elaion" is olive oil, and "eleos" is mercy.  In sound, they are identical (the ending of the word depends on context).  When the Good Samaritan, in the story in Luke's Gospel, binds up the wounds of the hurt man, he uses elaion, olive oil, as a balm.  When Jesus asks which was the neighbor to the hurt man, and the lawyer replies, "The one who showed mercy on him," the gospel is using the word eleos.  This symbol of olive oil -- the basis for all healing balm in the ancient world --  this golden oil, becomes a symbol for the grace of the Holy Spirit, and the anointing poured out upon the whole world, but also needing to be active in each one of us.  Therefore, we have another image of what it is to remember to keep our lamps full of this oil.  When we "remember God" we also fuel the fire of grace in ourselves, taking time for prayer and worship, and the acts of grace that work with us and within us.  So, we come to a tie between "remembrance" and "grace" --  and finally back to the purpose of this time of delay.  It is so we remember what we are about, we "take rest" in His grace as we need to, so that our lamps burn bright, and are full of the fuel for the fire of God's love in us.  In this sense, waking or resting, we remain alert to the fire of love, the memory of God's grace, the oil of the lamps that anoints us with grace.  Let us "remember" to rest in that place, to be alert to God's love, to know what we must be about as we await the return of the Bridegroom.