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

On Saturday, we read the end of Jesus' prediction to His disciples of both the destruction of Jerusalem and of His Second Coming.  The earlier parts of this dialogue took place in the readings of Thursday and Friday.  Jesus continued, "Now learn this parable from the fig tree:  When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near.  So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near -- at the doors!  Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.  But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.  But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  Then two men will be in the field:  one will be taken and the other left.  Two women will be grinding in the mill:  one will be taken and the other left. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.  But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.  Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.  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 wailing 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.  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."  Of today's entire parable, my study bible points out that it illustrates the need for being spiritually prepared while the bridegroom (who is Christ) is delayed in His return.   It says, "The Kingdom is often portrayed as a marriage (see 22:1-14) between Christ and His Church.  The marriage will be consummated at the end of the age when the Bridegroom returns to escort His Bride -- the Church -- into the eternal wedding banquet.  This parable is primarily about the virtue of charity and almsgiving, as oil and 'mercy' have the same root in Greek.  The wise virgins are those who practice charity and mercy in this life, while the foolish are those who squander God's gifts on themselves.  The fact that all the virgins slumbered and slept indicates death:  in this world the virtuous will die alongside the wicked.  The cry at midnight indicates the Second Coming, when the wicked will arise with the righteous for judgment.  The inability of the righteous to share their oil is not to be interpreted as a lack of generosity.  Rather, it is an illustration of (1) the impossibility of entering heaven without one's own faith and virtue, and (2) the impossibility of changing one's state of virtue after death (see Luke 16:26). "   In the Holy Week hymns of the Orthodox Church themes of this parable and the one before it (in yesterday's reading) are woven together.   Repeated on several days, one such hymn begins, "Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching."  Midnight, naturally, reflects the great midnight celebration of the Resurrection, the dawning of the light.

So the message here is one of preparation, being ready.  This is to live each moment in the light of Resurrection, in the light of understanding that He may return any moment.  We hear a lot from pop culture and psychology and all kinds of sources of living "in the moment," or "in the now."  Another term for it is being "mindful."  But this is the great message of Christ:  to be mindful, to remember who we are and where we are, right this moment, and never to forget.  The key here is to take each moment and to understand that we are always ready to listen to the Master's voice, to see right where we are at, to take up what we need to take up and to put down what we need to put down.  A mindful focus has alacrity, alertness.  It is to "come to oneself" as it says in the parable of the Prodigal Son (see verse 17), to realize who we are and what we must be about.  Do we need to forgive someone?  Do we need to feel something and let it go to God?  Do we need to apologize?  Some interpreters of this parable suggest that it also denotes our need for proper rest at the proper time.  Do you need rest, a retreat, perhaps good nutrition or even a period of fasting?  Whatever it is that God calls you to, there are all kinds of ways in which we remember who we are, to recollect -- and one of the best ways is a kind of interior prayer, just sitting before God, talking to Christ.  The parable of the Virgins here gives us the understanding that in this act of "remembering Christ" we come to ourselves, we think about our own state of being, our practice of mercy, and the rest, the unessential, falls away so that we may come to see what is of true importance.  Let us remember also that a wedding, in this traditional and historical context, is not merely an individual affair.  It is about community.  It is about how we live in our world, with others, even with the Creation of God and all that is in it.  This is how we know who we are.