32 Sunday A Parable of the foolish virgins

Four minute homilies

Parable of the foolish virgins

It is difficult for us to understand this parable because we are not familiar with the customs of Jewish weddings. The bridegroom would go to the bride’s house to fetch her and take her to his home. The bride would be accompanied by her maiden friends with their lamps on, to light the way. To be waiting for the bridegroom with lamps and no oil was silly. It is like going to a birthday party with no gift, a dinner with no wine, or to a church with no money for the collection.

We are waiting for the Lord who is coming to meet us, with the lamp of faith in our hand, lighted with the oil of charity, and holding it up high, to be able to see when the bridegroom is coming, awake with hope. No faith, no lamp. We need the lamp; if we don’t have the lamp, we don’t have a place to contain the oil. But the lamp is not enough. It has to be lighted, and for that we need oil; no oil, no light. Love is the all purpose oil that lubricates everything. A lamp without oil illuminates nothing. Faith without love is useless. The devil believes in God but has no love. Hope is what keeps us awake, waiting for the Lord that is coming. When we are asleep, the light eventually goes off.

There is a famous painting, “Jesus, the light of the world”, depicting Jesus holding a lighted lamp, in the midst of darkness, knocking on a door. The flame lights the beautiful face of Jesus and you can see that he is very keen to open the door. But the door has no handle. He is knocking at our door and the lock is on our side. We are the only ones who can open that door. We have the key which is the right shape to go through the keyhole. We don’t know when he is coming; what we do know is that he is coming. Sooner or later he is going to knock at the door of our life. If we are asleep we are in for a surprise.

This parable teaches us not only to be waiting for the Lord, but also to be ready for when he comes. Christian life doesn’t mean just to be part of the Church, like to having a card that shows we are members. To be baptised, to have received our first communion, having been confirmed, is not good enough. We need to be an active member, a Christian who is alive, who adds to the life of the Church, who gives light to others. An Irish man was on his dead bed surrounded by his family. He asked his wife: Mary, are you here? Yes honey. To his daughter: Rose, are you here? Yes dad. To his son: Patrick, are you here? Yes dad. Then, opening his eyes said: who is looking after the shop? The Church is in our hands and we need to feel the responsibility of looking after it. Two questions Jesus is going to ask us when he comes: Do you have oil? Did you give light to others?

It is not enough to have the lamp, to believe, but we need also the oil. It is a small thing but it is very important. How sometimes small things make a big difference. If there is no oil, there is no light. We cannot be in darkness when Jesus comes to pick us up, otherwise we are not going to see him coming. How do we get this oil? Through the sacraments, mainly communion and confession, our prayer life, our charity, our good deeds, the things we do for others. Our love of God and the love for others are the olives where we can squeeze the oil for our lamps. We need to make sure we have enough oil to keep the lamp burning until he comes. Be awake and waiting.

[e-mail]