Wisdom 6:12-16
Psalm 63:2-8
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Matthew 25:1-13
After the Death, Resurrection and Ascension
of Our Lord, there were many who believed that they would see His Second Coming
during their own lifetime. As the Lord said, they would not know the day or the
hour. Yet many disciples of the Lord, including some of the Apostles, seemed,
at least at first, to believe that Christ would not be long in returning to
bring about the fulfillment of all creation. For this reason, they were zealous
in carrying out the Lord’s commands. They underwent great trials and made
incredible ground in a short period of time. And yet the Lord did not make His
return in their lifetime, nor did He come in their century or even their millennium.
As you well know, we are here nearly 2000 years later, still awaiting that
Second Coming of Christ that many in the first days of the Church thought would
happen within a matter of years or even months.
We all know that old joke that says, “Jesus
is coming, everyone look busy!” But I think that in joking about it we can
easily forget the reality that it actually may happen at any moment. Being so
far removed from the time of Christ’s earthly life puts us at a certain
disadvantage because it’s easier now to be confident that we’ve got a long life
ahead of us and we’ve got time to do what we want and get right with God later.
Even as I was preparing this homily I was thinking of what to preach in the
coming weeks in light of this weekend’s readings – we all assume that we have
tons of time, which we may well have. But the thing is that when we get comfortable, we can begin to
slack up on our efforts to grow in faith and holiness. That’s what we see
in our Gospel passage today. Let’s look again.
We start with the ten virgins with lamps
waiting for the bridegroom. The Early Church Father tell us that the lamp here
is used as a symbol of faith, marking one who has been enlightened through the
Sacrament of Baptism and now walks with faith in Our Lord. The virgins with
lamps, then, are symbolic of the Christian community. The Letter of St. James
in the scriptures tells us that faith without works is dead, and so we see that
the oil that keeps the lamps burning – that keeps faith alive in the soul and
merits salvation – is symbolic of works of charity.
The wise virgins entered the banquet because
they had extra oil that lasted until the coming of the bridegroom. They were
not content with a minimal amount, but sought out extra oil beforehand and were
prepared for the long wait. These are the souls of men and women who do not
content themselves with the minimal requirements of salvation, but rather
strive for holiness by doing much more than what is required in the way of
charity and self-sacrifice. Not presuming upon their time here on Earth, they
strive to work out their salvation zealously each day.
In contrast we have the foolish virgins who
are not able to enter the banquet because the amount of oil they thought was
sufficient was in fact not enough, and so they are left rushing at the last
minute searching for some, only to find it was too late. These are the souls of
men and women who are comfortable with things as they are and content
themselves with doing only what they deem necessary, thinking it will be enough
to, as one of my seminary professors so eloquently put it, barely flop over the
line into purgatory and eventually get into Heaven. These are the ones who
presume upon their salvation and are turned away because their presumption keeps
them from being charitable, which is the basic requirement for the attainment
of salvation.
As we draw closer to the end of this
liturgical year and we hear more about the Four Last Things – Death, Judgment,
Heaven and Hell – the challenge is for us to look at ourselves and see how we
measure up. Surely we have our lamps of faith. The question is, do we have our oil?
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