‘Stay awake’

November 3, 2020
Deacon Faiva Po’oi

The parable in this Gospel from Matthew calls us to be always prepared to live responsibly before God. We hear of an invitation to join a wedding party, that is, an invitation to participate in the eternal joy of heaven.

In the Gospel, all 10 virgins go out to meet the bridegroom. All 10 virgins participate in the role culturally assigned to them, but only half of them are really looking for the bridegroom. The other half are merely going through a routine. True vigilance, a true seeking for God, demands ongoing preparation.

How does Jesus illustrate the gift of achieving union with God and finding eternal joy? With the image of a wedding, the moment of a couple’s greatest joy, the fulfillment of a lifetime of commitment and hope, the celebration of the community and families.

The high point of the 10 virgins’ wait was the arrival of the groom to the house of the bride so that he could claim her as his wife. Here, he was greeted by the group of virgins. Ancient literature tells us that sometimes the groom deliberately delayed his arrival to the bride’s house, sometimes even waiting until midnight! His prankish purpose was to catch the bridesmaids off guard.

Jesus used this familiar image to teach the people and us about his final coming. His final coming will catch some people off guard, just as the bridegroom’s arrival caught some of the virgins off guard. And so, we may interpret Jesus’ parable this way: The bridegroom represents Jesus. The wedding feast represents the eternal wedding feast of heaven when Jesus returns to claim his church as his eternal bride. The wise virgins represent those people who are prepared for Jesus’ coming. The foolish virgins represent those people who are unprepared for Jesus’ coming.

What constitutes preparation? What does the oil in the virgins’ lamps represent? We find the answer in The Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5). In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus compares the good deeds people do to the oil burning brightly in the lamps. Jesus says: “Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly father.”

But how does today’s parable apply to our lives, right now, in a practical way? In one of his writings, author Richard Evans answers this question in a striking way. He calls our attention to those mothers who plan to make more time to enjoy their daughters more. Yet, they keep putting it off. He calls our attention to the fathers who are determined to know their sons better. Yet, they, too, keep putting it off. He tells us about those husbands and wives who plan to spend more time together in order to strengthen their marriage bond. They, too, postpone the effort! Then in a burst of emotion, Evans shouts: “When in the world are we going to live as if we understood that this is life? This is our time, our day, and it’s passing.” When are we going to stop putting things off?

In the parable of the 10 virgins, the message is very clear: If we continue to postpone our preparation for the coming of the Lord, just like the foolish virgins, we may be caught off guard. And Jesus may one day say to us what the bridegroom said to the foolish virgins: “Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.”

May our gathering at the Lord’s table bless us with his grace and help us to prepare for his coming.

Deacon Faiva Po’oi serves at St. Timothy Parish in San Mateo.