At midnight, there was a cry, “Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!” Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.”
The bridegroom comes late. At midnight, at the hour least expected, there was a cry to come out to meet him. While driving a few days ago, I saw a bumper sticker that said, “Look busy. Jesus is coming.” If I knew when Jesus was coming, I’m sure I’d go all in at looking busy. The five foolish virgins are unprepared for the bridegroom’s arrival; the wise ones are ready. Again, like yesterday’s parable of the faithful and wicked servants, Jesus presents polar opposites: the wise and the foolish; the ones prepared for his coming and the ones unprepared. The bridegroom is long delayed, Jesus says, “for you know neither the day nor the hour.”
Jesus, help me understand that I have the choice of being unprepared, looking busy but finding that the door has already been shut, or of being ready at an unexpected hour. Memento mori. Help me see every day what I need to take with me as I wait for your coming: a little flask of oil to light the lamp, the light of faith, keeping enough for myself to let the light burn. Either I am ready or I am not; either I go out to meet you, the light of lights, or I plunge into the dark to make up for lost time. Either/or: Is there no in between?
I know you want me to love you, God, with all my heart and soul and mind. Throughout the day, I think of you little, if at all. Like a child in a playground, I am unaware of time passing as I find new challenges and problems to solve. Give me the grace today, Lord, to keep the lamp burning within me, carrying within me all that I need to come out to meet you, early or late or sometime in between.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.