A Reflection for Friday of the Twenty-First Week in Atypical Time
“The Kingdom of heaven shall be like ten virgins
who took their lamps and went out to satisfy the bridegroom.
Five of them were silly and five were smart.” (Mt 25:1-2)
When was the last time you were waiting in line and the shop manager got here to let you know that you just can be the last to be served, begged you to permit nobody else to face behind you and bribed you with a reward in your effort? This happened to me almost two years ago, after I first preached on today’s parable of the ten virgin brides.
Craving a late night sweet something, I convinced a brother Jesuit to hitch me for an ice cream at one in all my then-favorite ice cream parlors in the town. Admittedly, my experience of Recent York gelaterias was limited then—I used to be more impressed by the amount of flavors than the standard of the lick. (I now consider myself something of an ice cream aficionado and know the very best scoops on the town, but I digress.)
We got in line just in time for the server to inform us: “You’re the last person. Don’t let anyone else in after you,” before promising us “a surprise” upon our entry. We were successful in our rejection of the later patrons and, indeed, received our reward. But I felt terrible after all of it.
This task brought out the very worst in me. Every person that attempted to persuade me to allow them to cut in ahead of me, I systematically turned away, one after the other. Eventually there was only me. After I finally entered the shop, I quickly closed the door before the following patron could are available in.
I empathize with the silly and disorganized bridesmaids who forgot to trim their lamps, were denied the oil of the smart and ready, and arrived late to welcome the groom. Would the Lord really shut the door on them and begrudge them this happiest of times?
We’re invited to bring our unbelief, questioning and confusion into the sunshine of our prayer every day, and to ask Jesus to assist us make sense of God’s teachings as they manifest themselves in our experience.
I realize it is a parable and we must always avoid literalist interpretations, but I can’t get the image out of my head. It just seems so cruel and out of keeping with a God who just this past Sunday promised that the last shall be first. How can we reconcile such apparently contradictory teachings?
With a purpose to make sense of this story, we’d like to search for some historical context. It was common, in Jewish tradition, for the groom to go to his bride before the marriage day. The virgins were there to light the groom’s path through the dark. Once this was done, there was no need for more; anyone who got here to the door at the hours of darkness would, subsequently, appear shady and questionable, so when the groom doesn’t recognize the late virgins, it’s less surprising to listen to that he turns the past-midnight strangers away. Although, that explanation leaves me with a latest problem: Surely Jesus welcomes the stranger?
It’s helpful to do not forget that the divine inspiration of the Gospels isn’t primarily a matter of the strategy of their writing, but of the source of their truth in Jesus, his life and his teaching. And he taught, fairly often, in story and parable, not all of which were meant to deal with the identical point or to mesh neatly together.
The purpose of Scripture just isn’t to offer us neat answers and stories that completely align, without contradiction or conundrum. Somewhat, we’re invited to bring our unbelief, questioning and confusion into the sunshine of our prayer every day, and to ask Jesus to assist us make sense of God’s teachings as they manifest themselves in our experience—and sometimes at the same time as they’re in tension with our experience or with other teachings. Perhaps, in that way, the following time you go and buy ice cream, you won’t leave with regret.