Today’s Gospel November 6, 2011 – Ten Virgins and their Lamps

Τὸτε  ὁμοιωθήσεται ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν δέκα παρθένοις, αἵτινες λαβοῦσαι τὰς λαμπάδας αὐτῶν ἐξῆλθον εἰς ἀπάντησιν τοῦ νυμφίου. 2 πέντε δὲ ἦσαν ἐξ αὐτῶν φρόνιμοι καὶ αἱ πέντε μωραί. 3 αἵτινες μωραὶ λαβοῦσαι τὰς λαμπάδας ἑαυτῶν οὐκ ἔλαβον μεθ᾿ ἑαυτῶν ἔλαιον· 4 αἱ δὲ φρόνιμοι ἔλαβον ἔλαιον ἐν τοῖς ἀγγείοις αὐτῶν μετὰ τῶν λαμπάδων αὐτῶν. 5 χρονίζοντος δὲ τοῦ νυμφίου ἐνύσταξαν πᾶσαι καὶ ἐκάθευδον. 6 μέσης δὲ νυκτὸς κραυγὴ γέγονεν· ἰδοὺ ὁ νυμφίος ἔρχεται, ἐξέρχεσθε εἰς ἀπάντησιν αὐτοῦ.
7 τότε ἠγέρθησαν πᾶσαι αἱ παρθένοι ἐκεῖναι καὶ ἐκόσμησαν τὰς λαμπάδας αὐτῶν. 8 αἱ δὲ μωραὶ ταῖς φρονίμοις εἶπον· δότε ἡμῖν ἐκ τοῦ ἐλαίου ὑμῶν, ὅτι αἱ λαμπάδες ἡμῶν σβέννυνται. 9 ἀπεκρίθησαν δὲ αἱ φρόνιμοι λέγουσαι· μήποτε οὐκ ἀρκέσει ἡμῖν καὶ ὑμῖν· πορεύεσθε δὲ μᾶλλον πρὸς τοὺς πωλοῦντας καὶ ἀγοράσατε ἑαυταῖς. 10 ἀπερχομένων δὲ αὐτῶν ἀγοράσαι ἦλθεν ὁ νυμφίος καὶ αἱ ἕτοιμοι εἰσῆλθον μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ εἰς τοὺς γάμους, καὶ ἐκλείσθη ἡ θύρα. 11 ὕστερον δὲ ἔρχονται καὶ αἱ λοιπαὶ παρθένοι λέγουσαι· κύριε κύριε, ἄνοιξον ἡμῖν. 12 ὁ δὲ ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν· ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, οὐκ οἶδα ὑμᾶς. 13 γρηγορεῖτε οὖν, ὅτι οὐκ οἴδατε τὴν ἡμέραν οὐδὲ τὴν ὥραν ἐν ᾗ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἔρχεται. - Matthew 25:1-13

There is a cultural disconnect in today’s gospel.  At least I don’t remember ten virgins coming to meet me when I was a bridegroom.  But leaving that aside, the virgins were probably equivalent to our bridesmaids and they had lamps for a night time procession.  The parable divides them in half between those who forget the oil for the lamps and those who remember.  Because they wait a long time for the bridegroom all ten fall asleep.  But when the Bridegroom comes those who forgot their oil plead for oil from those who remembered, but are told to go and buy their own.  In the meantime the bridegroom comes and the 5 who remembered go to the wedding banquet, and the door is shut.  When the five who forgot arrive with their oil they knock at the banquet door and are not admitted, in fact they are told they are unknown.

One wonders about this parable and obviously we should not take it too literally and think it applies only to the virgins amongst us.  But should we not take this parable as a continuation of the parable concerning the servant who beats his fellow servants and keeps company with drunkards in the last part of chapter 24.  To begin chapter 25 with Τὸτε tells us that. What is the Kingdom of heaven like?  Obviously we are not talking about a place like a paradise above where the souls go for a reward, we are talking metaphorically about the souls themselves.  We are talking about the people in the kingdom.  Note that in ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν the word for heaven is plural.  We are perhaps not talking about the banquet hall either.  In short we are talking about the spirit, like all parables we are metaphorically talking about that which we have no exact vocabulary for. 

The important part of the parable is the last verse.  It is the punch line, the point that is supposed to be driven home to those of us who are not altogether prepared for the spirit. I’m not sure that the Kingdom of heavens does not refer to all of creation, to all existence.  Perhaps all things (existents) are spirit and are part of the kingdom.  What an idealist assumption that is, and it can be gleaned from careful analysis of the texts which speak of the kingdom of heaven.  But today’s parable speaks specifically about persons - Virgins (παρθένοι) who are pure spirits in a sense, not corrupted by the material and vulgar reality.  So, we ought to keep watch, because we do not know the day, neither the hour when the Son of Man will come and establish the kingdom. Something is being said here which directly contradicts those who would foretell the end of the world or the day of “rapture”.  We cannot know and so must keep ourselves pure (παρθένος) and watchful of our purity of spirit, that we be admitted to the banquet hall, and be prepared with the oil that allows our lamp to shine. μακάριοι οἱ καθαροί τῇ καρδίᾳ, ὅτι αὐτοὶ τὸν Θεὸν ὄψονται.