Watch Therefore Because You Do Not Know In What Day Your Lord Comes

In today’s Gospel we hear about ten maidens who serve the groom. This always seemed strange to me because when I think weddings, I think of bridesmaids, not groom’s maids.

The setting of the parable is the return of the groom from the house of the bride’s father. He would be taking the bride from her father’s house into his own house. These ten maidens are to welcome the bride and the groom into the household.

Unfortunately, the groom is long delayed. Since negotiations about the terms of the marriage contract between the groom’s family and the bride’s family could get involved, the groom’s delay should not be considered unusual.

The group of five maidens is judged “foolish” (morai) because they failed to foresee the possibility that the bridegroom might be delayed and so they neglected to take along an extra supply of oil. Note that the bridegroom’s delay in verse 25:6 gives them a chance to do something but they fail to take their opportunity.

So what is this parable really about? It is about being prepared for death. As we approach Advent time in the next few weeks we should notice that the readings start to focus not only on the brith of Jesus but also on death. It helps us in that it allows us to consider our own end and the final end times.

The moral of the parable is that we should be prepared for death at all times because we have no idea if that is going to happen some eighty years from now or on the way home from Mass tonight.

I can already hear the mental gasps from the pews. This deacon is so morbid. But please hear me out.

Death can come to us at any time. The events of just this past October should make us painfully aware of the close proximity of death.

Think about what has happened recently:

On October 7th, Hamas militants initiated a surprise invasion of Israel from the Gaza Strip and massacred 270 civilians, and took an unknown number of hostages at the "Supernova Sukkot Gathering". Those hostages could be slain at any time. Here were so many young folks enjoying an entertaining concert when with little to no warning their lives were extinguished or placed in peril.

Likewise on October 25th, Robert Card, fatally shot 18 people and injured 13 others during a shooting spree in Lewiston, Maine.

It probably never occured to any of those poor souls that their final day had come.

Taken in this context, Jesus’ message should be well taken.

So, why is it important to be prepared for when the Lord comes? Well that is because God is perfect love and there are two major components of that perfect love.

The first is that part of God that everybody loves to talk and think about: his mercy. A mercy so profound that regardless of the gravity of that sin, in his great love he is willing and able to forgive us.

However, the second component of his love is justice. That’s the one where we want it if we were the ones wronged but not so much when we wrong others. You see mercy and justice must come hand in hand. They do not oppose each other but in fact are complimentary. You can’t have one without the other because justice without mercy is cruelty. Likewise mercy without justice is mere sentimentality and meaningless.

Both the wise and the foolish maidens fell asleep. Like them we have all become drowsy and have let our guard down at times. Even worse, we have sometimes become careless and have abandoned our Christian mission.

What might be the real difference between the wise and the foolish, is that the wise recognized that they could fall asleep and made advanced preparations.

So I can imagine you are thinking, “Deacon Larry, stop beating around the bush tell us the point of this parable. What did the wise do differently from the foolish maidens?”

The real moral here is to be prepared for you don’t know when you are going to be called to stand before Jesus. The parable does not specifically spell out what being prepared means. But Matthew’s audience has repeatedly heard what is expected as disciples of Jesus.

First active obedience to the Father’s will. Second, faithful attentiveness to the duties of servants. Third, participation in Jesus’ own mission of teaching and healing.

In this parable the oil was the good deeds needed to keep the lamp burning. The lamp is our Christian lives which Jesus exhorts us to live during his Sermon on the Mount, when in Matthew 5 he states, “your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.

Near the end of today’s Gospel, we hear the foolish maidens say, “Lord, Lord, open the door for us!’ 12 But he said in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.’” This should sound familiar because we previously heard Jesus say, Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” In both of these instances Jesus rejects unfaithful disciples.

So how do we fuel our own Christian lamps? This is something we should all seriously consider as we are approaching the Advent season in a few short weeks.

Fueling the lamp entails living out fully the Christian commandments of loving God fully and loving our neighbors as ourselves. Please note this is not an either/or situation but rather a both/and commandment. We need to love God fully by participating authentically in the Sacramental life of the Church, praying lovingly, and studying Scripture. At the same time we need to be active in our care for those on the margins: the poor, sick, those in mourning, the immigrant.

Our lives should be that light that Jesus describes in the Sermon on the Mount, so that we draw others to Jesus’ mission and make the world a much better place.

So brothers and sisters, as you go out this week into your families, work, parishes, and communities, don’t forget to bring that extra oil of loving works that help keep your lamp bright and so be prepared for when the bridegroom comes to you and you hear with joy the words we are all longing to hear, “Well done my good and faithful servant. Let us go into the feast together.”