Gospel, Matthew 25:1-13 It was apparently common for young women in Jewish society to gather along the route of the groom to accompany him and his friends to the site of the wedding, usually an evening event after the work of the day was done. Jesus used this parable to teach something about the kingdom of God. The teaching includes what in normal living situations would seem rude or overreacting…the five virgins should have shared some oil, and the groom should have opened the door for the five virgins who went through so much trouble to get to the wedding banquet. This is common to other parables such as the king sending his servants to kill the people who turned down his invitation to a wedding banquet (Matthew 22:1-14). The shock value of these twists in the story challenged the listeners to ponder the meaning of the parable.
Why didn’t the five wise virgins share some oil with the five foolish ones? The oil represented the strength of faith to persevere through times of difficulty or the challenge of early Christians waiting for the Second Coming of Jesus and wondering why it seemed to be delayed past their expectations. Such faith and perseverance can be built up within each person and we can be an encouragement for one another, but no one can give another such qualities. Each person has to develop them for him/herself.
Although we believe in the Second Coming, we don’t know when Jesus will return. After so many centuries have passed since the resurrection of Jesus, determining when Jesus will return is not a major issue for Catholics as it is for some Christian groups. It is hard for us to understand how significant this question was for Christians in the first century.
In Matthew 7:24-27 we find another juxtaposition of foolish versus wise with reference to those who either put Jesus’ words into practice or fail to do so.
Reading 1, Wisdom 6:12-16 The Hebrew word for wisdom (hokhmah) also means “skill” and is defined as “what a person learns from others”. Since a person ideally grows in wisdom as he/she gets older having learned from life experiences, advanced age is often associated with wisdom. In Jewish tradition the Hebrew word for “old” forms an acronym word meaning “this one has acquired wisdom”. Seven books of the Old Testament (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom and Sirach) are classified as “wisdom literature”, a genre of literature common in the ancient Near East, since their chief purpose is to instruct the reader on how to make wise choices in words and conduct.
The book of Wisdom is one of seven Old Testament books included in the canon or official list of works in the Catholic bible but not in the canon of the Hebrew scriptures or the protestant Old Testament which follows the Hebrew canon. These seven works Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees) are often called deuterocanonical, meaning “second canon”. The Bok of Wisdom was written in Greek (no Hebrew texts exist). The author is thought to have been a scholar from the Jewish community in Alexandria, Egypt, around 100 years before the birth of Jesus. At times, as in this passage, wisdom is personified, a common trait of wisdom literature exemplified most in Proverbs 8-9. He also speaks in the person of Solomon, the biblical epitome of a recipient of wisdom (1 Kings 3:12, 3:28) to emphasize the wisdom of his instruction.
Wisdom, as explained in this text, must be sought out. One does not automatically become wise just by living but learning from life experiences, both one’s own as well as those of others…the latter being the hope of the writers of wisdom literature.
Reading II, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 The grief of those who have no hope is that of those who do not believe in life after death. Belief in Jesus’ resurrection is the basis for our hope. Trying to figure out when and how Jesus would return was an important topic of conversation among the early Christian communities reflected here in this text. Paul seems to have been of the opinion that the Second Coming would occur before all of his readers would physically die, thus referring to “we who are alive”. This image of the living, or a select group of the living, being raised up to heaven is often referred to as the “Rapture”. The Catholic Church has no teaching using the term. What we believe is expressed in the creed…that Jesus will return and that those who have physically died as well as those still living will be raised with some manner of a final judgment.
Beads of St. Dominic 