As I mention in my entry "This Thursday: Saint Martin de Porres" 20s Group meeting consist of a Gospel Study. That is when we take the Gospel of this coming Sunday and contemplate and discuss. I thought it would be wonderful to copy and paste from the NAB the Gospel reading. From the Gospel of St. Matthew: "Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps
and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were
wise. The foolish ones, when taking their lamps, brought no oil with them, but
the wise brought flasks of oil with their lamps. Since the bridegroom was long
delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep. 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.' But the wise ones replied, 'No, for
there may not be enough for us and you. Go instead to the merchants and buy some
for yourselves.' While they went off to buy it, the bridegroom came and those
who were ready went into the wedding feast with him. Then the door was locked.
Afterwards the other virgins came and said, 'Lord, Lord, open the door for us!'
But he said in reply, 'Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.' Therefore, stay
awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour." (Chapter 25 Verses 1-13)
In my group, since I should not confuse anyone was: Chris, Dave, Sean, Mark, Mary, and Paula. The one question I know we did not answer, but hopefully with the great help of twitter, I will get the answer. If anyone knows the answer please comment. The question is: Why does Jesus use 10 virgins?
Since we could not answer the first we decided to move on, which brought us to discussing a great length and deeper in the Gospel. What is the main point of this Gospel? At first as I was listening I did not really look down at the verse and see the quotation within the quotation and so my idea of what it meant at first glance did not really work. (I am repeating myself again)
Sean gave a good point that caused me to contemplate and from what he said I will hopefully give sense to what I do think now of this parable. The flame is our faith and the one thing I remember from RCIA and all the studies I have done is God is not confined to time, He created time. So, His Son could come in five weeks or five hundred years.
There are those who predict or assume that Jesus will come at a certain time of their choosing and so when hardship arise and Jesus has not returned their discouragement is the flame that goes out with no more oil. They are like the foolish virgins. Then there are others who know that it is the will of God of when the end times comes and no matter what hardships or darkness they ensue never will allow the light of their faith blow out. That hardship that many cannot stand and would avoid with all certainty I quote Sean on this, "without hardships, there is nothing to strengthen the faith or remind us of that faith" for which we have.
The group, especially Chris mentioned that these virgins were out in the darkness to meet their bridegroom. We as the faithful are in the darkness and only have are light of faith to guide us and without that light we would be consumed by the darkness. There are many Saints and Blesseds who have dealt with this darkness where they felt that God was not there, but with the oil (which is like the virtues) to fuel their faith were able to never give up. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, if I am correct and even St. Teresa of Avila.
In then end, I want to purpose two questions that the group had discussed 1) does this parable imply that some Christians will not be ready on the day the Bridegroom comes 2) what can we do to ready ourselves for Jesus' coming?
Please comment your answers!
God Bless,
Nikita
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