Daily Reflection Friday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time

The parable of the wise and foolish virgins is, like virtually all of the parables of Jesus, one about the kingdom of heaven, that great and illusive mystery that Jesus never explicitly explains but only alludes to by means of what the gospels call parables or stories. There are many parables in the gospels and no single one fully explains what the kingdom of heaven is. Even all taken together cannot fully explain that mystery.

Jesus tells us to “stay awake” at the end of this parable and yet it was not that the ten virgins of the parable fell asleep that was the problem, since they all fell asleep, but rather, it seems, that half were prepared and ready when the bridegroom arrived and the other half were not. That readiness is also very much seen in absolute terms. While the foolish virgins go off to find oil for their lamps, the door is closed and locked and they are told, upon finally returning, that they are not known and therefore that they cannot be allowed entrance to the wedding feast.

The parable is one of several that seem to depict the kingdom as something we are either in or out of and thus it very much lends itself to the idea of heaven or hell, salvation or damnation that very much seems to be present in Jesus’ teachings in the gospels. The problem with this either-or understanding is that it can lead to a fear-based idea of God’s salvation offered to us and fear leads nowhere. There is none of that “either-or” aspect of the kingdom in the parable of the Prodigal Son where it very much seems that for the Father of that parable, it is as if the prodigal did nothing wrong. All that mattered was that he came home.

Nevertheless, we are confronted here today with a seeming necessity that we must somehow be prepared and waiting, that we must do something or else we risk being “left out” and unable to find entrance (entrance to the fulness) afterwards. That begs the very real question of what is it that we must do? When Jesus lovingly told his dear friend Martha that her sister Mary had chosen the “better part” and that it would “not be taken away from her,” he did not mean that Martha’s choice was useless, he simply meant to show her that there was indeed a “better” choice.

That is the great reality, that there is always more, what St. Ignatius called “the magis.” There is always something deeper, something much more mysterious and elusive calling us to “come and see” because, quite simply, we have not yet come to see it. Therefore, what we must do is simply become willing to come. Be willing to go with Jesus, to simply follow him. That’s all. Jesus will really do all the rest. But that willingness, that becoming ready to get up and simply follow, where, we do not know, is the fundamental either-or or everything. It is the radical choice. It is what Moses told the people in Deuteronomy 30:19, “choose life.” Choose that, and everything else will follow. But we must choose it, we must make a decision. We must seek. But Jesus assures us, “Seek and you will find.” 

But we are always seeking, we are never “there” until, in the kingdom, we are finally there. We do not bring ourselves. We never arrive, here and now. Nothing we know, nothing we have been taught, nothing we have assumed we know is what God is inviting us to. Never assume you know what that is or you will be like the foolish virgins. The problem is that what we do not know frightens us. But Jesus constantly comforts us by saying, “Do not be afraid.” Prayer is seeking. Prayer is the only gateway. Pray every day, just talk to God and Jesus. Tell them everything. That is all we must do. God will do everything else for us.