“Therefore, console one another with these words.”
--1 Thessalonians 4:18
“Whoever watches for her at dawn shall not
be disappointed, for he shall find her sitting by his gate.”
--Wisdom 6:12-16
The readings that go with the parable of the wise and
foolish virgins are not particularly helful or consoling to someone who is
stuck on or struck by the vision of scarcity our Lord chose to use when
depicting the Kingdom of Heaven in that parable from Matthew 25:1-13.
For a man who has turned water into wine and made a handful
of loaves and fishes so abundant they are sufficient to feed thousands of
people and still have leftovers that overflow and fill extra baskets, why would
He depict the Kingdom of Heaven as a place where there may not be enough to
share, and so you have to worry about filling your own jar while I hold onto my
oil in case I need it later –that’s troubling to me. Not in a way that makes me
doubt God or scripture, but troubling in the way that makes me wonder: why this
vision of the Kingdom of Heaven? Why compare Heaven to a place or situation
wherein I can’t risk sharing my oil, my good deeds, my faith, my love, my hope,
etc, because there may not be enough to go around. If we assume these really are the words of
Christ, and we assume that Christ was free to depict the Kingdom of Heaven
however He wanted, AND that He actually has firsthand knowledge of the Kingdom
of Heaven, then we can trust that this particular depiction was
intentional. And I still wonder: why was
that particular detail so important to the story Jesus wanted to tell? Why, if
He could have told us any story He wanted, did He tell us one in which the wise
virgins worried that their oil might not suffice?
Many people have told me that I was looking at the story
wrong. I assent that is probably true. But the Church, in all her wisdom, has chosen
readings to go along with this that focus our attention on the message Christ has
called our attention to: Be prepared!
Await the dawn. Stand at the gate and watch through the night. Stay
awake.
Perhaps there is a message there –in that message—about how
we fill our oil jars. But it isn’t
consoling. If we stay awake, watch at dawn, stand at the gate, will God fill
our jars? Will that earn us enough oil? Faith? Hope? Love? Grace? OR is that how we fill our jars? Is the act of being vigilant and staying
awake (in a spiritual and faith-filled way) the way our jars become filled? Is
filling our jar kind of like growing our stomach? Think of the first time you
went to an all-you-can-eat buffet. You probably couldn’t really eat that much.
You may have filled your plate, and you may have emptied most of it and then
gone back to fill it a second time, but in reality –you couldn’t eat it all.
Your stomach wasn’t sufficient to your appetite…so to speak. But, if you keep going to that same
all-you-can-eat buffet every Wednesday for seven-teen weeks in a row by week
15,16 or 17 you are going to be plowing through the shrimp, the crab rolls and
the sweet and sour tofu like nobody’s business!
And pretty soon the manager is going to be watching for your car in the
parking-lot and when she sees it, she’ll be turning the “open” sign around and pulling
trays off the steam table! You will not be welcome. But your belly will definitely
be sufficient! It takes time, and it takes effort and most of all it takes
commitment. But it is achievable. That, I promise. Just ask the lady at Mai Que
about the skinny college kid with glasses who used to… Never mind. I’m off topic.
Those readings: Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, the Book of Wisdom, Psalm 63, they aren't exceptionally helpful with this issue. Paul simply
encourages us to know God is in control and not to worry about those who have
died in the faith (i.e. at the steam table). On some level, he seems to be saying that God's supply of oil is sufficient for all who fill their jars from it. But Paul's vision is much more concerned with an eschatological vision of entering into the eternal all-you-can-eat buffet line. A place where the tandoori chicken is always abundant and the naan is always fresh and hot. And the plates have really big lips so that nothing spills...
Psalm 63 depicts the love of someone who watches for God constantly –even on his bed at night. That is one of my favorite psalms to share with people in the hospital, because hospital patients know what it is to be miserably awake in the middle of the night when nothing good is on TV and all you dare hope for is sleep or dawn. And yet it speaks of yearning for God, like a dry weary land that yearns for water. That is certainly the feeling I remember when I was stuck in the hospital for four nights. And it speaks of being sated as with choice food --i.e. the sweet and sour pork.
The Old Testament reading (Wisdom) shows us a vision of a “wise virgin” who is prepared, who watches for God, who will not be disappointed. She stands at the door to the buffet waiting to hear the key turn in the lock so she can be first in line! The church (during last week's mass) paired this uncomfortable parable with these readings to help us focus our attention on what would seem to be the key message: Be prepared. Watch. Stay awake.
Psalm 63 depicts the love of someone who watches for God constantly –even on his bed at night. That is one of my favorite psalms to share with people in the hospital, because hospital patients know what it is to be miserably awake in the middle of the night when nothing good is on TV and all you dare hope for is sleep or dawn. And yet it speaks of yearning for God, like a dry weary land that yearns for water. That is certainly the feeling I remember when I was stuck in the hospital for four nights. And it speaks of being sated as with choice food --i.e. the sweet and sour pork.
The Old Testament reading (Wisdom) shows us a vision of a “wise virgin” who is prepared, who watches for God, who will not be disappointed. She stands at the door to the buffet waiting to hear the key turn in the lock so she can be first in line! The church (during last week's mass) paired this uncomfortable parable with these readings to help us focus our attention on what would seem to be the key message: Be prepared. Watch. Stay awake.
But, in the end, I am still left to wonder: why this vision
of Heaven? Why this story? Why these virgins? And why this oil, and why it
couldn’t be enough?
The only answer I have is: our oil is non-transferable. My
lamp cannot be lit by your good deeds, and vice versa. But that doesn’t seem to be exactly what the
Lord was saying. And maybe the church is
right: maybe He was just offering us a simple warning: stay awake. Because we
know the hour or the day, but we do know it will come –like a thief in the
night --just when we sit down with our second plate of pot stickers, and some
of that great cashew curry stuff.
