This excerpt comes from the conclusion of the first part of the Book
of Wisdom. The theme of that part is that wisdom is the gateway to
immortality. Hence the overall context—though it is hardly visible
from our extract—is eschatological.
The pericope itself is a concluding exhortation to seek wisdom, an
assertion of its accessibility (cf.
Prov 8). Bearing in mind its eschatological context, we can relate this
reading to the other readings.
Those who seek and find wisdom will have acquired something that
will survive the Last Judgment, which Paul describes in the second
reading, while the gospel speaks of the “wise”
virgins—those who sought after wisdom. Also, compare the emphasis on
vigilance in verse 15 of this reading with
Matt 25:13, the last sentence of our gospel reading.
Responsorial Psalm: 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
The first part of this psalm (through verse 8) falls into the
category of an individual lament. The soul expresses its thirst for
communion with God in the temple, and its delight when communion is
established.
We may link this with the search for the divine wisdom (first
reading) and with the virgins’ longing o meet the bridegroom
(Gospel).
Reading II: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 or 4:13-14
The short form is apparently permitted not merely on the grounds of
brevity but because it omits the highly bizarre eschatological
imagery of the long form. Such imagery is certainly difficult for
the modern Christian and requires demythologizing if its message is
to be rightly heard.
Paul’s converts had received from him the impression that the
Second Coming was imminent (see
1 Thess 1:10). Meanwhile, some of them died—before the parousia.
First Paul urges the Thessalonians not to grieve and then states his
grounds for not grieving: since Jesus died and rose again, the
believers who die will likewise rise again. Then he seeks to prove
this from a “word of the Lord.”
Scholars are divided as to whether this means a saying of the
earthly Jesus (cf. perhaps
Mark 9:1) or a saying received from the risen Christ through a Christian
prophet, like the sayings in the Book of Revelation.
How are we to demythologize, that is, not eliminate but interpret,
the imagery for faith? The clue lies in Paul’s final
statement: “so we will be with the Lord forever.”
The ultimate hope of the believer is christological, and it is
corporate.
It is christological because it is not merely a hope of individual
survival after death but of being with the risen Christ in his
transformed resurrection existence. It is not attained through any
intrinsic quality of one’s own, such as an immortal soul, but
solely because Jesus entered into resurrection existence before us
and will enable us to enter it, too.
It is corporate, for again the Christian hope is not for individual
salvation but for the restoration in Christ of humanity, indeed of
the whole cosmos.
Paul was time-conditioned in his apocalyptic imagery and mistaken in
his belief that the parousia was imminent, but he asserts an abiding
truth. And because of that truth, the Christian is enabled to
transcend the grief of bereavement, unlike the “others who
have no hope.”
The parable of the ten virgins (RSV: “maidens”; NRSV:
“bridesmaids”) would appear to have a long history
behind it. Like many other parables, it may be interpreted at three
different levels of tradition—Jesus, the oral tradition of the early
post-Easter church, and the evangelist’s redaction.
It is often argued that this parable is an allegory and therefore
could not have come from Jesus. But it is not a pure allegory even
in Matthew. Any allegory concocted by the early Church would surely
have made the bride central to the story, for in the early
church’s ecclesiology the church was the bride of Christ. But
the bride is never mentioned.
If the parable comes from Jesus, it must be a story taken from real
life. True, it contains several puzzling details: Whose house was
the groom entering—the bride’s or his own—and in whose house
did the marriage feast take place? What made the groom arrive so
late? Would a wedding feast have taken place after midnight? Were
the virgins bridesmaids, and if so, why did they have to escort the
groom?
The fact is, we know too little about marriage customs of that time
to answer all these questions and must assume that the whole story
is true to life, though possibly with one element of surprise on
which the whole meaning of the story turns, namely, the
astonishingly late arrival of the groom.
In order to understand what the story could have meant on the lips
of Jesus, we must forget all the allegorical equations (e.g., the
groom = the Son of Man; his return = the parousia; the virgins =
good and bad Christians or believers and unbelievers; the wedding
feast = the messianic banquet) and let the parable make its own
point as a story from life.
Those who hear Jesus’ message of the dawning kingdom and
respond with repentance and faith will be accepted when it finally
comes, while those who reject his message will find out their
mistake too late.
The early church (see
Luke 13:25) began to give allegorical interpretations to the individual
elements in the story in order to adapt the parable to its own
situation. The Jewish community by and large had rejected the
church’s preaching of Jesus as Messiah, while others had
accepted it.
Finally, Matthew places the parable in the framework of his Gospel.
The introductory word “Then” in verse 1 (omitted in the
incipit of the Lectionary) links the parable to the foregoing
chapter, the so-called synoptic apocalypse, which culminates in the
coming of the Son of Man for the Last Judgment. At the end (Mt 25:13) Matthew adds a floating saying in the Jesus tradition:
“Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the
hour.”
Viewed in the overall context of Matthew’s Gospel, the parable
now acquires a fresh meaning. The division between the wise and the
foolish virgins becomes the division between those in
Matthew’s church who keep the commandments of Christ, the new
lawgiver of the church, and those who hear his words but fail to do
what he commands. Note also that Matthew follows the parable of the
ten virgins with the parables of the talents and of the sheep and
goats. All three parables make pretty much the same point.
