Thirty-Second Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year A: Ten Virgins- Bring Your Own Oil

BYOB stands for Bring Your Own Beverage.

Today’s parable is about preparing for our individual and irrevocable particular judgment at death and it is always a Bring Your Own Oil affair—BYOO.

[Thanks to Troy Borst for this phrase]

The inevitable sleep of death overtook all ten of them, and our First Reading describes this as wisdom; seeing time as it truly is – the threshold of eternity. The concept of “being prepared” upon the arrival of the bridegroom prevails over the apparent lack of solidarity and charity of the “wise virgins” toward the “foolish ones.”

“The wise brought flasks of [extra] oil with their lamps,” we hear in Matthew 25:4. It can be little inconvenient to carry a lamp in one hand, and a flask of extra oil in the other. Or, your Bible in one hand and your rosary in the other.

The five foolish virgins show us that you cannot walk by the light of someone else’s lamp. The oil is the Holy Spirit. John 14:17 speaks of, "He dwelleth in you." Sanctifying grace in the soul is also called Charity.

Unfortunately, mortal sin extinguishes the lamp in our soul unless we get it re-lit though the Sacrament of Confession.

The Eastern lamp was like a cotton-wick floating in a sauce-boat of oil. The wick had to be trimmed frequently, and oil replenished or the light would go out.

A lamp is trimmed when the wick is turned either up or down to regulate the amount of flame. If a lamp is empty of oil, it does not matter how much one trims it—the lamp will go out when the oil is consumed.

A lamp trimmer used to be a position on a ship. This person had to keep the lamp reservoirs filled with oil and wicks trimmed every few hours. The application is that sanctifying grace has to be kindled by actual graces and frequent confession at regular intervals. Then it’s much easier to avoid the near occasions of sin, thereby guarding ourselves against possible falls.

Similarly, the Second Reading speaks about the preparedness of those who are alive at the Second Coming of Christ at the end of the world.

The phrase, “Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with [the saints] in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air,” refers to believers in the state of grace living on earth when Christ returns, as per Daniel 7; they will be caught up or raptured to join the saints as they ascend to glory. The Latin verb here used, rapiemur, means “the rapture.” Perhaps their bodies will be instantly glorified and made immortal.1

Some Protestants craft a complicated doctrine of the Rapture from this same reading where they mistakenly believe that true Christians will be raptured up and the billions left behind will be slaughtered by the Anti-Christ in the tribulation. John Nelson Darby was the co-founder of the Plymouth Brethren. He was a Church of Ireland clergyman. Darby invented "The Rapture" by stitching together this text from 1 Thessalonians and another from 1 Corinthians, and Matthew 24:40 which speaks of: “one taken, and one is left.” They have bumper-stickers that say, "In case of rapture this vehicle will be unmanned."

The Church has never believed in a rapture doctrine about some being raptured up while those left behind will be slaughtered in a tribulation. In fact, in a “parallel text in Luke 17:37, where the apostles ask Jesus, “Where [will they be taken] Lord? And Jesus responds, “Where the body is, there also the vultures will gather.” That does not sound like heaven to me.”2 Other Catholic scholars assert that “Taken…left” means that “the former probably means taken into the kingdom; the latter, [who are left behind] are left for destruction,” to mean that “people in the same situation will be dealt with in opposite ways. In this context, the discrimination between them will be based on their readiness for the coming of the Son of Man.”3 That is the same message in our Gospel today on the ten virgins.

This is teaching is also illustrated in the Sequence part in the same Requiem Mass, called the “Dies irae.” One line in the Sequence says, for example: “The trumpet, scattering its awful sound. Across the graves of all lands, Summons all before the throne. Remember, gentle Jesus, that I am the reason for your time on earth, do not cast me out on that day, When the damned are confounded, and consigned to keen flames, call me with the blessed.”

The rhetorical flourish in the Requiem Mass, which is also in the Second Reading today from 1 Thessalonians 4:18, ends with: “Therefore, console one another with these words. It is comforting because we believe Jesus died and rose, we are sure that our deceased faithful, and we, if we keep faith with Christ, will be with them.