“…at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look!  Here is the bridegroom!  Come out to meet him’ ” (NRSV, Matthew 25:6)

The parables which Our Blessed Lord told during Holy Week had a sombre urgency of their own.  His mind was preoccupied with the imminence of his rejection and Crucifixion by his enemies which was the price he had to pay for the salvation of mankind.  And so, as he looked ahead to the inevitability of man’s judgement of God on Good Friday so also he warned his listeners of the inevitability of God’s judgement of man, and of the need to prepare for that judgement by watchfulness and faithfulness.

It was in these circumstances, when not only his own life but all human history was moving towards its dreadful and sublime climax, that he told the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids: a parable whose power is all the more felt by its contrast between the happy-go-lucky gaiety of the illustration and its uncomfortable meaning.

The parable is the story of a wedding as seen through the eyes of the ten bridesmaids.  But first we must go back to a point before the parable opens.  The East is renowned for its love of ceremony and display on any festive occasion.  Everything was, and is, done to make a young woman’s wedding day the most colourful, as well as the greatest, in her life. Until then her attire was simple with a minimum of ornaments.  But her bridal array was as rich and gorgeous as could be.  Her long robe and train were embroidered with coloured silks and gold and silver thread, and embellished still further with precious stones.

So Isaiah pictures the blessings that God showered on his people by saying. “...he has clothed me with the garments of salvation…as a bride adorns herself with her jewels” (NRSV, 61:10).  And Jeremiah, in contrasting his fellow countrymen’s forgetfulness of God with a bride’s remembrance of herself on her wedding day, asks, “Can a girl forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire?” (NRSV, 2:32).  And in the Book of the Revelation, St John pictures the Church of God herself, the Bride of Christ, bright with jewels, as “…coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (NRSV, 21:2).

So the bridesmaids of the parable decked the bride in all her finery, and waited until the bridegroom came with his friends to fetch her to his house where later on the climax of the day was to be reached in the marriage supper which was the occasion of the actual marriage itself.  So the joyful procession set out, the bridesmaids escorting the veiled bride, the groom and his companions leading the way to the accompaniment of singing and dancing by the attendant throng.

Having thus seen her safely to her future home, the bridegroom went with his friends to spend the intervening time at the house of a relative until it was time to return for the marriage supper.  It is at this point, when the bridesmaids and the bride are waiting for him, that the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids begins.  For it was their privilege, as soon as the torches which heralded his return were sighted, to go out with lighted lamps to meet him and lead him, in merry procession, to the marriage supper.

But on this occasion, when the appointed hour came at last and the bridesmaids were all ready with their lamps, the bridegroom did not come.  So, tired out with the long day and its excitement, they posted someone to keep watch for them while they went to sleep.  And “at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look!  Here is the bridegroom!  Come out to meet him’ ” (NRSV, Matthew 25:6).

It was then, as they hurriedly awoke, that five of the bridesmaids found that their lamps were going out for they had not allowed for the bridegroom’s being so late.  And so, while they went to get more oil from elsewhere, the remaining five, who had had the foresight to bring a reserve supply of oil with them, went out with their lamps burning brightly to escort the bridegroom in.

When the other bridesmaids returned, they found the door shut and bolted against them.  And as the climax of their day, instead of attending the bride at the marriage itself, they stood outside in the night, and in answer to their plea, “Lord, lord, open to us”, they heard the bridegroom say, “…I do not know you” (NRSV, Matthew 25:11,12).  “Keep awake therefore,” said Our Lord, “for you know neither the day nor the hour” (NRSV, Matthew 25:13).

To the disciples the significance of this parable must have been greatly heightened because it underlined what he had just been telling them – the need to prepare for his Second Coming in glory to judge mankind.  So the words, “…at midnight there was a shout...” reminded them pointedly of something he had already warned them of, for that shout in the parable is nothing else but the last trump which will herald Our Lord’s return.

When the Second Coming will be, we do not know.  But one thing we do know, and that is, sooner or later (perhaps sooner than later), Our Lord will come to summon us from this world.  So Advent brings before our eyes the fact that “in the midst of life we are in death”.  And this parable is addressed, not to those who have had no opportunity of knowing and obeying the Christian Faith, but primarily to people like you and me who attend holy Church, the Bride of Christ espoused to the Heavenly Bridegroom, as Our Lord pictured himself.

Many of us began our lives in the company of that holy Bride – the blessed company of all faithful people – just as in the parable the bridesmaids began their day in attendance on the bride.  And in Baptism and Confirmation we receive the light of the Holy Spirit within our souls.  And just as the climax of the bridesmaids’ day was meant to be only when it was over and night had come and they found themselves at last at the brightly-lit marriage supper with the bridegroom and the bride; so too the purpose and climax of our life and existence can only be reached when our day here is over and we have gone out into the night with the lamp of the Holy Spirit, not quenched by our neglect but burning brightly within ourselves; and we are brought by Our Lord at last into the glorious light of his visible Presence in Heaven.

So the lesson of the Parable is that we – each one of us – should never allow any sin to quench the light of grace within us and so separate us from God for any longer than we can help, but should turn back to him at once in penitence and seek his forgiveness so that we may always be found ready to die whenever Our Lord should summon us hence.  “Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour” (NRSV, Matthew 25:13).

Prayer for a holy life and holy death

Lord Jesus, help me to live each day of life as if it were my last and to miss no opportunity of loving and serving you and my fellow human beings.  Have mercy on me in my weakness and sinfulness and give me the grace of true repentance and your gift of forgiveness.  And when my life’s day comes to an end, call me to yourself and of your great goodness bring me at last into the light of your glorious Presence in Heaven.  Amen.