Matthew 25
What do the following phrases mean in the Parable from Jesus of the Ten Bridesmaids -
- "Our lamps" are "going out"?
- "You had better go into the town and buy some more oil for yourselves." What does the church teach us about these lines from this Parable?
Obviously the first thing we will wish to clarify is it is rare v v rare for the Church as a whole to give a single official interpretation of a passage in the Bible, even while she retains the right to declare that she has the authority in rare moments for so doing, if she thence chooses. So it will not be easy for the reader, a young mechanic from the north, to find a council or a synod in which this parable is authoritatively interpreted with a single binding on conscience interpretation. No deal. Rare v v rare.
But, this having been clarified and this having been duly noted for prudence sake, there is more meaning to the word "church" than the whole Church or the official Church or the official magisterium, since the non-use of the capitals here in the above Question might mean that the enquirer is thinking of sunday church attendance as the principal font for any such interpretations. And indeed Aquinas and the Patristic Fathers of the Church had their own take on this Parable. It occurs in chapter 25 of the Gospel of Matthew and it follows a whole series of firm and chilling warnings by Jesus of the End Times, and the Advent. But I murder to digress, what do the Church Fathers say about this Parable? Herebelow we can list a number:
John Chrysostom - Those who do not profit from this world and do not provide for the soul over time are lost in imprudence;
Hilary of Poitiers - The meaning is clearly what occurs in the End Times and the Advent of the Midnight Messiah, since chapter 24 is all about this theme;
Jerome of Bethlehem - There are virgins of body but also virgins of the mind, and these Ten bridesmaids clearly refer to the whole human race facing a most summary and surprising particular and individual judgement;
Gregory the Great - The division between 5 and 5 refers to the 5 senses of the body, since these are doubled, each having an inner sense and an outer sense, 5 x 2 meaning 10, but BOTH genders are here intended in the Church such that the Church is like the Ten Bridesmaids;
Origen - The lamps refer to the natural faculties of the human soul and all who hear the Word of God are like virgin bridesmaids;
John Chrysostom - It is a great thing to be a virgin of the body, but without works of mercy and good works, it is easy for virgins to be thrown out and pitched in with the lot of adulterers cast out of the kingdom - the oil in the lamps refers to the good works needed to trim the life of virginity and virtue;
Hilary of Poitiers - The oil for the lamps are the bright lights of the soul for bright souls, and many make the mistake of not seeing to it that their faith is aided by good works;
Augustine of Hippo - The lamps are the good works to be done to clothe the believing soul;
Origen - Five bridesmaids were foolish and Five were wise - in the common estimation of worldly secular men and women, it is assumed that at the hour of the Midnight Judgement when the Jews believed the Passover Messiah would come, that faith is sufficient without good works, but at the Appearing of the Messiah, all such things quickly fade, until the inner works of the soul are laid bare for the generality - then the good works of others are sometimes petitioned, but to no avail - each soul must stand alone on its own merits - none escapes the recording Angels.
So Jerome and Lactantius and Epiphanius report the survival into Christianity of the old belief of the Jews, that the Passover Messiah would come at Midnight, announced by angels, for many individual believers, and that many would assume that their faith was enough for this dreaded moment of reckoning, and that many like the foolish virgins would petition others to lend them their good works to cover their nakedness like a californian coffee morning, but to no avail. Virtue is not transferable on the Day of Reckoning. All must give an account of their lives, and no vices can be covered up by the virtues of third parties across the corridors of power. This latter segment is the meaning of the phrase "You had better go into the town and buy some oil for your own lamps." A sobering warning to everybody that it is not the neighbouring believer that will save a street by putting a good word in for others, nor the believing and praying wifey or believing hubby that will save his or her spouse - each must furnish an account of their own souls and their own lives in which none of the vices will be allowed to be covered up by other well-meaning believers. In sum each of us is on our own on the Day of Reckoning. Jerome says that the Five foolish virgins are those who maintain some faith, but minimally, and who are yet careless about doctrine, believing a subjective faith without prayer and without study to be sufficient unto the Day, but they deceive themselves. So that is the witness of the Patristic Fathers. For more one can consult the Aquinas Commentaries.