Have you ever forgotten your password? You know this frustrating feeling where you just can’t figure out the password.
As I was reflecting on today’s Gospel reading, I felt like I forgot the password. Sure, I get the whole part of the parable at the end where Jesus is telling us to be prepared because we don’t know the day or hour when he is going to come for us. But I couldn’t figure out this part about the meaning of the oil. You know parable, there are 10 virgins, five of them are wise and bring oil for their lamps and the other five virgins are foolish and do not bring oil for their lamps. The five foolish virgins ask the five wise virgins for oil and the five wise virgins refuse to give the five foolish virgins oil. Understanding what the oil represents seems to be key to understanding how we are supposed to go about being prepared for Jesus. But I could not figure out the password to unlock the meaning of the oil.
What made this password really tough to figure out is that Jesus holds up these five wise virgins who refuse to share oil with the five unwise virgins as the example we are supposed to follow. But refusing to share with those in need seems like a very un-Christian thing to do, especially since later in this same chapter from the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells us that if we want to inherit the kingdom, we must share our food with the hungry, our drink with the thirsty, and our clothes with the naked. But here, Jesus is saying that the example we are supposed to follow is the exact opposite of that. Jesus is telling us to follow the example of the five wise virgins who refuse to share their oil with the foolish virgins who need oil. Whatever this oil represents is something altogether different than the food, drink and clothing we are meant to share.
Now, I have been struggling all week to find the password to unlock what this oil represents. When I forget my password, I usually try to guess at what the password is. With this reading being about 10 virgins, I tried guessing that the password to unlock the meaning of this oil was virginity. Fr. Jeremy’s response: wrong password. So, you can thank Fr. Jeremy for saving you from hearing an awkward homily from me about virginity. You know that if you guess the wrong password too many times you get locked out.
So, the next thing I do when I forgot my password is look to see if the password is written down somewhere. I looked to see if the password was written down somewhere else in the Gospel of Matthew. Sure enough, I found it written down earlier in the Gospel of Matthew in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” “Purity in heart” is the password.
When I replace the word “oil” in the parable of the 10 virgins with “purity in heart,” it unlocks the meaning of what Jesus is talking about. When you think back to your own baptism, that is the most pure your heart had been up until that moment of your life. At your baptism, you were given oil and a candle. When you are given the candle, the bishop, priest, or deacon says the following to the parents and godparents, “This light is entrusted to you to be kept burning brightly. This child of yours has been enlightened by Christ. He is to walk always as a child of the light. May he keep the flame of faith alive in his heart. When the Lord comes, may he go out to meet him with all the saints in heavenly kingdom.”
The foolish virgins are foolish because they mistakenly think they can take the purity of heart from the wise virgins and make it their own. They mistakenly think they can go buy purity in heart from merchants at midnight. They do not know that purity in heart is the password to unlock the door to the kingdom of heaven, and they shall not see God.
By contrast, the wise virgins know they that always need to have purity in heart to be ready for Jesus, that they must keep their purity in heart entirely for Jesus, that purity in heart is the password to enter into the kingdom of heaven with Jesus, and they shall see God.
Whenever we hear about a wise female virgin, we are meant to think of the wisest female virgin of all time, the Blessed Ever-Virgin Mary. When the Angel Gabriel came to Mary unexpectedly, Mary was prepared. What the angel Gabriel proposed to Mary was that the Holy Spirit will come upon her and the power of the Most High will overshadow her and she would conceive and bring Jesus into her body and into this world. While the proposal and the moment was unexpected, Mary had purity in heart and was prepared for Jesus with her response, “may it be done to me according to your word.” She didn’t say, “wait for me to get prepared and I will come back to you.” She was prepared to be united with Jesus right at that moment and for all eternity.
The gift of purity in heart is given to us and is intended to be shared exclusively with the one who we are meant to spend the rest of our lives with. There are certain gifts we have been given which are not meant to be given to just any fool who wants them. The oil of the parable represents the unique thing that each of the virgins has to offer the Bridegroom. Each one’s oil is the gift of each one’s purity in heart.
The wise virgins refused to share because they knew they were meant to give their whole pure heart, not a divided heart, to the person they wanted to spend the rest of their lives with. Sometimes we have a distorted vision of humans like the five foolish virgins who viewed the purity in heart the wise virgins had as objects they could use for their own selfish purpose.
When we try to use what God has given us in a way that is divorced from the way Jesus wants us to use it, it is as empty as a lamp with no oil that produces no light. The darkness of the oilless lamps signifies the sad waste of a life that acts on one’s own reason, desires, impulses, instead of being fueled by the substance of God’s will illuminating it.
We are persons to be loved, not things to be used. The wise virgins knew they had to choose between giving their purity in heart to someone who would just use it for their own selfish purposes or to save it for the one who they want to spend the rest of their lives loving. The wise virgins are wise because they can discern the difference between someone who wants to love them for the rest of their lives and someone who wants to use them for a moment for their own selfish purpose.
The wise virgins know the difference and so does Jesus. The wise virgins like all humans, including Jesus, want to be loved, not used. Jesus knows those who want to spend the rest of their lives loving him and he welcomes them into his kingdom. Jesus also is aware of those who do not really know Jesus and who foolishly want to use Jesus just so they can get into his kingdom and then discard him forever. Jesus recognizes and respects the decision they have foolishly made with their empty lamps and their impure hearts to be separated from him for the rest of their lives.
If we were to ask Jesus, how do you know when you have found the one you want to spend the rest of your life with, I think he would respond like this: “when I see the one who is prepared to spend the rest of their life with me.” The wise virgins know that the moment when they met their groom would change the course of the rest of their lives forever and they want to be prepared.
The parable Jesus tells us starts on day one and concludes on the second day. The wise virgins knew not to put off for tomorrow what could be done today. When the bridegroom arrives at midnight at the start of the second day, the wise virgins are prepared with their purity in heart and the foolish virgins are scrambling to figure out how to get ready. When it comes to preparing for Jesus’ coming, tomorrow could be too late. At the end of the day, delayed obedience is disobedience.
So, having purity of heart is how we are prepared for Jesus’ coming, but how exactly do we go about having purity of heart. The first way is through the sacraments. I mentioned the candle and oil we receive at our baptism. At confirmation, we receive more oil. In every situation we face throughout the day, we maintain purity of heart by doing what we feel in our heart is what Jesus wants us to do in that moment. When we fall short of doing this, then we go to confession to regain purity in heart.
Perhaps, the best way to have purity in heart is to let Jesus work on purifying your heart from the inside. Jesus comes to us today with the same desire he had when the Angel Gabriel visited the Virgin Mary. Jesus desires to come and enter inside of us in the Eucharist. He desires to purify our hearts, to redeem our relationships, and to redeem our brokenness. As we approach the altar to receive the Eucharist, let us pray, “Jesus, give us purity of your love and your heart. It is your love and your heart, Jesus, that we deserve the least but need the most. Jesus, help us to love others the way you love us and the way you love them. Help us to see in them someone who is made in your image and likeness, someone you came and conquered death for.
In addition to the sacraments, my favorite way the start the day is to lay and pray. This is an opportunity for me to let Jesus know what is on my heart and mind and for Jesus to share with me what is on his heart and mind.
We come from God who is love, we are meant to love Jesus with purity of heart while we are here on this earth, and our second reading tells us that we are to return to Jesus at the end of time. So, whether we are young or old, whether we are married, celibate, or single, our first love is meant to be Jesus. Jesus is the one we are all meant to spend the rest of our lives with.
Jesus knows that the end of the day and the end of our lives, we all want to rest with someone who loves us unconditionally and who wants to spend the rest of their lives with us. When we know the password and are prepared with purity in heart, we will always shine a light that is pleasing to his sight, the door to the kingdom of heaven will be unlocked, and we shall see God.