This parable is one of the most important in all of
Scripture, and a proper understanding of it is crucial. The interpreter
par-excellence of this Gospel is my Patron, St Seraphim of Sarov. His
“Conversation with
Motovilov” (also here) contains
pearls regarding this parable.
Then
shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their
lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. (2) And five of them were wise, and five
were foolish. (3) They that were foolish took
their lamps, and took no oil with them: (4) But the wise took oil in their
vessels with their lamps. (5) While the bridegroom tarried, they all
slumbered and slept. (6) And at midnight there was a cry made,
Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. (7) Then all those virgins arose, and
trimmed their lamps. (8) And the foolish said unto the wise,
Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. (9) But the wise answered, saying, Not
so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that
sell, and buy for yourselves. (10) And while they went to buy, the
bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and
the door was shut. (11) Afterward came also the other virgins,
saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. (12) But he answered and said, Verily I
say unto you, I know you not. (13) Watch therefore, for ye know neither
the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh. (Mat 25:1-13)
Prayer,
fasting, vigil and all other Christian activities, however good they may be in
themselves, do not constitute the aim of our Christian life, although they
serve as the indispensable means of reaching this end. The true aim of our
Christian life consists in the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God. As for
fasts, and vigils, and prayer, and almsgiving, and every good deed done for
Christ's sake, they are only means of acquiring the Holy Spirit of God. But
mark, my son, only the good deed done for Christ's sake brings us the fruits of
the Holy Spirit. All that is not done for Christ's sake, even though it be
good, brings neither reward in the future life nor the grace of God in this.
That is why our Lord Jesus Christ said: He who gathers not with Me
scatters (Luke 11:23). Not that a good deed can be called anything but
gathering, since even though it is not done for Christ's sake, yet it is good.
Scripture says: In every nation he who fears God and works righteousness is
acceptable to Him.[1]
…
"In the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, when the foolish ones
lacked oil, it was said: 'Go and buy in the market.' But when they had bought,
the door of the bride-chamber was already shut and they could not get in. Some
say that the lack of oil in the lamps of the foolish virgins means a lack of
good deeds in their lifetime. Such an interpretation is not quite correct. Why
should they be lacking in good deeds if they are called virgins, even though
foolish ones? Virginity is the supreme virtue, an angelic state, and it could
take the place of all other good works.
"I think that what they were lacking was the grace of the All-Holy Spirit
of God. These virgins practiced the virtues, but in their spiritual
ignorance they supposed that the Christian life consisted merely in doing good
works. By doing a good deed they thought they were doing the work of God, but
they little cared whether they acquired thereby the grace of God's Spirit. Such
ways of life based merely on doing good without carefully testing whether they
bring the grace of the Spirit of God, are mentioned in the Patristic books:
'There is another way which is deemed good at the beginning, but it ends at the
bottom of hell.'
"Antony the Great in his letters to Monks says of such virgins: 'Many Monks
and virgins have no idea of the different kinds of will which act in man, and
they do not know that we are influenced by three wills: the first is God's
all-perfect and all-saving will: the second is our own human will which, if not
destructive, yet neither is it saving; and the third is the devil's
will—wholly destructive.'
And this third will of the enemy teaches man either not to do any good
deeds, or to do them out of vanity, or to do them merely for virtue's sake and
not for Christ's sake. The second, our own will, teaches us to do everything to
flatter our passions, or else it teaches us like the enemy to do good for the
sake of good and not care for the grace which is acquired by it. But the first,
God's all-saving will, consists in doing good solely to acquire the Holy
Spirit, as an eternal, inexhaustible treasure which cannot be rightly valued.
The acquisition of the Holy Spirit is, so to say, the oil which the foolish
virgins lacked. They were called foolish just because they had forgotten
the necessary fruit of virtue, the grace of the Holy Spirit, without which no
one is or can be saved, for: 'Every soul is quickened by the Holy Spirit
and exalted by purity and mystically illumined by the Trinal Unity.'[2]
"This is the oil in the lamps of the wise virgins which could burn long and
brightly, and these virgins with their burning lamps were able to meet the
Bridegroom, Who came at midnight, and could enter the bridechamber of joy with
Him. But the foolish ones, though they went to market to buy some oil when they
saw their lamps going out, were unable to return in time, for the door was
already shut.
The market is our life;the door of the bridechamber which was shut and which barred the way
to the Bridegroom is human death;
the wise and foolish virgins are Christian souls;the oil is not good deeds but the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God
which is obtained through them and which changes souls from one state to
another—that is, from corruption to incorruption, from spiritual death to
spiritual life, from darkness to light, from the stable of our being (where the
passions are tied up like dumb animals and wild beasts) into a Temple of the
Divinity, into the shining bridechamber of eternal joy in Christ Jesus our
Lord, the Creator and Redeemer and eternal Bridegroom of our souls.
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