“VIRGINS"
Saint Matthew
25. 1-13
Last Sunday in
Church Year: 24 November Anno Domini 2013
(Trinity 27
Propers)
Fr. Jay Watson
SSP
In The Name + of
Jesus
The Word of God is clear. The Kingdom of heaven, or as it is
elsewhere called by Christ The Kingdom of
God, is His people, His own Body—His brothers, sisters—His Bride. Just as
His Divine and Human Nature are joined in the hypostatic union of the One Jesus of Nazareth, so too the King,
Christ Jesus, and the Kingdom, His Church & family, are one and
inseparable.
Only God knows His elect. Christians know
that they are predestined because the
Word has been applied and received through faith by the Grace of the Giver—God.
Are you elect? Well, are you baptized; are you receiving the Eucharist this
Mass; are you singing the Liturgy, praying the Our Father, and remembering your
Baptism as you receive the Absolution from Christ? You are the five wise
Virgins. You are not what you
did, selected, or chose but rather you are what the Bridegroom made you.
Not all men and women are elect Virgins, Not
all of humanity will be saved from the final flood of fire. It’s not that 50% will be damned and 50%
saved but rather that five and five make a perfect ten. The five that are lost
show you that the five books of Moses, the Law, save no one. Your works and
efforts do not open the door to the Groom’s Mansion and banquet table. The ten
virgins are all alike in this manner. All have sinned and fallen short of the
glory of God. No one deserves the Nuptial Hall. The Virgins in Jesus’ parable
have no names or distinctive characteristics save one…the wise ones took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
In the Hebrew Scriptures the Paraclete is referred to as the Wisdom of God. The
Word is also God’s Wisdom made flesh!
All men and women, to the naked eyes of all
other men and women, look alike…sinful and unclean. That is how you appear to
others. No one can see faith. What is seen are the good works and the
confessions and actions of faith which produce martyrs. The anonymity of the
Virgins is to show that in Christ’s Church Militant, as well as in the world at
large, one cannot judge and blindly excommunicate solely on the base of
appearances.
Will an individual have light in their lamps
from the necessary oil when the Groom meets them at the final trump?
You like Cain and Abel, and Adam and Eve
before them, were given your lamps. You have your body and souls purely as a gift
from your creator! Oil is symbolic of that gift of faith by the Holy Ghost. Not
all, not many perhaps, of those we call pagan have it…God’s will be done; may
the Mission of the Church be accomplished in all the world! But even in those
who appear to be in the family of the
Church, not all wind up with oil at the day of reckoning. Abel had oil when he
died a martyr; Cain appeared not to have any faith…no “fuel” to ward off the fire of hell. Saul and David were both
claimed and crowned by God (via Samuel) but Saul’s eternal light was
extinguished, not on Mount Gilboa but in the Calvary of his own rejecting and
unbelieving heart. Judas surely had oil in his vessel in the beginning of his
brief three-year Sainthood as a Disciple, one of the “12,” but when the Master meets all of you at the Parousia, it will be the denying Peter
and the doubting Thomas who will greet you with their oil of belief, the gift
of faith and adoption!
Your lamps “look” good. But faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of
God. Even old and well used, worn-out looking lamps, are perfectly fine. Do you
have oil? What did the Virgins do to have oil for they all fell asleep, that is
they all died as sure as they all sinned—for the wages of sin is death. Christ
says “but the wise took oil in their vessels…” They took says the text. One cannot, unfortunately use this somewhat
cryptic verse to construct an entire theology of salvation but rather must use
the rest of the Evangels to flesh out the body of truth. To “take,” here, means to protect, hold,
and guard that which has been given. To “take”
means not to despoil, throw away, discard, reject, or apostatize.
You have been baptized? Good! You are + a
Virgin in the “eyes” of your Triune
God—clean, pure and unsullied through Christ’s Law-keeping and sin-atoning on
the Cross. Do you remember, “take,”
your Baptisms and repent your daily trespasses in contrition while “taking” the oil of absolution? Do you
daily “take” the oil of the Word of
Life found in your Groom’s love letters to you—the Scriptures? Do you “take” the oil of forgiveness, life and
salvation in the Mass of Mercy every Lord’s Day and all other times it is
dispensed for your healing and heaven? Good! Very good! Gospel!
Like a mother lioness, dog, bear, rabbit, or
any other warm blooded, milk producing mammal “knows” its own litter, its own cubs, pups, and kits; so too the
Lord knows His own…they look like Him because they’re wearing + His wedding
garment. They smell like Him scenting the room with myrrh, cassia, aloe,
frankincense and Lillie. They speak like Him because they have had their lips
open to declare His praise in the power of His Name. They bear the marks of the
crucifixion in their own cross-bearing and faithful martyrdoms. They are filled with the oil of Christ’s
light because the Spirit abides in them.
I’m
talking about you Virgins. And now, with the Blessed Virgin Saint Mary of
Nazareth—your patron Saint—the exemplar/avatar of the entire Church Catholic;
and with all the other Virgins who are Saints, Prophets, Apostles, Evangelists,
Priests, Deacons, Presbyters and Bishops…now
is the day, now is the hour, the Son of man cometh.
In The Name of
The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
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