The parable of the 10 wise virgins and the 10 foolish virgins (Matthew 25:1-13) is more a tale of 20 foolish persons. This is a homily for the thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle A).
When I was in college, Pope John Paul II was on a tour of the United States and was coming to Chicago. So a bunch of students rented a bus and came up to Chicago to greet the Pope and attend his outdoor mass in Grant Park. And it was a cool experience.
The bus parked on Lakeshore Drive and the pilgrims all walked up Lakeshore Drive, which was closed, to the park. And we stood around and stood around and stood around and stood around and stood around. The Pope was long delayed. And so people started to sit on the grass. And then others said, “Well, I have some food here,” because it was approaching lunchtime. The Pope was hours late. So people pulling out lunches and sharing their lunches. And it seemed like there was plenty of food to give everyone something.
Now, this is what I would expect of a Christian assembly where supplies are running low: “Let’s all pull our resources and share.” This is what’s not going on in today’s gospel. I think we have the 10 wise virgins, I’ll call them maidens, and the 10 foolish. I think they’re all foolish. We have 20 foolish because the 10 who brought the extra flasks aren’t sharing. What kind of bridesmaids are they? And then the foolish ones, of course, were unprepared. So we have everyone is acting substandardly in this parable.
What all it would take was maybe a little leadership. That’s what this parable calls for. Someone to take leadership. There are many different ways to solve this dilemma. You could solve it by saying, “Let’s all put all the oil together and only keep one lamp lit. When the bridegroom comes, we’ll share the oil. There’ll be time and then light all the lamps and everyone can go in.”
Or they could say, another solution would be, “Well, let’s just have one lamp for every other bridesmaid. We can do this. Who’s going to keep us out from not having enough lamps going?” That would be a solution.
Or another solution is “Everybody put out your lamps except for one and we’ll keep that lamp going. And when the bridegroom comes, we’ll all light our lamps.” There are many different solutions. Why isn’t anybody thinking of them? Because there’s no leaders among the 20 foolish bridesmaids or the maidens. And I think that’s the call here.
In the church today, especially, where the church could be in crisis, where the church can be polarized, where the church is in argument, we need wisdom. We need good leadership.
When I was a novice, we had classes in many different subjects. And there was a Maryknoll priest who gave us some classes and he would always say, “As soon as you become a novice, you are a publicly acknowledged spiritual leader.” And we all looked at each other. “Who, me? I’m just beginning.” But he would say, “No, as soon as you put on the habit, you are a publicly acknowledged spiritual leader.” And I hope we all grew into that.
That’s what these foolish maidens, foolish bridesmaids, they need to grow into leadership. They need to be acknowledged spiritual leaders. Saint Teresa of Avila says, “God accords great favor with anyone placed with good companions.” I would say, considering today’s parable, God accords great favor with anyone placed with good and wise leaders. God bless.
