Chapter 6. The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins.

THE last parable is that which makes the happiness of the saints like to a royal mar riage, to which ten virgins were invited, five being wise and five foolish. We shall first briefly explain who is the bride, and who the bridegroom; then how excellent a good is signified by the word "marriage;" and lastly, what is required for our attain ing so great an object.

First then, no one can doubt but that Christ is the bridegroom. This is expressed by St. John the Baptist, where speaking of Christ he says : "He that hath the bride, is the bridegroom ; but the friend of the bridegroom, who standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth with joy because of the bridegroom's voice." Our Lord Himself also

intimates the same in the parable of the king who made a marriage for his son. The Apostle confirms the same, in his Epistle to the Corinthians : " I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ/' So also does St. John in the Apocalypse : " Let us be glad and rejoice, and give glory to him ; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath prepared herself:" and again, (( Blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb." It is equally certain, that the Church is the bride. This the Apostle clearly asserts in his Epistle to the Ephesians: " Therefore as the Church is subject to Christ, so also let the wives be to their husbands in all things. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church, and deli vered himself up for it, that he might

sanctify it For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh. ^ This is a great sacrament ; but I speak in Christ and in the Church." (chap. v. 24, &c.)

But although the Church be the spouse of Christ, and the faithful be called the Sons of the Church, because by baptism she has brought them forth, as it were, for Christ ; yet, because the Church is nothing more than an assembly of the faithful, therefore all pious souls are individual spouses, as the Church is an universal

spouse. For not falsely doth the Church sing of holy virgins, " Come, spouse of Christ, and receive -the crown which the Lord hath prepared for thee for ever/' But although holy virgins are, in a special man ner, called spouses of Christ, because they have rejected a carnal marriage, in order to be spiritually married to Christ alone ; yet other Christian souls are also " spouses" of Christ, for they are espoused to Him by faith, united to Him by charity, and aspire to a consummation of the spiritual marriage in the kingdom of heaven.

But if we could sufficiently conceive what a good it will be for the human soul to be united with marriage in Christ, we should find nothing more honourable, nothing more useful, nothing more sweet, either in this world or in the next. Great is the glory, advantage, and sweetness in serving the King of kings ; greater to be numbered amongst his friends and domestics ; the greatest to be called a son of God and the brother of Christ. But to become the " spouse" of God, a partner of His throne, of His crown, and of all His titles, appears to me to be more than the greatest, if I may so speak. This it is of which our Lord speaks in Isaias concerning spiritual eunuchs : l ' I will give to them in my house, and within my walls, a name better than sons and daughters ;" that is, I will give to them the name of a spouse. Who can com prehend, how noble, how honourable and

sweet it will be, not only to behold God and to converse with him, but to become one spirit with Him, and to be transformed into Him? These are the words of the Apostle : " He who is joined to a harlot, is

made one body But he who is joined to the Lord, is one spirit :" and again, "But we all beholding the glory of the Lord with open face, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord/' (2 Epist. to the Corinth, iii. 18.) How great will be the pleasure, when being united to God and irradiated by the brightness of His countenance, we shall be transformed into His brightness, and made most like unto Him ! " We shall be like to him/' saith St. John, " because we shall see him as he is." We shall be like to Him, not only as images created according to His likeness ; but like in glory, in beati tude, in happiness. St. Paul the apostle, in that wonderful rapture he had when ' ' he was caught up into paradise/' heard secret words which it was not in the power of man to utter ; and yet he was so absorbed in God, that he knew not whether he was in the body or out of the body. How great, therefore, will be that most happy union of the soul with God, when absorbed and im mersed in the sea of His sweetness, she will be "one spirit" with God ! So great will be the joy, that as St. Bernard says, " All other joy compared with it will be sor row all sweetness will be bitterness ; all

honour, dishonour ; whatever else, in fine, can delight us, will be troublesome."* But since this union of the most beautiful spouse •with a blessed soul be ineffable, let us rather inquire from the present parable — what are the conditions on which we can be admitted to this most happy marriage ? These we shall learn from the qualities of the wise virgins, for they alone entered into the nup tials of the heavenly spouse. The qualities or conditions are five ; first, that we be vir gins ; secondly, that we be prudent; thirdly, that we have our lamp lighted ; fourthly, that we have oil in it ; and lastly, that we watch, and by watching diligently await the coming of the bridegroom.

As far as regards the first condition, the spouses of Christ ought all to be virgins, not necessarily in the flesh, but in faith and morals, as St. Augustine justly explains in his Sermon on these words of the Apos tle : ( ( I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." By a chaste virgin he under stands the whole Church of Corinth, in which it is evident that all were not virgins in the flesh, since the Apostle in his First Epistle admonishes married people of their duties. ^ In this parable, therefore, all those are virgins who are not corrupted in their faith and morals, and who, declining from evil, do not defile their souls. But,

• because it is not sufficient for perfect justice to decline from evil, but also to do good, therefore the second condition is added, that we be prudent, not fool ish. Nor must we think it sufficient, if we injure no one, nor kill any one, nor steal, nor bear false testimony ; but we must consider our last end, and adopt the means to attain it. And because this end is eternal life, and the means the merit of good works, therefore the third condition is added, that our lamp be lighted, which sig nifies good works. This St. Augustine teaches in the above-mentioned place, and our Lord Himself, where He says : "So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your leather who is in heaven/'

But since good works spring from charity as from a root, and cannot be preserved unless nourished by the same charity, as a lamp necessarily goes out if oil be wanting; therefore, a fourth condition is required, that the prudent virgin always have oil in her lamp. ^ St. Augustine teaches that charity is signified by oil, because, as oil is superior to all liquids, so charity is superior to all virtues, according to the Apostle : "And I show unto you yet a more excellent way;" and again: "And now there remain faith, hope, charity, these three ; but the greater of these is charity.3' If, therefore, we should prefer anything in our heart, or make it equal with charity, immediately

she departs ; for she ought either to have . the first place, and reign in our heart, or she will leave us. And because oil is a most subtile liquid, which easily ascends above other things, the power of the oil of charity is so great in ascending, that if it be poured out on the soul of a public sin ner, immediately it draws that soul up, and of a sinner makes a saint, of a carnal man makes a spiritual man. I will even venture to say, that if this oil were poured on the souls of the damned, or could drop on the devils themselves, we should immediately behold them all ascend on high. And if, on the contrary, this oil were to desert the souls of the holy angels, apostles, martyrs, and virgins, they would quickly descend down into hell. Behold, then, the excellence of this oil, and how justly those virgins are called foolish who have not this oil. But there is also another reason why charity is signified by oil, because it maketh things that are hard and rough soft and pliable. This oil renders the yoke sweet, of which our Lord speaks, "My yoke is sweet." What made the yoke of obedience sweet to the Apostles, of going into the whole world and preaching the Gospel to every creature, but the oil of charity ? What made the yoke of patience sweet to the martyrs, to endure so great and unheard of torments, but the oil of chanty ? What made the yoke of poverty, of chastity, and of obedience, so sweet to many thousands of religious men

and women, but the yoke of charity ? No thing is more sweet to a lover than to show his love for his Beloved by doing or endu ring great and difficult things for his sake. There now remaineth a fifth condition, which is the most important of all, being especially commanded by our Lord in this parable, viz., watchfulness: "Watch ye therefore, because you know not the clay nor the hour." And in order that these words may be deeply impressed upon the hearts of the faithful, He constantly repeats 'Watch;" and again, in St. Matthew: "Wherefore, be you also ready, because at what hour you know not the Son of man will come ;" and in St. Mark : " Watch ye therefore, for you know not when the Lord of the house cometh : at even, or at mid night, or at the cock crowing, or in the morning ; lest coming on a sudden, he find you sleeping. And what I say to you I say to all : Watch." And in St. Luke : " Bless ed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching." And by the apostle Peter He speaketh : " Be prudent therefore, and watch in prayer ;" and by St. Paul also : ' Therefore let us not sleep, as others do ; but let us watch and be sober;" and by St. John: "Behold I come as a thief: blessed is he that watcheth." All these passages signify, that the coming of the Lord to judgment, whether at the end of the world, or at each one's death in particular, is uncertain; and

therefore God requires of us that we should always watch, waiting in expectation of His coming, that so He may find us prepared, and may not be compelled to exclude us, with the foolish virgins, from the marriagefeast. Wherefore, to " sleep" meaneth nothing more than to be careless of death and judgment, or so to live as never to care or think of so important a matter, on which dependeth eternal salvation. But corporal sleep is not forbidden the faithful, other wise it would not be said in the parable, 'l They all slumbered and slept :" only forgetfulness and want of consideration are forbidden.

Every Christian therefore, to whom the salvation of his soul is dear, ought every day, morning and evening, shutting the door of his heart against all other business, attentively consider that this day or night may possibly be his last : and therefore he should seriously watch, lest he be found unprepared. All men dislike the thought of death, and gladly turn their mind to the consideration of something else; but the sick man dislikes the bitter physic, and yet through love of life he willingly takes it. So also it behoves a prudent man to esteem the loss of his soul more than the fear of death ; and therefore, again and again, he should think that there is no hour in which he may not die. For when this thought deeply descends into the bottom of our heart, it will soon change the whole

and from, carnal make him spiritual, from a sinner a saint : so that he will no more fear, but love the coming of the Lord. Not without reason, then, does our Lord so fre quently exhort us to watch, nor Ecclesiasticus to admonish us : " In all thy works remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin." (chap, vii.) For who, remembering that he is hastening to judgment, and that quickly he will have to stand before the divine tribunal, can dare to sin before his Judge ? We are all hastening every moment to judgment; but yet, so great is human blindness, that even on the journey itself we offend our Judge, and most justly provoke His anger against us. Who is there, when condemned to suffer death, and being led out to execution, would laugh and joke, and speak of his former crimes, or of attaining dignities, and gaining money by traffic, unless he were mad ? Now, we are all certainly condemned to death, nor can any son of Adam escape the sentence: our mortal life is nothing but a journey towards death: but yet, on this journey, which cannot be a long one, how do the generality of Christians act ? What do they think of, what do they speak of, what are they busy about, but honours, riches, pleasures, and even wickedness, as^ if they would never die ! And what is this but to sleep over serious things, and to watch over foolish things ?

Justly, then, doth our Lord cry out:

" Watch, watch;" blessed are those who, excited by these words, reflect where they are, and whither they are going, and so endeavour to have their lamp burning and filled with oil, that when the cry shall be heard, " Behold the spouse cometh, go ye forth to meet him/' they may with joy run forth to meet the Bridegroom, and enter with him into the marriage. Bat woe to them who, forgetful of this, and deaf to the voice of God, shall be found sleeping with their lamps extinguished: being excluded from the delights of the marriage-feast, they will in vain exclaim, "Lord, Lord, open unto us/