Ready for the Bridegroom?

Wisdom 6:12-16 ‘Wisdom is found by those who seek her.’

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 ‘Through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.’

Matthew 25:1-13 ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’

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I imagine we all know the feeling of being sound asleep and then being rudely awakened.

Eyes are bleary, the body heavy and suddenly the new day, with all its joys and its challenges, comes rushing in.

Sleeping and waking are big and important images in the scriptures.

Sleep is a metaphor for death: in sleep we abandon ourselves to something that we cannot control and cannot really understand.

Yet we take comfort in the conviction that ‘the Lord who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep’ (Psalm 121.4).

Sleep is often conflated with sloth, but it is also a sign of entrusting oneself to God’s mercies, as we do in the Office of Compline:

Save us, Lord, while we are awake; protect us while we sleep; that we may keep watch with Christ and rest with him in peace.

And then there is the act of waking.

In the wisdom literature of the Scriptures, early waking from sleep is a good thing, as in this morning’s first reading:

He who rises early to seek [wisdom] will have no difficulty, for he will find her sitting at his gates.

Waking is also a metaphor for resurrection.

In our second reading this is what St Paul says quite clearly:

For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

From the sleep of death we are wakened to full and abundant life.

Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins takes us deeper into this spiritual dimension and interpretation of sleeping and waking.

In the ten virgins of the parable, we see two different ways to prepare for the coming of the bridegroom.

The bridegroom signifies Christ; the virgins are the Church at the wedding feast of the Lamb.

All ten take their lamps and go out to meet the bridegroom; they are all acting well, they actively seek to meet the coming of Christ to the wedding banquet.

That’s what we should be doing now.

And that is where the parable becomes self-examination too: am I expectant, am I prepared, am I watchful and awake to the coming of Jesus Christ.

The Eucharistic prayer will say these powerful words after proclaiming Christ’s Passion, Resurrection and Ascension:

and as we look forward to his second coming,

we offer you in thanksgiving

this holy and living sacrifice.

Looking forward to his Second Coming, the Virgin Church, prepares to receive the Bridegroom and his Wedding Banquet.

The light of the lamps they carry signify for us the illumination that comes with Baptism.

Indeed, in the Rite of Baptism the neophyte, the newly baptised child, is given a lighted candle and told, drawing on this parable:

When the Lord comes, may [you] go out to meet him

with all the saints in the heavenly kingdom.

This is our baptismal task today, not just on the day of our Baptism, it’s lifelong: seek out and meet the Lord as he comes.

The oil of the lamps signifies the anointing of the Holy Spirit which in Baptism protects us against the world, the flesh and the devil, and consecrates us as part of the Royal Priesthood of the Church.

Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6.19) and they need to be replenished with the anointing Spirit which keeps the light of Christ burning in our hearts.

This the wise understand, and the foolish neglect.

It means that when the time comes, when the cry goes up, the wise wake expectant: their wicks are trimmed, a pruning of sorts, and a discipline of body, mind and spirit so that their lamp burns brightly.

The foolish have no oil, they cannot trim their wicks for they are burnt out: they not renewed by the Spirit, they are no longer able to shine as lights in the world to the glory of God the Father, they are not ready or able to go and meet the bridegroom.

The parable is not merely about individual Christians; it also asks what kind of Church we are becoming as we await the Lord's return.

These are two visions of the Church and of Christian disciples: the Church expectant and the Church moribund.

The Church expectant is the new Jerusalem, ‘coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband’ (Revelation 21.2).

She is the willing bride ready to receive her husband: she is eager to hear the cry of the angel who says ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ (Revelation 19.9).

And then the Church moribund: burnt out, exhausted, still drowsy.

The lamp has gone out and no one is in; a Church emptied of the oil of the Holy Spirit.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, I know which vision Christ calls us to.

The Church expectant loves the Lord; feasts on the Scriptures and Sacraments; rejoices in her Communion with the saints; comprises disciples who, though not perfect are being perfected, disciples who lead lives that are trimmed by prayer, acts of mercy and self-denial.

The Church expectant, the Bride of Christ, celebrates the Eucharist rejoicing in the Lord who was foretold by prophets, came as child of the Blessed Virgin, and was heralded by John the Baptist, the ‘friend of the Bridegroom’ who ‘rejoices greatly at the sound of his voice’ (John 3.29).

And she anticipates his coming again at the Marriage Banquet of the Lamb, the divine liturgy.

So let us look out, look up, look east (Ezekiel 43:1–4; Matthew 2:2; 24:27) and see the glory that comes from the Lord.

In that way we replenish the oil that keeps Christ’s light burning in us.

We know neither the day nor the hour of Christ’s coming, but, when the cry goes up:

Let us rejoice and exult
    and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
    and his Bride has made herself ready (Revelation 19.7)