Just a word before we go...Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time...November 12, 2023
In reflecting on our gospel today, did you ever wonder why the wise maidens didn’t share their oil with the so-called foolish ones? After all, didn’t Jesus teach about hospitality and empathy? And what if the parable of the wise maidens isn’t about oil at all? Remember, Jesus was a master at employing particular, familiar situations and up-ending them, in order to make a point that far transcended those examples. In the kingdom Jesus preached, there would be abundance, a full measure for all. So what gives in this gospel? What does the oil represent?
Our first reading gives us a hint, extolling the search for wisdom: “Resplendent and unfading is wisdom, and she is readily perceived by those who love her and found by those who seek her.” Wisdom isn’t the same as knowledge, but refers to a perceptivity, a discerning way, an insight that surpasses our human understanding and serves as a guide. Wisdom is personified in Scripture as “Lady Wisdom,” or Jesus the Word of God, or the Holy Spirit. Considering these figures, one can easily substitute the word love for the word wisdom.
The 7th century Syrian bishop, theologian and monk, Isaac of Nineveh, preached that God is absolute mercy and love. His take on this gospel goes like this: “There is a love like a small lamp, fed by oil, which goes out when the oil is ended; or like a rain-fed stream which goes dry, when the rain no longer feeds it, But there is a love, like a spring gushing from the earth, never to be exhausted.”
From our faith, we know that second kind of love, the kind that gives life, is Jesus, the personification of wisdom. We also know that each of us must make our own journey through this life; we can’t trade on someone else’s bona fides to pull us through. So, perhaps one meaning to be gleaned from today’s gospel is to ask for wisdom, to cultivate love, by internalizing the words and life of Jesus. Oil will eventually run dry, but we, foolish no more, can rely on that inexhaustible stream of life-giving water flowing from the wisdom and love of Jesus.