We often read Sunday's parable as if it were a wake—as if someone had died, or as if the world were ending. But this is a wedding! And weddings, then and now, celebrate life, new beginnings, and the possibilities of moving forward together.
The groom is the groom, and the bride is the bride. We need not turn them into Jesus and the church. The groom is terribly late for his own wedding. It happens. Meanwhile, all ten young women fall asleep. Even the so-called wise ones cannot stay awake!
Five are prudent, resourceful. The other five are careless, unprepared. Perhaps these are young girls, barely twelve, still learning what it means to be responsible. Five prepare for the long wait; five do not. But the prepared ones refuse to share, while the unprepared ones are left scrambling in the darkness.
Then there is the closed door. The groom, accustomed to the security of locked doors at night, shuts out five young women from a celebration they were supposed to join. Everyone has made mistakes. Yet the consequences fall hardest on those least equipped to bear them.
What kind of wedding is this? What kind of celebration excludes people who are late, unprepared, or afraid?
Perhaps the parable invites us not simply to identify the wise and foolish, but to question a world that divides people into insiders and outsiders. Preparation matters, but so do compassion, solidarity, and hospitality. What good is having enough light if we refuse to help someone else see?
A wedding is a celebration of life, not a contest to determine who deserves to belong. There is no reason to fear the darkness, no reason to hoard the little we have, and no reason to keep the doors shut when people are waiting outside.
My friends, if the kingdom of heaven is like a wedding, perhaps our task is not merely to be ready for the celebration, but to make sure there is room for everyone to celebrate.
*Art, "Foolish Virgins," James Tissot (1836-1902), from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.
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