Time is Money. This familiar saying seems to be very appropriate for our times, our culture. If we call a serviceman to our home to fix something, a good part of the bill is figured on the time the serviceman spends at our house.
If we take our car to a mechanic, a good part of the bill is the time the mechanic spends working on our car.
Western society has become accustomed to using the clock as a measure for ruling their lives. This isn't true everywhere. It can more important in some cultures for those going to a meeting to be more prepared psychologically than to be on time.
Western business people and governments sometimes have to struggle with this when they are meeting with people for whom "being in the right frame of mind" is much more important than being on time.
We meet these culture differences many times when we read or hear scripture. The parable in this week’s Gospel is an example.
When we get invited to a wedding that is supposed to start at 1 o'clock in the afternoon, we expect it to start at one o'clock and it usually does.
In today's parable this is very different. Jesus, of course, uses the customs of his time and culture. The ten virgins have to wait and wait for the bridegroom.
Also, the bride and the people at the celebration also are waiting and waiting for the groom. The parable says that the virgins waited so long that they fell asleep.
What was the holdup? Well, the marriage could be held up because of negotiations of the bride's dowry between the groom and the bride's father and brothers.
These negotiations could be quite drawn out and the arrival of the groom around midnight would not be unusual.
Actually the length of the negotiations was complimentary to the bride because the father did not want to part with his daughter or the brothers with their sister.
As soon as all this was settled and the groom and his party was sighted, the virgins were to go and meet them and welcome them. So, it was necessary for plenty of oil to keep the lamps lit. This was a very joyous occasion and only the very foolish would be caught unprepared. This is the point of Jesus parable.
In this parable of the Ten Virgins, which Jesus is telling to his disciples - which also means to us - Jesus is the bridegroom and the waiting virgins are the Christian community that is us. We are called to be prepared for the coming of Christ as the five virgins who had brought an extra supply of oil.
The foolish virgins came unprepared. They had to go out and purchase extra oil and by the time they returned the doors were shut to the celebration.
Likewise, those who are not prepared for their call from this life or the second coming of Christ will find themselves shut out of the celebration of life eternal.
A person may say, well, the Christian thing the wise virgins should have done would have been to give the foolish virgins some of their oil.
But we must remember that a parable is trying to make a point - in this parable the point is to be prepared for the second coming of Christ, which certainly includes to be prepared for our death.
The parable also makes the point that we cannot rely on the good works of others, on the preparedness of others, we must make our own preparations.
Just as the five foolish virgins learned that it was too late to meet the groom because they were not prepared, so are we to realize that when Jesus does return -there will be no time or opportunity for any last ditch efforts at preparedness.
Just as the foolish virgins did not get into the wedding feast by crying out, "Lord, Lord, open the door for us," we will not get into the celebration of eternal life by mere lip service. So, we must always be ready to meet the Lord. The parable says beware to those who have become lax in their practice of the faith and say, "I'm not ready just yet to deal with religion. Maybe later."
This parable says beware to those who say, "Yea, someday I will spend some time doing something for others, right now there's too many other things I want to do."
One time a little boy whose name was Johnny came home from school and decided he was going to spend some time playing with his guinea pig.
When he got to the cage, he found the guinea pig was missing. He ran into the kitchen and asked his mom if she knew where his guinea pig was.
She replied, "Yes, I got rid of it!" "Why did you get rid of it? I liked to play with it and take care of it."
"Johnny, I got rid of it ten days ago."
Sometimes we are not doing what we think we are doing. Our watchfulness must be a daily thing, the most important thing.
When the bridegroom comes, whether it be before the end of time or at Jesus coming at the end of time we must "be prepared" so we can go with him to the wedding feast.