Finally, there is the parable which likens the happiness of the blessed to a royal wedding feast, to which ten virgins were invited (Matt. 25): five foolish and five wise. Here it must first be briefly explained who the bridegroom is and who the bride; then, how excellent a good is signified by the name of wedding feast; and lastly, what is required that we may be able to attain so excellent a good.
And first, no one can doubt that the Bridegroom is Christ. St. John the Baptist expressed this in plain words when, 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 (John 3). The Lord Himself says the same in the parable of the king who made a wedding feast for his son (Matt. 22). The Apostle confirms the same most plainly when he says to the Corinthians: I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ (2 Cor. 11). Lastly, St. John signifies the same in the Apocalypse when he says: Let us be glad and rejoice, and give glory to him: for the wedding feast of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath prepared herself (Rev. 19). And again: Blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Of the bride it is equally certain that she is the Church; for the Apostle in the Epistle to the Ephesians says plainly: 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 delivered himself up for it (Eph. 5). And further on: 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.
But although the Church is the bride of Christ, and the faithful are called sons of the Church because through the laver of Baptism she in a manner brings them forth to Christ: nevertheless, since the Church is nothing other than the assembly of the faithful, all faithful souls are therefore particular brides, just as the Church is the universal bride. For the Church does not sing falsely of the holy virgins: Come, bride of Christ, receive the crown which the Lord hath prepared for thee forever. (And although holy virgins are called brides of Christ in a special sense — because they spurned carnal wedlock that they might be spiritually wedded to Christ alone — yet the other Christian souls too are brides of Christ, since they are espoused to Him by faith and united by charity, and sigh for the consummation of the spiritual marriage in the kingdom of heaven.)
Now indeed, what manner of good it is for a human soul to be joined in wedlock with Christ — and with Him even as He is God — if anyone could grasp it or worthily conceive it, he would perhaps find nothing more honorable, nothing more profitable, nothing sweeter either in this world or in the world to come. Great is the glory, the profit, and the sweetness of serving the King of kings; greater still, to be numbered among the friends and household of God and to be called a brother of Christ; but that a soul may be called the bride of God — sharer of His throne, sharer of His bed, sharer of His crown, sharer of all His titles — seems to me, if I may so speak, a good more than the greatest. For this is what the Lord says in Isaiah of the spiritual eunuchs: I will give them in my house a name better than sons and daughters (Isa. 56) — that is, I will give them the name of a spouse. Who can grasp how exalted, how honorable, and how full of delight it is not only to see God and to converse and dwell with God, but to be made one spirit with God, and to be transformed into God — that is, into the supreme good? They are the Apostle's words: He that cleaveth to a harlot is made one body; for they shall be two in one flesh. But he that cleaveth to the Lord is one spirit (1 Cor. 6). And again: But we all, beholding the glory of the Lord with open face, are transformed into the same image from brightness to brightness, as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor. 3). What a sense of delight there will be when, united to God and irradiated by the brightness of His countenance, we shall be transformed into the very brightness of God, so as to be made most like to God! We shall be like to him, says St. John, because we shall see him as he is (1 John 3). Nor shall we be like Him only as images created after His likeness, but like in glory, in beatitude, in happiness. The Apostle Paul, in that great ecstasy which he underwent when, caught up into paradise, he heard secret words which it is not granted to man to utter (2 Cor. 12), was not yet in God; and yet he could not tell whether he was in the body or out of the body. How great, then, will be that most blessed union of the soul with God, and how swallowed up and immersed in a sea of all sweetness will that soul be which shall be one spirit with God! Such surely will this joy be that, as St. Bernard attests, compared with it every other delight is sadness, every sweetness pain, all that is sweet bitter, all that is comely foul, and in short everything else that can delight is rightly judged a burden. But since this embrace of the most beautiful Bridegroom with the blessed soul is ineffable, let us rather inquire, and understand from the parable proposed, what is required that we may be admitted to that wedding feast which is in every part most blessed. All this we shall learn from the qualities of the wise virgins, since they alone — the foolish being shut out — went in to the wedding feast of the heavenly Bridegroom. Five are the conditions or qualities that are required: first, that the soul be a virgin; secondly, that she be wise; then, that she have light in her lamp; further, oil in her vessel; and lastly, that she watch, and by watching diligently observe the Bridegroom's coming.
As to the first: all brides of Christ must be virgins — not necessarily in the flesh, but in the virginity of faith and morals — as St. Augustine rightly expounds in his sermons On the Words of the Lord, on that saying of the Apostle: I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ (Serm. 93), where by that virgin he understands the whole Church of the Corinthians, in which it is certain enough that not all were virgins in the flesh (2 Cor. 11), since the same Apostle in the former Epistle admonished married believers of their duty. They therefore are the virgins in this parable — men and women alike — who are not corrupted in faith and morals, and who, departing from all evil, do not defile their souls.
But because for perfect justice it is not enough to decline from evil, but one must also do good — according to the royal Prophet, Decline from evil, and do good (Ps. 36) — therefore a second condition is added: that the virgin be wise, not foolish; and that she not think it enough for herself if she harms no one, does not kill, does not steal, does not bear false witness, but that she understand that she must consider the last end and order the means to that end.
And because the end is eternal life, and the means are the merits of good works, therefore a third condition is added: that she have light in her lamp, or a burning lamp — which is good works, as the same St. Augustine teaches in the place cited; and the Lord Himself taught it before, when He said: So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
But because good works proceed from charity as from a root, and cannot be preserved unless they are fostered and nourished by the same charity — just as the light of a lamp is necessarily extinguished if the supply of oil fails — therefore a fourth condition is required: that the wise virgin have always oil in her vessel. Moreover, that charity is signified by the oil, St. Augustine teaches in the same place, from the fact that oil rises above all other liquids; and charity is above all virtues, as the Apostle says: A yet more eminent — or, as we read, a more excellent — way I show unto you (1 Cor. 12). And a little after: And now there remain faith, hope, charity, these three: but the greater of these is charity (1 Cor. 13). Therefore, if anyone in his heart either sets anything before charity or makes anything equal to it, charity at once departs; for she must either hold the first place and rule and reign in our heart, or go away — because oil is a most subtle, airy, and fiery liquid, which ascends above all others. And so great is the power of the oil of charity in mounting upward that, if it be poured into the soul of a publican or of a harlot, it at once draws that soul upward, and of a sinner makes a saint, of a carnal a spiritual soul. Nay, I even dare to say that if this oil could drip into the souls of damned men, or into the very demons, we should at once see all the damned, or all the demons, mount on high; and if, on the contrary, this oil should forsake the souls of the holy Angels, Apostles, Martyrs, and Virgins, they would at once grow heavy and sink down to the depths. Behold, then, how great is the excellence of this oil, and how justly are the foolish virgins so called, who lacked this oil. But there is yet another reason why charity is signified by oil: namely, that oil renders all hard and rough things soft and smooth. This oil makes sweet the yoke of which the Lord said: My yoke is sweet (Matt. 11), since by the grace of charity the yoke laid upon us is rotted away, as it were, at the presence of the oil, as Isaiah says (Isa. 10). For what made sweet in the Apostles the yoke of obedience — of going into all the world and preaching the Gospel to every creature — but the oil of charity? What made sweet in the Martyrs the yoke of patience in enduring very many torments, unheard of before that time, but the oil of charity? What made sweet the yoke of poverty, of continence, and of obedience for so many thousands of religious and of nuns, but the oil of charity? For nothing is sweeter to one who loves than to show his love to the beloved by doing or enduring great and difficult things for him; even as Christ also showed His love toward the human race by nothing more than by suffering for us.
I have spoken of the oil at somewhat greater length, because it could not easily be understood how it signified charity. There remains the fifth condition, which is the chief one, and the one especially intended by the Lord in this parable, namely, watchfulness: for so the parable is concluded: Watch ye therefore, because you know not the day nor the hour (Matt. 25). And that this saying may be deeply fixed in the hearts of the faithful, the Lord repeats it again and again: Watch, He says again in Matthew, because you know not what hour your Lord will come (Matt. 24). And in Mark: Watch ye therefore, for you know not when the lord of the house cometh: at even, or at midnight, 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 (Mark 13). And in Luke: Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching (Luke 12). And elsewhere: Watch ye therefore, praying at all times (Luke 21). And through St. Peter: Be prudent, and watch in prayers (1 Pet. 4). And through St. Paul: Let us not sleep, as also the others; but let us watch, and be sober (1 Thess. 5). And through St. John: Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth (Rev. 16). All these things signify that the day and the hour are uncertain — whether at the consummation of the world or in each one's particular death — and that therefore God requires of us that we should always keep watch, our soul in suspense with the expectation of His coming, that He may find us prepared and not be forced to shut us out of His wedding feast together with the foolish virgins. Therefore to sleep is nothing else than to forget death and judgment, or so to live as if we never thought of, nor cared about, a matter so great upon which eternal salvation hangs. For bodily sleep is not forbidden to the faithful — otherwise it would not be said in the parable, They all slumbered and slept — but what is forbidden is forgetfulness, thoughtlessness, and heedlessness.
Therefore every faithful man who has the salvation of his soul at heart ought every day, both morning and evening, having shut the door of his heart to all other business, to think attentively, and there to persuade himself with certainty that that day or that night could easily be his last; and thereby seriously to provide lest he be found so unprepared that he suffer the loss of his soul and of all goods together. All mortals indeed shrink from thinking of death, and gladly turn the mind away to other things to be thought of; but the sick man also shrinks from the bitter medicine, and yet for love of life willingly takes it; and the eyes shrink from seeing a ghastly wound in their own body, yet still they look attentively, so as to apply the remedy to it,
So therefore it is necessary that a prudent man count the loss of his soul of more moment than the horror of death, and that he think again and yet again that there is no age and no hour in which he cannot die. For this thought, when it descends deep into the inmost heart, is wont easily to change the whole man, and to make of the carnal man a spiritual one, and of the sinner a saint, so that he no longer dreads but loves the coming of the Lord. Not without cause does our Lord so often exhort us to watch; nor in vain does Sirach admonish: In all thy works remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin (Sir. 7). For who, thinking that he is hastening to the Judge and must shortly be made to stand before His tribunal, would dare to sin against that very Judge? And yet we are all hastening at every moment to the judgment; and so great is human blindness that on the very road to the judgment we outrage the Judge Himself and most justly provoke His wrath against us. And what man already condemned to death, while he is being led to it, would laugh and jest, and talk of fornication or adultery, or of obtaining some dignity, or of increasing his wealth by trading, unless he were plainly out of his senses? And yet we are truly condemned to death, nor does any of the children of Adam escape the sentence of death; and our mortal life is nothing else than a race toward death; and yet on this journey, which cannot be long, what do most men — even Christians — do? What do they think of, what do they speak of, what do they busy themselves with, save gains, honors, and pleasures — not to say crimes and shameful deeds — as though the road to death were never to be ended? And what else is this but to sleep toward serious things and to watch toward trifles? or to sleep, and in sleeping to dream?
Rightly therefore does the Lord cry out: Watch, watch. And blessed are they who are roused by this voice, and call to mind where they are and whither they are going, and meanwhile take pains that their lamp may shine and that oil may abound in the vessel; so that when that cry is heard, Behold the bridegroom cometh, go ye forth to meet him, they may straightway run joyfully to meet the bridegroom, and enter with him into the wedding feast. But woe to those who, forgetful of so great a matter and deaf to the voices of the Scriptures, are found sleeping with their lamps extinguished, and, shut out of the sweetest wedding feast, will cry in vain: Lord, Lord, open to us.