St. John of Ávila exhorts Christians to remain vigilant, using the parable of the ten virgins as a call to preparedness and spiritual prudence. He stresses the importance of using time wisely, obeying God’s will, and maintaining personal devotion so that one is ready to meet the Bridegroom at the final judgment. Vigilance, faith, and obedience are essential for both preachers and the faithful alike.
“Vigilate itaque.”
“Stay awake, therefore.”
Exordium
THOSE who sleep much and have need of getting up very early have need of commending themselves to someone who is awake, who will remember them. Our Lord Jesus Christ calls us and commands that we keep vigil. He commands us to wake up. It’s very important for us to wake up; it does us much profit to keep vigil. The Virgin is she who always kept vigil; from the moment she was conceived, she was always keeping vigil, and because of we who are asleep, God thinks it good to give us some little thing with which we might stay awake, commending us to the Virgin, and let us supplicate her with the angelic salutation, saying, Ave, Maria.
Parable of the Virgins: Five Were Prudent and Five Crazy
Stay awake, therefore. The words are taken from the Gospel of Saint Matthew, chapter 25. While all things were in the midst of silence, and it was night, at midnight, when sleep has its greatest strength, God sent His Word. A great mercy descended, because there was a great misery on the ground. When the Lord came to the world, He found men in midnight, in the deepest of sleep, and cried out: “Stay awake, stay awake, why are you sleeping?” Beware, lest you sleep! Christ our Redeemer awakens us not only with words, but with deeds. What an example for preachers, that we should wander about preaching! Our Lord kept so great a vigil that everything we do is nothing in comparison with Him.
The Kingdom of the Heavens and Preparedness
This was the office of our Redeemer, to cry out to men: “Stay awake.” He wanted to tell it to us through a parable. The Word enclosed in a low thing. Just so, He wanted His powerful word to be preached in parables; and so He tells us in the Gospel: The kingdom of the heavens is like ten virgins. Christianity is called “the kingdom of the heavens.” We have to do the will of God like them, and we have to live like them. The kingdom of the heavens—Christianity—is like ten virgins, five of whom were prudent, and five were crazy; they were betrothed to the Bridegroom. The five made provision, they took oil in their oil-jars; the other five did not take care to take some. At midnight, a great voice resounds, and all wake up. The prudent ones come, with their lamps lit, very stocked with oil. The fools come, those who didn’t recognize their own madness until prudence was needed, and they found themselves mocked.
The Importance of Using Time Wisely
What you did not reach in your youth, how will you find it in sickness? May God let us understand this. Brother, how are our days spent? Going to the plaza? Returning home to eat? Back to the plaza, and back to supper? Beware, for this time is given us in order to reach Him; if we do not take oil here, in the other life, we will have no light. The Bridegroom is a friend of light, and how will we be found if He finds us in the dark? Let not such a great trick be played on us, so that we find ourselves unstocked, without light, and lose the chance to enter with the Bridegroom. He who does not stock up will go begging.
Lessons for Preachers and Obedience
Here, preachers will learn what they teach others; they have to give and leave some for themselves; they have to have enough for themselves and for others; if not, it would be better to say: “I only have enough for myself. Small is the cape; it can’t cover two. Narrow is the seat; there’s not room for both.” Why don’t we do this? I, at least, confess my fault here.
May God let that man understand the great mercy that He did him in putting him under another’s will, in letting him be ruled by another, so that he doesn’t do his own will. It is a most great mercy of God’s that one goes through this waist-deep mud, and another goes on his shoulders and doesn’t get muddy. Let him who commands look to how he commands; let him who rules look to how he rules; but the one commanded is secure, he doesn’t have to look. Faith has to be in things that my reason doesn’t reach, that I don’t reach: that is what I obey. For what I reach and what conforms to my will, I do it, but it’s not obedience.
Final Exhortation: Walk On
Let us turn to our proposition: “Walk on, for we cannot give to you.” On that fearful day of judgment, each one will have so much to do, including understanding how he will give account of himself, that he won’t be able to help anyone. “Walk on, so that you won’t be lacking, O unfortunate one!” At the time when you have to eat, are you going to sow? At the time when you have to dress, do you remember to make the cloak? Now that you have to go out with your light, are you going to look for oil? The bridegroom comes, receives the prudent, has taken them with him into his chamber, closes himself in with them. The crazy ones come. Oh crazy ones, and if you knew what is happening! The door is closed. Lord, Lord! Bona est vox: “Good is the sentence,” says Saint Jerome. “Lord, Lord! ” “Who’s there?” Five virgins betrothed to You with words of the future. The bridegroom says: “Walk on from here, crazies, for, however much you tell me who you are, your name and office, and claim to me that you are virgins, I do not know you; and, if you want, I will swear it: Truly, I do not know who you are.” Lord, by Your goodness, let not our ears hear this sentence: I don’t know you! “You don’t speak My language, that isn’t My mold, you haven’t lived as My brides, we are not as one, you are not to enter with Me into My wedding feast.”
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This article is taken from a chapter in My Burden Is Light: Suffering and Consolation in the Christian Life by St. John of Ávila which is available from TAN Books.
