They All Fell Asleep. Only Five Had Oil.

Brother,

Today's Gospel is the parable of the ten virgins. Ten young women wait at night for the bridegroom, lamps in hand.

Five are wise. Five are foolish. And here is the line most of us skip:

"And the bridegroom tarrying, they all slumbered and slept." (Matthew 25:5, Douay-Rheims)

All of them. The wise slept too. The difference was not who stayed awake. The difference was what each one had brought.

What the wise carried

"But the wise took oil in their vessels with the lamps." (Matthew 25:4, Douay-Rheims)

That is all. No great deed. They thought ahead and filled a jar. When the cry went up at midnight, their lamps could burn.

The foolish had lamps too. Same road. Same wait. They just had nothing in reserve. So they turned to the others: "Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out." (Matthew 25:8, Douay-Rheims)

And the wise said no. Not out of meanness. There was not enough for both.

Oil no man can lend

This is a parable, so read it as one. It is not a lesson about sharing. It is a lesson about what cannot be handed off at the last minute.

Some things another man can do for you. He can lend you a truck. He can pray for you, and the saints do pray for us. That is real help, and we need it.

But once you are grown, no man can say your yes to God for you. He cannot keep your friendship with Christ alive for you. That friendship is grace, a gift. With God's help, a man keeps the gift by the means the Church has always given: prayer, the sacraments, and a life that answers back.

The Catechism teaches that prayer is God's gift and also our own answer, and that it always costs effort (CCC 2725). For most of us, prayer grows a little each day. That is how the jar fills.

Easily found

Today's first reading is gentle on this point: "Wisdom is glorious, and never fadeth away, and is easily seen by them that love her, and is found by them that seek her." (Wisdom 6:13, Douay-Rheims; 6:12 in modern Bibles)

She is not hidden. She meets the man who looks.

And the Gospel ends with one plain command: "Watch ye therefore, because you know not the day nor the hour." (Matthew 25:13, Douay-Rheims)

The Church reads this as a call to stay ready every day of our lives, so that when our life on earth is done we may go in with him to the wedding feast (CCC 1036, citing Lumen Gentium 48). This is not a call to fear. In today's second reading St Paul tells the Thessalonians not to grieve like men who have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13; 4:12 in the Douay-Rheims). We wait as men who expect a wedding.

Who is counting on your lamp

A father does not carry only his own lamp. His wife walks beside him with a lamp of her own. In the dark, his children look toward his light.

They cannot borrow his faith either. But they can see it. Children who watch their father pray learn that prayer is real.

This week

One act. Tomorrow morning, before you touch your phone, give God the first ten minutes.

Same place each day. Sit or kneel. Make the Sign of the Cross. Read the Gospel of the day, or today's parable, Matthew 25:1-13. Then talk to him plainly about the day ahead. Close with an Our Father.

If ten minutes is too much to start, take five. Just take them first.

Then do it every morning this week. Same place. Same first minutes.

The Sanctum is built on reps.

Altar. Arms. Allegiance.

— The Sanctum Dispatch

On the channel

The short films are on YouTube — subscribe at youtube.com/@1765Sanctum so they find you.

P.S. — What is the hardest thing about the first ten minutes for you: the phone, the kids, or the clock? One word is enough. Hit reply — I read every reply.

One last thing this week. If you want a month of small acts like tomorrow's first ten minutes, the free 30-day program The Priest of Your Home sends one a day, for leading prayer in your house — the priesthood of the baptized, lived at home (CCC 1657), not Holy Orders: 1765sanctumco.com/priest-of-your-home

For God.  For country.  For the fight.

In Christ and Our Lady,
Will
1765 Sanctum Co.