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Homilies on the Gospels

St Gregory the Dialogist, tr. Burke, 1960; selections

4. The Ten Virgins

Then shall the kingdom of heaven be like to ten virgins, who, taking their lamps, went out to meet the bridegroom and the bride. And five of them were foolish and five wise. But the five foolish, having taken their lamps, did not take oil with them. But the wise took oi lin their vessels with the lamps. And, the bridegroom tarrying, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made: Behold, the bridegroom cometh. Go ye forth to meet him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise: Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out. The wise answered, saying: Lest perhaps there be not enough for us and for you, go ye rather to them that sell and buy for yourselves. Now whilst they went to buy the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage. And the door was shut. But at last came also the other virgins, saying: Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answering said: Amen, I say to you, I know you not. Watch ye, therefore, because you know not the day nor the hour.
Mt. xxv, 1-13.

Homilia XII in Evangelia.

I have frequently exhorted you, dearly beloved brethren, to avoid evil actions, to preserve yourselves unstained by the corruption of this earth. But today’s passage of the Gospel moves me to spur your vigilance in what concerns your good actions, lest in doing them, you seek some human gift or favour, for if you desire praise for your exterior actions, they merit no interior reward. Our Redeemer speaks of ten virgins: all are virgins, but not all enter through the gates of happiness; for some of them, who sought earthly esteem for their virginity, omitted to take oil in their vessels. But first we must ask: what does this kingdom of heaven signify and why it is compared to ten virgins who are called, moreover, foolish and wise? Since none of the wicked may enter that kingdom, why is it compared to the foolish as well as to the wise? We must know that often in holy scripture the kingdom of heaven represents the church militant. So that in another place Christ says: “The Son of man shall send his angels; and they shall gather out of his kingdom all scandals.”¹ In that kingdom of the blessed there are no scandals, but only the fullness of peace is to be found. And again we read: “He therefore that shall break one of these least commandments and shall so teach men shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But he that shall do and teach, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”² Whoever preaches what he does not practise violates the commandment he would have others obey. That man is not worthy to enter the kingdom of eternal happiness who does not fulfil his own teaching. How then can he be called the least in the kingdom if he cannot even gain admittance? We must therefore understand that it is the present church which is signified here. In the church that teacher is called the least who breaks its precepts: contempt for his teaching must naturally follow upon scorn for his way of life. Each person has five senses which, multiplied by two, gives ten. Since the multitude of the faithful consists of persons of both sexes, the church is said to be like ten virgins. Here the good and the wicked, the elect and the rejected mingle, so that the similitude of wise and foolish virgins is justified. There are many who are chaste, restraining their desires for outward things and desire only an interior life; they mortify their bodies; full of an ardent longing for their heavenly home they refuse all human praise and seek eternal reward alone. These do not allow their glory to appear on men’s lips, but hide it deep in their consciences. So also there are many who afflict their bodies by abstinence, but expecting to win thereby the esteem of others; they give good doctrine to others and give many alms. Nevertheless, these are foolish virgins, seeking only the fleeting reward of human praise. Apt, then, are those words: “But the five foolish, having taken their lamps, did not take oil with them. But the wise took oil in their vessels with the lamps.” The oil represents the brightness of glory, the vessels are our hearts, in which we carry all our thoughts. The prudent virgins had oil in their vessels because they kept hidden in their consciences the lustre of this inward glory, as Paul asserts when he says: “our glory is this: the testimony of our conscience.”³ The foolish virgins did not take oil with them because they did not hide their glory within, but sought it from their neighbours’ lips. Note that all of them had lamps, but not all had oil: frequently the wicked can show good works just like the elect, but only those meet the bridegroom with oil who desire none but God’s esteem for those outward actions. So that the psalmist says of the holy church of the elect “All the glory of the king’s daughter is within.”⁴

“And, the bridegroom tarrying, they all slumbered and slept,” for, since the judge delays his coming until the final scrutiny, both good and bad all sleep the sleep of death: for to sleep means to die. To slumber before one sleeps signifies the decline of health: growing infirmity lulls us into the sleep of death. “And at midnight there was a cry made: Behold, the bridegroom cometh. Go ye forth to meet him.” A cry at midnight announces the arrival of the bridegroom: thus the day of judgment is so hidden in obscurity that we cannot know beforehand when it will come. It is written: “The day of the Lord shall so come as a thief in the night.”⁵ Then all the virgins awake, because both good and wicked are roused from the sleep of death. They trim their lamps, that is, they count the number of their good works in reward for which they hope to receive eternal happiness. But the lamps of the foolish virgins fail, because their works, which were seen so clearly by men, wane and vanish at the coming of the judge. From God they will receive no recompense, for men gave them the praise they esteemed so highly. What are we to understand by that petition for oil which they make to the prudent virgins if not that, in the hour of judgment, discovering their interior want, they seek testimony from without? As if, deceived by their own presumption, they said to their neighbours: “Since you see us rejected as if we had done no good works, tell what you have seen of them.” But the wise virgins answer: “Lest perhaps there be not enough for us and for you.” For in that day (I say this of some who rest in the peace of the church) the testimony of each one will scarcely suffice for himself: how much less, then, for him and for his neighbour? So that immediately they are exhorted: “Go ye rather to them that sell and buy for yourselves.” The sellers of oil are the flatterers. For they who, when anyone receives grace from God, attribute its lustre to his merits, act as if they sold oil. Of this oil the psalmist says: “Let not the oil of the sinner fatten my head.”⁶ The head is the principal part of the body, and here it signifies the soul, which governs the body. The oil of the sinner fattens our head when the applause of the flatterer gratifies our soul. “Now whilst they went to buy the bridegroom came”: because while they seek a witness to their lives from their neighbour, the judge comes, who is witness not only of their works, but of their heart. “And they that were ready went in with him to the marriage. And the door was shut.”

Ah, if only we could realise with all our heart the wonder of those words: “the bridegroom came”! What sweetness when “they went in with him to the marriage”! What bitterness when “the door was shut.” He will come, indeed, whose coming petrifies the elements, in whose presence the earth and heavens tremble. So that he says by the prophet: “Yet once more; and I will move, not only the earth, but heaven also.”⁷ All the human race will undergo that scrutiny. He who is served by angels, archangels, thrones, principalities and powers comes to chastise the wicked, to remunerate the good. Think, brethren, what will be the terror of that day, in the presence of such a judge, when there will be no escape from his judgment. What confusion that man will feel who, for his faults, must blush before the assembly of angels and men. What fear to see him in anger whom the human mind fails to understand even when he is quite serene. Thinking of that day the prophet says: “That day is a day of wrath, a day of tribulation and distress, a day of calamity and misery, a day of darkness and obscurity, a day of clouds and whirlwinds, a day of the trumpet and alarm.”⁸ Consider dearly beloved with what bitterness he foresaw that day of judgment, since so many phrases will not explain it. How the blessed will rejoice in their recompense, when they enjoy that vision of him in whose presence the elements tremble and they will go in with him to the marriage. At the same time as they rejoice in the nuptials of the bridegroom, they themselves will be the bride: for in the bridal chamber of the eternal kingdom they are united for ever to their God. Thenceforth that vision can never be snatched from their possession. The door of the kingdom will close for ever upon those left outside, who then will weep; that same door is now open to all penitents. There will be repentance then, but it will be fruitless: they will not find pardon then who waste the time now in which they might repent. So that Paul says: “Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”⁹ And the prophet says: “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found: call upon him while he is near.”¹⁰

The Lord does not hear the virgins call him, because once the door of the kingdom is closed they can no longer approach him, who was formerly so approachable. Thus the parable adds: “At last came also the other virgins, saying: Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answering said: Amen, I say to you, I know you not.” The man who does not heed God’s precepts cannot merit to have his petition heard; he who wasted the time of fruitful penance pleads in vain before the gate of the kingdom. So God tells us through Solomon: “Because I called, and you refused. I stretched out my hand, and there was none that regarded. You have despised all my counsel, and have neglected my reprehensions. I also will laugh in your destruction, and will mock when that shall come to you which you feared. When sudden calamity shall fall on you, and destruction, as a tempest, shall be at hand: when tribulation and distress shall come upon you. Then shall they call upon me, and I will not hear: they shall rise in the morning and shall not find me.”¹¹ Hear them plead that the door be opened, sadly invoking the name of the master; goaded on by the anguish of their rejection they cry: “Lord, Lord open to us.” They pray, but their prayers are not heard: for God will abandon as unknown to him those whom he does not now recognise, by the merit of their lives, as his own. It is right, then, that he should give his disciples this general counsel: “Watch ye, therefore, because you know not the day nor the hour.” Since repentance can blot out sin, if a man foresaw the hour of his death he could devote some of his time to pleasure and the rest to penitence. But God, who has promised pardon to the penitent, has not promised another day on earth to any sinner. Therefore we must be in continual fear of that last day whose date we cannot foresee. Reflect that we have been given this very day on which we are speaking in order to make a truce with God and be converted: nevertheless we refuse to lament the evil we have done. Not only do we not repent of the evil committed, but we even increase the guilt for which in justice we should weep. But if any illness attacks us, if its symptoms indicate the approach of death, then indeed we ask for a prolongation of our life in order to bemoan our sins, we pray with all our heart and soul. Yet when we are well we act quite otherwise.

I am going to tell you, brethren, a story whose consideration will be of great profit to you if you listen with attention. In the province of Valeria there was a man named Chrysorius, commonly called Chryserius: a talented man, but with as many vices as possessions: puffed up with pride, dominated by passion and becoming more and more a slave to avarice. But God, determined to put an end to so much wickedness, afflicted him with an illness. I have heard this from a saintly person who is still alive, a relative of this man. Lying at the point of death, on opening his eyes, he saw black and fearsome spirits come towards him, to drag him down to hell. He began to tremble and grow pale and he broke out in a cold sweat. In the hope of respite he called for his son Maximus, a monk known to me personally; and he cried with vehemence: “Quickly, Maximus, for I have never done you any wrong. Take me under your protection!” Soon Maximus arrived, much perturbed, and all the family gathered, weeping and trembling. They could not see the evil spirits which he saw menacing him, but they felt their presence in his confusion, his shuddering and his pallor. Driven by terror of these horrible phantoms, he turned himself this way and that in the bed; lying on his left side he could not bear the sight of them: turning to the wall they were there before him. So that in despair of ever freeing himself from these dreadful visions, he cried aloud: “A truce until tomorrow, a truce until tomorrow.” But in the act of uttering these words, he died. So it is clear that he had this vision for our sake, not for his own: that what he saw should be of profit to us for whom the divine patience is still waiting. For in what way could it benefit him to see those foul spirits before his death and to seek a truce, when it was not granted him? We should consider this example earnestly, dear brethren, lest our time go by in vain and we should have to seek longer life to do good works, when the time comes for us to leave this mortal body. Remember our Lord’s words: “Pray that your flight be not in winter or on the sabbath”.¹² According to the precept of the old Law,¹³ it was forbidden to walk a great distance on the sabbath-day and the winter also is a time unsuitable for travelling, because the cold hinders our steps. He says then, “Pray that your flight be not in winter or on the sabbath”, as if to say: “See that you do not wish to fly from your sins when it is no longer permissible to travel.” Now, while we may, let us think of that time when the possibility shall end. We should have the thought of our death constantly before our minds, remembering this counsel of our Redeemer: “Watch ye, therefore, because you know not the day nor the hour”.

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