Sermons to the People 93.1–94.1

Those of you who were here yesterday remember our promise, which today, with the Lord’s help, is to be paid not to you alone but also to the many others who have gathered. Who the ten virgins are, of whom five are wise and five foolish, cannot easily be traced out. Yet according to what is contained in the reading itself, which I wished to have read to your Charity again today, so far as the Lord deigns to give me understanding, this parable or likeness does not seem to me to concern only those who in the church are called virgins because of a special and more excellent holiness, whom by a more common word we are also accustomed to call nuns; but, unless I am mistaken, this likeness concerns the whole church. Even if we understood it of those alone who are called nuns, are there only ten? God forbid that so great a multitude of virgins should be brought down to so small a number. But perhaps someone may say: “What if they are many in name, and so few in truth that scarcely ten are found?” It is not so. For if he wished only ten to be understood as good, he would not have shown five foolish ones there. For if those called virgins are many, why is the door of the great house shut against five?

Let us understand, then, dearly beloved, that this parable concerns all of us, that is, the whole church without exception: not only those set over others, of whom we spoke yesterday, nor only the people, but absolutely all. Why, then, five and five virgins? These five and five virgins are all the souls of Christians whatever. But to tell you what we think, by God’s inspiration: not souls of any sort, but such souls as hold the Catholic faith and seem to have good works in the church of God; and yet of them five are wise and five foolish. First let us see why they are called five, and why virgins; and then let us consider the rest. Every soul in a body is reckoned by the number five, because it uses five senses. For there is nothing we perceive through the body except by a fivefold door: by seeing, by hearing, by smelling, by tasting, or by touching. Whoever, then, abstains from unlawful seeing, unlawful hearing, unlawful smelling, unlawful tasting, unlawful touching, has received the name of virgin because of that very integrity.

But if it is good to abstain from unlawful movements of the senses, and for that reason every Christian soul has received the name of virgin, why are five admitted and five turned away? They are virgins, and they are turned away. It is not enough that they are virgins: they also have lamps. Virgins, because of abstinence from unlawful sensations; they have lamps, because of good works. Of these works the Lord says: “Let your works shine before men, so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Again he says to the disciples: “Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning.” In the girded loins, virginity; in the burning lamps, good works.

Virginity is not usually spoken of among the married; yet there too there is a virginity of faith, which shows itself in married chastity. For so that your Holiness may know that it is not inappropriate to call each man or each woman a virgin in soul, and in the integrity of faith by which one abstains from unlawful things and good works are done: the whole church, which consists of virgins and boys, married women and married men, is called by one name, a virgin. How do we prove this? Hear the apostle, speaking not to the nuns alone but to the whole church without exception: “I have betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” And because the devil, the corrupter of this virginity, must be guarded against, the same apostle, having said, “I have betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ,” at once added: “But I fear lest, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, so your minds too may be corrupted from the chastity that is in Christ.” Few have virginity in the body; all ought to have it in the heart. If, then, abstinence from unlawful things is good, from which virginity took its name, and good works are praiseworthy, which are signified by the lamps: why are five admitted and five turned away? If someone is a virgin and carries lamps, and yet is not admitted, where does he see himself who neither keeps virginity from unlawful things nor wishes to have good works, but walks in darkness?

About these, then, my brothers, about these rather let us reason. Whoever does not wish to see what is evil, does not wish to hear what is evil, turns his smell away from the unlawful fumes of sacrifices, turns his taste away from the unlawful food of sacrifices, flees the embrace of another man’s wife, breaks bread for the hungry, brings the stranger into his house, clothes the naked, reconciles the quarrelsome, visits the sick, buries the dead: see, a virgin; see, he has lamps. What more do we look for? I look for more still. “What more are you looking for?” someone says. I look for more still: the holy Gospel has made me attentive. Even of these virgins carrying lamps it called some wise and others foolish. How do we see it? How do we tell them apart? By the oil. The oil signifies something great, very great. Do you think it is not love? We say it as inquirers; we do not rush to a verdict. I will tell you why it seems to me that love is signified by the oil. The apostle says, “I show you a still more excellent way.” What more excellent way does he show? “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.” That is the more excellent way, that is, love, which is rightly signified by oil. For oil rises above all liquids. Pour in water and pour oil on top: the oil rises above. Pour in oil, pour water on top: the oil rises above. If you keep the order, it wins; if you change the order, it wins. “Love never fails.”

What then, brothers? Now let us discuss the five wise virgins and the five foolish. They wished to go out to meet the bridegroom. What is it to go out to meet the bridegroom? To go with the heart, to await his coming. But he delayed. While he delays, they all slept. What does “all” mean? Foolish and wise, they all grew drowsy and slept. Do we think this sleep is good? What is this sleep? Is it perhaps that, while the bridegroom delays, “because iniquity abounds, the love of many grows cold”? Are we to understand this sleep so? I do not like it; I will tell you why. Because the wise are there too; and certainly when the Lord said, “Because iniquity has abounded, the love of many will grow cold,” he went on to say, “But whoever perseveres to the end will be saved.” Where do you want these wise virgins to be? Are they not among those who persevered to the end? For no other reason, brothers, for no other reason at all would they be admitted, except that they persevered to the end. So the chill of love did not creep upon them; love did not grow cold in them, but stays fervent to the end. Because it stays fervent to the end, the bridegroom’s doors opened; therefore it was said to them that they should enter, as to that excellent servant: “Enter into the joy of your Lord.” What, then, does “they all slept” mean? There is another sleep, which no one escapes. Do you not remember the apostle saying, “But concerning those who sleep I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers,” that is, about those who have died? For why are they called sleepers, except that they are raised on their day? So they all slept. Do you think that because she is wise she does not have to die? Whether the virgin is foolish or wise, all undergo the sleep of death.

Sometimes people say to themselves: “See, the day of judgment is now coming; so many evils are happening, such great tribulations are multiplying; see, all that the prophets said is almost fulfilled; the day of judgment is now at hand.” Those who say this, and say it in faith, go out as it were to meet the bridegroom with such thoughts. But see, war upon war, tribulation upon tribulation, earthquake upon earthquake, famine upon famine, nation against nation, and still the bridegroom has not come. So while he is awaited, all those who say, “See, he is coming, and the day of judgment will find us here,” fall asleep. While he says it, he falls asleep. So let him look to his sleep, and persevere in love until his sleep: let sleep find him waiting. For suppose he has fallen asleep: “Will not he who sleeps rise again?” So they all slept: of the wise and of the foolish, all slept.

“See, at midnight a cry arose.” What does “at midnight” mean? When it is not expected, when it is not believed at all. He put night for ignorance. Someone reckons to himself, as it were: “See, so many years have passed since Adam, and see, six thousand years are being completed, and at once (as some commentators have reckoned) at once the day of judgment will come.” And the reckonings come and go, and still the bridegroom’s coming is delayed, and the virgins who had gone out to meet him are asleep. And see, while it is not expected, while it is being said, “Six thousand years were awaited, and see, they have passed; how do we know now when he will come?”, he will come at midnight. What does “he will come at midnight” mean? He will come while you do not know. Why will he come while you do not know? Hear the Lord himself: “It is not for you to know the times which the Father has set by his own authority.” “The day of the Lord,” says the apostle, “will come like a thief in the night.” So keep watch in the night, so that you do not suffer the thief. For the sleep of death, whether you will or not, will come.

But when the cry arose at midnight: what is this cry, if not that of which the apostle says, “In the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise incorrupt, and we shall be changed”? Then, when the cry arose at midnight, by which it will be cried, “See, the bridegroom is coming,” what follows? “They all rose.” What does “they all rose” mean? “The hour will come,” the Lord himself said, “when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth.” So at the last trumpet they all rose. “But the wise took oil with them in their vessels; the foolish did not take oil with them.” What does “they did not take oil with them in their vessels” mean? What does “in their vessels” mean? In their hearts. Hence the apostle says, “This is our glory, the testimony of our conscience.” There is the oil, the great oil: this oil comes from God’s gift. Indeed, people can put oil into a vessel; they cannot create the olive. See, I have oil: did you create the oil? It is from God’s gift. You have oil: carry it with you. What does “carry it with you” mean? Have it within; please God there.

For see, these foolish virgins, who did not carry oil with them, want to please men by their abstinence, for which they are called virgins, and by their good works, in which they seem to carry lamps. And if they want to please men, and do all these praiseworthy things for that reason, they do not carry oil with them. You, then, carry it with you; carry it within, where God sees; there carry the testimony of your conscience. But whoever walks by the testimony of others does not carry oil with him. If you abstain from unlawful things and do good works so as to be praised by men, there is no oil within. And so when people begin not to praise, the lamps fail. Let your Charity attend, then. Before those virgins slept, it was not said that their lamps were going out. The lamps of the wise were burning with inner oil, with the security of conscience, with inner glory, with inmost love. Yet the lamps of the foolish were burning too. Why were they burning then? Because the praises of men were not lacking. But after they rose, that is, in the resurrection from the dead, they began to trim their lamps, that is, to prepare to render God an account of their works. And because then there is no one to praise, everyone is taken up with his own case, there is no one then who does not think of himself; so there were none to sell them oil. Their lamps began to fail, and the foolish turned to the five wise: “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” They sought what they were used to, that is, to shine with another’s oil, to walk by others’ praises. “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.”

But they said: “Perhaps there will not be enough for us and for you; go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.” This reply is not that of people giving advice, but of people mocking. Why mocking? Because they were wise, because wisdom was in them. For they were not wise of themselves; but that wisdom was in them of which it is written in a certain book, which says to those who despise her, when they come to the evils she threatened them with: “And I too will laugh at your destruction.” What wonder is it that the wise mock the foolish? What does it mean to mock?

“Go to those who sell, and buy for yourselves,” you who were not accustomed to live well except because people praised you, who sold you oil. What does “they sold oil” mean? They sold praises. Who sell praises but flatterers? How much better if you had not yielded to flatterers, and had carried oil within, and had done all your good works for the sake of a good conscience: then you would say, “The righteous man will correct me in mercy and rebuke me; but the oil of the sinner shall not anoint my head.” Better, he says, that the righteous should correct me, the righteous rebuke me, the righteous strike me, the righteous set me right, than that the sinner’s oil should anoint my head. What is the sinner’s oil but the flatterer’s blandishments?

“Go, then, to those who sell”: you are used to doing this. “But we do not give to you.” Why? “Perhaps there will not be enough for us and for you.” What does “there will not be enough” mean? It was not said in despair but in sober and godly humility. For although a good person has a good conscience, how does he know how he will be judged by him who is deceived by no one? He has a good conscience; crimes conceived in the heart do not tickle him; but because of certain daily sins of human life, though his conscience is good, he still says to God, “Forgive us our debts,” because he has done what follows, “as we also forgive our debtors.” He broke bread for the hungry from the heart, clothed the naked from the heart; from the inner oil he did good works; and yet at that judgment even a good conscience trembles.

See what “Give us oil” means. They heard: “Go rather to those who sell.” Because you were used to living well for human praise, you do not carry oil with you; and we do not give, lest perhaps there be not enough for us and for you. For we can scarcely judge about ourselves; how much less can we judge about you? What does “we can scarcely judge about ourselves” mean? Because “when the righteous king sits on his throne, who will boast that he has a pure heart?” Perhaps you find nothing in your conscience; and he who sees better, whose divine gaze penetrates higher things, finds something: perhaps he sees something, perhaps he finds something. How much better to say to him, “Do not enter into judgment with your servant”! How much better, too, to say, “Forgive us our debts”! For it will be said to you, because of those torches, because of those lamps: “I was hungry, and you gave me food.” What then? Did those others not do this? They did not do it before him. But how did they do it? As the Lord forbids, who said, “Beware of doing your righteousness before men, to be seen by them; otherwise you will have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. And do not be like the hypocrites when you pray; for they love to stand in the streets and pray, to be seen by men. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward.” They bought oil, they paid the price; they bought, they were not cheated of human praise; they sought human praise, they had it. These human praises do not help them on the day of judgment. But how did the wise do it? “Let your works shine before men, so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” He does not say, “you.” For you do not have the oil from yourself. Boast and say, “I have it”: but from him. “For what do you have that you did not receive?” So the wise did thus, the wise did thus.

It is no wonder that while they go to buy, while they look for people to praise them and do not find them, while they look for people to console them and do not find them, the door is opened, the bridegroom and the bride come, the church then glorified with Christ, so that the individual members gather themselves into the whole. “And they went in with him to the wedding, and the door was shut.” And afterward the foolish came: but had they bought oil, or found anyone to buy from? So they found the doors shut; they began to knock, but too late.

It was said, it is true, it was not said deceitfully: “Knock, and it will be opened to you”; but now, when it is the time of mercy, not when it is the time of judgment. For these times cannot be confused, since the church sings to her Lord of mercy and judgment. It is the time of mercy: repent. Will you repent at the time of judgment? You will be among those virgins against whom the door was shut. “Lord, Lord, open to us.” Did they not repent that they had not carried oil with them? And what did late repentance profit them, when true Wisdom was mocking them? So the door was shut. And what was said to them? “I do not know you.” Did he not know them, who knows all things? What, then, does “I do not know you” mean? I disapprove of you, I reject you. In my art I do not recognize you; my art knows no vices. And this is a great thing: it both does not know vices and judges vices. It does not know them by doing them; it judges them by convicting them. So, then, “I do not know you.”

“The five wise went, they went in.” How many you are, my brothers, in the name of Christ! Let there be among you the five wise; but not five persons only. Let there be among you the five wise, those who belong to that wisdom of the number five. For the hour will come, and it will come when we do not know. It will come at midnight: keep watch. So the Gospel closed: “Keep watch, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” If, then, we are to fall asleep, how do we keep watch? Keep watch with the heart, keep watch by faith, keep watch by hope, keep watch by love, keep watch by works; and when you have slept in the body, the time will come for you to rise. And when you have risen, make ready your lamps. Then let them not go out; then let them be kept alive by the inner oil of conscience; then let that bridegroom embrace you with bodiless bonds; then let him bring you into the house where you will never sleep, where your lamp can never be put out. But today we labor, and our lamps flicker among the winds and temptations of this world; but let our flame burn strongly, so that the wind of temptation may rather increase the fire than put it out.

My lords and brothers, my fellow bishops, have deigned to visit us and gladden us with their presence; but I do not know why they are unwilling to help me in my weariness. I have said this to your Charity in their hearing so that your listening may in a way intercede with them for me, so that when I ask them they too may give a sermon. Let them pay out what they have received; let them deign to work rather than to excuse themselves. From me, tired and scarcely able to speak, receive a few words gladly. For we also have a booklet about the benefits God has given through the holy martyr; let us listen to it as well, the more gladly. What is it, then? What shall I say to you? You heard in the Gospel both the merit of the good servants and the punishment of the bad. And the whole wickedness of that servant who was rejected and severely condemned was this: that he would not pay out. He kept intact what he received; but his master was looking for profit. God is greedy for our salvation. If he who did not pay out is condemned so, what should those who squander expect? We, then, are stewards: we pay out, you receive. We look for profit: live good lives. For these are the profits of our paying out. But do not think that paying out does not concern you as well. You cannot pay out from this higher place, but you can wherever you are. Where Christ is found fault with, defend him; answer the grumblers, rebuke the blasphemers, keep yourselves apart from their company. So you pay out, if you gain some. Act in our place in your homes. A bishop is so called because he oversees, because he takes care by watching over. So each one in his own house, if he is the head of his house, must have the bishop’s office belong to him: how his people believe, so that none of them falls into heresy, neither his wife, nor son, nor daughter, nor even the slave, since he was bought at so great a price. The apostolic teaching set the master over the slave and subjected the slave to the master; yet Christ gave one price for both. Do not despise the least of your people; look after the salvation of your household with all vigilance. If you do this, you are paying out; you will not be lazy servants; you will not fear so dreadful a condemnation.