30 August 2024 - Friday of the 21st even-numbered week
Homily
There were ten virgins: five foolish and five wise. All ten fell asleep when the bridegroom was late in coming. All ... the wise as well as the foolish. So we don't reproach the foolish for falling asleep, and we don't congratulate the wise for staying awake. They all fell asleep. The difference between the two groups is that the latter had taken oil with them, while the others had not.
What could this oil mean? I think it means the constant remembrance of God, this memoria Dei or memoria Christi, which is at the centre of Christian life and in a particular way at the centre of monastic life.
The aim of monastic life is continual prayer. This prayer is nourished by lectio divina, is inspired and is expressed several times a day in the hours of the Divine Office recited in common. However, it cannot be true constant and continual prayer without a constant remembrance of God.
If we live with this constant remembrance of God in our hearts, every time we are faced with a decision to make -- with a challenge to which we must respond, with a call that God addresses to us -- we will respond in a way that is consistent with the Gospel of Jesus. He will recognise us and say: ‘Enter the Kingdom of the Father’. If, on the other hand, we do not live with this constant remembrance of God in our hearts; if our hearts are taken up with other preoccupations, we will wake up lost and in despair when we are confronted with this call. Then we will hear the terrible words: ‘I do not know you’. The reason is that ‘knowledge’ -- true knowledge, like love, is either mutual or it is not.
Armand Veilleux