"The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, because our lamps are going out.’ ‘No,’ they replied. ‘There won’t be enough for you and for us. Go instead to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ But while they had gone to buy it, the bridegroom arrived, and those who were ready went inside with him to the wedding banquet. Then the door was shut. Later, the other virgins came too, saying, ‘Lord, lord! Let us in!’ But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I do not know you!’ Therefore stay alert, because you do not know the day or the hour” (Matt 25:8-13). Let's continue our discussion of the ten virgins. We said yesterday that because the bridegroom delayed in coming the virgins slept. We also said that the use of sleep here indicates death. Jesus did use sleep as a metaphor for death. Recall what he said concerning Jairus' daughter (Lk 8:52b), and Lazarus (John 11:11-13). In both cases, he said that these dead individuals were only asleep and at his call - just like with the virgins - they did in fact resurrect.
We also said yesterday that the foolish virgins, unlike their wise counterparts, did not have any oil left in their lamps and so could not light them. We explained that this was so because they had lived vulgar lives; had refused to set themselves apart from the debauchery of the world; had neglected to pursue knowledge of God and, consequent on their want of a positive spiritual attitude, they did not possess the light of good deeds. At the judgment nonetheless, and confronted with their lack, the foolish virgins desperately reach out to the wise ones and ask for oil. "Give us some of your oil, because our lamps are going out," they plead. Faced with the reality of a beautiful eternity and realizing they are on the verge of being perpetually excluded from it, and further realizing that the only way to get in is to acquire a positive mental attitude, they ask the wise virgins to share their positive mental attitudes with them.
The only problem with this though is: How do you begin to share a positive mental attitude with someone? For the wise virgins, it took a whole lifetime to develop a positive mental attitude. They began at home; their parents may have been the ones to first introduce them to the truth about God and the afterlife. Then they went to school and learnt there as well about God and the last things. They tested all they had learned in the course of their lives; acquiring positive experiences; letting the trials and the joys of everyday living shake the faith they had acquired, while watching the faith stay strong. For the wise virgins, acquiring a positive mental attitude was not a crash-course-given event. It was a lifelong process of epistemological discipline. To obtain a similar positive mental attitude, the foolish virgins would have to live their lives on earth all over again. There could be no other way. This is why the wise virgins protest to the foolish ones: Sorry, we simply cannot share this sort of thing - it's not of the kind of thing that can be shared. Indeed, another way of conceiving of the five foolish virgins' request is imagining that these unwise damsels were asking their wise colleagues to give them their lives. Since the positive spiritual attitude possessed by the wise girls was wound intricately together with their very life experiences, their very beings, to give their positive mental attitude to the foolish girls would be to give them their lives.
And so, the wise virgins say instead: Go to the sellers of oil and buy some for yourselves. In other words, the wise virgins are saying to the foolish ones: "Return to the earth. Be reincarnated and live again." The world is the market place, where we can trade our time for wisdom. If we use our time and resources in studying and seeking out truth, we can obtain it. The agents of our socialization on earth are the sellers of truth, the vendors of oil. Our currency, with which we purchase from them the truth, is our time and resources on earth. And this trade of our time for wisdom can be done only by ourselves. Recall the parable of Lazarus and the rich man as contained in Lk 16:19-31. When the rich man in hell asked Abraham to let him go to his brothers still on earth and warn them of hell, Abraham objected, saying the rich man's brothers had to work out their own salvation themselves. Indeed, St Paul would say: Work out your own salvation! (Phil 2:12). And so the souls of individuals who are unready to enter heaven because of their lack of a positive mental attitude and concomitant good deeds have to stay in purgatory while their spirits are re-enfleshed so that the resultant new souls can sojourn in the world again in hopes of exchanging the new lifetimes with wisdom and good deeds.
But while they had gone to buy it, the bridegroom arrived, and those who were ready went inside with him to the wedding banquet. Then the door was shut. While the spirits of the unready souls are reborn on earth to try to acquire oil and light (understanding and good deeds), the souls themselves are kept out of heaven. This is what "the door was shut" means. The souls of the ready however go in. "Later, the other virgins came too, saying, ‘Lord, lord! Let us in!’ But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I do not know you!'" (v11). What does this verse mean? Now, when the spirits of the unready souls are reborn on earth and live entirely new lives, new souls result. These new souls are not the same as the previous souls. Hebrews 9:27 says: It is appointed for people to die once and after that comes judgment. And so, knock as they might, the previous souls cannot gain entry into heaven. Souls in purgatory cannot help themselves attain salvation.
For these souls, there are three scenarios: The worst case scenario is that their spirits re-enfleshed and reintroduced into the world fare worse than they did and appear at heaven's gate even less prepared than the former soul, making it even more impossible to enter heaven, leading to yet another lower reincarnation, with a progressively decreasing possibility of ever attaining heaven; literally a hellish experience. A middle case scenario is that the new spirit re-enfleshed and reintroduced into the world lives a similar life to the previous soul and ends up at the judgment seat in a similar state of preparation and still cannot get in. The best and rarest case scenario is that the new spirit re-enfleshed and reintroduced into the world leads a better life and appears at heaven's gate worthy enough to lead all previous souls in its spirit family to heaven. This third case is the most unlikely because for every time a bad soul fails to make it into heaven, its spiritual capacity is reduced, taken up as it were by deserving spirits. In other words, its place in heaven, its potential for actualization, is assumed by more deserving spirits. Recall in this regard the parable of the talents (Matt 25:14-30), where the master had the one talent taken from the lazy servant and given to the one who already had ten. This is why even when the new souls return to heaven's door after passing through the world they still cannot get in. And so, we must make the best of this current lifetime we have. It is the only one we are sure of.
And if we are wise, if we use our time here well, if we look for God's truth by engaging in epistemology and then act well, even if we don't make it to heaven, the possibility of making it in the space of one more lifetime is greatly increased, because we were wise, and our oil was not too little to warrant greater currency to buy a sufficient amount at the market - our time in purgatory would be lesser than if we were foolish and had so little oil that we needed greater currency to buy a sufficient amount. In other words, to the extent we behave foolishly in this life is to the extent we make it progressively impossible to ever enter heaven, because we would perennially be increasing the distance between ourselves and heaven's door; progressively making it difficult for God to recognize us and let us in. To the extent we waste our time and resources living lives of dissipation, to the same extent do we make it quite impossible to ever enter into heaven. We must therefore be vigilant and reflective. We must engage in epistemology and ethics, wary of the limited time we have at our disposal and realizing that now is all we have.
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