The Parable of the Ten Virgins. Photo: Hvalit-gospoda.ru
I was given an electronic wristwatch with a digital time display. It shows the date, the day of the week, hours, minutes and seconds. At work, I usually take the watch off and put it in front of me, by the monitor, so that I can see the “ticking” on the watch screen all the time. The unhurried pace of time especially reveals itself in the change of seconds. Hours go by, measuring out the time you’ve lived, and looking at the seconds running by, you realize that time is inexorably dragging you towards your end, which is near or far away.
Sprint seconds run by, passing the baton to minutes, which combine into hours, and they turn the wheel of dates unceasingly. Everything runs in a circle: morning, afternoon, evening, and night. Days are sewn together into weeks, those into months, and now it’s the New Year again, and now it’s yet another birthday that you don’t know whether to be happy or sad about—the time of your life is passing… And what have you done for eternity? For your afterlife to come? After all, it is this day and this hour with which we are building our future eternal home.
The Wise and Foolish Virgins
Alas, for many people there is no reality beyond the grave, but only this earthly life, squeezed into the “tube” of seventy to eighty years. And we even contrive to waste a lot of time in this “tube”. But surely there will be a point in our life span at which, looking back and reviewing what we have lived, we will realize with horror that we have idled away the seconds given to us on emptiness, fuss and other useless garbage. So, in order to come to our senses let’s turn to the Gospel—this ABC of eternal life.
In chapter 25 of the Gospel of Matthew, the Savior tells us the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins:
Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh (Mt. 25:1-13).
By oil in the vessels the Holy Fathers mean alms and other good deeds. The wise virgins had oil in the vessels for the lamps, which they had poured into them in advance—that is, when they had time, they bought from sellers, giving generous alms and doing good to people. As for the foolish virgins, they did not have good deeds. And when the bridegroom tarried, all of them fell asleep. That is, the time that could potentially have been spent on alms and other charitable acts was wasted in vanity (that is, sleep) by the foolish virgins.
In the Heavy Sleep of Lack of Love
This is the image of the sleep that many of us are in. Those who sell oil for the vessels of love—that is, those who need help—beg us tearfully: “Buy!” But we stop our ears and run away from them. We “have no time to be distracted by such trifles”, we “have important world affairs, important purchases”, and we “are not going just to put money into someone’s filthy palms.” “They’re asking for booze or grass! They’d better go and get a job instead of living at the expense of gullible people!” How many excuses we invent for our wakeless sleep!
But what about the Lord, in Whom we don’t wish to believe? What will He say when we ask to be let in for His eternal wedding feast? When we (already suspecting something with a chill in our souls) implore Him: “Lord, open to us!” But He, merciful and the Lover of mankind, will suddenly answer: “Verily I say unto you, I know you not. I don’t know you who did not show Me mercy when you had the time and opportunities, when you enjoyed a good health, work, and incomes.
“What are you asking of Me now that your lives have ended and it is too late? I have given you so much—the means, the time, those who asked you, and those in need. And all that was required of you was to open your hearts and hear My soft call: Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me (Mt. 25:40). And also: Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light (Mt. 11:28–30).
“And what did you do? You turned away from Me as if you hadn’t known Me, and walked indifferently past My arms outstretched for help. You grudged feeding Me when I was hungry, giving Me drink when I was thirsty, clothing Me when I was naked, receiving Me for a night when I was a stranger, visiting Me when I was sick or in prison. How did you live your lives then? In vanity? But then why are you begging Me now to let you into My Kingdom? I don’t know any of you who commit iniquity.”
How Little It Takes to Help Someone!
It will be dreadful to hear such things from the Creator of the Universe and at the same time the dearest and closest Being to us. What should we do then so that He can have mercy on us?
The answer is obvious. I should devote every second of my time on earth to Jesus and whoever He pleases to send me. If He sends me a hungry and homeless person, I’ll give him a sandwich with hot coffee. If He sends me a sick person, I’ll visit him, hold his hand in mine, comfort him, and listen to his complaints patiently. Maybe I’m the only one he can pour out his grief to. If He sends me a prisoner, I’ll write him a letter, hear him out, support Him in Christ, and collect a parcel for him so that he and his fellow inmates can feel a little more cheerful. They are living souls!
The “fabric” of my future is woven from such small acts of kindness. Ah, the time! How little it sometimes takes to help someone! And in the perspective of eternal life, these personal minutes of mine, woven into the life of a stranger, probably make up for my fruitless days and weeks spent on such time-wasters as TV and the internet.
Timeless, Transcendent Deeds
The “cracking nuts” of days and seconds on a digital wristwatch are an indicator of the transience of all material things. But there are things beyond the power of this clicking temporality. These are love, kindness and affection for others, sincerity, sensitivity, faithfulness, self-sacrifice, patience, forgiveness, humility, and repentance before God for sins committed. All these things are transcendent and timeless. Having their foundation on earth, they have no end, for they are echoes of the everlasting world to come. The world to which each one of us is called and for which each one of us was born into this earthly world.
Let us remember God more often, and pray to Him as often as possible. Prayers are the unbreakable “steel threads” that we use to “stitch ourselves” to eternity. As long as I live by God, breathe by God, remember God, and pray to Him, I am truly filled with blissful, unearthly reality. Entering it is a matter of time and my desire. How long will Jesus allow me to live, to wander on this unstable earth, before calling me to Himself?
Let me give alms more often! Coins put into the hands of those in need form a silver path leading to the gates of the Heavenly city of Jerusalem. Let me use these coins every day to fill the vessel given to me with saving oil!
Before the Face of the Master
I’ll look at my watch. Here they are: seconds, irresistibly counting down the past and at the same time closing the gap between me today and me dead.
One day my heart will stop, and the seconds on my watch will already count down the time of someone else’s life.
I will enter a realm that is absolutely incredible and incomprehensible to me yet—a realm where time, corruption and death will lose all power and all authority, and from then on the main law of existence will be my participation or non-participation in the Lord Jesus Christ.
If I have lived my life on earth for the sake of others, giving away the years of my life to those who needed those minutes, then, by the grace of God, eternity will joyfully embrace me, hold me close, and lead me into the abode prepared for me. But what if I have wasted my time on TV and computer games, on fashion and other trifles, on vanity and emptiness? If I haven’t met God in the short time given to me? May God save me from the destiny to which I am condemning myself!
Then, finding myself before the face of Christ, I will entreat for the return of the time I have lost forever. But is it possible to be born twice? Wouldn’t it be better now, while you’re reading these lines, while your hearts are still beating and the seconds on your watches are taking bites out of the “cake” of life, to think seriously of your personal eternity and start living the way God wants you to?
