The Oil of Covenant Fidelity

Homily for the Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

At first glance, the three readings for this Sunday seem oddly assembled – a passage in praise of wisdom, an assurance concerning the resurrection and the final coming of Christ, and the parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids. In the light of what those passages probably meant to their original listeners or readers, however, there is a common theme. It is the theme of covenant fidelity – the unshakable fidelity of the creating and redeeming God and the persistent, coaxing, cajoling exigence that God’s indefatigable fidelity places on our hesitant and rather inattentive response.

The parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids seems to spring from a rather realistic illustration of fidelity that Jesus took from daily life. Girls chosen as bridesmaids were to be in attendance for a night-time procession with the bridegroom to the house of the bride, to meet her and escort her to her new home, where a feast was held for the bridal party. These bridesmaids would carry lamps to light their way, lights which were fueled by olive oil.

Olive oil had many different uses in the communities of Israel. It not only fueled the lamps of bridesmaids, but was also used in the lamps of the home to provide light once the sun had set. Oil was also used by the priests and prophets of Israel to anoint individuals who were commissioned as leaders of the community. It is this latter use which connects its use to fidelity and covenant-making. In our own time, oil is used in the sacraments of initiation, baptism and confirmation. These two sacraments are outward displays of faithfulness on the part of God and upon the individual who is presented or who participates in the sacrament. Oil is also used as we anoint those who are sick, a sacrament which confirms God’s faithfulness for the sick and elderly. It is used in the ordination of priests and bishops. Finally, it is also used in the coronation rites of those countries which still have monarchies, just as the priests and prophets of Israel anointed their kings and leaders.

With all these connections, the parable becomes much clearer. It seems from the context that both Jesus in his preaching and Matthew in editing and compiling the Gospel were concerned with preparing the followers of Jesus for times of great crisis – times of judgment, testing, and radical decisions. It becomes easier, then, to see that everything depends upon having oil in the lamps; namely, faithfulness in one’s life. One can confidently meet sudden crises if one is living by the spirit of God, in covenant fidelity, by wisdom and the fruits of the Spirit. It also becomes easier to see why Jesus does not expect the so-called wise bridesmaids to share their oil with the foolish. In terms of what the oil means, that would simply not be possible.

The passage from the book of wisdom is set, by a literary device, in the mouth of Solomon addressing the kingdoms of the world. He represents wisdom because it is Solomon, we are told, who on assuming power and responsibility as king, sought from God neither wealth nor fame but only the wisdom by which he might govern justly according to God’s will. Having things in this true order of priorities, he was blessed by God and flourished. That certainly is intended as an acknowledgment and praise of the unfailing covenant fidelity of God. God shares the wisdom of the covenant of creation with all who seek, holds it back from none and meets their docility half-way. Indeed, there is a further, surprising promise: to live by wisdom is a guarantee of immortality.

For Christians, of course, the wisdom of God is closely identified with Jesus. Paul, in the Letter to the Thessalonians, is also writing of the covenant fidelity of God. It seems that the Thessalonians were concerned about those who had died before the final coming of Christ and the fulfillment of all the promises that God had made throughout history. Christ and the fulfillment of all the promises, Paul assures them, on the Lord’s own authority, that all who have died and all who yet live shall meet Christ when he comes in the final fulfillment. Paul refers to those who have died as Christians rather similarly to the way in which the parable refers to those who have oil in their lamps. No sudden disaster or crisis can destroy them; for them and in them Christ has conquered death, and they shall live with Christ.

There is an interweaving in these readings of the immortality theme with that of the readiness for a harsh crisis, a time of testing. That intertwining of themes is deeply touching when we remember that originally the parable was part of the teaching by which Jesus tried to prepare his followers for the monstrous crisis which his own arrest and execution would be for them. The promise that wisdom and covenant fidelity offer immortality, seems to mean so much more than continued existence beyond death. It seems to mean an entirely new quality of life, because what is so destructive is not the moment of death at the end of life, but the shadow of fear which it casts before itself through the reaches of the years. It is all too easy to be enslaved by fear all one’s life, subtly, imperceptibly, devastatingly. It is too easy to build one’s existence around the project of staving off various aspects of death by insuring oneself against catastrophe, by accumulating wealth, status, job security, weapons for personal defense, weapons for national defense, uneasy personal alliances, and uneasy national alliances.

The true wisdom of God, the wisdom that is incarnate in Jesus Christ, has conquered both death and the fear of death that enslaves. To live by the Spirit of that wisdom, knowing that the time of testing is always at hand and can happen at any moment in ways we could not predict, is to have oil in the lamps and to be ready to meet the bridegroom at any time of night.