I haven't done a Scripture Saturday in quite a while and was inspired to do one today.
The Gospel reading for Mass on Friday was the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. I never fully understood that one. Why would Jesus not want the wise virgins to share? It never completely made sense to me until it was explained today.
The oil in the lamp represents our faith. We are each responsible for "filling" our own "lamp". No one else can do it for us. This is why we need an adult faith and can not continue to ride on the coat tails, so to speak, of our family's faith.
In this difficult world, when we are constantly bombarded with anti-Christian messages, we desperately need to make sure our lamps of faith are filled. We can NOT rely on doing the minimum, or worse, rely on someone else's faith--either our parents', spouse's, priest's, or anyone else's. We are each responsible for making sure our lamps are filled with the "oil of gladness" (Hebrews 1:9). We have been confirmed and have received the Holy Spirit who can pour out God's healing oil on us to keep our lamps of faith filled to the brim. This is the oil of joy--the joy that should fill our spirit because it is a free gift from God.
2 comments:
Looking at it that way it makes perfect sense.
It really does.
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