If the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has given us the opportunity to cultivate virtue, perhaps that virtue is patience. COVID-19 has forcibly slowed down the frenetic pace of much of Western life. Workplaces learned to do what they had just months before deemed impossible. Quarantine forced people to get to know their own families. Many of the “have to do’s” that populated peoples’ lives suddenly dropped off that list. Restrictions on social interaction often compelled simpler lifestyles and pleasures.

Patience is a virtue the Western world has grown impatient with. The explosion of technological possibilities has paradoxically shortened our attention spans and made us less patient. How many seconds will this program take to load? How long before I can log into this site? Why can’t I order that exotic product at 2:42 a.m. on a Sunday and have it by morning? 

I’m not condemning the amenities of modern life. I’m just asking we keep them in perspective. Jesus didn’t move instantaneously from Jerusalem to Emmaus to Galilee until after his death and Resurrection. Before Good Friday, when the space-and-time bound Jesus wanted to get from Nazareth to Jerusalem, those two feet had to walk every inch of the 65 miles. 

COVID-19 has in fact enforced something of a slowdown on American life, and that’s not all bad. It can allow us to cultivate patience which, along with prudence, are the central virtues of today’s Gospel.

The wedding party awaits the bridegroom. Maybe he’s coming from Nazareth, and 65 miles is 65 miles. Who knows what kept him? A tired donkey? Treacherous people along the road? Maybe a traffic jam on the Jericho Beltway, if he took the long route? What we know is he’s late.

Candles are essential to Jewish weddings of Jesus’ day. Weddings often occurred at night, and candles lit the way of the newlyweds to the husband’s home. Candles recalled the light that shone on Sinai when God made his Covenant with Israel by giving Israel the Ten Commandments. Candles had symbolic numerical values: two candles = 500, corresponding to the first command of God, “Be fruitful and multiply.” They symbolized fruitfulness. (See Koltach, The Jewish Book of Why, and MyJewishLearning.com).

The wedding party is sitting around. The bridegroom’s supposed to be here and, like birthday goers waiting for the overdue guest of honor to shout “surprise!” they have their torches burning. The longer he takes, the more oil is used up waiting. It’s late, and this is ancient Israel: there’s no 7-Eleven to get some extra oil and maybe a Slurpee. 

They need patience. Today’s story is not primarily about them. It’s about the Bride who is waiting and the Bridegroom who is coming. It’s their day. Their mission is to wait … and be ready. Their virtue, right now, is patience.

Their virtue is also prudence. Nobody expects to be late for their wedding, but things happen. Donkeys get sore feet. Robbers lurk on the road. Wagon fender-benders occur near Jericho. It happens. So, if you know this is going to happen at night, you might take a little extra oil for those torches just in case. It’s the prudent thing to do.

But five of our young ladies weren’t very prudent. Maybe they never even thought about it. Maybe they were too busy with their makeup and rushed out the door at the last minute. Maybe they even thought about it and put an extra can on the table, but got waylaid with something else and forgot about it. Maybe they took it but were up late the night before, doing each other’s hair and used up more than they planned. Whatever the reason, they’re running out of oil. They’re running on fumes.

The five prudent ladies – the Bible calls them “wise” – won’t share, not because they are mean but because they are prudent: the Bridegroom is just down the road and divvying up what’s left threatens everybody with being stuck in the dark. The wise virgins should not make themselves foolish at this moment.

There’s nothing left for our unfortunate bridesmaids than to go and find an all-night refinery, just as “wait-wait” turns into “hurry up — hurry up!” The Bridegroom’s here. The Bride is ready. It’s their day. The wedding begins. And our imprudent young ladies, running back down the road, their oil can probably splattering all around, are locked out.

Patience and prudence – two virtues forgotten in our modern world – are shown to be essential. The Heavenly Wedding Feast comes in God’s good time, not ours. In that sense, St. Paul perhaps merits a bit of a correction. Waiting for the Bridegroom’s coming is often not so much a race (cf. 2 Timothy 4:7) as a marathon, where preparation and pacing (two other words for prudence and patience) are vital. They’re vital because – to adapt James Cain’s title, “the Bridegroom rings only once.” When he arrives, the wedding begins. Nuptials normally aren’t put on hold for tardy guests. 

That’s why the First Reading counsels us to “keep vigil” by waiting for Wisdom, which is “the perfection of prudence.” The Apostles weren’t especially prudent, either, in Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-46; Mark 14:34-42; Luke 22:40-46). But that’s why St. Paul says it’s time to wake up, because the night is far spent (Romans 13:11-12). That’s why, in three weeks — on the First Sunday of Advent — Jesus will return to this same theme, warning us servants to “Watch!” (Mark 13:37) because the Master of the house can come home from his sojourns at any time.
 

Had the unwise and imprudent virgins not dozed off, they might have noticed their flickering lamps and remedied their oil shortage while there was still time: God’s willing to take us even at 11:59 p.m. But the foolish virgins did not take the time to restock even when they could. Instead, they indulged their slumbers. Maybe, through drowsy eyes, they even noticing their lamps going out but said “five more minutes,” until it was too late to do anything. As one spiritual writer observed, God is generous with everything but time – and when the sand in the glass runs out, it runs out. The light goes out … even if the Bridegroom just rode into Jerusalem. 

That’s why Paul is clear: “The hour has come to awake from your slumbers, because our salvation is nearer …” (Romans 13:11). As the Afro-American spiritual counsels us, “Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning.” Tick – tock.