The ten bridesmaids
1 This story throws light on what will happen in the king dom of heaven. Ten
bridesmaids went out with their lamps to meet the bridegroom.
2 Five of them were careless while the others were sensible.
3 The careless bridesmaids took their lamps as they were and did not bring
extra oil.
4 But those who were sensible, brought with their lamps flasks of oil.
5 As the bridegroom delayed, they all grew drowsy and fell asleep.
6 But at midnight, a cry rang out: ¡®The bridegroom is here, come out and
meet him!¡¯
7 All the maidens woke up at once and trimmed their lamps.
8 Then the careless ones said to the sensible ones: ¡®Give us some oil, for
our lamps are going out.¡¯
9 The sensible ones answered: ¡®There may not be enough for both you and us.
You had better go to those who sell and buy for yourselves.¡¯
10 They were out buying oil when the bridegroom came, and those who were
ready went with him to the wed ding feast, and the doors were shut.
11 Later the rest of the bridesmaids arrived and called out: ¡®Lord, Lord,
open to us.¡¯
12 But he answered: ¡®Truly, I do not know you.¡¯
13 So, stay awake, for you do not know the day nor the hour.
The parable of the talents
14 Imagine someone who, before going abroad, summoned his servants to
entrust his property to them.
15 He gave five talents of silver to one, then two to another, and one to a
third, each one according to his ability; and he went away.
16 He who received five talents went at once to do business with the money
and gained another five.
17 The one who received two did the same and gained another two.
18 But the one with one talent dug a hole and hid his master¡¯s money.
19 After a long time, the master of those servants returned and asked for a
reckoning.
20 The one who re ceived five talents came with another five talents,
saying: ¡®Lord, you entrusted me with five talents, but see I have gained
five more with them.¡¯
21 The master answered: ¡®Very well, good and faithful servant, since you
have been faithful in a few things, I will entrust you with much more. Come
and share the joy of your master.¡¯
22 Then the one who had two talents came and said: ¡®Lord, you entrusted me
with two ta l ents; I have two more which I gained with them.¡¯
23 The master said: ¡®Well, good and faithful servant, since you have been
faithful in little things, I will entrust you with much more. Come and share
the joy of your master.¡¯
24 Finally, the one who had re ceived one talent came and said: ¡®Master, I
know that you are an exacting man. You reap what you have not sown and
gather what you have not invested.
25 I was afraid, so I hid your money in the ground. Here, take what is
yours.¡¯
26 But his master replied: ¡®Wicked and worthless servant, you know that I
reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not invested.
27 Then you should have deposited my money in the bank, and you would have
given it back to me with interest on my return.
28 Therefore, take the talent from him, and give it to the one who has ten.
29 For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an
abundance; but from those who are unproductive, even what they have will be
taken from them.
30 As for that useless servant, throw him out into the dark where there will
be weeping and gnashing of teeth.¡¯
The last judgment
31 ¡°When the Son of Man comes in his glory with all his angels, he will sit
on the throne of his Glory.
32 All the nations will be brought before him, and as a shepherd separates
the sheep from the goats,
33 so will he do with them, placing the sheep on his right and the goats on
his left.
34 The King will say to those on his right: ¡®Come, blessed of my Father!
Take possession of the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the
world.
35 For I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me drink.
36 I was a stranger and you wel comed me into your house. I was naked and
you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came
to see me.¡¯
37 Then the good people will ask him: ¡®Lord, when did we see you hungry and
give you food; thirsty and give you drink,
38 or a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?
39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to see you?¡¯
40 The King will answer, ¡®Truly, I say to you: when ever you did this to
these little ones who are my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.¡¯
41 Then he will say to those on his left: ¡®Go, cursed peo ple, out of my
sight into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his
angels!
42 For I was hungry and you did not give me anything to eat, I was thirsty
and you gave me nothing to drink;
43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me into your house; I was naked
and you did not clothe me; I was sick and in prison and you did not visit
me.¡¯
44 They, too, will ask: ¡®Lord, when did we see you hungry, thirsty, naked or
a stranger, sick or in prison, and did not help you?¡¯
45 The King will answer them: ¡®Truly, I say to you: whatever you did not do
for one of these little ones, you did not do for me.¡¯
46 And these will go into eternal punishment, but the just to eternal life.¡±
------------------------------------------------------------
Comments Mathew, Chapter 25
• 25.1 FAITHFULNESS
The three parables that follow tell us how to await the return of Christ,
being alert and active. The first, ¡°the ten bridesmaids¡± is the most
beautiful parable on fidelity. The ten girls followed the custom of waiting
through the night for the bridegroom who will be accompanied to his house.
The bridegroom is late, something that should astonish no one. The bride is
not mentioned: perhaps they will discover at the end that there was no other
than themselves.
They fell asleep. Once the sun has set, all is dark and nothing more can be
done (Jn 9:4). No further work except fidelity of heart (Dt 5:2): oil will
be needed to keep the flame alive.
Here as in other places, the Gospel shows us that more than conversion and
enthusiasm is needed: it is necessary to last (7-24). Being sure of having a
reserve of oil is to take the means that enable us to persevere in our
vocation.
Some will say that Matthew has placed this parable here for the benefit of
the first Christians, for after having awaited the return of Christ, they
saw that nothing happened. Error! Jesus speaks to the believers of all
times. For them one day or another fidelity becomes burdensome: ¡°I did not
know to what I was committing myself.¡± There lies the grandeur of fidelity.
It cannot be known in advance; giving one¡¯s hand to God is a jump into the
unknown. Only through this perseverance can we be saved (Mt 24:13), in other
words, find ourselves.
The Lord demands faithfulness and perseverance from those he has chosen:
this is how we save a world that seeks truth everywhere and does not know to
which Lord to surrender.
• 14. TO WORK ¨C TO TRUST ONESELF
During the time of Jesus, a talent was an amount, thirty kilograms of
precious metal, but in this parable when Jesus spoke of talents he referred
to the abilities given by God to each of us. Since then, peo ple came to
understand the word ¡°talent¡± in this sense.
Good and faithful servant (v. 21). Faithful: it would be bet ter translated:
¡°reliable.¡± We do not find any word of religious vocabulary in this parable.
God sees the way one has used his talents, and the sin is to have kept for
self what one has received. What condemnation of a society where it is usual
to enjoy and consume what has been received: a better human formation and
knowledge inherited from the homeland which should be transmitted to one¡¯s
descendants, the blessings and benefits of a family where the parents knew
how to sacrifice themselves for their children, and perhaps the Word of God
to be carried out in order to realize God¡¯s great plan for the world.
I will entrust you with much more. What we achieve on earth is not
definitive but only the scaffolding: quite other will be the riches that God
will distribute to those who will live in him.
You know that I reap where I have not sown (v. 26). As in Luke 18:1, Jesus
is aware of our unavowed defiance towards God and takes us at our word. If
we do not aspire to the place that the husband reserves for a wife (25:1),
let us try at least not to be useless servants.
There are many opportunities for us to take initiatives, but we often are
afraid to put ourselves forward: ¡°I am not the most qualified.¡± What if
those who are qualified have not budged? Then, take the talent from him and
give it to someone else.
• 31. THE UNIVERSAL JUDGE MENT
We know that Christians are a minority in the world. As we do now, the Jews
wondered about the majority of nations in the world, who were not among the
Chosen People and did not know about God or his promises. The Jews
envisioned a huge mul titude, ready to ¡°devour them,¡± a rest less world
where God should one day impose his Law. They used to call them: the
nations.
Jesus goes beyond these narrow perspectives and shows us how he will judge
everyone, making no distinctions based on origins when he comes as King of
all nations. All those who, without knowing Christ, have shared in the
common destiny of human kind, will be judged by him. In fact, he never
abandoned them, but placed at their side ¡°those little ones who are his
brothers and sis ters,¡± as his representatives.
See, Christ reveals the innumerable human deeds that have built what is best
in our civilization, and people brought before him look with amazement at
the God whom they loved or despised in the person of their neighbor.
Although the majority of them never thought of the afterlife, the kingdom of
God is presented to them with its only law: Love.
There is no neutral place. The fire means the torment of those who condemned
them selves by closing and freezing their hearts so that they became
incapable of love: now the splendor of God, who is love, burns and pains
them.
Whenever you did this to these little ones who are my brothers and sisters
(v. 40). Jesus speaks of look ing after our neighbor, be he friend or foe,
not of serving the community, or a class, or a nation in general, because
using these words, we often exclude a group of our brothers and sisters, who
do not belong to our nation or to our class. On the other hand, one who
really loves, acknowledges his sisters and brothers with out giving too much
importance to any labels: it is the person who exists and lives for God.
And these will go into eternal punishment (v. 46). There is something that
shocks us today in the division of the good and the wicked, and it seems to
us to be an outdated view (see com. on Mt 13:36). In one sense it is true.
Up to the recent times people were mainly ¡°of one idea.¡± It did not take
long for youth to see what were the options in life, rarely did a person
find more than one religion in the local milieu and she would choose either
the ¡°right¡± road or the ¡°wrong¡± road. Some conversions for better or worse
would follow (Ez 8), but humanity seemed to be divided between the good and
the evil. Today it is quite different: the choices we make are extremely com
plex and it takes time to discern clear ly. All of life or much of it today
may be lived by a person who has with in the self a good and an evil being
at the same time.
Let us understand then that Jesus spoke the language of the prophets, schema
tizing options. In fact Jesus denounces, not heinous crimes but selfishness
in daily life as is found in each of us, and he depicts, like a father to
his children the end towards which we are heading. It is to be hoped that
the great majority will not reject the truth; cer tain persons consciously
choose their own ruin and unfortunately are capable of continuing in their
choice to the bitter end.
To say that God is so good that he will save them at the last moment is to
affirm something that Jesus never intended to say. It would mean that all
that a person lived through was of slight importance and that our freedom
was no more than a game.
What Jesus says about judging non-Christian people likewise applies to us.
But we would be mistaken if we repeatedly presented this parable as
expressing the totality of Christian duties. What the world needs above all
is not bread and water and clothing, but the truth and the hope that God
entrusted to his chosen people. Christians would be unfaithful to their
mission if they confined themselves to merely talking about assistance,
housing and the like and forgot what is really life for humankind ¨C first,
the knowledge and love of their Lord. He will always be first and we need
him to be so for us. He takes as done to himself all that we do for our
sisters and brothers but does not want to be confused with them.
• 47. See commentary on Mark 14:43.
The kiss of Judas: this was the usual way a disciple greeted his master.
He drew his sword (v. 51). Peter, like other apostles who took part in
resistance movements against Roman oppression, brought swords (Lk 22:49).
He who uses the sword. This sentence does not condemn soldiers and policemen
in a world of violence, but Jesus asserts that weapons do not establish the
kingdom of God, nor do they lead to life. Force leads to death (in one way
or another) for those (and for the institutions) who use it, even where it
is necessary.
• 57. We find two accusations against Jesus. The first: I am able to destroy
(v. 61) is false in one sense, but it refers to the words Jesus had spoken
about replacing the Temple of Jerusalem with another religion centered in
his own person (Jn 2:19) and that was indeed subversive. Nothing was more
sacred to the Jews than the Temple of Jerusalem, and to attack the Temple
was, at the same time, to threaten the position of the priests whose power
was based on the fact that they alone could perform sacrificial rites in the
Temple. They also amass ed wealth from offerings and taxes that the people
paid to the temple. In defending the holy things, they were also protecting
their own interests.
For the second accusation, which is the most important, see commentary on
Mark 14:53.
Jesus kept silent (v. 63). Not out of contempt for those men, who were the
reli gious authorities, but because he saw it was useless to argue with
them. He remained silent and felt confident, as do those who put their cause
in the hands of God.
It is just as you say (v. 64). Perhaps this answer of Jesus should be
translated: ¡°You are the one saying it,¡± which is to say that Jesus did not
agree with the terms used by Caia phas. The expression ¡°Son of God¡±
signified the kings and saviors of Israel, and Jesus is the Son of God in a
very different sense. Jesus identifies himself with the prophecy of Daniel
7:13, announcing a Savior, a Son of Man, who comes directly from God from
all eter nity.
• 69. This denial by Peter is most amazing. His friend John is well known in
the house of the high priest and Peter was introduced as his friend (Jn
18:16). The young girl knows very well who John is and does not say any
thing beyond an ironic word to Peter. Nobody is threatening him, least of
all the men; instead they mock him for his provincial Galilean accent, the
same as Jesus¡¯ accent! It was enough to make Peter lose his composure.
In placing this episode just after the witness of Jesus in the presence of
the High Priest, the Gospel intends to contrast Peter¡¯s attitude with that
of his Master.