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| Ambry - Oils of Catechumens, Chrism, Infirmarum |
But, you chose to come here. So, I take it as read that you might like something a bit meatier, something a bit more substantial to chew on this Sunday. So, forgive me if you get a little bit of spiritual indigestion! All I can say is that the antidote to spiritual indigestion is silence!
There are three motifs in today's gospel. They are:
1. Oil
2. Lamp
3. Wick
I want to explore the first & primary motif; oil, in three ways so that we can allow the parable into our lives. Firstly from a contemporary perspective, secondly from the perspective of the New Testament times, and finally what this text might be pointing us towards as engaged followers of Jesus Christ today.
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| Sensible & Foolish Bridesmaids |
The three motifs are drawn together by the active persons in the parable, i.e. the bridesmaids and the bridegroom. And, of course, there is our relationship to the parable as readers or listeners, and finally there is the relationship of Jesus to the parable as the primary storyteller.
Parables are stories that are designed to draw us in, to catch us like a fish on a hook. Our first task as a listener, as one of the active agents in this story, is to listen carefully and to allow ourselves be hooked. I'm sure there hasn't been a fish to date who was hooked who thought the experience was great fun! Where the parable, or indeed the homily, creates a response in us: sadness, frustration, joy, anger, tears, laughter; these are all hooks. The point of being hooked by the parable is to allow us to mull over some point of wisdom. As our first reading says: "Wisdom is bright, and does not grow dim."
Back to the gospel motif of oil:
Milford Haven is perhaps the largest oil & gas refinery I have ever seen. It supplies 25% of the motor fuel that Britain consumes, and it is located on the South West Coast of Wales. It was the scene of a huge explosion in June of this year, which created a seismic response!
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| Milford Haven - Wales |
Oil, Natural Gas, and all their derivatives have become central to our lives over the past 150 years or so. This has happened in obvious ways, like transport and heat. But also, in less obvious ways like in our food, because synthetic fertilisers are produced from crude oil.
Without oil there would be no such thing as modern warfare, because war needs oil to power tanks, and planes, and even to create the synthetic explosives that high-tech munitions are made from. Oil is very often the reason for war as countries fight to secure the sources of oil, but without oil there could be no war on the level that we see in our own time.
Forgive the pun, but oil is very slippery and contradictory when we try to understand our current worldwide love affair and, dare I say, addiction to oil.
Oil in our world has a lot of negative connotations. Many people argue that we should learn to live without oil, and at the very least become less dependent on it.
But oil in gospel terms has huge positive value. Olive oil was used in the baking of bread to give it taste. It was used in religious ceremonies. Oil in New Testament times was a very precious, at times sacred commodity. When you consider that it takes approximately 1,400 olives to make a litre of olive oil, not to mention the manual labour involved in pressing the oil, you can see that this gave oil huge value. For this reason oil is the primary motif in the parable. It is by running out of oil for their lamps that the foolish bridesmaids are shown to be foolish.
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| Olive Oil |
Our term 'oil' comes from the term 'olive'. In ancient times, oil was synonymous with the olive. There was no such thing as crude oil drilled out of the ground. And, in the east, the olive tree was held up as a sacred plant because of it's fruit.
In Matthew's gospel, the motif of oil is brought to its zenith in the word 'gethsemane', which we recognise as the place where Jesus prayed on the night before his crucifixion. The term 'gethsemane' means 'olive press'. Here, the place where olive oil is made, here is the place that Jesus chooses to pray. This associates the source of oil with the intense, passionate, prayer of Jesus before his crucifixion. The intense, real, heartfelt, prayer of Jesus takes place in an 'olive press'. For the followers of Jesus, i.e. you and I, to follow Christ means to enter into 'gethsemane', to enter the 'olive press' of prayer, so that we might have enough oil for our lamps.
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| (Olive) Oil Press |
Psalm 119 says: "Your word is a lamp for my steps, and a light for my path." God's Word is the lamp. The world is the olive press and prayer is the means to enter the world in the most real way. Christ is the one who enters Gethsemane, the olive press, the world. He is the incarnate One, Emmanuel, God-with-us. Our task is not to leave the world, but to enter into the world passionately, intensely and willingly. It is only true relationship with Christ, in prayer, that we gain oil to light our way in this bravest of pilgrimages.
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