The parable of the ten virgins, who await the coming of the bridegroom and have gone out to meet him, is found only in the Evangelist Matthew. However, certain details have parallels also in the Apostle Luke (Luke 13:25).

Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh (Matthew 25:1-13).

The parable of the wise and foolish virgins, who symbolize the souls of men, shows that both those who believe in the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and those who hope to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, will be subjected, their faith notwithstanding, to a final trial at the Dread Judgment and then received into the Kingdom of Heaven or rejected for ever.

Christ depicted here His Second Coming under the image well known to the Jews of the coming of the bridegroom to the home of the bride during the ritual of marriage. According to the ancient eastern custom, after the betrothal, the bridegroom, accompanied by relatives and friends, proceeds to the home of the bride, who awaits him in her best attire, surrounded by friends. The wedding solemnity would take place usually at night; therefore, the friends of the bride would meet the bridegroom with lamps burning, and, since the time of the bridegroom's arrival would not be known exactly, those who were waiting would provide themselves with oil in case it should burn out in the lamps. The bride, with her face covered by a thick veil, the bridegroom and all the participants in the solemnity would proceed to the bridegroom's home with singing and music. The doors would be shut, the marriage contract would be signed, "blessings" would be pronounced in honor of the bridegroom and the bride, the bride would uncover her face and the marriage feast would being, which would last seven days if a maiden were marrying, or three days if a widow were marrying.

In this parable, the marriage feast symbolizes the Kingdom of Heaven, where the faithful will be united with the Lord in blessed eternal life. The waiting for the bridegroom signifies a man's whole earthly life, the aim of which consists in preparing himself for the meeting with the Lord. The shut doors of the marriage chamber, which did not admit those who were late to the bridegroom, signify human death, after which there is no longer repentance and amendment.

According to the explanation of Hierarch John Chrysostom, Christ portrayed the faithful entering into the Kingdom of Heaven under the image of virgins, thereby extolling virginity - not only bodily, but, mainly, spiritual chastity, true confession of the Christian faith and a life according to faith, in opposition to heresy, theomachy and negligence in regard to the salvation of one's soul. "Here", says Chrysostom, "the gift of virginity, the purity of holiness, Christ calls a lamp; while philanthropy, kindheartedness, help for the poor, He calls oil." Oil in Sacred Scripture usually serves as an image of the Holy Spirit, and in this parable the burning oil signifies the spiritual ardor of the faithful who have been filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit of God, Who communicates to them His rich gifts: faith, love, kindheartedness and others, which are expressed in the Christian life of the faithful, in particular, in love and help for one's neighbor.

The great righteous man, Venerable Seraphim of Sarov, clearly and convincingly explains the parable of the ten virgins. Venerable Seraphim's basic thought lies in the understanding of the aim of Christian life as "the acquisition of the grace of the All-Holy Spirit", which he expressed in the remarkable conversation with the merchant, N. Motovilov.

Venerable Seraphim says to his converser: "In the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, when the foolish ones lacked oil, it was said: 'Go and buy in the market.' But when they had bought, the door to the bride chamber was already shut and they could not get in. Some say that the lack of oil in the lamps of the foolish virgins means a lack of good deeds in their lifetime. Such an interpretation is not quite correct. Why should they be lacking in good deeds if they are called virgins, even though foolish ones? Virginity is the supreme virtue, an angelic state, and it could take the place of all other good works.

"I think that what they were lacking was the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God. These virgins practiced the virtues, but in their spiritual ignorance they supposed that the Christian life consisted merely in doing good works. By doing a good deed they thought they were doing the work of God, but they little cared whether they acquired thereby the grace of God's Spirit. Such ways of life based merely on doing good without carefully testing whether they bring the grace of the Spirit of God, are mentioned in the Patristic books. 'There is another way which is deemed good at the beginning, but it ends at the bottom of hell.' " 1.

Not every "good work", according to the teaching of Venerable Seraphim, has spiritual value; but only those "good works" are valuable which are performed in Christ's name. In fact, it is easy to image (and this often happens) that unbelieving people perform good works. But the Apostle Paul says of them: And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing (I Corinthians 13:3).

Further, in order to elucidate his thought on true good, Venerable Seraphim says:

"Antony the Great in his letters to Monks says of such virgins: 'Many Monks and virgins have no idea of the different kinds of will which act in man, and they do not know that we are influenced by three wills: the first is God's all-perfect and all-saving will; the second is our own human will which, if not destructive, yet neither is it saving; and the third is the devil's will - wholly destructive.' And this third will of the enemy teaches man either not to do any good deeds, or to do them out of vanity, or to do them merely for virtue's sake and not for Christ's sake. The second, our own will, teaches us to do everything to flatter our passions, or else it teaches us like the enemy to do good for the sake of good and not care for the grace which is acquired by it. But the first, God's all-saving will, consists in doing good solely to acquire the Holy Spirit, as an eternal, inexhaustible treasure which cannot be rightly valued. The acquisition of the Holy Spirit is, so to say, the oil which the foolish virgins lacked. They were called foolish just because they had forgotten the necessary fruit of virtue, the grace of the Holy Spirit, without which no one is or can be saved, for: 'Every soul is quickened by the Holy Spirit and exalted by purity and mystically illumined by the Trinal Unity.'

"This is the oil in the lamps of the wise virgins which could burn long and brightly, and these virgins with their burning lamps were able to meet the Bridegroom, Who came at midnight, and could enter the bride chamber of joy with him. But the foolish ones, though they went to market to buy some oil when they saw their lamps going out, were unable to return in time, for the door was already shut."

From the parable of the ten virgins, it follows quite clearly that only a man's earthly life in God, according to the testaments of Christ and, therefore, consonant with the Kingdom of Heaven, will serve as his justification both at the particular judgment (after death) and at the general Dread Judgment. But all "formal" Christians, who live out of contact with God and care not about their salvation, prepare for themselves the portion of those who were rejected. "No one mounts to heaven while living cooly", teaches Venerable Isaac the Syrian. Neither formal faith, without a life according to Christ's commandments (Luke 6:46; James 1:22; Romans 2:13), nor prophecies in Christ's name or many miracles worked by His Name, as is evident from the Saviour's words (Matthew 7:21-23), are sufficient for inheriting the Kingdom of Heaven.

"Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his", says the Apostle Paul (Romans 8:9), and it will be natural for such to hear the words of the Son of God: Verily I say unto you, I know you not (Matthew 25:12).

© V. Potapov

Translator's note: The passages quoted from St. Seraphim's conversation with N. Motovilov have been excerpted from St. Seraphim of Sarov, A Spiritual Biography, by Archimandrite Lazarus Moore, New Sarov Press, Blanco, Texas, 1994, pages 172-174.