In the meantime…

Glory to the Father, and to the Son,

and to the Holy Spirit:

As it was in the beginning, is now,

and will be for ever.  Amen.

“Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”  Matthew 25.13

This is the final verse from the gospel reading for today.  It’s known, if at all, as the story of the wise and foolish virgins.  There are ten of them, waiting for the bridegroom to arrive; five foolish and five wise.  And in the waiting, all of them became drowsy and slept.  The bridegroom arrives, at midnight, and the foolish virgins realize their lamps are going out and they haven’t brought additional oil.  When they ask the wise virgins to share, they are told “go…buy some for yourselves.”  By the time they go and purchase oil, the bridegroom has come, the party has started, and the door is shut.  The foolish virgins knock and ask to be let in, but the bridegroom says it’s too late.  In fact, he says, “Truly…I do not know you.”

I am struck by this phrase: all of them became drowsy and slept.  It’s hard, isn’t it, when the bridegroom is delayed, or the promotion doesn’t come, or the sickness doesn’t go away, or the marriage continues to wither, or the child doesn’t obey, or the church doesn’t grow, or the prayer that you pray in the deepest of night isn’t answered, to not become drowsy and fall asleep?  Karl Rahner has a metaphor for this kind of existence – “the rubbled-over heart.”

“The night that came was no uncommon night;/hundreds like it go by./ Then dogs sleep, and then stones lie./ Alas, a sad night, alas any night/that waits till it be morning once again.”  – Rilke, “The Garden of Olives”

It is hard for our rubbled-over hearts, be they foolish or wise, to wait till it be morning once again.

There is no denying the aspect of Matthew’s story of the midnight cry being sounded and the fools coming up short.  But there is also the aspect, if you listen closely, of these virgins, one and all being foolish, for in the waiting, in the meantime, in the in-between where we all live and breathe and have our being, they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

How are you, how am I, living in the meantime?

Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of thy only Son, our Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.