The Oil of Divine Charity

Kenrick-Glennon Seminary
Memorial of St. Martina, Virgn and Martyr (Mass in the Extraordinary Form)
January 30, 2009

Mt 25:1-13

St. Augustine offers a fascinating interpretation of the passage we heard this morning from St. Matthew’s Gospel. He says that when the evangelist speaks of five virgins with lighted lamps the number five refers to the five senses and the virgins refer to the refraining from unlawful indulgence of the senses. The lighted lamps are signs of good works that shine before men. Thus, both groups of virgins in the Gospel stand for those who refrain from unlawful things and do good works. What is it, then, that separates the wise from the foolish, Augustine asks? It is the oil. When they awake at the resurrection after the sleep of death, the wise virgins find that they have plenty of oil to await the Bridegroom, while the foolish have run out. The wise had fueled their lamps with the oil of the love of God, while the foolish had relied upon the oil of human praise. When they awoke at the resurrection, the wise found their oil of charity still burning, while the foolish found that there were no longer any to offer them human praise, as everyone was concerned with his own cause before the Divine Judge.

The point for our reflection today is clear. Surely all of us here strive to refrain from sin and to do good works. We must ask ourselves, however, what our motivation is in doing this. Do we ever do these things in order to receive human praise? Do I dedicate myself to intellectual formation in order to impress my professors? Do I carry out the external signs of devotion in order to appear holier to my brother seminarians? Do I put myself fully into my work in the parish in order to gain the admiration of parishioners? Or do I do all of these things simply out of love for God, because they are His will for me?

If we’re honest with ourselves, all of us likely have some duplicity in us. While we surely want to do everything for God’s greater glory, there are still traces within us of the desire to glorify ourselves. May we today identify those selfish desires within ourselves and ask our Lord, at this holy sacrifice, to purify our hearts, to send the fire of His Holy Spirit to burn away whatever selfishness remains in our hearts and to enflame our hearts with the pure love of God and of our neighbor for His sake. Thus may our hearts be prepared, as was the heart of St. Martina, to shun human praise, even to the point of giving our lives completely, in favor of the love of God.