“And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.”
And the foolish said to the wise: give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. The foolish virgins' request — give us some of your oil — is the recognition of their inadequacy at precisely the moment when remediation is most difficult. The our lamps are going out communicates the imminent failure of the resource they should have prepared.
Church Fathers on Matthew 25:8
Hom. lxxviii, In the foregoing parable the Lord set forth the punishment of the man who beat, and was drunk, and wasted his Lord’s goods; in this He declares his punishment who profits not, and does not prepare for himself abundantly the things of which he has need; for the foolish virgins had oil, but not enough.
'Then,' because all this discourse is concerning the great day of the Lord, concerning which He had been speaking before.
By 'the kingdom of heaven' is meant the present Church, as in that, 'The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend.' [Matt 13:41]
Read all 58 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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