原文|Bishop Barron
翻译|Carrie

朋友们，今天的福音是说天国好比十个童女，拿着自己的灯出去迎接新郎。这个比喻借用了当时的惯例：伴娘等待新郎出现，然后随身陪同。

 

这就是基督教团体等待着基督这位新郎的到来。耶稣用这个比喻是因为祂知道祂的教会要长期等待吗？

 

我们在等待中若能经常祈祷、自学教理、参与圣事（尤其是圣餐）、在物质上和精神上都乐善好施、成为爱的化身，那么我们就是明智的，反之就是糊涂的。

 

而这个比喻反映出最无情的真理之一是：颇有修为的神圣生活的确是无法在最后一刻共享的。明智的童女对她们的同伴表示无法相助时并非故意刁难和自私自利。圣人确实无法把自己的生命注入别人体内，那是行不通的。

 

Friends, our Gospel today is the parable that compares the kingdom of heaven with ten virgins who with their lamps went out to meet the bridegroom. This is an image borrowed from the customs of the time. The bridesmaids would wait for the groom and, upon his appearance, would accompany him.

 

Well, this is the Christian community, waiting for Christ the groom to arrive. Did Jesus tell this parable because he knew that his church would be in for a long period of waiting?

 

We are wise in our waiting if we pray on a regular basis, if we educate ourselves in the faith, if we participate in the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, if we perform the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, if we become people of love. We are foolish in our waiting if we neglect these things.

 

And here is one of the hardest truths of this parable: the divine life, so cultivated, cannot simply be shared with another at the last minute. The wise virgins are not being difficult and self-absorbed when they tell their friends that they can't help them. A saint can't simply infuse his life into another; it just doesn't work that way.