Almost a hundred years ago, a young Yale Professor by the name of Clark Hopkins was chosen to lead a small group of archeologists for a dig in the sands of a remote part of modern day Syria called Dura-Europas. There Hopkins uncovered the oldest-known Christian Church, complete with a Baptistry.
On one wall, to the right of the baptismal font, he found a fresco depicting today’s Gospel, the story of the wise and foolish virgins going out to meet the Bridegroom. It makes sense to paint such a picture on a baptistry wall. For Picture, if you will, the freshly washed, white-robed newly baptized standing there with candles in their hands, as the wise virgins look down and see to ask,“Will you be ready to welcome the bridegroom when he returns?” “Will your lamps be still burning, or would you be left in the darkness, banging on a big locked door?”
When you were baptized, the priest placed a candle into the hand of your Father and said to your parents and godparents, “this light is entrusted to you to be kept burning brightly. This child of yours has been enlightened by Christ. He is to walk always as a child of the light. May he keep the flame of faith alive in his heart. When the Lord comes, may he go out to meet him with all the saints in the heavenly kingdom.”1
When the Lord returns, will he see your light still burning, or will you be left in the darkness, banging on a big locked door?
So, how do I keep the light burning? Three ways.
First, as in any relationship, I keep the light burning by spending time with the one I love. Spending time with God is called prayer. I pray when I wake up. I pray in the middle of the day, and I pray before I go to sleep. I beg for God’s help when things get tough, and I thank God for his mercy when things are going pretty good. Perhaps, most of all, I carry a grateful heart…looking for all the ways God has loved me, and thanking him with all my heart.
I pray, and I worship. I long to go to Mass and to receive Holy Communion, to heart his word and to join the pains and joys of my life to his Cross. I confess my sins and I hear him forgive me through the voice of his priest. I strive to stay faithful to all the promises I have made and I seek out ways in which to do better, to lead a more virtuous life.
I try to be prudent, to figure out in each and every moment, whether big or small, what does God want me to do, and then I dig way down deep inside and beg the Holy Spirit for the strength to do it. I try to be temperate:, to practice restraint and self-control, not to fly off the handle, but to think before I speak and before I act.
I pray, I worship, and I seek to do what it right at all times. But there is one more thing I need to do if I am to keep that light burning until the master’s return. I open my arms on all the crosses he sends me and try to love others and he loved me.
No matter how much the person he send me reminds me of that person who hurt me, no matter how much they drive me crazy, I try to love them. To love the least, the littlest and the ones whom everyone else pushes away. To love them with a love that is quick to praise, anxious to forgive and ready to serve.
It’s a simple as that. For there are but three things that last, three oils that fill our lamps as we await the master’s return: faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love.
