NOTES for Mat 25:1-13
The Saviour's parable of the ten virgins has an entirely clear eschatological meaning. Plainly, it concerns the coming—or, more precisely, the return—of the Messiah, and meeting him is like meeting a bridegroom: for the image of the Kingdom as a wedding feast was already traditional at that time. It remains only to understand what is meant by the oil and the lamps. Jesus himself says that a person's lamp, the lamp of their inner world, is the eye, their own sight. This means not only physical sight but also spiritual sight, the sight that makes communion with God possible for a person. The oil, meanwhile, enables a person to see: it is what nourishes their spiritual sight.
A lamp that has gone out means that a person has become spiritually exhausted, no longer able to make the inner effort that allows them to see. Of course, a parable is a parable: it contains not only symbols but also allegories. Going out to buy oil at the most unsuitable moment, when one ought to be at home waiting attentively, is just such an allegory. It concerns a person's unreadiness for the Saviour's return, a spiritual unreadiness caused by having failed, when there was time, to think about their spiritual life or take care to become spiritually strong enough for the coming encounter.
It might seem that a person has no strength of their own at all: all our strength comes from God, and this is exactly how God intended it from the beginning. Yet a person is still responsible before God for their own spiritual condition. God gives us every opportunity for spiritual life, for building it and filling it with substance, but we must realise those possibilities ourselves, albeit with his help. If we do nothing at all, the possibilities God has given us will remain undeveloped. Some may say: well, let it be so; when Christ returns in glory, he will do everything necessary, regardless of our condition.
The main thing is a readiness and desire to meet him. In reality, however, the situation is more complex: the virgins who arrive too late lose everything. This is not a matter of rigid rules of the game or of God's cruelty. It is simply that the encounter with Christ is the culmination of a long and difficult spiritual process; without that process, the encounter will not take place, even though Christ may be close at hand—like the bridegroom in his parable, who is nearby but cannot be met.