Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of man comes.
All Commentaries on Matthew 25:13 Go To Matthew 25
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
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.” .
For in each of the five senses of the body there is a double instrument, and the number five doubled makes ten. And because the company of the faithful is gathered out of both sexes, the Holy Church is described as being like to ten virgins, where as bad are mixed with good, and reprobate with elect, it is like a mixture of wise and foolish virgins.
It is to be observed, that all have lamps, but all have not oil.
To sleep is to die, to slumber before sleep is to faint from salvation before death, because, by the burden of sickness we come to the sleep of death.
The lamps of the foolish virgins go out, because the works which appeared outwardly to men to be bright, are dimmed within at the coming of the Judge. That they then beg oil of the wise virgins, what is it but that at the coming of the Judge, when they find themselves empty within, they seek for witness from without? As though deceived by their own self-confidence, they say to their neighbours, “Whereas you see us rejected as living without works, do you witness to our works that you have seen."
