Finding Wisdom

Gospel:  Matthew 25: 1-13

It is folly indeed to bring a torch but not any fuel; for us it would be like having a flashlight and no batteries.  We might ask others to share their batteries with us, but that is a foolish request.  The batteries would be of no benefit to them or us.  Our only recourse would be to go and buy batteries at a store that sells them.  In so doing we miss the wedding at which we were supposed to be attendants.  Not a good look.  

The women who did have oil wanted to help, but they knew they were not able.  The unwise women had to go to the source of oil.  If the torches are symbols of our souls and the oil a symbol of grace, then we cannot find such fuel from other human beings but only from the source of grace itself.  We find it in God alone.  Just as the true disciple leads a person to the Lord and then leaves, so our task is not to try and provide oil for others but to lead them to the source of oil itself.

The wise person knows they are not the source of their own wisdom, nor are they the source of wisdom for anyone else.  The wise person knows where to go in order to find wisdom, and they know where to lead others so that they may obtain wisdom for themselves.