This blog follows the daily bible readings of the Catholic Church

Reading 1, 1 Corinthians 1:17-25

17 After all, Christ sent me not to baptise, but to preach the gospel; and not by means of wisdom of language, wise words which would make the cross of Christ pointless. 18 The message of the cross is folly for those who are on the way to ruin, but for those of us who are on the road to salvation it is the power of God. 19 As scripture says: I am going to destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of any who understand.

20 Where are the philosophers? Where are the experts? And where are the debaters of this age? Do you not see how God has shown up human wisdom as folly? 21 Since in the wisdom of God the world was unable to recognise God through wisdom, it was God’s own pleasure to save believers through the folly of the gospel.22 While the Jews demand miracles and the Greeks look for wisdom, 23 we are preaching a crucified Christ: to the Jews an obstacle they cannot get over, to the gentiles foolishness, 24 but to those who have been called, whether they are Jews or Greeks, a Christ who is both the power of God and the wisdom of God.

25 God’s folly is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Gospel, Matthew 25:1-13

The wise and foolish attendants, by Blake

1 ‘Then the kingdom of Heaven will be like this: Ten wedding attendants took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were sensible: 3 the foolish ones, though they took their lamps, took no oil with them,

4 whereas the sensible ones took flasks of oil as well as their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was late, and they all grew drowsy and fell asleep.

6 But at midnight there was a cry, “Look! The bridegroom! Go out and meet him.”

7 Then all those wedding attendants woke up and trimmed their lamps, 8 and the foolish ones said to the sensible ones, “Give us some of your oil: our lamps are going out.” 9 But they replied, “There may not be enough for us and for you; you had better go to those who sell it and buy some for yourselves.” 10 They had gone off to buy it when the bridegroom arrived. Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding hall and the door was closed. 11 The other attendants arrived later. “Lord, Lord,” they said, “open the door for us.”

12 But he replied, “In truth I tell you, I do not know you.” 13 So stay awake, because you do not know either the day or the hour.

There is a tradition in Jewish wisdom which contrasts the wise person with the foolish. This can be seen for example in the first Psalm which blesses the wise person and damns the foolish. Jesus’ parable of the wedding attendants uses this tradition and the reader is not helped to make the connection by a translation which gives us “sensible” instead of “wise.” The force of the story is that the wise are totally focused on the arrival of the bridegroom (bridegroom was a term for the Messiah), whereas the foolish are careless. Well, not very careless; they are after all in attendance. So why the fuss? Jesus’ point is that the Messiah may need them at any moment. This is not a story about “the second coming of Jesus as a cosmic event.” No, this arrival could be today, tomorrow or the next day, and requires constant readiness. He may arrive in our neighbour, the homeless man begging, a friend in despair, a personal temptation. The wise person is always ready.

In Paul’s letter the tradition is turned on its head. The Corinthians pride themselves on their wisdom. But the cross of

the foolishness of God

Jesus has shown that God’s way is folly in the world’s eyes: it is defeat, shame, weakness, at best an error of judgment. Paul insists that this is God’s way: his love is demonstrated through a crucified messiah in whom the blindness and violence of the world is shown up. Those who encounter the crucified one cannot pretend that they are decent enough people; they have to confess themselves part of a world that tortures the good and kills the vulnerable. Only in their acceptance of that judgment can they also find in the cross, the outpouring of God’s love. To Jews who want a victorious Messiah this is offensive; to Gentiles who want a coherent philosophy, it’s nonsense; but to those who open themselves to God’s daft weakness, it is deliverance from evil. This is Paul at his provocative best.