On Monday evening, by anticipation, the Church celebrated the Bridegroom Orthros of Holy Tuesday. On this day, we remember the Gospel parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25:1–13): a story that gives its name and spiritual meaning to the services, as mentioned in my previous post: https://saintignatiusbelfast.org/holy-monday.
Here is the Gospel reading (Matthew 25:1–13):
“At that time, the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’ ‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”
Why does the Gospel, and the Troparion of the Bridegroom Orthros, warn us, “Behold, the Bridegroom comes in the middle of the night”?
Because Christ is the Bridegroom of the Church. The ideal of marriage is when two become one. In Christ, through His voluntary Passion, death, and Resurrection, the curse of Adam and Eve was overcome. They had been separated from communion with God, and through them, all of humanity. But Christ came to unite us to Himself again. This is why He is the Bridegroom.
And why are we called to “behold”? Because none of us knows the day or the hour when God will call us from this world. If we want salvation, we must be prepared. We need our oil lamps, our spiritual lives, filled with the oil of virtues, repentance, and love. If we wait until the last moment, it may be too late. That oil cannot be borrowed, no one else can give it to us. It is something we must acquire ourselves, before we are called. Each of us, with the help of God, through prayer, fasting, humility, love, and repentance.
Let us, therefore, stay awake, be vigilant, and always await the Lord’s coming with lamps full of spiritual oil, ready to enter with Him into the eternal wedding feast.
Yesterday, I shared the chanting of the Troparion “Behold, the Bridegroom” in English, in the Byzantine style. Today, I would like to share the same Troparion, beautifully chanted by the monastic choir of the Holy Trinity–St Sergius Lavra in Russia, which is one of the finest Slavic-style ecclesiastical choirs. The recording begins with the Litany of Peace, followed by the Alleluia with its verses, and then the Troparion itself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpbWsS5Z3cs
The choir was directed by the late Archimandrite Matthew Mormyl, who was instrumental in the revival of the male monastic choir tradition in the Lavra, and in the Russian Church more broadly, in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s. May his memory be eternal.