Memorial of Saint Augustine, bishop and doctor of the Church

Today's Mass Readings

There is an old hymn called “Wake, Awake, for Night is Flying!” It is a rendition of today’s gospel lesson (Matthew 25:1-13), and J.S. Bach has written a rather glorious version of it. “Wake, awake, the night is flying!/ The watchmen from the heights are crying / Awake Jerusalem at last./ Midnight hears the welcome voices / And at the thrilling cry rejoices./ Come forth ye virgins, night is past. / The Bridegroom comes, awake! / Your lamps with gladness take, alleluia! / And for his wedding feast prepare, / for ye must go and meet him there.” Joel and I had the song played at our wedding and people have often asked why. Even though there is a bridegroom featured, it doesn’t really seem to be much about weddings and festivities. It is much more a “hurry up” hymn, an admonition to “be prepared” for when the bridegroom will come. How does this have any place in a wedding between two people? How is this about joy and love?

But the Christian view of marriage is that it is not merely a joining together of two people. Marriage means something more. For one thing, as today’s letter writer reminds us (1 Thessalonians 4:1-8), marriage is meant to help two people become better disciples of Jesus, better worshippers of God. That is why Paul observes that people should not simply marry because they love each other – but because the other person is also someone who has a good character and who will help their spouse be a better person (and vice versa).

The gospel reading takes this view of human marriage even further. The bridegroom in this passage is Jesus, who will be married to the church. When Christians get married, part of the symbolism is that their marriage shows us something of what our marriage (collectively, as the church) to Christ looks like. Joel and I wanted to be reminded of the seriousness of that undertaking and so we sang the hymn at our wedding.

There is a tendency, in day to day life, to get caught up in all the everyday details and forget what we’re about as Christians. Sometimes we just keep trudging along because, after all, that is how to get through the days of being tired, stressed, and worried. That’s why it’s good for readings like these today to come along every so often and instill a sense of purpose, a sense of anticipation. “Don’t get lulled into complacency even by the ordinariness of marriage and family! The Bridegroom might be coming by!” These readings are meant to stir us from our lives and live them with a bit more deliberateness and purpose.

Some people might think that it is funny these are the readings that we have on Saint Augustine’s feast day. Augustine did not get married – in fact, Augustine wrestled mightily before his conversion to Christianity with the notion of being celibate, which is where he knew (and feared) God was calling him. In his book Confessions, he complains, “Lord, make me chaste, but not yet!” But in the end, God called Augustine away from simply doing the same ol’ same old, and asked him to live with more purpose. Instead of clinging to his life of mistresses, Augustine was baptized, and eventually ordained and made a bishop. But Augustine knew that that life of purpose and deliberateness was for everyone, not just those who are celibate.

All people are called to follow Jesus Christ. Augustine was a pastoral person who advocated that married people help each other live better – with more generosity, hospitality, justice, love, and the like. So he, like the hymn writer, might be quite happy to sing, “Wake, awake, for night is flying!” Like those virgins in the gospel, go out, and follow your Bridegroom.

- Jana M. Bennett