Welcome to Thomistic Womanhood. In today’s video we’re going to talk about, are you selfish or wise?

Happy Thomistic Tuesday or whenever you’re watching this. In today’s video, I’m going to talk about self-care and when does it cross the line into being selfish? Or does it? I’m going to bring up a Bible story. This is actually from the Gospel. It’s in Matthew 25:1-13. And this is the parable of the foolish and the wise virgins. Some of you may be familiar with it, but I’ll tell you the story.

So basically to paraphrase it, this is when there is a big wedding and there’s a party and, you know, back in the day, I guess parties were held over a few days, and they would go out into the night as well. So in this parable, the story, there are 10 virgins that are, you know, 10 young women that are attending this party. And five of them are pretty smart. And five of them are not so much, they kind of procrastinate a little bit. And in the story, the bridegroom is away, and everybody’s getting ready, you know, for the party. And while they’re all waiting, they fall asleep. Everybody falls asleep because it’s so late. And then all of a sudden, everybody’s like, woke up at midnight, you know, all the bridegroom’s here like we’re going to go into the party great. And five of the girls were smart, and they planned ahead and they pull out their lamps and they start trimming the wicks and putting oil in it and getting ready to like, have a lamp too late the way and then five of the girls actually didn’t plan ahead and they don’t have oil in their lamps. And so the girls that procrastinated talk to the other ones. And they say, Hey, give us some of the oil in your lamps so we can light up our lamps and go in too. And the other ones look at them. And they say because there might not be enough for us and you, No! go to the shopkeepers and go buy some oil. And so the girls are like, okay, you know, so they go buy some oil. And while they’re doing that, the bridegroom comes back and opens the gates and everybody goes in. And then he closes the gates and the five girls come late, and they can’t get into the party because they were out shopping for oil. And that is the parable. I’m kind of paraphrasing it, but that is what happens.

And our Lord tells that story. And at the end of it, his punchline is “Be on your guard the day and the hour, you don’t know.” And so what he’s saying here is and that’s kind of like a translation of it, but He says, Be on your guard. You don’t know when the bridegroom is coming. Like always be ready, always be prepared. And I think this is a really interesting parable for us women. Because I think for us, we tend to feel guilty for taking care of ourselves. I know, I do it. I know it’s something a lot of women struggle with. And I think this parable is really good food for thought because our Lord doesn’t say, Oh, the shopping, virgins were locked out because of the selfish other virgins. They are considered wise, you know, these virgins that didn’t plan ahead and had to go out buy more oil, he uses them as kind of a cautionary tale. And so I think this is a really good lesson for us women, that it’s okay to take care of yourself first. Because if you look at what these women said, and you can read it, it’s Matthew 25:1-13. Open your Bible and read it because it records what these girls said. The ones who did have oil? what they said to the other ones was it we might not have enough for you and me? So go buy it yourself.

Now, could you imagine saying that to another girl in a situation like that? You know, how would that go over? If you were like, you know, I might not have enough. So if I share with you, I might not have enough for both of us. So I’m not going to share, like, obviously, like that was not the most tactful way to put it. But the Bible is illustrating here. You know, the wisdom of these scrolls like this is even the name of the parable like throughout history, it’s been called the foolish and the wise virgins. It wasn’t the needy and selfish virgins. So, food for thought, we should not feel guilty if we have to take care of ourselves first. And if that may mean someone else doesn’t have what they need. That’s not our fault. You know, that’s not our problem.

If these were, let’s say, parents, you know, you and these virgins were their children, and they said something like that, that would be a little weird. You know, because as parents, we have an obligation to care for those who are entrusted to us. You know, there are certain duties we owe people, you know, so we’re responsible for people and they rely on us. That’s a little different, you know, injustice or certain things we owe people. However, there’s a lot of situations where we don’t owe people help. It would be nice to help them but we don’t have to. So this is a good parable. If you ever feel guilty, or someone tries to make you feel guilty. Think about this parable. I think our Lord would be on your side. So, quick thought, I hope that was helpful or entertaining. If you have any questions, leave a comment. Like, Share and Subscribe.