The difference
The ten girls had the task of being the luminous wings of the bridegroom’s procession; their lamps were to light the bridegroom’s path when he arrived. The ten girls took their lamps and went out to meet the groom; he was late and they fell asleep. When they heard the cry 'Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’, they woke up, quickly prepared their lamps and ran out to meet him. All ten girls knew that their presence there in that moment was indissolubly bound to their lamps, to their task of shedding light at that place as long as necessary: they knew they were to be the human lamps to light the groom’s way to his house where the celebration would take place. Only five brought flasks of oil with their lamps, and that was what made all and the only difference between the ten girls. Only five of them were wise, intelligent, learned. Why? Because those lamp-girls were nothing without their lamps, the lamps were nothing without their wick, and the wicks cannot be lit without oil, so the girls were nothing without oil.
The lamp’s oil represents not only sagaciousnes, attention, passion, determination to carry out one’s tasks, it is more, much more than that. The lamp’s oil represents the precise perception and the spiritual and intellectual knowledge of the meaning of life and the aim of existence, so that one can work all one's life towards that end. The meaning of man’s life on earth, according to evangelical symbology, is shedding light, illuminating the path, or more precisely, becoming a path of light, a luminous path so that humanity can walk towards itself, towards harmony, peace, wellbeing with as few impediments as possible. The aim is bringing light to the path that leads to love and to God and, at the same time, creating a luminous path so that God can walk towards men without finding gloomy, deceived rebel hearts, chasms of ignorance, painful abysses of injustice in them. The aim of every man’s life is to bring light to humanity’s path towards the Groom and to the Groom’s way towards humanity. The five wise girls were not better, holier, more meticulous, more religious or pious than the five foolish ones; they simply considered seriously, very seriously, that their life absolutely depended on their task, and for that reason, going to meet the groom with lamps without oil would have been like sailing across the ocean with a boat without sail; a stupid as well as a lethal way to travel. The five wise girls understood that without oil there would not be light in their lamp, and without light their being there was pointless. The wise man is the one who is aware that life has an aim that goes beyond building a house, eating, drinking, sleeping, procreating, working, having fun, growing old and dying, and so he tries to work in any way to fulfil that aim. The lamp’s oil is the oil of spiritual wisdom, of the highest and greatest intellectual vision, an oil that must always be present in the two little jars man receivs at creation: the heart and the brain. The wise man is aware that life’s lamp, fed only by one's own personal interest, by other people's expectations, envy, competition is a life without oil, without meaning; it burns itself out by itself, it does not shed any light because it does not make anyone happy, it does not give any happiness. The wise man is aware that when life’s lamp is fed only avidity and the desire to rule and to possess, that life is without any oil, is foolish, disconnected, out of sorts, de-centred, and burns out by itself because it is not useful to God or to men. The wise man knows that this life is the only one he has and it cannot be repeated, he also knows that the lamp’s oil, which is to say the meaning of life and working to promote it, cannot be exchanged, given away, sold or bought. The wise man knows that he can be happy only if he fulfils his divine mandate on this earth. The wise man knows that one day when his experience on earth is finished, after a life of traumas, of wounds received and inflicted, after having slipped and fallen, he will arrive at the groom’s door; he will knock at the door of the Master of all things with his lamp in his hand, a worn out, battered, shabby lamp but still able to shed light. As soon as the Lord opens the door, the wise man will raise that lamp to his face so that the Lord will be able to recognize and embrace him tightly and after so many years of separation he will be let into the Master's house of light for an endless celebration.
Wise men and women know that, after having spent all their existence shedding light on their brothers’ paths, before turning off their lamp at the Groom’s door, they will use the last light to illumine their face before God, so they will not hear those terrible words: 'Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.' The wise man knows that before that day, before that dawn not followed by sunset, before that day without end, precisely at the established time, at midnight, at the time in between, the Groom will come, He will come for His intermediate visit, and the cry 'Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!' is already echoing in the stars and in the galaxies.
The Groom is coming back, and not only metaphorically, He is coming back in His glory to create a way of light, because man did not fulfil his task with love, and there are no luminous ways shedding light on man’s path towards his divine evolution. Humanity is busy with other kinds of occupations, but midnight has already sounded, and the cry 'Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!' is already crossing galaxies and hearts.