28/08/2026
THE SINNER BECAME A SHEPHERD | “Today, as we celebrate Saint Augustine, the Gospel gives us the parable of the ten virgins waiting for the bridegroom. Five were wise. Five were foolish. All ten had lamps. All ten were waiting. But only five had enough oil.
Perhaps the Gospel leaves us with one simple question: Is there still oil in your lamp?
The lamp is what people can see from the outside—our achievements, reputation, position, even our religious practices. But the oil is what keeps the flame alive from within.
Saint Augustine had many things. He was intelligent, educated, ambitious, and gifted. He searched for happiness in pleasure, relationships, ideas, and success. But something was missing. His heart was restless.
Later he would write: “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.”
Augustine discovered something we also need to learn today: you can fill your life with many things and still have an empty heart. You can have money but no peace. You can have thousands of followers but feel alone. You can know many things but still not know where your life is going.
A lamp is not enough. We need oil. And what is our oil?
Prayer is oil. The Eucharist is oil.
God’s Word is oil. Quiet time with God is oil. These ordinary things keep the flame of faith burning.
And notice something important in the Gospel: “The bridegroom was delayed.”
Sometimes God also seems delayed. We pray for healing, but healing does not come. We pray for a child to change, but nothing happens. We pray for peace in the family, but the problem continues.
That is when we need oil.
Faith is not only trusting God when everything is going well. Faith is keeping your lamp burning even when God seems to be taking His time.
Saint Augustine himself took a long time to return to God. His mother Monica prayed and waited for years. And eventually, Augustine came home.
The restless young man became a saint. The sinner became a shepherd. The man who searched everywhere for happiness finally discovered God.
Augustine would later pray: “Late have I loved You, Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved You!”
He came late. But he came. And perhaps somebody here needs to hear that today.
It is not too late to return to God.
It is not too late to pray again.
It is not too late to change.
It is not too late to put oil back into your lamp.
——
I once heard about an elderly father whose son had stopped going to church and had become distant from the family. For years the father invited him to come home for Sunday lunch. Most Sundays the answer was, “I’m busy.”
But the father kept setting a place for him at the table.
One Sunday, unexpectedly, the son came.
He saw his usual chair waiting for him and asked, “Papa, why do you still prepare a place for me when you know I rarely come?”
His father simply said: “Because you are still my son. And I always hope you will come home.”
——
My dear friends, perhaps that is also the heart of God.
Augustine wandered for years, but there was always a place waiting for him.
And there is a place waiting for us too.
So keep some oil in your lamp. Keep praying. Keep hoping. And if you have wandered far away, come home.
The Bridegroom is still waiting.”
— Cebu Archbishop Alberto “Abet” Uy
Maymay sa Magbalantay | 28 August 2026
