Bottomless Oil Lamps
Homily on the 32nd Sunday in OT, 8 November 2026, St Maria Goretti Parish, Manila
In my many years of priestly ministry, the most exciting, and I would say, ang pinakanakakakilig na pastoral experience is officiating weddings. And I realized that one thing in particular that makes such weddings kilig-to-the-bones is that the couples themselves plan and prepare their own wedding liturgy – they choose the officiating priest, the set of readings and the prayers. The most thrilling part, however, is that no matter how prepared everything seems to be, when the wedding day comes, one of the spouses fails to come on time. More often than not, it is the bride who comes late. And everyone understands why.
One time, however, I was very much surprised to learn that the bride had arrived in the church much earlier than expected, and it was the groom who was long delayed in his coming. Everyone began to get nervous including the bride herself. Anong nangyari,,, bakit hindi pa siya dumarating? Was he caught in the traffic? Or was he still undecided to come? Or did he forget that it was his wedding day?
Dear brothers and sisters, we are now on the eighth day of November, the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time. We are almost at the end of the liturgical year. And the end of the year reminds us of the end of our life. May I ask you, are you ready for death anytime it comes? Are you prepared to face the Lord judgment day? For the past eight days, now we have been remembering the souls of the faithful departed; we have been praying and offering Masses for them. But have we also considered that one day we too shall die? Or maybe, we are just too afraid to face the reality of death, that we don’t want even to think about it.
In this Holy Mass, we continue listening and meditating on the Gospel of Matthew. And the passage we have heard today reinforces this reminder that our life will soon come to an end. And when that day comes, God, our Creator and Redeemer, will appear and take us to the ultimate wedding feast in heaven.
In one of my homilies back in Cebu, I was telling the people that God wants all of us men and women to be saved, as in all, including non-Christians. He wants everyone to be with him in the great and eternal banquet of heaven, celebrating the wedding feast of the Lamb. And amazingly, we, baptized Christians, have a special role to play in God’s plan of salvation. We, who are Christ’s disciples, will be carrying the light in order to keep vigil, so that we may be ready to welcome the ultimate Bridegroom when he comes, for He will come on a day and at an hour we do not know. The light we carry is no other than the light of faith, the same light we received at our own baptism.
If you would recall, in our own baptism each of us received a lighted candle. Of course, many of us were still babies, too young and too small to keep that day in our memory. That candle was lighted from the Paschal candle and is used to light each candle held by the godparents. And all parents and godparents present were told by the presiding minster to keep that light always burning brightly. That light stands for the light of faith.
As we grew up, we carried that lighted candle again on the day we received our first Holy Communion. Years later, as adolescents or young adults on the day of our Confirmation we carried that same light once again while renewing our baptismal vows. Furthermore, esp. for those couples who are already married, those same candles were lighted one more time during their wedding in the Church. And for the professed religious who are here, those same candles were lighted one more time during their First Profession.
Finally, for those who have already died, that candle was lit again for the last time at their wake and funeral. You see how this light of faith accompanies us, Christians, all our life while we await the return of the Lord.
What is most amazing is that this light has been accompanying us not only during the milestones of our life, but also every Sunday. Whenever we come to Mass, we light the candles on the altar. For this, we can say that every Eucharist that we celebrate is not only our way of worshiping God, but is also our preparation for death.
The challenge for us, therefore, is to strive to keep this light burning brightly in joy and in sadness, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, until we grow old and pass away. Jesus does not want us to be like the foolish virgins mentioned in the parable we heard today. Those virgins failed to keep their lamps burning brightly because they did not bring extra oil along with them. Jesus instead wants us to be like the wise virgins who brought extra oil with them to keep their lamps lighted until the Bridegroom comes.
That is why wisdom, which the first reading exalts and proclaims, is a very important virtue for Christians even today. Whether we are young or old, we need the oil of wisdom. However, for those who seem to have reached the age of seventy, eighty or ninety, you need a larger amount of extra oil, perhaps even bottomless. This oil is no other than the oil of constant faith; the oil of persevering prayer, and the oil of good works and acts of loving kindness to people you meet each day. This is precisely wisdom in practice. This is the kind of oil that our lamps should contain until the end of our lives. How good and wonderful it would be if the oil lamps we carry in life were bottomless!
The lives of countless saints whose feast we celebrated last Nov 1 are inspiring models of what Jesus is teaching us today. Among them St Maria Goretti stands out. She is a shining example of how to keep one’s oil lamp burning brightly until the coming of the Lord. She consistently kept her heart and her body virgin pure rather than be stained by any sin for the sake of the true and eternal Bridegroom she had been waiting for. And so, when the final trial came, she bravely chose even to die rather than fall into sin with her earthly suitor. May all the young women of this parish be inspired and follow the path she chose.
Allow me to conclude with another inspiring story, that of St. Dominic Savio, a 15-year-old boy who lived and died 50 to 60 years prior to St Maria Goretti. At seven years old, Dominic Savio took the motto “Death rather than Sin.” He loved Jesus and Mary as his best friends that he made a big effort to keep himself always away from sin, and remain united with God through the Sacraments.
His ardent devotion, however, did not remain inside the church. Aside from fulfilling his ordinary duties, extraordinarily well, following the advice of Don Bosco, he tried to bring his companions to Jesus by leading them to the sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion. He also volunteered to teach catechism to younger kids. One time, he tried to stop a bloody fight between two bigger boys who were ready to smash each other’s heads with big stones, and made them friends again. At another time, he snatched away the porn pictures his companions were enjoying and tore the material to pieces right before their eyes.
Towards the end of his short but meaningful life, he requested his parents to read for him the prayers of a happy death. Then he closed his eyes to sleep. After a while he opened his eyes again and he began to look intently at one point above his death bed. Then, with a big smile on his face,he uttered these last words “What beautiful things I see…” after which he closed his eyes and breathed his last. This was exactly how this young saint welcomed Jesus’ coming at the end of his life. He truly is a shining example of what Jesus is teaching us today – to keep our oil lamps burning brightly until the end.
May our Blessed Mother and all the saints pray for us and guide us to be always vigilantly ready until the Lord comes. May this Eucharist empower us to persevere in our faith, prayers and good works so that one day we too may experience the eternal joy of being with the Lord at the wedding banquet together with all the Saints in heaven.
Let us keep in mind, every Mass is an encounter with the Lord. If we come always prepared for the Holy Mass, we are actually preparing to meet the Lord at the end of time. GiGsss!
