Homily – St. Augustine

“Stay awake, for you do not know the hour your Lord will come.”

Today the Church places before us two converging streams: the feria readings that thunder vigilance and the Memorial of St. Augustine, bishop, convert, and Doctor of Grace. The Scriptures tell us: faith sustains, time is short, vigilance saves. Augustine’s life tells us: sin deceives, grace conquers, rest is found only in God.

Yesterday, we honoured his mother Monica — the woman of tears. Today, we honour the son who became her crown of joy. Together they show us the mystery of faith: prayer perseveres, grace answers, holiness blossoms.

St. Paul writes with fatherly affection: “We now live, if you stand firm in the Lord.”

His joy is not in comfort, not in success, but in the fidelity of his flock. Their faith renews his life.

Monica could have said the same. For years she prayed for Augustine’s conversion, through years of error, pride, and sin. When at last he stood firm in Christ, her whole life’s labour bore fruit. Her tears became joy.

The conversion of one soul is enough to make a saint of the one who prayed for it.

Paul’s joy is Monica’s joy; Monica’s joy is the Church’s joy. Every conversion is a resurrection.

Psalm 90 strikes us with solemn realism: “A thousand years in your sight are like yesterday, come and gone.”

We are dust. Time slips through our fingers like sand. Yet we live as though we had endless years. Augustine knew this bitterly. He confessed: “Late have I loved You, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new!”

He looked back with sorrow at wasted years. He delayed, postponed, indulged, saying “Tomorrow, tomorrow.”

Delay is the devil’s vocabulary; “today” is the language of grace.

The psalm pleads: “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart.”
Augustine learned this wisdom: he discovered that every day is a gift, every hour an invitation, every moment a chance to choose God.

In the Gospel, Our Lord contrasts two servants. One stays ready, working faithfully even when the master delays. The other grows careless, self-indulgent, abusive, saying: “My master is delayed.”

What kills the soul is not open rebellion but quiet complacency.

Hell is filled not only with rebels, but with sleepers.

Vigilance is not panic; it is fidelity. It is the steady rhythm of prayer, confession, charity. It is readiness not by fear, but by love.

Augustine knew both servants. For years he was the careless one, living as though God would never come. Then, grace woke him. He became the vigilant servant, a bishop who thundered against heresy, who fed his flock with truth, who lived ready for judgment.

The careless servant plays with time; the vigilant servant redeems it.

Augustine’s life is a commentary on today’s Gospel. He knew the complacency of delay. He prayed: “Lord, make me chaste… but not yet.” He knew the sleep of sin, the false freedom of indulgence, the pride of intellect.

But then grace came like a sword. In a garden, he heard a child’s voice: “Tolle, lege” — “Take and read.” He opened the Scriptures: “Not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lust and debauchery, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom 13:13–14).

At that moment, he awoke. He became vigilant. He put on Christ.

Sin says, “Not yet.” Grace says, “Now.” Holiness begins with yes, today.

As bishop, Augustine defended the truth that our salvation is all grace. Against the Pelagians, he declared: we cannot save ourselves, we cannot even take the first step without grace.

We bring nothing to salvation except the sins Christ forgives.

That is why vigilance is not simply human effort. It is cooperating with grace. Staying awake is not frantic striving; it is letting grace keep our eyes open.

The Gospel’s call is clear, but how do we live it practically? Augustine himself gives us the roadmap:

• Prayer. He prayed with tears, with longing, with honesty. “Our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”
  Prayer is the soul’s heartbeat; stop it, and the soul dies.
• Confession. Augustine confessed not only his sins but God’s greatness. His Confessions is really praise disguised as autobiography.
  Every good confession is a dress rehearsal for judgment day.
• Charity. As bishop, Augustine gave himself completely to his people. He fought heresy not for pride, but for the salvation of his flock.
  Charity is vigilance in action.

These are the oil in the lamp of the vigilant soul. Without them, our lamps go out.

Every Mass is a school of vigilance. At this altar, the Master comes to us already. Each Behold the Lamb of God is a miniature Second Coming. If we are not awake here, how shall we be awake then? If we cannot recognise Him in the Host, how shall we recognise Him in glory? The vigilant soul at Mass is the vigilant soul at Judgment.

Augustine teaches that restlessness is not an enemy but a gift. It is the homing signal of the soul for God.

Restlessness is the heart’s alarm clock, set by God, until we wake up to Him.

Do not fear your restlessness. Let it drive you not to distractions, but to Christ.

So today the Word and the Saint speak with one voice: Stay awake.

• Paul says: your faith gives life to others.
• The psalm says: time is short, learn to number your days.
• The Gospel says: vigilance is the line between the faithful servant and the hypocrite.
• Augustine says: grace conquers, rest is in God, and delay is deadly.
• Faith is fire — share it.
• Time is dust — sanctify it.
• Complacency is death — vigilance is love awake.
• Sin delays — grace decides.
• The restless heart is God’s alarm until it rests in Him.
• St. Augustine lived the warning of the Gospel and the triumph of grace. May his prayers make us vigilant servants, ready for the Master, awake in faith, and alive in grace. The devil whispers ‘tomorrow’; the saint answers ‘today.