By: Telly Gonzaga-Ocampo
On the feast of St. Augustine
There are no saints without a past, and there are no sinners without a future. These are the lines that greeted me the morning of August 28, 2024 in my daily dyTR 11.16 Bandilyo of Ted Ayeng. This has become a daily habit, to listen to Bishop Abet Uy over dyTR..
When we were young, the feast of St. Augustine is a feast we always looked forward to when my uncle, Fr. Gabriel Villamor Oppus, was a parish priest in Panglao and director of St. Augustine Academy of the said place,
Of course that was very long ago. Fr. Gabriel, who was Tio Brely to us, had long been gone. At the later part of his priesthood, he entered in the monastery in Jordan, Iloilo, as a monk and he was a monk until his demise.
Panglao, then, was a pastoral town, famous for sweet mangos, camote, ubi, saging and sineguelas. Daghan pud kanding. And famous for their night market. Almost everybody in the place knew how to ride a bicycle.
The white sand on the beaches was always a sight to behold. Kaniadto, mopili lang ka ug asa ka mosilong sa mga lubi nga nagpalibot sa maong dapit. Pagka daghang lubi. It was some kind of everybody’s property ug pili lang ka kon asa ka magpungko-pungko.
The town was, then, famous for the treasures of the sea. Ang kadagatan adunahan kaayo sa tujom ug swaki. And most of the til-ugon nga isda sa karaan nga Agora, gikan kadto sa mga manindahay nga taga Panglao. Gawas sa isda, nagbaligya usab sila ug swaki, tujom, saang. supsupon, taklobo, kitong ug danggit, bakay awoman, pulos pa tinuhog kay dili pa uso ang kilokilo. Adtong panahuna, ang tulingan kinabaratohan pa ug ang bolinaw hapit ipanghatag na lang.
And all these memories came rushing back to me on the feast of St. Augustine last Aug. 28. Then I remembered my classmate, Pilar, whose brother celebrates his birthday every Aug. 28. He is Augustine Cloribel. Their ancestral abode is in the barrio of Tangnan and you will not miss looking at that beautiful house surrounded with chicos and other fruit trees.
August 28 is also the fiesta of Cagayan De Oro City, a city familiar to us when we were assigned in Medina, Misamis Oriental. My friend, Tes De Guia Borromeo, always forwards to me the homily of Bishop Abet. Everyday, Tess shares with me the saints of the day. Tess is a Teresian Carmelite of the third order. She is following bishop Abet on facebook.
I became familiar to St. Augustine through the bedtime stories of my Lola Danday. I know that he became a changed man due to the unceasing prayer of his mother, Santa Monica, the patron saint of Albur town.
Every time I remember the saints, I also remember what Bishop Abet said: “There are no saints without a past, and there are no sinners without a future.” Bishop Abet, these lines are etched in my heart.