50 Years of Life as a Temple of God and Family on Pilgrimage

Homily of Most Rev. Charles John Brown, D.D., Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines

March 17, 2025 | 50th Anniversary of the Canonical Erection of the Diocese of Balanga

Cathedral-Shrine Parish of Saint Joseph, Balanga City, Bataan

“The hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed, the Father seeks such people to worship him” (John 4:23).

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

For me as your Apostolic Nuncio, it is a deep joy for me to be with you this evening, here in Balanga, in this beautiful Cathedral-Shrine and Parish of Saint Joseph, here in the Province of Bataan, to celebrate the Golden Anniversary, the 50th Anniversary of the Canonical Erection of your Diocese, which took place on this very day in 1975, March 17, 1975 (Acta Apostolicae Sedis, Volume 67, Page 241, and Page 242).

I am deeply grateful to your very newly installed bishop, Bishop Rufino “Jun” C. Sescon, Jr., the Fifth Bishop of Balanga. Just installed on March 1, for having invited me to be with you this evening. It is wonderful also to have the presence of His Excellency, the Most Rev. Florentino G. Lavarias, D.D., the Archbishop of San Fernando, Pampanga, out of whom your diocese was born as a daughter of San Fernando. It is also wonderful to have a number of bishops here this evening. Including two of your former bishops: Bishop Honesto F. Ongtioco, who was bishop here from 1998 until 2003. Then, bishop, now Archbishop Socrates “Soc” B. Villegas, who was bishop here in Balanga from 2004 until 2009, when he went to Lingayen-Dagupan. Also, Bishop Teodoro Bacani Jr., is also with us as well.

So, it is really a joy for us to be together to say a massive “thank you” to God for these five decades, these 50 years of joy and blessings, and graces that have been bestowed on the people of the province of Bataan in these years.

Spirit and Truth

The readings that we had this evening are very significant. We ended with the Gospel of Saint John, with the famous dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan woman, at the well in the fourth chapter of John's gospel. We heard those words, which I have repeated to you, “The hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth…”. Spirit is God's life. but what is truth? You will hear on Good Friday, Pontius Pilate say those words in front of our tormented Lord. “What is truth?” (Jn. 18:38). He says it in a cynical way.

Truth is the correspondence between our ideas and reality—our ideas in our mind and objective reality. The alignment, the correspondence between what we think and what really is. That is what we call truth. Those ideas that we have can be expressed in words, in sentences, even in images. For them to be true, they need to be accurate representations of reality. The Lord wants us to worship the Father in spirit (that means in life) and in truth. That means, to have images in our mind of who God really is. Images, ideas in our mind that correspond to the reality of God, to the reality of God.

When we think about statements, we can think that a statement can be true or false if it reflects or doesn't reflect reality. If I say that “Penguins live on the North Pole,” those of you who have studied will know that, that statement doesn't reflect reality. Penguins, those very cute birds, live not on the North Pole, but on the South Pole. So, that statement is not true.

So, we want to worship the Lord in spirit and truth. How do we do that? We do that in and through Jesus. Jesus who is the Idea of God, Jesus who is the Truth of God, Jesus who is the Word of God, who comes to us, shows us, and tells us who God really is. “I am, the Way, the Truth and the Life,” Jesus says. To know the Father, we need to know Jesus. As Jesus says to Saint Philip, “I've been with you so long, and you don't know me? He who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn. 14:9). Jesus is the idea, the revelation of the Father. Jesus is the Truth.

So, in our Catholic faith, we have many images of God and the Church; and those images help us to understand the reality of God. Some of those images are present in our liturgy this evening.

Temple of God 

First image, which we've heard now a few times in our readings (1 Corinthians 3:9b-11, 16-17), is an architectural image, an image taken from architecture. What is it? We heard it in that reading from Saint Paul's Letter to the Corinthians. Saint Paul is writing to the Corinthians, to the Christians in Corinth, and he says, what? “You are God's building” (v. 9b). So, he says, “You are like a building,” a building. Then he goes on to say, “You are the Temple of God” (v. 16).

When Saint Paul speaks about that building, that Temple of God, that we are, is very careful to say and to speak about the foundation. He talks about the following, he says, “I laid the foundation, and another is building upon it” (1 Cor. 3:10). In a certain sense, we can see that in your diocese here, the foundation was laid by †Bishop Celso Guevarra in 1975; and then built upon by Bishop Ongtioco, Bishop Villegas, Bishop Santos, and now by your current bishop, Bishop Sescon.

But what is the foundation? Saint Paul says, “I laid the foundation of that temple.” He doesn't say “I was the foundation.” He is very careful to tell us that the foundation is Christ. The foundation is Jesus. We build on Him. That is what a diocese, in a certain sense, is. It is the foundation based on Christ, that rises through history as this beautiful construction of God. “You are the temple of God.”

So, we have that image of the temple, that image of us as the temple of God. Of course, Jesus, in the gospels speaks of Himself also as the Temple. Remember that very interesting exchange when Jesus is cleansing the Temple in Jerusalem, the old Temple, the Temple that would be destroyed by the Roman soldiers about 35 years after Jesus. Jesus cleanses the Temple (John 2:13-21), and the Jews are kind of amazed. “What are you doing? What sign can you give us to show us that you have the authority to do these things?” Then Jesus says to them, speaking in that old Temple which would later be destroyed, Jesus says, “Destroy this Temple, and in three days, I will raise it again.” Jewish people say “This Temple took forty-six years to build. How are you going to raise it in three days?” Then Saint John tells us “Jesus was speaking of the Temple of his body” (Jn. 2:21).

So, first we have the old Temple destroyed by the Romans, then the new Temple, the body of Jesus, and all of us are in and part of that Temple. “We are, the temple of God,” Saint Paul says, because we are built on the foundation, which is Jesus. That is what it means to be a Catholic Christian, to be part of the Temple of God, the Body of God, the Body of Christ.

We are the Body of Christ. We receive His Body in the Eucharist; we are built into His Body. He who said “The Temple is my body” is true for us. Each of us are a Temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16). We have this idea of the temple, which is such a beautiful image of the diocese and an architectural image.

Family on Pilgrimage 

There is a second image I want to pause and think about just for a moment this evening as we celebrate 50 years. That is the image of pilgrimage, and we'll hear it in a few moments as we enter into the most solemn part of the Mass. We get ready for the Eucharistic Prayer and the Consecration, in the prayer which we call the Preface. You'll hear me as a celebrant, talk about the house of God, and talk about this building as a house of God; and I will say the following, “In this visible house that you have let us build (that is, the Cathedral of Saint Joseph) and where you never stop showing us favor to the family on pilgrimage to You.” “Family on pilgrimage to you.” So, this is a second image of a Church, of a diocese. Not only the temple of God built on the foundation, which is none other than Jesus, but we are also a family on pilgrimage.

A pilgrimage is a journey. This is a very important image for Pope Francis, the idea of “walking together.” Those of you who have been paying attention for the last five years know what this “walking together” in the mind of Pope Francis is all about. It is what he calls “the synodal path of the church,” synodality.

A synod (σύνοδ) is, in its original meaning, a caravan, people traveling together. It is like a pilgrimage. A pilgrimage is a holy caravan—people going together in a holy direction. So, this idea of pilgrimage, of caravan, of synod, all moving together the family of God.

It is so beautiful this evening here in your cathedral, to see all of us gathered together: lay people, baptized into the Body of Christ; priests of the Diocese of Balanga; religious sisters, bishops, all of us here, different, unique—we are not the same, we're diverse, but we're all walking together. We are all part of that Temple of God. We are all part of that pilgrimage. We are all part of that synodal path leading to God. 

When we celebrate fifty years, we can think about that pilgrimage, that caravan of God, not only in 2025, at this moment, represented by all of us in the cathedral this evening; but think about also a pilgrimage going through time. Imagine in your minds a caravan stretching through time, which I would describe as the Catholic Church, a procession, a pilgrimage, a caravan. At the very front of the caravan, we see the Twelve Apostles walking. Maybe a little bit behind them, the first martyrs of the Church, saints like Agnes, Cecilia, and Sebastian. Behind them, the great Fathers of the Church who lived in the fourth and fifth centuries: Augustine, Jerome, John Chrysostom. Behind them, in this procession, we see the great medieval saints: Saint Dominic, Saint Francis. Closer to us, then we see in this procession: Saint Ignatius of Loyola. Then even closer to us in this procession, walking in front of us, we see San Lorenzo Ruiz, we see San Pedro Calungsod. Then really close to us we see saints like Saint John Paul II, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and the saint who created your diocese, Saint Pope Paul VI. All of these people. We are walking in a procession, in a caravan with and behind them. This is a beautiful image of the synodality of the Church.

Renewal in the Church

The synodality of the church as a caravan doesn't exist only in 2025, all of us walking together. It also is going through time. It makes us also remember how the Church is designed to be renewed. How do we renew the Church? Catholic renewal always means “looking at the ones who went before us,” the ones who were in front of us in the caravan and faithfully following their footsteps. Non-Catholic reform means “I'm not going to follow the saints. I'm going to go over here in my own direction, and start something new,” which is not Catholic. Catholic Church is this caravan of love, existing through time, coming down to us.

Balanga, Then and Now

You know, brothers and sisters? As we celebrate 50 years in this beautiful cathedral, as I've said, we see this caravan stretching in front of us. We see 50 years ago, †Bishop Guevarra, who died and who's gone to heaven in front of us, and others close to us, and we try to follow in their footsteps. Because renewal in the Church means walking in the footsteps of the saints. Walking in the footsteps of the saints through time. That's why it's important to celebrate anniversaries, to think about the people who went in front of us. 

But you know, brothers and sisters? Tonight, let's not only think about people in front of us, but people who will be coming behind us. Because the caravan will continue here in the Province of Bataan, and here in the Diocese of Balanga. In 25 years from tonight, there will be another nuncio here. It won't be me. I'll be 90 years old. I'll be in retirement. Another nuncio will come from Manila, will come with different secretary and counsellor.

I am very happy to be with our counsellor at the nunciature, Monsignor Giuseppe Trentadue, and our secretary, Rev. Fr. Vjekoslav Holik, who have come with me. There will be a different group 25 years from now for your 75th anniversary.

Let us hope, and let's pray tonight that this church, this cathedral, is as full of life and joy, and Catholic faith as it is tonight. That depends on us, right? Because the people who are coming after us will be walking in our footsteps. So, we need to pass the faith on. We need to give good example, so that 25 years from now, for your 75th, and 50 years from now for your centenary (I certainly won't be here for that one), this cathedral is full of joy as it is tonight. As filled with gratitude, happiness, and appreciation as we feel in our hearts this evening.

Conclusion

So, dear brothers and sisters in Christ: for me, as your papal nuncio, it gives me so much joy as you can tell, to be with you this evening.

Let me conclude by reminding you, as Bishop Sescon reminded us so well at the beginning of Mass, that our Holy Father, Pope Francis, is still in the hospital more than one month now, and he really needs our prayers. Thanks be to God and thanks to the prayers, especially of the Filipino people, he has made some real progress in the last week in the hospital. He has been getting better; but he still has a ways to go. He still needs our prayers. So please remember to pray for Pope Francis. He needs our prayers. He relies on our prayers. Whenever I see him in Rome, he always asks me, as a nuncio here, to remind you, his beloved Filipino people, to pray for Pope Francis. So, you would do that please.

Finally, we ask Our Lady, Mama Mary, the spouse of Saint Joseph, to intercede for all of us, to intercede for the Church here in Balanga, as you celebrate this wonderful milestone, 50 years of life as a Temple of God, 50 years of life, here on this pilgrimage, leading to eternal joy.

May God bless you! Happy golden anniversary!

Transcribed by Joel V. Ocampo

Photos by: The Roman Catholic Diocese of Balanga