Homily of H.E. Most Rev. Charles John Brown D.D., Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines
September 20, 2024 | Quadricentennial Arch of The Naga Metropolitan Cathedral.
“Blessed are You, Lord, God of heaven and earth; for in Your mercy and justice, You cast down the mighty and exalt the lowly.”
Your Excellency, the Most Rev. Rex Andrew Clement Alarcon, Archbishop of Caceres;
Your Excellency, the Most Rev. Rolando Tria Tirona, O.C.D., Archbishop-Emeritus of Caceres;
Your Excellency, the Most Rev. Adolfo Tito C. Yllana, Apostolic Nuncio to Israel, and Apostolic Delegate to Jerusalem and Palestine;
brother bishops from near and far, especially from the Region of Bicol;
concelebrating priest from the Archdiocese of Caceres, and other Diocese in Bicol;
women religious, consecrated sisters, consecrated brothers in religious life;
lay faithful one, and all:
This evening is a moment of great solemnity, and indeed of great joy. Because at this moment, we celebrate 100 years since the moment in which your beloved “Ina”, Our Lady of Peñafrancia, was canonically crowned by my predecessor, the apostolic delegate, who came that day in 1924 from Manila: His Excellency, †Archbishop Guglielmo Piani, S.D.B. (Apostolic Delegate to Philippines from 1922-1948), came here to the Naga Cathedral grounds on September 20, 1924 and crowned your beloved Ina, in the name of the Holy Father. The crowning had been authorized by Pope Benedict XV, four years earlier. It's interesting.
The authorization of the coronation had been asked by †Bishop John Bernard MacGinley, who was your bishop here in Naga in 1920, and indeed it was granted on May 13, 1920. That was four years before the actual coronation. For those of you who know the history of Our Lady’s interventions in the last century, the date of May 13 is certainly very significant. Because that was the first apparition in Fatima: May 13, 1917.
On May 13, 1920, Pope Benedict XV authorized the Pontifical Coronation, the Canonical Coronation of Our Lady of Peñafrancia. Four years later, the apostolic delegate came here from Manila; and in the midst of a massive crowd, crowned Our Lady in that beautiful moment. We remember that evening, that day tonight. We think about that. In fact, tonight is the culmination of two years of preparation that began here with a Mass presided by His Excellency, Archbishop Tirona, two years ago in preparation for tonight's celebration.
Like Flowers Offered to a Mother
So tonight, as I said, our hearts are filled with joy. The coronation of Our Lady is always a beautiful moment, a beautiful event. We can think of Our Lady in heaven. Many of you here gathered in the plaza in front of your beautiful cathedral, dedicated to St John, the Evangelist—many of you, I imagine, are mothers of children; and all of us are children of mothers. Every mother loves to receive small gifts from her children. Every mother's heart is moved when a six-year-old son brings her a bunch of flowers that he found along the road for his mother. His mother smiles when she receives those flowers. In some way, our coronation and our repetition of the coronation of Our Lady is that for us. It's our way of saying, “We love you, Our Lady. We love you, Mary. We love you, our blessed and wonderful Ina. We offer you this coronation.” From Mary's perspective, it's like a bunch of flowers that we come to bring to her. That prayer that we will repeat later on in the liturgy, “Blessed are You, Lord, God of heaven and earth; for in Your mercy and justice, You cast down the mighty and exalt the lowly.”
Humility of Our Lady
That is really the theme of our liturgy this evening, on the 100th Anniversary of the Pontifical Coronation of Our Lady. The theme of humility and exaltation, of lowliness and glorification. Two things that don't naturally go together: humility and exaltation. Jesus teaches us in the Gospel, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Mt. 23:12).
We see those two themes in the life of Our Lady; and those two themes are reflected again and again in our liturgy this evening. The humility of the Blessed Virgin Mary and her exaltation. Her humility is underscored in the Gospel (Luke 1:26-38) that we just heard sung so beautifully.
Our Lady, this young girl, Our Lady, this humble servant of the Lord, living in Nazareth, in the provinces. Nazareth is not the capital. (You can ask the Apostolic Nuncio from Israel who lives in Jerusalem.) Jerusalem is the capital. Nazareth is the province. Mary was an unmarried, engaged young woman. She wasn't an important person. She wasn't someone from a rich family. She wasn't a powerful person. She didn't live in the capital. She wasn't in any way extraordinary in the eyes of the world, but her heart was pure. Her heart was filled with the love of God; and God chose Mary, a young woman in the provinces.
So, we see how God's gaze, the glance of God. The eyes of God are directed to those who are humble, those who are small, those who are on the peripheries of our world. That's what Our Lady was. In the eyes of the world, nothing very special at that point, yet God chose her. So, we see the humility of Mary, and how that attracted the attention of God, and He sent the angel Gabriel to her.
Secondly, in that Gospel that we heard, we see how Mary's humility is expressed in her recognition of truth. What do I mean? The angel tells her that she will become pregnant and give birth to the Son of God. How does Mary respond? She says, “How can this be?” In the classic tradition, “How can this be? I do not know man?” In our new translation, “How can this be? I have no relations with the man.” So, Mary is focused on the truth, the truth of who she is. She's a humble virgin. She's engaged to be married, but she realizes that truth is important; and she speaks what is true to the angel. The angel then reassures her “The power of God will overshadow you, and the child to be born will be called Holy Son of the Most High.”
So, we see how humility for all of us is always the recognition of the truth of who we are. Not trying to be someone we're not, but being truthful with who we are. That's what Our Lady shows us in this dialog with the angel. Then the Gospel ends with those beautiful words. The classic Latin phrase, “Ecce ancilla Domini: fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum.” “Behold the handmaid, the servant, the ancilla of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to thy word.”
What is Mary saying then, at the end of the Gospel? She's saying, “I will serve, I will be a servant of God's plan for my life”, a complete act of humility, a complete act of self-abandonment to God's providence. Knowing that God's plans are greater than our plans; and that if we entrust ourselves to God, always conscious of the truth of who we are, God will work miracles in our lives. It was true for Mary. It's true for us today, in 2024, as we celebrate the Centenary of the Pontifical Coronation. So, the humility of Mary in the Gospel.
Exaltation of Our Lady
As I said the liturgy this evening, alternates between humility and exaltation, between lowliness and glorification. When we come to the Second Reading (Revelation 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab), we see the exaltation of Mary. “God’s temple in heaven was opened,” the Book of the Apocalypse says (written by St. John, for whom your Cathedral is named), “and the ark of His covenant could be seen in the temple. A great sign appeared in the heavens, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” That is Our Lady. That's the humble virgin of Nazareth, now exalted, glorified, crowned in heaven. How beautiful that is, this incredible exaltation of Mary. This great sign that Mary is, the “signum magnum”, the great sign of who Mary is.
In that Second Reading from the Book of the Apocalypse, written by St John the Evangelist, we see also a contrast. Don't we? Between Mary crowned, Mary as brilliant as the sun, “a woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, crowned with twelve stars”. Then another figure, a contrasting figure, the dragon, the demon, the evil one. We see that the dragon is there, ready to devour her son, to destroy her son, to completely kill her son. The dragon is there with diadems. The dragon is there as the opposite of Mary. The dragon is filled with pride, filled with a kind of a grotesque ugliness, standing there facing Mary.
So, we have, on the one hand, the exalted, humble virgin, Our Lady, our mother, and the dragon. The dragon is a symbol of the devil. The dragon is a personification of death, of pride, of ugliness. The devil is a personification of someone who will not serve. In fact, that is the classic line given to the devil in the prophecy of Jeremiah, “Non serviam,” “I will not serve.” Mary is the ancilla Domini, the servant of the Lord, [while] the devil is the one who will not serve. There is a contrast between the two of them, in that reading from the Book of the Apocalypse.
We need to be children of Mary. We need to be devotees of our blessed and beautiful Ina. We need to resist the pride of the devil, the ugliness of the devil, the death dealing of the devil, and stay close to Mary. Because when we see Mary, we see the personification of life. She gives birth to the baby Jesus. We see the personification of humility, the personification of truth, and the personification of beauty. Because Mary is all beautiful. As opposed to the devil: instead of life, he brings death; instead of humility, he brings pride; instead of truth, he brings lies; instead of beauty, he brings ugliness.
Fighting the Culture of Death with Our Lady
Brothers and sisters, let us always choose Our Lady. Let us choose always to be devotees of Our Lady. Let us be under her mantle, fighting against the influence of the devil in our world today.
Back in April, Pope Francis, in one of his talks, spoke, as he's oftentimes done, about the dangers of a “throwaway culture”, as he calls it. A culture in which nothing is permanent, and culture in which human beings are treated as objects, and not as persons born in the image and likeness of God. This throwaway culture which diminishes our humanity. He said in that talk back in April, “That throwaway culture becomes a culture of death,” a culture of death. We need to be part of the culture of life; and Mary is that life—she gives us that life in Jesus. She gives us Jesus who is our way, our truth and our life, who leads us to the house of the Father; who leads all of us to the exaltation of heaven. That exaltation, that glory that Mary now enjoys.
Conclusion
So, for me as your Apostolic Nuncio, 100 years after my predecessor, †Archbishop Piani came here: it gives me so much joy on this somewhat rainy evening, to be with all of you here in the plaza, in front of your wonderful cathedral, with your archbishop and your emeritus-archbishop, and all these other bishops, to say, thank you God, thank you for the gift of Our Lady. How much we love her. Thank you, brothers and sisters.
Viva La Virgen! Viva Nuestra Señora de Peñafrancia!
Transcribed by Joel V. Ocampo
Photos from Archdiocese of Caceres Facebook page
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