Homily of H.E., Most Rev. Charles John Brown D.D., Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines
January 12, 2025 | Feast of the Baptism of the Lord
40th Founding Anniversary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Urdaneta
Our Lady of Immaculate Conception Cathedral, Urdaneta City, Province of Pangasinan
Your Eminence, Jose F. Cardinal Advincula, Jr., Archbishop of Manila;
Your Eminence, Orlando B. Cardinal Quevedo, Archbishop Emeritus of Cotabato;
Your Grace, Archbishop Socrates B. Villegas, Archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan;
Our beloved Bishop of Urdaneta, Your Excellency, the Most Rev. Jacinto “Bishop Jack” A. Jose;
Priests who have come from the diocese;
Bishops who are here in huge numbers from all over the Philippines;
All of us gathered here this afternoon to share your joy, to share the joy that we celebrate today, the 40th Anniversary of the Creation of the Diocese of Urdaneta:
On this very day, January 12, 1985, your diocese was created by a saint. Saint John Paul II, made this diocese, giving it its birth from the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan, 40 years ago today.
So, our hearts are filled with joy and gratitude. For me, as the representative of Pope Francis, it gives me so much happiness to be with you today, to see this huge number of faithful who have gathered here from the entire diocese to say, “Thank you to God. Thank you to Mama Mary—for the 40 years.”
We're crowded here in the cathedral. We're crowded outside the cathedral. It's a beautiful testament to the faith of the people in this part of Pangasinan.
I want to thank in a very special way, your beloved Mayor Julio F. Parayno, III, who organized a very beautiful civic reception for me when I arrived here in your beautiful city, earlier this afternoon.
The Grace of Beginnings
Today, brothers and sisters, is a day of beginnings, a day in which we reflect on the grace of beginnings. What do I mean? We're at the end of the Christmas Season. Christmas is the birth of Jesus. The beginning of His life outside the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Of course, the Incarnation takes place on March 25, every year, at the feast of the Annunciation, when the Word became flesh in the womb of Mama Mary. Then nine months later, on Christmas, His earthly life, His visible life, begins. We're in the season of beginnings.
Then for the liturgy today, we fast forward from Christmas. Some 30 years later, for another beginning: the beginning of Jesus's public life. For 30 years, He worked, labored in Nazareth as a carpenter with His foster father, Saint Joseph, in that silent life of Nazareth, the hidden life of Jesus, about which we know very little. We have a little snippet of information when He goes to the Temple at the age of 12, and is lost and then found (Lk. 2:41-52); but nothing else for 30 years. Then today, a new beginning the public life of the Lord—His baptism in the Jordan by Saint John the Baptist (Luke 3:15-16, 21-22).
So, a beginning, the beginning of His public life. He's baptized in the Jordan. Of course, Jesus is “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God”, as we will confess in the Creed in a few moments. He didn't need to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins, as you and I had to be baptized. He was baptized in order to sanctify water. So that we, you and me, could be baptized into Christ, and receive that new life, that new beginning, which is baptism.
Baptism is a new beginning. Baptism is new life. We talk about Born Again Christians, all of us in church this evening are born again in baptism by Jesus in the Holy Catholic Church. It's a new beginning. Baptism is made possible when Jesus begins His public ministry.
So, our focus is on beginnings. Today, of course, we focus on the beginning of your diocese. The beginning of your diocese 40 years ago, in very humble circumstances, and the beautiful graces, the abundant graces, the manifold graces that have been bestowed here in the Diocese of Urdaneta in these 40 years. We thank God this afternoon for all of those graces: the expansion of the church, the ordination of priests, the celebration of the Eucharist, the foundation of new parishes. All of this abundant life which began, the beginning 40 years ago today, when Saint John Paul II created your diocese. So, in our minds, this afternoon, we're thinking about all of these beginnings. The beginning which is celebrated of Jesus' public life in His baptism, the beginning of the diocese.
Nunc Coepi (Now I Have Begun)
We also need to remember that our lives as Christians need to be a continuous beginning. Because all of us need, every day to begin again. Right? We need to begin again. We need to have the spirit of continuous conversion. We have that saying in Latin, which people would repeat before the Second Vatican Council. Two words, “nunc coepi”, which means, “now I have begun”. It's a great little phrase, “nunc coepi”, “now I have begun”, or “now I begin”, or literally, “now I have begun”.
For us as Christians, we need to have that spirit of a new beginning at every moment of our lives as followers of Jesus. Because His grace is abundant. His grace is flowing upon us, but we need to receive that grace with a spirit of freshness. That's why, for example, this entire Jubilee Year here in the Diocese of Urdaneta is so important. Because by reflecting on your beginning 40 years ago, it helps us to remember that “Now I need to begin again.” Every moment, every day, to begin again with faith, hope, and love, service, forgiveness. All of those things, remembering that to be a Christian means to begin again.
Those famous words of the Irish playwright Oscar Wilde, when he was talking about the importance of beginning again, and the fact that even sinners have the possibility of beginning again in the Sacrament of Confession. That famous line, “Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.” What does it mean? Even if we're in a state of sin, we have the possibility of conversion. We have the possibility to say, “nunc coepi”, “now I begin again”. “Now I go to confession. I start again today.”
So, every saint is someone who has had that conversion experience. Every saint has a past, maybe a past that was not so praiseworthy, not so sinless. A past, maybe even of sin, but a future of joy, a future of hope, when we have the courage to begin again.
“Every saint has a past; every sinner has a future.” So many examples of people whose lives were changed by the grace of Jesus, by realizing that He is alive, that He loves us, He showers His graces upon us. So many amazing conversions in the history of the Church: St. Augustine, who went from a life of sin to being a great bishop, and a great teacher of the Catholic faith; the actor John Wayne, who on his death bed received the sacraments, was baptized 48 hours before he died, he died as a Catholic, the great actor John Wayne, a last-minute conversion. Yes, every saint has a past, every sinner has a future.
A New Beginning
That's what we celebrate during this Jubilee Year here in the Diocese of Urdaneta. I'm so impressed by all the activities that have been planned, and have already taken place, and will be taking place during this year. It converges beautifully, doesn't it, with this Jubilee Year, which is called for by Pope Francis himself? He himself in his Bull of Indiction (Spes Non Confundit), which is the letter, the document which established this Year 2025 as a Holy Year. He talks about the importance of new beginnings. He says, the Holy Year “calls for acts of clemency (that means mercy) and liberation that enable new beginnings” (Spes Non Confundit #10).
So, today you celebrate your 40th birthday, but let's remember that today is a new beginning. Today is a beginning in God's grace, God's love. All things are possible in God, with God, as Our Lady shows us in the Annunciation. An angel reassures her “All things will be possible to God” (Lk. 1:37).
That's what we celebrate as Catholics—the abundance of God's grace showered and spread here in the Diocese of Urdaneta over these 40 years; but that grace continues in our own time, and we need to be aware of that. We need to have that spirit of openness to the new beginning that the Lord wants to work in your diocese, and in the Church in this Jubilee Year 2025. That's what Pope Francis is praying for, a new beginning.
Conclusion
So, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ: you can see as the representative Pope Francis here in the Philippines, it gives me a lot of joy to be with you this evening. To see so many people here, as I've already said. It's so inspiring for me as your apostolic nuncio, to see so many people who have come from throughout the diocese to say, “Thank you to Almighty God”, and to say, “What began 40 years ago continues now.”
Let's allow that faith to begin again in our hearts this evening. Let's continue that life of faith, that life of hope, that life of love, that life of service, that life of Jesus given to us by the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Immaculate Conception. So, may God bless you. Happy 40th Anniversary! As we say in Rome, Ad multos annos, for many, many more years to come. God bless you!
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