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Homily
Manila Abp. Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle
Solemn Canonical Coronation of the Image of Virgen De La Rosa
Sts. Peter and Paul Parish
March 16, 2019
By: Yana Villajos
We thank God for gathering us as one church, as one community, as one family of faith on this beautiful day.
Salamat umulan, may mga nagtatanong ito ba raw ay dahil sa cloud seeding or prayers? Sabi ko prayers! Siyempre prayers! And we thank the Lord for this day, Saturday, traditionally dedicated to our Blessed Mother and today in this historic parish we will honor her in a special way.
Thanks to the special grace from the Holy Father Pope Francis we will have the Canonical Coronation of our Lady – Virgen Dela Rosa De Makati. (Applause) And our day is really made more special by the presence of our dear Cardinal ang ipinagbubunyi ng langit at lupa ang Kanyang Kabunyian Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales.
And our beloved Apostolic Nuncio His Excellency Gabrielle Caccia, Thank you. Our Brother Bishops and Archbishops, the religious men and women, the Government officials and all of you maraming salamat po.
Dela Rosa… Virgen Dela Rosa, Rose. Even outside of Christianity the flower called Rose has been associated with different Goddesses, even Aphrodite the Goddess of love and especially the color red, love, and no wonder our Lady would also be associated with the rose in fact the most popular prayer is the ROSE-ary.
Galing pa rin sa rose ano po? Maraming gumaganun, (tumatango) “ah oo nga ano”… parang ngayon lang natin nai-konekta yung rosary sa rose. Sometimes the most obvious of things are the things that we forget. Kaya kung tutuusin every family that prays the rosary, actually crowns the Virgin of the rose.
She is not only here in Makati, she is everywhere, where we celebrate love, and we pray the rosary. But what is the coronation all about? Crowning, well, even from ancient of times the coronation is recognition of the sovereign power and the glory of a monarch so it is associated with people who have a special or particular status especially in the monarchy.
It is associated with sovereignty, with power, with authority, and because they are crowned, then the people must pay homage, there is a corresponding response to someone who is crowned. But what is the crown of the Blessed Mother? Why do we crown her? Why – What is her claim to sovereignty? What is her claim to glory? What is the status that we are recognizing in this coronation?
From what we have heard in the reading and from what we know of the person and the mission of Mary, we know that her crown derives from the crown of Jesus her son, in reality, Jesus is her crown.
The angel told her that she will conceive a child who will be called the son of God, the highest God, the highest of all sovereign rulers. Her son possesses the eternal crown and Mary will be crowned only because of her connection with her son. And our readings for today indicate for us some of the jewels of the crown of Mary.
Hindi ko po tatapusin lahat kasi baka abutin tayo ng Easter sa hindi natin mabilang na mga bahagi nitong mga mysteries of the crown of Mary, but base on the readings let me focus on a few.
First, the angel greeted her, “Rejoice!” we have translated it into “Hail!” kasi parang mas bagay sa hari o reyna, “Hail!” But the greeting of the angel was very simple “rejoice,” and why should she rejoice? You are full of grace, you have found favor with God, and this is the first jewel in the crown of Mary. Whatever joy she experiences, it is because God has favored her, God has seen something in her to merit God’s complete love.
Grace is not a thing, Grace is God Himself, the Lord is with you. If the Lord is with us then you are happy, you experience the joy that the world cannot give. Mary’s crown reminds everyone to find joy in the presence of God in their lives.
Itong araw na ito tinatanong po tayo, Ano ho ba ang nagpapaligaya sa atin? shopping? discounts? Yung nadapa yung kagalit mo? matuwa tayo! Yung kinaiisan ko nadapa!
Well that is not the crown of Mary. The crown of Mary is very simple, “the Lord is with you” and that is the cause of joy, no other jewel could match or surpass God in one’s life.
The second crown is the humility of Mary. In fact her admission of her incapacity to do the mission entrusted to her, sabi po ng anghel.“Huwag kang matakot, kasi ikaw ay kinalulugdan ng Diyos!” Pero, basta mayroong biyaya ang Diyos, mayroon ding misyon.
“Maglilihi ka at mangangak ng isang lalaki at tatawagin mo siyang Hesus.” Meaning – God saves. Now that mission could have been construed by somebody else as an honor, just an honor. If Mary were not full of grace, if Mary did not have God’s abiding presence, Mary would have said, “Ako ang napili!? Sa dami ng babae ako!? Wow! Espesyal ako.Wow! pakisabi sa Diyos he made the right choice.”
(Audience laughs) “I’m truly blessed among women” At siguro kapag bisita niya kay Elizabeth, hindi magnificat ang sasabihin niya kun’di sasabihin niya… “Elizabeth, better luck next time, panahon ko ngayon! Ako ang nagwagi! Maghintay ka.Beth! Sana may chance ka pa.” But no, that’s not the crown of Mary.
The first thing that Mary said to the angel… ”How could this be? How? I don’t have a husband”… By saying this, Mary adds a jewel to her crown. She is in communion with the many humble, helpless people of her time and of all ages. She has united herself with people who almost say every day, “how can this be?” How can I provide water to my family? How can I provide food on the table? How can I find a decent job?
And we unite ourselves with our brothers and sisters in New Zealand, our brothers and sisters praying in the mosque who were attacked at the moment of prayer and some of them, now the survivors asking, “how could this happen?
When you are communing with God something contrary to God happens to you. There are so many people whose daily life is inadequacy, helplessness and Mary did not make use of her calling to separate herself from them, to forget them.
In fact in her magnificat she sang God’s praises. She sang a song of hope not only for herself but for the poor, the hungry, the humble. The woman crowned as the mother of God is a humble woman whose heart beats with the helplessness, with the cries, with the pains of the humble people of every generation.
Kasi po tayo kung minsan kapag nalagyan (gesturing on his head) hindi nga ng korona eh. Minsan katiting lang,parang umaangat na tayo sa pakiki-ugnay sa ibang tao. Minsan nga yung simpleng kapitbahay na naglalakad-lakad lang naman diyan, kapag naging barangay tanod aba nakoronahan na, at pati ang pagsasalita na iba na, dati halimbawa…” Ay mang Chito kamusta ho? naging barangay tanod… “Ay mang Chito!”… “Yes? What can i do for you?”(Modulated voice) reminding people that, “Hey! I have additional weight.
I have additional honor and we are not similar anymore. Para bagang yung makilala ka na mahina, katulad ng iba ay kasiraan sa iyong korona, not with Mary. Part of the jewel of Mary is to remain the sister of the helpless and the poor that’s why she is not only mother of Jesus but Mother of the Church, The body of Christ of the many, many people who rely on God.
And finally po, the crown of servanthood. “I am the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to your word.” To be a servant of the Lord does not mean only doing things for the Lord. During the time of Jesus and Mary to be a servant of someone means I belong to the one who I serve. More than work, it is about belongingness, to whom do I belong? And if I belong to the Lord I will serve the Lord.
No wonder Jesus will say, you cannot serve both God and money. Now, but if you belong to money, you will serve money, but if you belong to the Lord, you will serve the Lord. It is not just action; it is about belonging. If I belong to the Lord, I will serve the Lord.
This is the jewel, another jewel on the crown of Mary. She proudly proclaims, “I belong to God and so my service will be rendered to God.” This is the glory of Mary, the glory of someone who trusts that the Lord is with her, the glory of someone who remains in solidarity with many poor helpless people and the jewel of someone who says I belong to the Lord so I will serve the Lord.
This are the same jewels we find on the crown of her son Jesus and we hope that all of us, children of Mary, Devotees of Mary, especially the parishioners of Saints Peter and Paul, this parish which is the home of the Virgen De la Rosa De Makati.
We hope on this day and from this day forward our crown will be the crown of Mary, rejoicing in the Lord, rejoicing in solidarity with the poor, rejoicing in belonging to God and serving God.
Kaya po kung hindi ganyan ang ating korona tanggalin na, ‘wag nang ipamigay baka susuotin pa yan ng iba, durugin n’yo na o kaya itago n’yo na at i-lock na at ngayon ibang korona na ang isuot. Yung korona na ipinamana ni Jesus sa kan’yang ina at atin namang isusuot bilang mga anak ni Maria.
Tatapusin ko po ito sa isang kwento. Kanina, I said let us unite ourselves with our Muslim brothers and sister who were massacred in the mosque, the two mosque in New Zealand and we are afraid that this is another form of terrorism that targets just anyone.
I just came back from Syria and we visited some of the communities that had been really affected by the war for the past 8 years. Huwag naman mangyayari po sa atin, no more war please, no more.
Parang yung sinabi ni Saint Paul VI when he visited the United Nations during the 2nd Vatican Council, “Jamais plus la guerre, jamais plus la guerre!” “No more war, not ever again!” Try to imagine coming here to Makati and on both sides the buildings the houses have been reduced to rubble.
Sabi ko nga, iba yung nakikita mo sa TV iba yung nakikita mo sa print at kapag nandun ka. I visited a clinic administered by Caritas Syria. And when I was introduced to the patients, one woman obviously a Muslim woman approached me and through an interpreter said, “My two sons had died of cancer and my only daughter has cancer.
We don’t even have water and food, how could I send her to a hospital?” You are as helpless as she is, then she smiled she said, “but thanks to people like you, thanks to Caritas, thanks to these volunteers, we know we are not alone.”
This suffering mother is wearing a crown. Pope Benedict said, “Beauty, beauty for us is found in the crucified one. Beauty, found in a body mangled, humiliated but made beautiful because if exudes total love.
Finding beauty in what the world considers ugly. Mary stood at the foot of the cross of her son, the son crowned with thorns an ugly site but she stood there and found the mysterious beauty of crucified love.
Where do we locate beauty? Mary teaches us the way. May our celebration today enable us to be people of faith and hope seeing beauty even when the world declares that is ugly.
Artists see what the rest do not see. People of faith see the beauty that only God, the Artist can paint, can recite and can sing of. Let us pause and prepare ourselves for this solemn right of canonical coronation.
Let us ask the Lord to fill us with His presence, the way He filled Mary. And may we be consoled by our solidarity with those that world consider ugly, detestable, so that we may convey to them the beauty of mercy, compassion and hope
