Our Lady, a Precious Gift of Jesus to the Church

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

July 8, 2026 | Metropolitan Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Ozamiz City

Episcopal Coronation of Our Lady of Cotta, Archdiocese of Ozamis

Your Excellency, the Most Rev. Martin S. Jumoad, Archbishop of Ozamis; Your Excellency, the Most Rev. Gilbert A. Garcera, Archbishop of Lipa and President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP); Your Eminences, Your Excellencies, my Brother Bishops; Priests of the Archdiocese of Ozamis; distinguished leaders of government who are present with us this evening in the cathedral; and all of you faithful devotees of Our Lady, faithful devotees of the Birhen sa Cotta, the patroness and the protectress of the Archdiocese of Ozamis:

It gives me so much joy and happiness to be with you this evening, here in your beautiful Metropolitan Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, for this Episcopal Coronation of this beautiful and historic image of Our Lady, La Virgen sa Cotta.

La Virgen sa Cotta

As all of you know, this celebration takes place in the context of the 75th Anniversary of your archdiocese, this diamond jubilee, this moment in which we say, “Thank you” to God for the gift of the church, thank you to God for the gift of Our Lady.

The statue which you see here in the sanctuary, as all of you know, was originally in the Fuerte de la Concepción y del Triunfo, that fort here, and has been an object of deep veneration for many years. It had a very interesting history, as all of you know, because at one point she was lost but found. Now she's back with all of you, her beloved devotees.

So, I greet all of you in the name of Pope Leo XIV, all of you inside the cathedral, and especially those of you outside the cathedral. God bless you for your devotion to Our Lady. How beautiful, how wonderful she is!

Today is a day of gift. So, when we think of the gift of Our Lady, our minds go to the cross, to the Gospel (John 19:25-27) which we just heard proclaimed. When Jesus, suffering on the cross in His last moments, looks down at Mary and says, “Woman, behold your son”, and he's indicating Saint John. Then He says to Saint John, “Behold your mother.” So, at the last moment from the cross, Jesus, in the person of Saint John, who represents all of us, gives us Our Lady, La Virgen sa Cotta, as our mother. It's the final gift, we can say, that Jesus gives.

On Holy Thursday, He gives us the gift of His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the Holy Eucharist. His life poured out for us. Then, on the next day, the last day of His earthly life, He gives us the gift of His Mother, the gift of Our Lady. So, all of us, when we look at Our Lady, we think about her as our mother. We hear Jesus saying to us this evening, speaking to your heart, saying to you tonight, “Behold, your mother.” “Behold the gift that I have given you, the gift of Our Lady, the gift of La Virgen sa Cotta.”

The New Ark of the Covenant

Then, if we go to the First Reading (Revelation 11:19A; 12:1-6A, 10AB), which we heard tonight, we have another image. Very powerful, very splendid. We see this amazing, mystical image of the City of God, the heavenly Jerusalem, the Temple. Saint John, who was the one who heard those words, “Behold, your mother,” it is he who writes the Book of Revelation, which we heard read tonight, the Book of the Apocalypse. What does he say? “God’s temple in heaven was opened, 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.” This is Our Lady. This is Mary in heavenly glory, in the temple of Jerusalem, the heavenly city. This is the image that our Evangelist Saint John gives us of the heavenly Jerusalem.

There, in the heavenly Jerusalem, he describes the Ark of the Covenant. That's a mysterious image because the Ark of the Covenant was from the Old Testament. What was it? It was the container in which the Jewish people carried the most holy things that they had. Namely bits and pieces of the 10 Commandments, and some other holy things in an ornamental chest, which was so holy, was brought into the earthly Temple in Jerusalem. We know that King David danced in front of that physical Ark of the Covenant (2 Samuel 6:14-22).

Mary, we can say, is the new Ark of the Covenant. Mary contains God, because in Mary's womb “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn. 1:14) Mary is the door, we can say, through whom God has entered the world in the person of Jesus. Mary is the one who carries God in her body. Mary is the Mother of Jesus. As we know, after receiving Jesus in her womb, she immediately goes in haste to her cousin Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-56).

So, we have those two images: the earthly image at the foot of the cross (we see your beautiful crucifix here in the sanctuary, which reminds us and makes us think of the last moments of Christ on the cross) where we have Our Lady; and we have this heavenly vision of the Ark of the Covenant, this glorious woman.

Mary in heaven is also a gift for us because she continues her motherly intercession. She continues to pray for us. She continues to call us to lift up our hearts (as you will say in a few moments in Mass: “Lift up your hearts”), look into the heavens, contemplate the heavenly Jerusalem.

To Improve the Earthly City

Finally, when we think of the heavenly Jerusalem and the gift of Mary interceding for us, we also think of the earthly Jerusalem, the earthly city in which we live here and now. It is very interesting. Our Holy Father Pope Leo XIV has written his first encyclical, that's his first major document as pope, which he, as all of you know, has entitled Magnifica Humanitas. It's about working together to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem; but not Jerusalem above, because Jerusalem above is our destination, but the Jerusalem, which is an image of the city where we live now, our earthly city. The Holy Father is asking us to cooperate to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and the earthly city where we live now.

He also, in that encyclical, points us to the heavenly Jerusalem, the Jerusalem that we heard read in the Book of Revelation. He says this, “The image of rebuilding Jerusalem [on the earth] evokes the New Testament promise of the holy city, which is given to us first and foremost as a gift” (Magnifica Humanitas #242).

Heaven, the Heavenly City, is a gift because there Mary and Jesus are waiting for us, interceding for us, calling us towards that heavenly glory; but that doesn't mean that we forget about the earthly city. Everything that we do in society, in our earthly city, whether it's Ozamiz or Manila or New York or Paris or Rome, whatever we do as a human community to make our earthly city more and more an image of heaven, an image of the kingdom of justice and peace. Whatever we do to improve the earthly city is indeed valuable for our salvation.

The Holy Father is exhorting us, pleading with us, calling us to work together to make this world better. Not because we have forgotten about heaven, we know that that's our goal, that's where we are called, that's our destination for all of us; but here on Earth, we need to create a society that more and more respects human rights—the right to life, from conception in a mother's womb to natural death. Human rights—a society that works to eliminate corruption, sin, crime, discrimination, and all those things that weigh us down, that degrade our earthly Jerusalem. We need to work together. Holy Father is asking us to build as much as possible a better society.

Can we build a perfect society? No, we can't. Sin is always going to be, in some ways, our obstacle and our problem on this earth.

Can we improve things a lot? Yes, we can. We can make things much better if we work together, and that's what Holy Father is asking us to do—to rebuild these walls of Jerusalem.

Like Children Bringing Flowers to a Mother

So tonight, we think of the Cross, we think of Heaven, we think of Our Lady, we think of the gift that she is for us. What do we do here in one or two more minutes? We will crown with an Episcopal Coronation, your Archbishop will crown Our Lady. It's a beautiful sign of our love, our affection as children of Mary.

Mary is in heaven, crowned with a Son, in glory beyond our imagining; and she looks at us this evening from her heavenly throne and sees us, her children. We're like children who bring a small flower to their mother. Those of you who are mothers know what that's like. When your child brings you a small gift, it always makes you smile. Even though it's a very humble gift. With all the beautiful coronation that we are engaged in tonight, from the perspective of heaven, it's very simple because heaven is glorious beyond all our imagining.

But Mary, from her heavenly throne, looks at us and smiles on us as we crown her this evening, in this Episcopal Coronation of La Virgen sa Cotta.

Conclusion and Exhortations

So, you can tell from me as the Apostolic Nuncio, having come this morning from the Nunciature in Manila, with two of my associates, Monsignor Giuseppe Trentadue and Monsignor Guilherme De Melo Sanches, we came here to be with you to join all the bishops of the Philippines in this amazing and historic Episcopal Coronation.

We say, “Thank you, Mama Mary,” for all the prayers that you have granted through devotion to this image. We ask you, Mary, to bless the Archdiocese of Ozamis in this 75th year of its foundation. We ask Our Lady to bring us always closer to Jesus, to make us hear the words of Jesus, when Jesus speaks to us tonight, saying, “Behold, your mother.”

Transcribed by Joel V. Ocampo

Photos from DXDD Radio -Television