Pilgrims of Hope, Beacons of Nobility

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

November 7, 2025 | Holy Mass, 113th Foundation Day of Paco Catholic School

Good morning, my dear Paconians!

For me as your apostolic nuncio, it makes me very happy to be with you this morning to celebrate the 113th Foundation Day of your beautiful and wonderful Paco Catholic School, which for 113 years has educated young people in this part of Manila. Your theme for foundation day this year is “Pilgrims of Hope, Beacons of Nobility.” I will return to the theme of beacon in a moment.

First, let me greet the Parish Priest, Rev. Fr. Sanny De Claro, who has invited all of us to be with him in his parish church; and of course, the School Director, Fr. Maxell Lowell C. Aranilla, all the teachers and the staff, administrators, but especially you, the young people, the students, all of you who are Paconians. As I can see from your T-shirts, not only Paconians, but “Certified Paconians”, as is written on your shirts. That's wonderful. It's great to be with you on this beautiful day.

In our First Reading (Romans 15:14-21), we heard from Saint Paul. Saint Paul was a follower of Jesus who then brought the truth of Christ, the Gospel of Jesus, in a large part of the world that he knew at that time. In his letter to the Romans that we just heard read so beautifully by our lector, we hear these words that Saint Paul was writing. He says, “By the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum I have finished preaching the gospel of Christ. Thus, I aspire to proclaim the gospel not where Christ has already been named, so that I do not build on another’s foundation.”

[In September 1912, Fr. Godfried (Godofredo) Aldenhuijsen, popularly known as Fr. Godo came]* all the way from the Netherlands, from Holland, all the way to Paco. He was a young man born in Holland, born in the Netherlands, in a big Catholic family. I believe he had 17 brothers and sisters. That's a very large family. None of you have 17 brothers and sisters, I'm sure. That was a big family. Then he became a priest in the Netherlands and came all the way here to Paco.

Just like Saint Paul made signs and wonders, what is the sign and wonder that Fr. Godo did here in Paco? The sign and wonder that I see is this beautiful Paco Catholic School that he established, he himself 113 years ago in 1912. So, just like Saint Paul went from Jerusalem to Illyricum, so Father Godofredo went all the way from the Netherlands to Paco, to give you this beautiful school which exists even today.

In our gospel (Luke 16:1-8), we hear another story. We hear Jesus talking about corrupt officials. Corruption, this is all on our minds in the Philippines in these weeks and months, because we are horrified. Aren't we? We are scandalized by the reports of corruption that we have heard about. Yet, Jesus is talking about corruption here. He uses the example of a corrupt official who, in order to take care of himself after he is getting fired, after he's being dismissed, he allows people to change their debts to his employer, so that when he's fired, these people will be grateful to him. There's a form of corruption, and Jesus uses it as an example. What is he trying to tell us? He's not telling us to be corrupt, please, but Jesus is saying, “Look at these corrupt people. Look at all the things that they do to accomplish their ends. Look at everything they do to take care of themselves. How sneaky they are, how careful they are, how dedicated they are.” Then he says that Jesus is saying to us, “For you, who are children of light, children of God, you should have the same dedication to the life of Christ that these corrupt people have to their dishonesty. Look at their dedication to dishonesty, corruption. Don't imitate their corruption, but imitate their dedication, their focus. You need to be focused on the life of faith.” That's what Jesus is telling us. He contrasts, as he says, “The children of this world,” meaning the corrupt officials, “and the children of light,” who are the sons and daughters of God. That's what you are: sons and daughters of God.

You know, as I said earlier, the theme for your Mass this morning is “Pilgrims of Hope”, but then “Beacons of Nobility”. We use that word “beacon” all the time, and probably none of us really know what a beacon is. We hear it all the time. Every speech we hear, they talk about beacons.

What is a beacon? A beacon is a light, a light, a special kind of light that is used to direct or to guide. When a ship comes into the Bay of Manila, bringing goods, maybe cars from Korea or something, and it's entering the Bay of Manila, there are lights on the path that the ship must take, and those lights are called beacons. They're lights so the ship does not go into the rocks, but goes correctly towards the port of Manila, where it can unload all of its goods.

So, the beacon is a light placed in the water on a stand. So the ship, especially when it's dark, when it's foggy and the captain can't see the way, he sees the light. He knows where to go with the ship. The same thing is true for aircraft, for airplanes, when pilots want to land the plane on the runway. On the runway, they have lights. Those are beacons. So the pilot who is trying to land his plane or airlines, and see the runway because there are beacons, lights that are guiding him. He can land even when it's at night, even when it's dark, he's able to see.  Your theme today is they want you to be beacons. That means we want you to be a light that guides others.

One of the titles of Mary, we call her Star of the Sea. It’s a beautiful title of Mary. It relates to this idea of a beacon. What does it mean? When the ships on the ocean had no beacons that were placed there to guide their way, they would be guided by the stars. They would follow the stars. Our Lady is the Star of the Sea, guiding us to Jesus. When we look at Mary, when we pray to Mary, when we say the Hail Mary, Mary leads us to Jesus. She's the light, showing us the greater light which is Jesus.

So, dear Paconians, I wish you all the best on your 113th Foundation Day. I know you have activities planned, but I think they're going to be postponed because there’s a fear of this typhoon that's arriving. So, we need to pray also that this typhoon does not hit Manila or the Philippines, that we're all protected. 

In the name of Pope Leo XIV, Holy Father in Rome, I congratulate each and every one of you on the 113th Foundation Day of Paco Catholic School.

God bless you!

Remember this idea of beacon—being light, light of knowledge, and the light of faith and grace, which comes into you as a Catholic.

God bless you!

Happy Foundation Day!

Transcribed by Joel V. Ocampo