Victorious Through Love and the Rosary

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

Minor Basilica and Parish of La Purisima Concepcion, Municipality of Santa Maria, Bulacan

October 25, 2026 | 30ᵗʰ Sunday in Ordinary Time

It gives me a lot of joy as your apostolic nuncio, to be back here in the Minor Basilica and Parish of La Purisima Concepcion here in Santa Maria, Bulacan, for I think my fourth visit to your wonderful parish. I'm very grateful to the parish priest and rector, Rev. Msgr. Albert Suatengco, for having invited me to come back a fourth time to celebrate Holy Mass with all of you this evening, in anticipation of the procession with Nuestra Señora del Santo Rosario, which will happen after Mass, Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary.

I came this afternoon from Taft Ave. with my two associates at the Apostolic Nunciature, Monsignor Giuseppe Trentadue and Monsignor Guilherme De Melo Sanches, and I know they are as equally delighted as I am to be here in Santa Maria this evening for this wonderful celebration.

This celebration in which our eyes turn to Our Lady, in this extraordinarily beautiful image of Mama Mary and Baby Jesus, the Santo Niño with the Holy Rosary, Nuestra Señora del Santo Rosario de Santa Maria, Bulacan.

As all of us know, this month of October is dedicated to the Holy Rosary, to this wonderful prayer to Our Lady. Why is October dedicated to the Holy Rosary? Because on October 7 we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. That feast day, which was instituted by Pope Pius V to commemorate a Christian military, or to be more precise, a Christian Naval Victory, victory of Christian ships, which repelled and stopped a non-Christian force that was headed towards Europe. The Christian force in these boats went out and was able to stop the non-Christian force entering Europe, and the faith continued. The Catholic faith was protected and preserved. 

Pope Pius V, as this battle was about to happen, asked everyone in the Church throughout the entire world to pray the Holy Rosary for victory. For victory in this battle. Indeed, when the feast was established by Pope Pius V, it wasn't called the “Feast of the Most Holy Rosary”. It was called the “Feast of Our Lady of Victory”. Then two years later, the next Pope, Pope Gregory XIII, changed the name and made it what we have today, the “Feast of the Holy Rosary”. 

This month is a feast in which we think about the idea of victory. Victory. We all want to be victorious. We all want to win. We're all happy and elated when we see Alex Eala win in her tennis matches. I was told before Mass that Alex Eala has some family origins here in Santa Maria, Bulacan. So, you should be especially happy when she is victorious, when she wins. When any of our sports teams are victorious. We are happy. We rejoice.

We have that name, “Victoria”. Many women are called “Maria Victoria”. That's a reference to Our Lady of Victory. It's a dedication to Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary.

The Victory

Many of you wear shoes that are dedicated to victory. What am I talking about? Nike. Those Nike shoes. “Níkē” or “νίκη” is the Greek word for “victory”. So, “Nike” means “victory”. We all want to be victorious. We don't want to be defeated. We want to win.

Saint John, the beloved disciple who was at the foot of the cross with Mama Mary when Jesus was crucified, writes to us in his First Letter (1 Jn. 5:4) about victory. He says this: “Everyone born of God overcomes the world, is victorious over the world.” Then St. John says this, “This is the victory…” and it's written in Greek, “καὶ αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ νίκη…” (kai hautē estin hē nikē…) “This is the nike that has overcome the world.” Our faith, our Catholic faith, makes us victorious. Makes us share in Our Lady's victory. The Catholic faith is victorious.

The Fall

Why is that? Because the human race, all of us descended from Adam and Eve are descended from our first parents, who unfortunately were not victorious. Adam and Eve, who represent the origins of humanity, were defeated. They weren't victorious. They were tricked. They were deceived by the evil one, by the devil, they were tricked into being disobedient to God, and by their disobedience they were defeated.

So, the beginning of human history with Adam and Eve is a story of the beautiful creation of the first man and the first woman, but then the sadness of defeat, the sadness of them turning away from God. So, we have that early and original defeat, but then we have victory. We have the victory of Jesus through His passion, death, and resurrection. Jesus reverses the original defeat. This is really interesting.

The original defeat was somehow symbolically associated with a tree in the Garden of Eden. These are symbolic images that make us understand this idea of being defeated by being tricked into disobedience. Adam and Eve reached out to the tree and took the fruit in disobedience. These are symbols.

The Victory of Christ

These are symbols because the victory of Christ was also associated with the tree, the tree of the cross, which is the victory of Christ. His passion, death, and resurrection. Christ Jesus, who loves us so much, who gives us victory in and through Him, is the new Adam, the second Adam.

You know? We have that hymn (by John Henry Newman) in the English language: “Praise to the holiest in the height.” I won't sing it, but I will read to you the first two verses, because it talks about Jesus as the new Adam who comes to the fight and is victorious and prevails.

Praise to the Holiest in the height,

and in the depth be praise;

in all His words most wonderful,

most sure in all His ways!

O loving wisdom of our God!

When all was sin and shame,

a second Adam to the fight,

and to the rescue came.

O wisest love! That flesh and blood,

which did in Adam fail,

Should strive afresh against the foe,

should strive and should prevail.

The Victory of Mary

Brothers and sisters, the victory of Jesus in His cross, in His resurrection, was preceded by another victory. A more quiet victory, a victory which took place not in Jerusalem, in the capital, but in the province; not in the center, but in the periphery, in a town called Nazareth. A victory that was achieved by a young woman who was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph; and the angel came to her and asked her to be the mother of God, and Mary said “yes”.

This young woman in the province, chosen by God, to whom Archangel Gabriel went, she said “yes”. “Let it be done to me according to thy word,” and at that moment when she said that, the Word became flesh and dwelt in her womb, dwelt among us.

The victory of Mary precedes the victory of Christ. The victory of Christ would never have been possible if Mary had not said “yes” to Archangel Gabriel. God and all of the angels, the entire universe, was waiting for her, this young woman in the province, to say “yes” to Archangel Gabriel. That was her victory. That was the victory of Mary. That is the Annunciation. That is the first joyful mystery of the Rosary, which we will celebrate and see in our procession this evening. The first caroza, the joyful mystery of the Annunciation.

If Mary did not say “yes”, Jesus could never have been victorious. Because he never would have come into the world. So, we owe so much to Mama Mary. She loves us so much. She sacrificed so much for us by saying “yes” to the angel, by having her whole life changed. She had a plan for her life. She was going to be married to Joseph and have a family. All of that changed when Archangel Gabriel came to her, but she was victorious in her “yes” to God. 

Brothers and sisters, we are victorious when we say “yes” to God and when we say “no” to the evil one. When we say no to Satan, we become sharers in the victory of Jesus and the victory of Mary. When we have faith, and when we put that faith in practice, as Saint John says in that first letter, “this is the victory that has overcome the world.” Our faith.

If you have faith, brothers and sisters, all things are possible. God will make all things possible. If we have faith, if we say “yes”, we, in our own way, in our own life, and whatever the circumstances are around us, we too become victorious. But we need to follow Jesus.

Victorious Through Love and the Rosary

We express our victory in the words that Jesus teaches us today on how we act, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the greatest, the first commandment, and the second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37-40).

When we do that, when we love God, when we love our neighbor, we are victorious. We are saying “no to evil.” We're saying “yes” to everything that is good and true and beautiful. That victory, that small victory of Mary in Nazareth, and the big victory of Jesus in Jerusalem, become part of our lives. 

That's why praying the Rosary helps us so much because we meditate as we're praying the Hail Marys on these victories, the victory of Mary, the victory of Jesus.

Conclusion and Exhortations

So, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ here in Bulacan, in the beautiful parish, I love your church. It's always so beautiful and so wonderfully decorated, La Purisima Concepcion.

For me, as a papal nuncio, let me conclude by asking you to continue to pray for our beloved Holy Father Pope Leo XIV. Of course, as all of you know, he was operated for cancer in his lung. The operation was a wonderful success, and he's back in the Vatican, working hard, and he's really sustained by our prayers. So, let's continue to pray for Pope Leo XIV.

I wish all of you this evening a very blessed and holy procession of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, Nuestra Señora del Santo Rosario de Santa Maria. Have a wonderful procession this evening.

May God bless each and every one of you!