2cornucopias

Archive for the ‘05 Homilies by Fr. Reid’ Category

, , , ,

Realities

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2014/10/24 at 12:00 AM

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time – A 19 October 2014

  • One of the saints who will adorn our new mural is St. Edith Stein, also known as St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Edith Stein was a Jewish convert to Catholicism who became a Carmelite nun and was eventually martyred in the gas chambers of Auschwitz in 1942.
  • But unlike her fellow Jews, St. Edith Stein went very willingly and knowingly to her death.
  • Edith’s keen intellect, coupled with a deep and intense personal prayer life, led her to the

    understanding of what was to befall the Jewish people long before anyone else in Germany

    had a clue as to just how evil the Nazis were.

  • And so in imitation of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Edith Stein offered up her life to

    our Lord as a personal holocaust for the sake of the Jewish people, for averting the Second

    World War, and for the sanctification of her Carmelite family.

  • In doing this, Edith prayed that God would receive her life as an act of atonement for the

    terrible atrocities being committed against God’s chosen people, with the hope of converting

    atheists and the Nazis. This is why Edith Stein is a saint.

  • Edith Stein did not wish to be a Christian in name only. She wanted to be totally conformed

    to our Lord by bearing the cross she saw being laid upon the Jewish people. Edith wanted to

    share fully in our Lord’s suffering and death in a supreme act of love.

  • On August 2, 1942, she and her sister, Rosa, were taken by Nazis from the Carmel in Echt,

    Holland, and a week later they were gassed to death in the Birkenau section of Auschwitz.

  • Eyewitnesses who saw Edith during her last week of life all attest that she remained faithful,

    courageous, and impeccably charitable to all up to her last moments.

  • In a very dark and confusing time, St. Edith Stein shone like a bright ray of light. Quite

    selflessly, she offered her life for the sake of others. And as such, St. Edith Stein is a

    remarkable example of Christian heroism and charity in the face of astounding evil.

  • In some ways I wonder if we might be entering into another one of those very dark and

    confusing periods in human history when evil seems to have the upper hand in the world.

  • As we consider the terrible threat posed by ISIS, the fear of a worldwide outbreak of Ebola,

    and the ever-increasing moral confusion surrounding marriage and human sexuality that has

    ambushed our state, our country, and our culture, there is much to worry about.

  • I know, as well, that many of you have been following the confusing media reports coming

    from the Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on issues related to

    marriage and evangelization that concluded yesterday.

  • There’s been much media speculation coming from the Synod that perhaps the Church is

    going to permit Catholics who are divorced and remarried without an annulment, as well as

    same-sex couples and those who cohabitate before marriage, to receive Holy Communion.

  • But let me state clearly and emphatically that, despite what you may have heard from the

    media this week, there has been no change in Church teaching on these issues.

  • Our doctrine is based upon the revelation of Jesus Christ, expressed in both Sacred Scripture

    and Tradition. While the Church may come to new and deeper insights about a particular

    teaching, the essence of a doctrinal teaching cannot change because truth does not change.

  • While the Church can change certain disciplines, we must also remember that Church

    disciplines are rooted in our doctrine. Therefore, a practice or discipline of the Church cannot be at odds with the Church’s doctrine. And any effort by a Church leader to knowingly distort, weaken, or change the Church’s doctrine is evil.

  • At the same time we must realize that there are a growing number of people in the Church who live in morally compromised arrangements. In other words, they are engaging in conjugal acts with someone who is not or cannot be their spouse in a sacramental marriage.
  • Setting aside appearances of judgmentalism and condemnation, the Church’s challenge is to really look at the way we engage with these folks so that we can call them to conversion and better help them conform their lives to Christ and His commandments.
  • The fact is that people will have a better chance of knowing God and finding salvation if they have a relationship with His Church, even if they cannot fully participate in the sacramental life of the Church.
  • So our challenge is to welcome these people into the Church without condoning their sin or compromising our teachings. Following the example of Jesus with the woman caught in adultery, we must be forthcoming with mercy while also exhorting people to sin no more.
  • The Church is a hospital for the spiritually sick. But to enter into this hospital, we must desire healing! It’s by being obedient and docile to the Church’s teachings that we find healing for our spiritual ills.
  • Sadly, not all who are invited to the Church will come. While open to all, those who enter the Church must be willing to convert and be docile to Her teachings, rather than arrogantly believing that they know better than Her and trying to force Her to change Her teachings.
  • Those who steadfastly refuse to acknowledge and adhere to the truth, and who try to force the Church to conform to this world with its mixed up morality, have no place in the Church.
  • If you are living in an irregular relationship right now by cohabitating before marriage, by being involved in a same-sex relationship, or by being divorced and remarried without an annulment, I want to say publicly that I’m glad that you’re here.
  • God loves you, the Church loves you, and I love you. Moreover, I am willing to do whatever is necessary to help you get to a place where you can fully take part in the sacramental life of the Church and live a Christian life with full integrity. But there must be some humility.
  • If you do not understand why the Church teaches as She does, come speak with me. My door is open to you – and so is my heart.
  • And I ask everyone else in this parish to be of like mind. While we cannot and must not respect sin, we can and must respect all people, and we must lovingly help others to hear the Gospel and live it in its fullness.
  • At her canonization Mass in 1998, St. John Paul II repeated Edith Stein’s famous quote: “Do not accept anything as the truth if it lacks love. And do not accept anything as love which lacks truth!”, to which he added: “One without the other becomes a destructive lie.”
  • As we do our best to proclaim the truth to our fallen world, let us be sure to do it with love.
  • As we consider the darkness in our world today, we must be – like Edith Stein – heroic rays

    of light that shine forth with the truth, goodness, and beauty of our Catholic faith.

  • Moreover, in this time of desperate confusion in our world and in our Church, let us place our hopes and trust in God Himself. Let us not forget that He is omnipotent and, as Isaiah

    says, He grasps us by the hand.

  • Trusting in Him, let us hold fast to the constant and unchanging teachings of His Church,

    confident that our obedience to those teachings will bring us to salvation.

  • Lastly, may we be willing to live lives of true charity by offering sacrifices and penances to

    God on behalf of those who attack and persecute this Church we love so much.

• May each of us cultivate within our hearts a true desire to suffer and lay down our lives for the Church so that all men may be saved. St. Edith Stein, pray for us.

 

© Reverend Timothy Reid, 10/19/2014

, , ,

Religious Orders

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2014/10/17 at 12:00 AM

One of the beautiful elements of Catholicism is that the Church is composed not just of individuals, but also of religious orders and communities. Throughout history these religious families have helped form the rich tapestry of our one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church!

Generally speaking, each religious order and community arose out of a specific need in the Church, and each has its own charism or gift for the Church.
For example, the Dominicans have given the Church some of her greatest preachers and miracle workers, whereas the Franciscans have taught us the value of holy poverty and a life of simplicity.

The Jesuits have produced some of the Church’s greatest teachers and missionaries, while the Benedictines have taught the Church how to balance prayer and work in a life of stability.

But perhaps the greatest gift given to the Church has come from one of Her smaller orders: the Carmelites. For it is this religious order that has taught Holy Mother Church how to pray.

Tracing their spiritual heritage back to the prophet Elijah, who hid and prayed on Mt. Carmelin northern Israel, the Carmelites began as a group of hermits who lived and prayed togetheron that same holy mountain that was home to their spiritual progenitor.

Over the centuries the Carmelites have grown to include both men and women, and thisreligious family has produced some of the greatest and most beloved saints of the Church.

While we’ve all heard of Carmelite saints such as St. Teresa of Ávila, St. John of the Cross,and St. Thérèse of Lisieux, we may not be as familiar with some of the Carmelite martyrs, most notably the 16 martyrs from the Carmelite Community of Compiègne, France, who died in the French Revolution.

These 16 women were arrested during the Reign of Terror in June 1794 for refusing to allow the Revolutionary government to suppress their community. A month later they were transferred to Paris, where on July 17th, 1794, they were executed for treason by guillotine.

Knowing that they were going to die, these valiant women offered themselves as victims to God for the restoration of peace in France and in the Church.
As the community approached the guillotine, they jointly renewed their religious vows and began chanting the Veni Creator Spiritus, which is often chanted at the liturgies for the profession of vows and ordinations.

Amazingly courageous, each of these brave Carmelites continued chanting right up until the moment her head was severed from her saintly body – until at last the solitary voice of the prioress, Mother Teresa of St. Augustine, was silenced by that heartless and cruel blade.

As we might expect, our Lord accepted the sacrifice of these valiant women, and the French Revolution’s bloody Reign of Terror ended just days after their martyrdom – saving the lives of countless others who would have met the same fate for rejecting the terrible tyranny of the revolutionaries.

These courageous Carmelites are saints not simply because they died for our Faith. They are saints because, like all the other saints from the family of Carmelites, they persevered in prayer and in the living out of our Christian faith – even when it was deathly inconvenient.

Perseverance in prayer and living out our Catholic faith dutifully are the themes of our readings today, and these actions go hand in hand.

In our first reading from Exodus we are given the image of Moses raising his tired arms in supplication on behalf of the Israelites engaged in battle with the Amalekites. As we know, as long as Moses persevered in his supplication, Israel had the better of the fight.
In our second reading St. Paul encourages St. Timothy to remain faithful to our Catholic faith and to persevere in proclaiming the Gospel, no matter how difficult that might be.

In our Gospel we have the familiar story of the persistent widow, the parable that Jesus uses to teach His disciples the necessity of praying without becoming weary.

Now all of us have certain needs or desires that we hope that God will grant, and so many of us go to God in prayer every day asking Him to give us what we want.

But what we must remember is that our prayer should not be primarily about our wants and needs. Our Father in Heaven is not Santa Claus! He is our loving Father Who knows what’s best for us in every situation.

Our Lord has a divine plan, a divine will for each of us and for all of creation, and in His humility, He allows our prayer to be the mechanism by which He enacts His will.

It’s not that our prayers change God, but they do act as a spiritual lever to bring about His will. As a loving Father, He listens to our prayers intently, and He answers them according to His will.

Ultimately our prayer should be about getting to know God and discerning His will, and it’s for this reason that we must persevere in our prayer. While the persistent widow got what she wanted because she persevered, our goal should in prayer should be to get to know what God desires for us – while trusting that He will give us exactly what we need.

But we must remember that the holier we are, the more weight our prayers will carry with our Lord. If we wish to enjoy God’s good favors, we should try to dispose ourselves for them by proving ourselves to be His friends.

Regardless, sometimes the answer to our prayers will be “No.” And when our Lord says no to us, we must remember that it is always because He wants to grant us a greater Yes!

Sometimes our Lord allows us to suffer, even when we beg Him to take it away. And when He does this, it’s always because He wants us to grow in virtue or to give us an opportunity to make reparation for sin.

While we may be tempted to question His love for us when He doesn’t ease our sufferings, persevering in prayer and in the Christian life means that we persevere in trusting God.

When we learn to persevere in our prayer, despite our sufferings, God gives us the grace toaccept whatever answer He grants to our prayers, and in this humble acceptance of His willwe are given the grace to grow in virtue.
If we persevere in our prayer, while also trying to cultivate virtue, eventually our prayerchanges so that eventually it becomes less and less something we do, and more and moresomething that God does within us. This is when we really make great strides in holiness.

My brothers and sisters, make it a point to persevere in praying every day, and as you do, tryto listen to God more than you speak to Him.

While vocal prayer is good and necessary, simply sitting with our Lord quietly and listeningto Him, or meditating on a passage of Sacred Scripture or an element of our Lord’s life iseven more necessary in helping us grow in holiness.

Often when people begin to develop a prayer life, they give up in frustration because theyfeel constantly distracted. But keep in mind that distractions in prayer are normal and will always be present. So even though you may get terribly distracted in prayer, do not give up.

Whenever you get distracted, simply pull your mind and heart back onto the task of communing with our Lord. For this is what it means to persevere in prayer!

Lastly, remember that prayer is not something we have to do alone. Call upon the saints and angels to assist you, most especially Our Lady! If we are her faithful children, she will always help us persevere in our prayer so that we might better live out our Christian faith.

All you saints of Carmel, pray for us!

20 October 2013

© Reverend Timothy Reid

Fr. Reid is the pastor of St. Ann Catholic Church, Charlotte, NC

Homilies from June 17, 2012 onward have audio.
To enable the audio, lease go directly to Fr. Reid’s homily homilies and select the matching date.

Link to Homilies:
http://stanncharlotte.org/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=8&Itemid=61

, , , ,

Victory at Lepanto and the Rosary

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2014/10/10 at 12:00 AM
  • Last Tuesday the Church celebrates the victory of the Catholic naval fleet over Muslim Turks at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. That autumn the Catholic Church and all of Europe was facing its most menacing enemy, and the very fate of Christendom was hanging in the balance.
  • Marauding Muslim Turks had been advancing from the East for several years. At this point in history they controlled most of Northern Africa and the Middle East, and the Turks had their eyes set on Venice and the whole of Europe.
  • The Catholics, led by the famous Don Juan, were seriously outnumbered. But Don Juan had something the Muslims didn’t have. He had the blessing of the pope; the help of Jesuit, Dominican and Franciscan chaplains who accompanied the fleet; the prayers of the faithful; and rosaries for all of his men going into battle.
  • Early on the morning of October 7, 1571, the battle of Lepanto began. And throughout the day, in the church of St. Mary Major in Rome, Pope Pius V prayed the Holy Rosary with the Christian faithful for the Catholic naval fleet, imploring our Lady for victory over the Turks.
  • By early afternoon the battle was over. With a loss of only 7500 men, the Catholics – against all odds – emerged victorious, and today, October 7, became known as the feast day of Our Lady of Victory. The Turks were vanquished, and Europe was saved from militant Islam.
  • Later this feast was renamed in honor of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, as it was because of thousands of people praying the Rosary that this victory was secured. It is for this reason that the month of October is especially dedicated to the Holy Rosary.
  • Sadly, Christendom is not done fighting! More enemies abound, and we have more battles to fight today, especially against atheistic secularism. Seeking to excise all religion from public life, secularists are waging what some have described as a “war on God.”
  • At its heart this war is based upon a selfish and proud refusal to submit to a higher authority, much like the non serviam uttered by satan so long ago. Nowhere is this battle more apparent than in issues concerning marriage and the procreation of new life.
  • Not only do secularists refuse to recognize the God-given nature and purpose of marriage and the marital act, and not only do they seek to redefine marriage and the marital act according to their own selfish desires and whims, but they also want the freedom to destroy the beautiful fruit of marriage and the marital act: human life. This is perverse. This is evil!
  • Both our first reading and our Gospel today talk about marriage. Our first reading from Genesis speaks of how it is not good for man to be alone, and how a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two become one flesh.
  • In doing so, this passage from Genesis, which is repeated by our Gospel, provides the very foundation for the Church’s teaching on marriage and the conjugal act.
  • As Catholics we believe that marriage and the conjugal act go hand-in-hand and are not to be separated. The marital act is sacred; it’s a holy act of love. Because it is so sacred, the conjugal act is not something we can just enter into as we please and with whom we please.
  • On the contrary, it’s an action that carries serious responsibilities, and thus it should only be entered into by people who have accepted and vowed to live out these responsibilities together: namely a man and a woman who are married to each other.
  • You see, the primary purpose of marriage is the procreation of children, and the secondary purpose of marriage is the intimate, exclusive, and indissoluble unity of the couple.
  • These fundamental purposes are most perfectly realized in the marital act. Thus, neither purpose should ever be divorced from the marital act because doing so distorts the purpose of the act and breaks down the marriage.
  • Because the primary purpose of marriage and the marital act is the procreation and education of children, we can see that in God’s design, the creation and protection of human life and the institution of marriage are inextricably bound up together.
  • Human life is meant to be created and nurtured within the context of a family, which is naturally formed through marriage. Therefore, we must do everything we can to protect the sanctity of marriage and resist anything that corrupts a traditional understanding of marriage.
  • But we have to do more than just protect the traditional understanding of marriage to protect human life. In today’s society we must also fight the very grave evil of abortion.
  • Since 1973 when abortion was legalized in our country, more than 50 million babies have been aborted in the U.S., and currently 22% of all pregnancies in the U.S. end in abortion (cf. Guttmacher Institute, August 2011 report). Truly, this is the greatest shame of our country.
  • Abortion is a very difficult issue emotionally because so many of us have been affected by it in one way or another. As a priest I’ve heard scores of confessions in which women and men have confessed to this terrible sin. The pain of this sin runs so very deep. But please know that God’s mercy runs deeper!
  • And so I must say: if you have been involved in an abortion in some way and haven’t yet confessed it, please do so. Please come to confession and receive forgiveness. If you are sorry, God will forgive you. So fear not! God wants to give you His mercy!
  • Abortion has also become a tricky political issue in our country because abortion supporters have been successful in framing this issue in terms of a woman’s right to determine if and when she will be mother, and Americans tend to place great value on personal rights.
  • Abortion supporters have also succeeded in categorizing abortion as a form of health care. But honestly I don’t care what President Obama, Hilary Clinton, Kathleen Sebellius, or any other abortion supporter say. Simple logic tells us that ripping an unborn child limb by limb from his mother’s womb is not health care!
  • Moreover, while women may have legal rights to an abortion, women do not have a moral right to kill their children. While abortion is a choice that is currently protected by US law, it is always in every circumstance a wrong choice, an evil choice, and must never be condoned.
  • Thus, abortion is something we must fight! We do this through our prayer, through our fasting, through peaceful demonstration and protest, and through voting for pro-life officials.
  • As this year is an election year, this last way of battling abortion takes on greater importance. While the Catholic Church does not explicitly tell us whom to vote for in any given election, Holy Mother Church does provide principles for us to follow in the voting booth.
  • Specifically, the Church says that when it comes to voting, we must first look to those issues that deal with that which is most important: life, specifically: abortion, same-sex unions, human cloning, embryonic stem cell research, and euthanasia.
  • These issues are of the highest importance because they are all intrinsically evil acts, and therefore as Catholics we cannot support candidates who promote or support these evils. To do so is to be complicit in their sins.
  • Moreover, while issues such as health care, immigration reform, and the economy are important and may certainly have a moral dimension to them, they must not be accorded greater value in our decision-making than the life issues because they do not deal with intrinsic evils. They are important, but not as important as the issue of life.
  • So my brothers and sisters, I urge you to study up on the candidates and their positions. And do the right thing by voting only for the viable candidates that best protect life.
  • Let us do this so that life in all its form may be protected and defended, that evil may be exposed and eradicated, that truth and goodness be defended, and that God may be praised.
  • May our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary aid us and intercede for us in this battle for the protection of all human life.

7 October 2012

© Reverend Timothy Reid

Fr. Reid is the pastor of St. Ann Catholic Church, Charlotte, NC

Homilies from June 17, 2012 onward have audio .
To enable the audio, please go directly to Fr. Reid’s homily homilies and select the matching date.

Link to Homilies:
http://stanncharlotte.org/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=8&Itemid=61

, , , , ,

St. Therese of Lisieux

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2014/10/03 at 12:00 AM

 This past week the Church celebrated the feast day of one of Her most popular saints: St. Thérèse of Lisieux. Many of us know her as the Little Flower.

 While this cloistered Carmelite lived only a short 24 years on this earth, and all of it in relative obscurity, she is perhaps one of the most well known saints of all time – and certainly one of the most important saints of modern times – and for good reason.

 In her spiritual autobiography called Story of a Soul, St. Thérèse wrote extensively on the virtue of charity and her vocation to be love in the heart of the Church.

 One of the things that the Little Flower teaches us is that the Church has a heart burning with love. This love in the heart of the Church is what moves all of her members to act.

 St. Thérèse opined that, “if love ever became extinct, apostles would not preach the Gospel and martyrs would not shed their blood.”

 And so we, who make up the Church, must keep the virtue of charity burning within us! Charity – love – must be the animating force that impels us as we seek to live out our lives as Christians.

 As St. Paul writes to St. Timothy in our 2nd reading, we must “stir into flame the gift of God,” which is not a “spirit of cowardice, but rather of power and love and self‐control.”

 As many of you know, the month of October is Respect Life month. And as in years past, an ecumenical group within our city is running a 40 Days for Life Campaign, in which people gather to pray at local abortion mills in the hopes of closing them down.

 Last week I went with many of you to the Latrobe abortion mill, and unfortunately there was a very vulgar and hate‐filled woman harassing us as we prayed.

 In those moments when we come face to face with such people, it’s very easy to develop an “us vs. them” mentality. Personally, I often feel great temptations toward anger. But anger is exactly what we need to avoid!

 As I reflect more on Pope Francis’ recent interview, I wonder if this might be part of his point. In his interview the Holy Father gave us this great image of the Church as a “field hospital.” Truly, we cannot tend to the wounds of others if we are angry or hate them.

 Without a doubt we need to work for an end to abortion and other elements of the Culture of Death like same sex unions, contraception, euthanasia, etc. But as we do, we must try to avoid the polemics that lead us to demonize our opponents.

 As we listen to the evil propaganda of the supporters of the Culture of Death or have experiences with people like the hateful woman at the abortion mill, it’s easy to think that we have nothing in common with those with whom we disagree on the issues of life.

 Yet we do have something in common; something very fundamental: we are all sinners. As your pastor, this is something I pray you never lose sight of. All of us are sinners; all of us are in need of God’s mercy.

 Therefore, we must have compassion on our enemies. If we are members of the Church, then we are the doctors and nurses in the spiritual field hospital of the Church. As the Holy Father said, we must try to meet people in their woundedness.

 My experience as a priest has shown me that those who sin by participating in any way in the Culture of Death are often the most wounded people in our society.

 If you contravene the natural ordering of the marital act through sins like same sex relations or contraception, or even more egregiously, if you participate in the sin of abortion, you are sinning in a way that goes against very fundamental aspects of our human nature. At our core, we are ordered toward procreation and life. This is how God created us – and we are fearfully and wonderful made!

 When we sin against procreation or life, we become less human!

 Yet, as awful as the wounds from these sins are, my experience as a priest as also taughtme that these wounds can be healed by God’s grace – most especially the grace wereceive through the Sacraments. So we must do all we can to help people receive grace.

 When people fall into these terrible sins, the Church must be the place they turn to forhelp. She should never be an obstacle to a sinner’s healing. So we must meet people intheir woundedness with honesty and compassion – for both are necessary for healing.

 Meeting people in their woundedness does not mean excusing their sin. Our model fordealing with our fellow sinners is Jesus and His interaction with the adulterous woman.

 Jesus was compassionate and even saved her from her persecutors, but He didn’t fail to tell her to repent. He said to her, “Woman, has no one condemned you? . . . Neither do Icondemn you. But go and from now on sin no more.” (John 8:10‐11)

 This must be the role of the Church in society – and not just the priests and bishops, butall of us! We must all reach out compassionately to those enmeshed in sin, gentlytending to their wounds with the healing balm of charity and the bandages of truth.

 At the same time, we must also be that prophetic voice in the world that fearlessly and courageously speaks the truth about the inherent dignity of man and the grave evils ofthe Culture of Death – all without demonizing those caught up in the Culture of Death.

 In short we must hate the sin with a ferocious tenacity, while loving the sinner with allthe tenderness we can muster.

 Sound difficult? It is, but if our hearts are burning with charity and our minds and willsare intent on doing the will of God, then all things are possible.

 Through the intercession of St. Thérèse and especially of Our Lady, may each of ourhearts be turned into burning furnaces of charity so that we may attend generously to our fellow sinners caught up in the evil snares of the Culture of Death.

06 October 2013

© Reverend Timothy Reid

Fr. Reid is the pastor of St. Ann Catholic Church, Charlotte, NC

Homilies from June 17, 2012 onward have audio.
To enable the audio, lease go directly to Fr. Reid’s homily homilies and select the matching date.

Link to Homilies:
http://stanncharlotte.org/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=8&Itemid=61

, , , ,

St. Francis of Assisi

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2014/09/26 at 12:00 AM

This coming week on October 4th, Holy Mother Church will celebrate the feast day of one of her greatest and most beloved sons: St. Francis of Assisi.

Born in 1181 to a wealthy cloth merchant, St. Francis lived a rather high-spirited life as a young man, but he soon became enamored with serving the poor…so much so that he desired to live a life of poverty himself.

The saint’s decision to live among and serve the poor provoked his father to rage, who threatened him and even beat him.

Eventually, Francis publicly renounced his father’s patrimony before the bishop, and in an act of extreme humility he gave back to his father even the clothes he was wearing, stripping himself naked in the church.

By this act of stripping himself of clothing, St. Francis not only gave up his inheritance, but he symbolically stripped himself of all worldly attachments and proved himself a worthy spouse of “Lady Poverty”, the mistress he sought so earnestly.

Clothed for the rest of his life only in the rough habit that became the trademark of the religious order he founded, St. Francis grew steadily in Christian perfection, and is said to be the saint most like Christ.

Although not a priest, but simply a deacon, St. Francis was known for his preaching, even traveling to Egypt to preach to the sultan there. But all the same, it is St. Francis who is believed to have said: “Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary use words.”

The point of the quote is that anyone who seeks to promote the Good News of the Gospel must not only speak of it, but must also embody the Gospel by the way he lives his life.

In other words, if we wish to proclaim the Gospel effectively and with integrity, we must live according to its precepts!

In our first reading from the Book of Numbers, we hear the story of our Lord bestowing upon 70 chosen men the same spirit that was on Moses so that they might prophesy.

However, two of them, Eldad and Medad, weren’t gathered with the others when the spirit came upon them, but nonetheless the spirit came upon them where they were so that they, too, prophesied.

Joshua, the young aid of Moses, objects to their prophesying away from the others and wants Moses to stop them. But Moses responds wisely: “Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets! Would that the Lord might bestow His spirit on them all!”

While not all Christians are called to preach publicly, it is our baptismal call as Christ’s followers to be prophets in our world today, speaking our Lord’s truth and doing our best to live it as well so that others might come to know our Lord.

This is the beauty of St. Francis and all the saints: they were prophets by the way they lived their lives, and we should be too! Simply by living a life of Christian virtue, especially by exercising the virtue of charity, souls are drawn to Christ and saved!

Sadly, people who live their faith openly are becoming more and more of a novelty in our society today. But the upside to this situation is that the overall loss of Christian values in our society makes our prophetic witness stand out all the more.

Although our country may be filled with churches, we can see from the assaults on religious freedom being waged by the Obama Administration and by the ever- increasing legalization and expansion of immoral acts such as abortion, euthanasia, and same-sex unions that the U.S. is no longer a Christian nation.

Even many of our brothers and sisters in the various Protestant denominations are embracing and promoting these moral evils as not only acceptable but even “good” under the misguided notion that “tolerance” and “inclusivity” are forms of charity.

Taking a rather elitist approach to Sacred Scripture and disregarding the clear denunciations of these sins by the various writers of Scripture as being unenlightened or unsophisticated, they bend and change the meaning of God’s Holy Word to agree with their social views.

This is not only academically disingenuous and morally dishonest, but it’s dangerous to one’s salvation. For we can never embrace sin as a good and hope to go to Heaven.

Christian charity requires that we be welcoming to sinners. We are called to be radically charitable to everyone, no matter what their backgrounds are or what sins they’ve committed.

Jesus Himself provides a model for us in the way he dealt with the woman caught in adultery. He did not condemn her, but rather He said: “Go and sin no more” (cf. John 8:11).

So while Christian charity calls us to welcome the sinner, true Christian charity does not tolerate sin. To the contrary, true Christian charity recognizes sinful behavior for what it is and lovingly seeks to correct it. That’s the whole point of our Gospel today.

Our blessed Lord tells us today in the Gospel that we must make a choice in our lives: either we are for Him or we are against Him. There is no middle ground between our Lord and the devil. So we must do all we can to rid ourselves of sin so that we can belong fully to God.
Because our Lord wants to show how serious this matter is, He makes some rather drastic suggestions with regard to ridding oneself of sin: “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. . . If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. . . If you eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.”

Of course our Lord is speaking figuratively here. He doesn’t really expect us to maim ourselves. His point is that we should do everything in our power to avoid anything that leads us into sin.

Please understand, brothers and sisters, that when it comes to sin, the stakes are high. So many people today live their lives, sinning with reckless abandon, with very little reflection on the consequences of their sins.

And yet there are always consequences to our sins, whether we recognize them or not. Sin not only offends God, but it alienates us from God and makes it harder for us to love and live a holy life. But we must also recognize that our sins affect other people too.

As Christians we are one body in Christ, a fact that we celebrate and that is most perfectly realized when we receive Holy Communion. In Holy Communion we are joined not only with Jesus, but also with one another as well in a mystical union of love!

This is why only practicing Catholics in a state of grace and in good standing with the
Church are permitted to receive Holy Communion. Our sins separate us from God and one another, and the Church’s laws regarding Holy Communion illustrate this for us.

But not only does sin separate us from God and others, it also makes us less capable of helping others find their way to Jesus and His saving mercy. Sin robs us of the joy and the love necessary to win others over to Christ and His Church.

My brothers and sisters, do you wish to lead others to Christ so that they might be saved? Do you wish to be saved yourself? Then ask yourself: what is it that keeps me from being fully united with our Lord? What are my sins? And then cut off all that is sinful within yourself.

While we may never be completely free from every sin, if we are truly sorry for our sins, our Lord’s mercy and forgiveness will relieve us of our sins and heal our defects so that we may be not only His faithful followers, but His effective prophets as well!
St. Francis of Assisi, pray for us!
30 September 2012

© Reverend Timothy Reid

Fr. Reid is the pastor of St. Ann Catholic Church, Charlotte, NC

Homilies from June 17, 2012 onward have audio .
To enable the audio, please go directly to Fr. Reid’s homily homilies and select the matching date.

Link to Homilies:
http://stanncharlotte.org/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=8&Itemid=61

 

, , , , ,

St. Lawrence

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2014/09/12 at 12:00 AM

Just outside the city walls of Rome, not terribly far from St. John Lateran, is the Basilica of St. Lawrence, which is one of oldest and most architecturally significant churches in Rome.

It is there that good St. Lawrence, along with the martyrs St. Stephen and St. Justin are buried together in one large sarcophagus. As you all know, we have a beautiful statue of St. Lawrence here in our church.

You’ll notice that our statue of St. Lawrence depicts him holding a gridiron, which was the instrument of his martyrdom. In what had to be one of the most horrifying martyrdoms of all time, good St. Lawrence was roasted to death.

It is reputed that while he was being roasted alive, St. Lawrence jokingly said to his torturers: “you can turn me over; I’m done on this side.” It is for this reason that St. Lawrence is the patron saint of both cooks and comedians.

Incidentally, the gridiron upon which St. Lawrence was roasted has been preserved and can be seen in another church bearing his name right in the heart of Rome.

While I have a love for all of the saints, I must confess that I do have a particular love and respect for the Church’s martyrs, for they are the saints who conformed themselves to Christ not only by their lives, but also by their deaths.

Certainly Holy Mother Church, too, extols the martyrs in a very esteemed way, for in the lives and deaths of the martyrs we, the Faithful, can find encouragement to endure whatever sufferings may come into our lives.

In our 1st reading the prophet Isaiah captures the spirit of the martyrs with his bold statements of his willingness to suffer for God’s sake. But I think what’s most important in Isaiah’s words is not his willingness to suffer but rather his confident trust in God’s power to save.

Isaiah says: “The Lord GOD is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame. He is near who holds my right hand. . . . See, the Lord GOD is my help; who will prove me wrong?”

This overwhelming faith in God and His goodness and mercy is really the stuff that martyrs are made of more so than their capacity for heroic suffering.

While the stories of the martyrs’ sufferings impress us, we must always remember that they were able to suffer as they did because of their unshakeable faith in God.

In our Gospel we hear one of the very first professions of faith in Jesus, and it is made by St. Peter. Jesus and His disciples are traveling together to Caesarea Philippi, and as they do Jesus asks them: “Who do people say that I am?”
And after they give the usual answers: John the Baptist or Elijah or one of the prophets, Jesus asks another question to test their faith: “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter passes the test by replying: “You are the Christ.”
St. Peter’s confession of faith is important, for it reminds us of Who Jesus Is. It reminds us that Jesus isn’t just a nice guy or even simply a miracle worker. He is our Savior and Redeemer. He is God! And as His followers, we are called to have faith in that fact.

Of course coming to this faithful belief that Jesus is Lord puts some demands on us. Namely, if Jesus is Lord, then His teachings must be true and are, therefore, not to be dismissed. That’s why I spoke about the importance of obedience a couple of weeks ago.

Indeed, the truest measure of a man is how well he conforms his life to this truth about Jesus. Truly, the greatest men and women the world has ever known have been those who have conformed themselves most closely to God’s holy truth.
The saints whose lovely images adorn our church are but a sampling of these greatest of men and women!

These saints remind us that being Catholic requires more than just conforming our minds to the truths enshrined within our Catholic teaching. They remind us that it’s not enough simply to believe. We must live our faith as well!
In our second reading St. James reminds us that our faith is not a private matter, but rather that it’s meant to be lived in a public way. People should know that we are Christians by the way we conduct ourselves in the world.

In particular, St. James highlights for us the virtue of charity in living our faith. Truly, the greatest hallmark we should possess as Christians is a generous love that reaches out to all people, especially to those in need.
James speaks of the importance of providing for the needs of others less fortunate than oneself, and to be sure, charity of this type is not optional for Christians, but essential.

But just as essential as serving the poor is the requirement that we be charitable to those with whom we live, work, and associate on a regular basis.

As we consider this past week’s violence in the Muslim world, for example, it’s easy to see that there’s an overabundance of hate and lack of respect for the inherent human dignity of others in our world today. And these things threaten man’s survival.

As I pray and reflect on the state of our world today, I am absolutely convinced that the only way to change our world is for those of us who are believers to practice a radical charity, the same type of charity Christ showed us on the cross. And it begins with those we know.

Are there people in your life whom you routinely ignore because you don’t like them? Are you curt or rude to others, or do you make judgments about others? Do you gossip or commit the sins of detraction or calumny? These are all good questions to ask oneself.

Jesus says to us today that: “Whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.” While most Christians do not die a martyr’s death, we are all called to die to self.

This means that our faith in God must be so strong that we will be willing to suffer for the sake of God and His Church. This means that we must value the honor of God and the truth of our Catholic teachings more than we value our own comfort and reputation.

But dying to oneself and living a life of radical charity means that we must love others even when we don’t like them. It means that we must put their needs above our desires, that we be willing to overlook their faults and failings when necessary, and that we do all we can to lead them to salvation.

My brothers and sisters, the world has more than enough hate, lack of respect for others, and faithlessness. Let us not add to these sins. But rather, let us prove that we are truly people of great faith by living lives of radical charity.

By our Lady’s intercession and the intercession of St. Lawrence and all the martyrs, may we become martyrs of charity by dying to ourselves and by placing all of our trust in our Lord’s power to save!

16 September 2012

© Reverend Timothy Reid

Fr. Reid is the pastor of St. Ann Catholic Church, Charlotte, NC

Homilies from June 17, 2012 onward have audio .
To enable the audio, please go directly to Fr. Reid’s homily homilies and select the matching date.

Link to Homilies:
http://stanncharlotte.org/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=8&Itemid=61

 

, , ,

Call To Observance

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2014/09/05 at 12:00 AM

 Our readings today call us in a very direct way to learn, accept, and obey God’s commandments. In our first reading Moses tells the Israelites that it is by hearing and observing God’s commands that they will live and prove themselves wise.

 The second readings from the Letter of St. James encourages us to “humbly welcome the word that has been planted in [us] and is able to save [our] souls.”

 And in the Gospel Christ calls us to purity of intention in keeping God’s commands, not paying our Lord lip service, but truly giving Him our hearts. The underlying message of these readings is that obedience to God’s commands leads to salvation.

 As Americans we value independence, self-determination, and individual freedom. At times, these American values can make obedience seem like a bit of a hindrance and a burden.

 But as Catholics we must understand that being obedient to God’s laws is not an act of blind submission to an unknown or uncaring god. We must also understand that God gave us freedom not as a license to do as we will, but rather as the capacity for obeying His will.

 Our beautiful Catholic faith teaches us that God knows us more intimately than we know ourselves and loves us more than we can imagine, and so God is worthy of our obedience.

 Thus, obedience to God and His commands does not make us any less free. To the contrary, our faith teaches us that it is sin alone that enslaves us, and that it is in choosing to do what is right and good in God’s sight that we are made truly free.

 Furthermore, our Lord does not desire us to be obedient to Him out of fear of punishment or retribution. God desires our obedience to Him to be an act of loving and humble faithfulness, a form of homage to His omniscience and omnipotence.

 In recognizing that God is indeed all-knowing and all-powerful, and yet all-loving and all- merciful, the well formed and mature Catholic understands that obedience to God’s commands is a tacit recognition that, as a good Father, God knows what’s best for us.

 All the saints teach us that we cannot honestly profess to love God without obeying His commands. The saints also teach us that as our faith in God’s love and mercy grows, being obedient to Him becomes not only easier, but it becomes our greatest desire.

 Furthermore, the experience of the saints shows that our peace in this life and in the next can only be found in obeying the Lord with faithfulness and love.

 This week our fair city will be put into the national spotlight as the DNC takes place. As our national political process unfolds once again, moral issues of all types will be debated – for laws that govern mankind must necessarily consider the moral realm.

 So there will always be a nexus between politics and morality; it’s unavoidable. Thus, it’s as good a time as any to consider the importance of obeying God’s laws as we approach the next election.

 Certainly we are living in very confusing and divisive times in our country, and sorting out what we should believe and consequently whom we should vote for can be a difficult task for the average American.

 As Catholics we are blessed that our faith provides us with clear guidance on moral issues.
 Because we belong to the one, true Church founded by our Lord Himself, and because weknow that our teachings reflect the revelation of Jesus Christ and have been safeguarded by the Holy Spirit, we can have full confidence in the truth of our Catholic teachings.

 While the Catholic Church does not explicitly tell us whom to vote for in any given election, Holy Mother Church does provide principles for us to follow in the voting booth.

 Now I realize that discussing voting from the pulpit is a touchy issue with some people. As voting is one of the great privileges we enjoy as Americans, some tend to view what we do in the voting booth as a sacred right upon which no one may trespass – not even God.

 But as your pastor I want you to know that, despite whatever misinterpretations of the division between Church and State are being pedaled by politicians and the politically correct, we should not cease to be Catholic in the voting booth.

 As your pastor, I don’t want any of you to fall prey to the delusion that voting is an amoral act that has no consequences for your soul. It does have consequences!

 If we are to be true to our Lord and His commands, we must vote in a way that is consistent with our Catholic beliefs. And so rather than thinking of ourselves as Democrats or Republicans in the voting booth, we should think of ourselves first of all as Catholics.

 What does it mean to vote as a Catholic? Recently, Archbishop Lori of Baltimore gave some good advice on this issue. He said: “The question to ask is this: Are any of the candidates of either party, or independents, standing for something that is intrinsically evil, evil no matter what the circumstances? If that’s the case, a Catholic, regardless of his party affiliation, shouldn’t be voting for such a person.”

 When it comes to issues of intrinsic evil, we must look at those issues that deal with life. In particular, abortion, same-sex unions, human cloning, embryonic stem cell research, and euthanasia are all intrinsically evil acts, and therefore as Catholics we cannot support candidates who promote or support these evils.

 Moreover, while issues such as health care, immigration reform, and the economy are important and may certainly have a moral dimension to them, they must not be accorded greater value in our decision-making than the life issues because they do not deal with intrinsic evils.

 Furthermore, in addition to the life issues, we must also now consider the issue of religious freedom. On this issue Archbishop Lori advises that: “The defense of religious liberty should not be a Democratic or Republican issue. This should be fundamental, as people of faith.” Thus, this issue – along with life issues – must be given the most weight in our considerations for whom to vote.

 You may have seen the article on the front page of the Catholic News Herald that talks about 2 banners that have been hung outside at St. Peter’s on Tryon Street. One of them reads: “Religious Liberty: The Soul of Democracy.” It’s so true.

 Our country was founded, in part, to give people the right to worship as they choose. It’s fundamental to who we are as Americans. If we lose this right, there is no limit to the other rights we could lose. If we lose this right, we will no longer be “the Land of the Free.”

 So we must ask ourselves in the voting booth which candidates will best safeguard our sacred, God-given, and therefore inalienable right to practice our Catholic faith.

 Unfortunately, even with clear principles to guide us, choosing for whom to vote can still be a tricky issue because candidates may be strong in some areas and weak in others. Too many times in recent history, voting as a Catholic has meant choosing the lesser of two evils.

 In looking at this reality, I can only conclude that we, as Catholics, need to do a better of job of being leaven in our world!
 The Catholic Church possesses the fullness of the Truth. We are the Church founded by Jesus Christ, who Is Truth, and we have a responsibility to bear witness to that Truth, who is Jesus.

 As your pastor it is my job to teach our Catholic faith with clarity so that you may form your consciences properly. And then you, the laity, must take our beautiful faith out into the world to transform it!

 One of the ways you exercise your responsibility and preach the truth is by voting in a way that is consonant with the teachings of the Church, and by helping others to do the same. And considering the state of our country, we need to do this now more than ever.

 My dear brothers and sisters, God calls us today to fidelity to His commands. He calls us to recognize Him as the way, the TRUTH, and the life, and to share that knowledge with others.

 Let us obey our Lord and His commands with gratitude, humility, and great love by voting inthis year’s elections not as Democrats or Republicans, but as CATHOLICS.

 And by God’s grace, may we recover our country’s Christian roots, and reclaim America asthe Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave.

 May our Lady intercede for us, and may God bless America.

2 September 2012

© Reverend Timothy Reid

Fr. Reid is the pastor of St. Ann Catholic Church, Charlotte, NC

Homilies from June 17, 2012 onward have audio .
To enable the audio, please go directly to Fr. Reid’s homily homilies and select the matching date.

Link to Homilies:
http://stanncharlotte.org/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=8&Itemid=61

 

Re-purposing

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2014/08/29 at 12:00 AM

During his reign as our Holy Father, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI called upon all Catholics to “re-propose” the Gospel to those who have experienced a crisis of faith.

Recognizing the incredible inroads secularism has made throughout the world in the past few decades, Pope Benedict called upon Catholics to be evangelized themselves, and then to go forth and re-evangelize our world that seems to have forgotten the Good News of Jesus.
This “New Evangelization,” as it is being called, is ultimately a call for all Catholics to renew their relationship with Jesus and His Church. By doing so, we become better able to “go out to all the world and tell the Good News.”
This is so important, for God desires that all men be saved. He desires to gather nations of every language, to draw unto Himself people from east and west, north and south.
But this requires that those of us who are blessed to live in the fullness of truth through our Catholic faith be willing to step out in faith, hope, and love with the Gospel message.
As our Gospel indicates today, it is not easy to get into Heaven. Following up on lastSunday’s Gospel, we are reminded today never to take our salvation for granted. Once again
the Gospel message today is a difficult one, but ultimately it is a very hopeful Gospel.

While we are reminded again today that we have to cooperate in the process of our ownredemption, which means dying to self, it also reminds us that all of us can be saved! Even
those of low-standing here on earth can have a high place in Heaven!

Indeed, we are told today that it is often those who are considered to be of little value byearthly standards who attain the highest places in Heaven.
As I mentioned last Sunday, we cannot just worry about our own salvation. Charity demandsthat we help others along the path to salvation by living lives of Christian integrity, and by
being willing to speak the Truth and battle against the evils of our society.

While we should never seek division with others, we must be willing to suffer the pain ofdivision in order to be true to Christ and the Gospel. We must be willing to let people walk
away from us rather than walk away from Christ ourselves in order to appease them.

This willingness to be strong and steadfast in our faith while reaching out to others in charityis at the heart of the New Evangelization.
Sadly, the world is no longer Christian. Secularism is on the rise, and the faith of many isbeing eroded and lost – so much so that there is no longer consensus on what is morally right
and wrong.

Secular man has become so selfish and hardened to God that he can no longer distinguishwhat is truly right and wrong, even though the law of God is written upon all of our hearts.
Thus, we who live with the benefit of the Truth through our Lord’s one, holy, Catholic, andapostolic Church must find new ways to spread the Gospel message.
Priests, religious, and laity alike must be better formed and educated in the Faith and willingto use modern means to spread the Faith. We must be ever more committed to following
Christ’s command to serve the poor and marginalized.

And we must work diligently to form our children according to Gospel values so that theywill become courageous and knowledgeable leaders for our Church in the future.
Thus we must be committed to prayer. It is only through prayer that we become intimatewith our Lord so that we can love Him more and become more like Him. It is only through prayer that we find the strength to carry our Lord’s Good News out into the world. But
prayer is just the beginning. We need to do more: as individuals, as a parish, and as a

diocese.

Thus, today I would like to take a few minutes to introduce and share the details of Forwardin Faith, Hope, and Love, a new and extremely important initiative of the diocese that St.
Ann has been participating in over the past few months to help with the New Evangelization.

In short, this initiative is meant to help our parish and our diocese prepare for the future sothat we can leave a more robust, flourishing, and stronger Catholic Church for our children
and for generations to come.

Our diocese has changed considerably since we were first founded in 1972. We’veexperienced tremendous growth over the years, opening many new parishes and expanding
and improving the ones that were already here – like St. Ann’s.

But with this increased growth has come increased pastoral and temporal needs. In the pastfew years the diocese has come to realize that we’re falling behind in providing for some of these needs, most especially our priest retirement fund, which is currently underfunded by $10 million.
Through Forward in Faith, Hope, and Love, we will strengthen parish life and ministries as the center of the Catholic community, provide for seminarian formation and retired clergy, ensure the vitality of Catholic education for present and future generations, support pastoral and temporal resources, and expand the essential services provided by Catholic ministries.
Specifically, over the next 5 years, the diocese hopes to raise $65 million in order to prepare for the increasing needs in our diocese. The beautiful part of this is that a portion of the monies raised comes back to the parish for our own use.
In the coming weeks you’ll see a bulletin insert that details how the money will be spent. To break it down in rough terms, $13 million will be spent on our retired clergy and seminarians. This campaign will increase the endowment for seminarians, and provide additional funds to ensure that our retired priests are well cared for after their many years of ministry.
$12.75 million will set aside for Catholic education in order to increase tuition assistance for those who attend Catholic schools, to help improve Catholic school facilities, to provide education and training to catechists serving in parish-based faith formation programs, and to bolster campus ministry to Catholic college students.
Another $11.5 million will be set aside to serve the poor in our area, increasing our anti- poverty efforts, and building low cost housing for low income and vulnerable populations.
And lastly, $11.75 million will be used for the pastoral and temporal needs of the diocese,increasing the endowment that takes care of the day-to-day operations of our various diocesan ministries, providing much-needed funds for the restoration of the Cathedral, and improving our diocesan retreat centers.
The remaining 25% of the monies will be returned to the parishes for their own needs. Specifically, we plan to use the money we receive to eliminate our debt and to create the last major piece of art for the church: a mural for our apse wall.
As most of you know, we did conduct a debt reduction campaign 4 years ago for our mortgage, which has substantially reduced our debt. As most of you have already fulfilled your pledges, we were originally scheduled to have the debt elimination campaign last year.
However, because the diocese was in the process of planning for this campaign, they have asked us to do a combined campaign with them so that parish and diocesan needs can be met.
The goal set for us by the diocese is $1,135,000. However, in order to fully retire the debt and pay for the mural, we need to raise in excess of $2 million. The good news is that to date, our parish has already raised $1,245,400: which is almost 2/3 of our goal!
This is from the efforts of just a small portion of our parish– and it gives me great optimism that this effort will inspire the rest of you to be generous as well.
Over the next few weeks, you will be contacted by mail or by phone by a fellow parishioner. I ask you to please welcome this call, as parishioners are volunteering to help me with this important effort.
I would also like to ask you for your help as volunteers to assist with sharing the vision of Forward in Faith, Hope, and Love with your fellow parishioners. We are very blessed here at St. Ann to have a growing parish, and we need many hands to lighten the load of contacting as many families as we can.
Just as we have benefitted from the sacrifices of those who have gone before us, now it is our opportunity to serve our present needs and leave a legacy for those to come. Moreover, now is the time for us to spread the Good News of the Gospel in these ways.
I am supportive and enthusiastic of this initiative because I have seen what we, as a Diocesan faith community, have accomplished since our founding. And I have seen what we—the St. Ann community—have accomplished as well.
But most importantly, I support this initiative because it is a great means of securing the future of our parish and our diocese, and it’s a great way for us to help re-evangelize our world.
In closing, I thank you for patiently listening; I hope you will be prayerful and generous in your support of this campaign – for the sake of St. Ann’s, for the sake of the diocese, and for the sake of the New Evangelization.

25 August 2013

© Reverend Timothy Reid

Fr. Reid is the pastor of St. Ann Catholic Church, Charlotte, NC

Homilies from June 17, 2012 onward have audio.
To enable the audio, lease go directly to Fr. Reid’s homily homilies and select the matching date.

Link to Homilies:
http://stanncharlotte.org/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=8&Itemid=61

 

Pearl of Wisdom

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2014/08/22 at 12:00 AM

Both our first and second readings today invite us to seek Wisdom. In the first reading from the Book of Proverbs, Wisdom is personified as woman setting out a table of food

The food and drink offered by Lady Wisdom is instruction that leads to true life. We are told to forsake foolishness that we may live; and we are promised that if we eat of her food and drink of her wine, we will advance in the way of understanding.
In the second reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians we’re given a fuller sense of wisdom. St. Paul cautions us to live wisely, not foolishly, “because the days are evil.”
For St. Paul living in wisdom is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Wise living for Paul is a matter of living in Christ, Who Is Wisdom Incarnate. In this passage Paul equates wisdom with doing the will of the Lord.

While our Lord has a particular, individual will for each of us, His universal will for all
people is eternal salvation! Above all else our blessed Lord desires that we all go to Heaven!

But as we consider this fact, let us be mindful that the only people who get go to Heaven are
saints! Of course in saying this, I’m speaking of saints in a generic sense.

A saint, generically speaking, is anyone who is truly holy. Of course amongst all the saints
in Heaven there is a special class of Saints: those who have been canonized by the Church

and who serve as particular role models for the rest of us.

But the bottom line is this: if we want to go to Heaven, we must be saintly; we must be holy.
And if we’re not holy, then at least we must be in a state of grace when we die and allow our

Lord to make us holy through the fires of Purgatory. That’s the deal, pure and simple.

And so if we wish to be wise and not foolish, then we should order our lives toward the
pursuit of holiness. There must be a certain primacy of holiness in our lives. Keeping our

minds and hearts set on Heaven, holiness in this life must be our “pearl of great price.”

As I’ve mentioned to you before, holiness is not something we achieve on our own. It’s the work of the Spirit within us, which is why we often refer to the Holy Spirit as the Sanctifier.
It is the Holy Spirit who makes us holy, but we have to cooperate with Him!

When it comes to helping His children grow in holiness, our dear Lord is very generous. The
proof of His generosity is the fact that He has given us two particular gifts to help us become

holy: the Sacraments and His Mother.

For those of you who just completed the 33 day consecration to Jesus through Mary, one of
the first things we learned is that consecrating oneself to Jesus through Mary is the “quickest,

easiest, surest, and most perfect way” to grow in holiness and become a saint.

Those are the words of St. Louis de Montfort, one of the greatest proponents of Marian
consecration our Church has ever known.

St. Louis teaches us that when we entrust ourselves to Mary through a consecration like this,
we are actually imitating what our Lord did in the Incarnation. By becoming incarnate

within the womb of Mary, our Lord entrusted Himself totally to Mary’s care.

As the spouse of the Holy Spirit, Mary facilitates the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit
within us when we give ourselves to her. In particular, Mary helps us to carry our crosses in life, and this is important because carrying our crosses is one of the primary ways we grow in holiness.

St. Louis de Montfort tells us that Mary “prepares her servants’ crosses with so much maternal sweetness and pure love as to make them gladly acceptable, no matter how bitter they may be in themselves.”
This is the whole reason why I invited this entire parish to make this consecration: I want you to be holy! And I must tell you, as your pastor I was so very edified to see how many of you actually did the consecration! Truly, I was so very pleased.
And for those of you who didn’t make the consecration this year, have no fear. This is something that we will make an annual event for our parish.
As I mentioned earlier, the Lord also gives us the Sacraments as a means for growing in holiness, in particular the Eucharist. In this week’s Gospel we reach the culmination of Jesus’ teaching in the Bread of Life Discourse that we’ve been reading for the past 4 weeks.
Christ speaks clearly and forcefully, enunciating exactly what we believe about the Eucharist. Jesus tells us: “I am the living bread that came down from Heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.” But the key line is this: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”
There are many spiritual benefits to receiving Holy Communion. But the most import effect of receiving Holy Communion is intimate union with Christ Jesus. In fact the very word Communion suggests becoming one with Christ.
While all of the sacraments unite us to Jesus through the reception of His grace, this union is most intensely achieved through the Eucharist, for in Holy Communion we receive not only grace, but the very Author of grace Himself.
And in this process, we become more like Christ. In receiving this most precious sacrament, we actually share in Christ’s divine life and become truly wise. If we receive Holy Communion worthily, it makes us holy and will help us get to Heaven.
But personal sanctification and getting to Heaven should not be our sole motivation for growing in holiness. We must also seek holiness for the sake of others.
As we consider the state of our country and the state of world, it should be clear to all of us that the world needs holy people now more than ever!
As you all know, in just one week the Republicans will have their national convention in Tampa, followed by the Democratic Convention here in Charlotte a week after that, kicking off the home stretch of this election cycle.
As the debates between candidates rage, it is a very natural time for us as Americans to focus on what’s wrong with our country – on what our national evils are.
I submit to you that our sluggish economy and high unemployment, the housing bust, the culture of death that so pervades us, and so on are all the result of a lack of holiness.
They are the result of evil actions on the part of many people. Greed, lust, anger, pride, and sloth have become our national values, and they’ve had free reign in our country for far too long! These vices are our worst enemies!
Let’s be clear: No policy or politician will ever be our savior. If we want positive change in our country, then we must be holy and inspire others to be holy. We must seek to follow God’s will and elect government officials who will do the same.
Brothers and sisters, we must not forget the Old Testament stories of the Israelites: when they followed God’s laws, He blessed them. When Israel rebelled against God and His laws, they encountered destruction. The same will be true for us.
By forsaking the foolishness and evil of this world, and entrusting ourselves to the Blessed Mother and the grace of the Sacraments, let us be confident that our Lord will complete His work of making each of us holy: for our own sakes and the sake of our nation.
O Immaculate Virgin Mary, Seat of Wisdom and patroness of our country, pray for us.

 

19 August 2006

© Reverend Timothy Reid

Fr. Reid is the pastor of St. Ann Catholic Church, Charlotte, NC

Homilies from June 17, 2012 onward have audio .
To enable the audio, please go directly to Fr. Reid’s homily homilies and select the matching date.

Link to Homilies:
http://stanncharlotte.org/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=8&Itemid=61

 

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2014/08/15 at 12:00 AM

Many years ago when our Lord had made it clear to me that becoming a Catholic was His will for my life, I decided to convert out of a sense of obedience to His will.

 

While my own studies of Catholicism had led to me understand that the Catholic Church is indeed the one true Church founded by Jesus Christ Himself, I didn’t yet believe everything contained within our Catholic faith.

Specifically, I didn’t yet believe in two very important things: the Eucharist, and the Church’s teachings on the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Once I made the decision to obey God and enter the Church, despite my reservations on the Eucharist and Mary, our blessed Lord gifted me with some incredible graces, and I was very suddenly brought to an understanding of the Eucharist the very first time I went to Adoration and Benediction. It was pure grace, and it was remarkable.

Coming to grips with Mary wasn’t so easy, though. Raised as a Methodist with a firm belief that all of us are sinners in need of God’s mercy, and not finding direct biblical support for Marian dogmas, I struggled to accept the Church’s teachings on Mary.

But over time I realized that since the Church was right on everything else I had previously questioned, Holy Mother Church was most probably right about Mary!

So despite my emotional misgivings and doubts, I made an act of the will simply to accept the Church’s teachings on Mary: that she was immaculately conceived, that she was perpetually a virgin, and that she was assumed body and soul into Heaven.

But perhaps even more important than this act of the will was an act of love and devotion that I made, too. Specifically, I began to pray the Rosary every day, and I began asking our Lady to reveal herself to me.

I think in my naïveté, I was hoping Mary would appear to me like she did to the children of Fatima or to St. Bernadette in Lourdes, but I’m sorry to report that so far in my life, I have not yet received a Marian apparition.

But even though I haven’t had an apparition, I can tell you that over the past 20 years that I’ve been a Catholic, and most especially in these past 8 years that I’ve been a priest, Mary has been revealing herself to me as she does to all souls who ask for this.

What I’ve learned is this: that Mary is indeed the Immaculate Mother of our Lord, the pure and virginal spouse of the Holy Spirit. I’ve learned that she is both the fairest honor of our race, and yet as awesome as an army in battle array.

Our Lady is unmatched in virtue and unsurpassed in holiness. She is without comparison in her beauty, and she is without rival in her capacity to obtain divine favors. She is unequaled in her love for God, and she is unwavering in her love for us.

Perhaps most importantly, I’ve learned that every grace our dear Lord has given to me has come through her hands. Because she is so perfectly united with our Lord, and our Lord is always with us, Mary is always with us, too.  My fervent hope is that all of you will come to this realization, too!

While today we celebrate our blessed Lady’s assumption, body and soul, into Heaven so thatshe might be crowned queen of Heaven and earth, we know that, as St. Thérèse once said, Mary is more mother than queen.

Today, as we celebrate Mary’s glorious assumption into Heaven, we rejoice not only for this crowning gift of grace that she so worthily deserves. We rejoice, too, because Mary shows us the way to Heaven, and she so capably aids us on our journey there.

In our chapel is a marvelous painting of Mary as the Immaculate Conception. Much of what is depicted in that painting comes right out of our first reading: she is the woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.

Shining with holiness, Mary is clothed with purity and adorned with the jewels of virtue. Thus, our blessed Lady shows us that we place ourselves on the path to Heaven by the earnest pursuit of personal holiness.

By shunning all vices and cultivating the virtues, most especially the virtues of humility, obedience, and charity; and by seeking purity of mind and body as well as purity of intention in all things, we become properly disposed to cooperate with God’s saving grace.

And because she so desires that we achieve the level of holiness her divine Son has destined for us, Mary helps us to do all this! Like a good mother, Mary teaches all of her children the ways of humility, obedience, and love.

When we give ourselves to her unreservedly, when we entrust our souls to her maternal care, Mary helps us to be pure, she enflames our hearts with love for God, and she helps us to persevere in following God’s will.

Mary also consoles us when we fail, she picks us up when we fall, she enables us to ask for forgiveness, and she always leads us back to her Son. But she doesn’t stop there!

Our painting in the chapel also shows Mary with her foot firmly on the head of the serpent, an image taken from Genesis 3:15, and a reminder of the battle between her and the dragon mentioned in our reading from Revelation.

This reading reminds us that our Lady is intimately involved in the battle between good and evil, a battle that we know will be eventually won by our Lord and His angels.

Like a good mother Mary desires to wrap each of us in her protective mantle, shielding us from the wickedness and snares of the evil one.

She prays for each of us by name, begging her divine Son for all the graces we need to fight off the temptations of the evil one, so we should be quick to place ourselves under her protection, affectionately invoking her holy name for all of our needs.

My brothers and sisters, for the past 33 days many of us in this parish have been preparing to consecrate ourselves to Jesus through Mary. After Mass today we will pray together our prayer of consecration.

We will renew our baptismal vows, and we will give ourselves totally to Mary and ask that she make use of us according to God’s divine will.

As your pastor, I solemnly promise you, that if you are faithful to your consecration promise throughout your life, you will go to Heaven at the end of your life.

My brothers and sisters, as we celebrate this magnificent feast in honor of our Lady, let us give thanks to our Lord for the great gift of His Mother.

Let us each one entrust ourselves whole-heartedly to her maternal care, and when our life on earth is over, may we follow her with great joy into the everlasting life of Heaven.

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

15 August 2012

© Reverend Timothy Reid

Fr. Reid is the pastor of St. Ann Catholic Church, Charlotte, NC

Homilies from June 17, 2012 onward have audio .
To enable the audio, please go directly to Fr. Reid’s homily homilies and select the matching date.

Link to Homilies:
http://stanncharlotte.org/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=8&Itemid=61