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St. John Mary Vianney

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

 

Above the north confessional of our church is a statue of St. John Mary Vianney, one of history’s greatest confessors and the patron of parish priests.
Just outside of the village of Ars in southeastern France where he served is another statue of St. John, one that depicts a special meeting between him and a shepherd boy.
The young St. John was traveling by foot to Ars when he stopped to ask the young shepherd boy for directions. His words to the boy are memorialized on the statue: “You have shown me the way to Ars. I will show you the way to heaven.”
And perhaps more than any other parish priest in history, St. John Vianney did exactly that: he showed his people the way to Heaven, in particular through the use of the sacraments. For each of the sacraments is, in its own way, a promise of Heaven!
This is because each of the 7 sacraments of the Church is a means that our dear Lord uses to confer upon us the grace that saves us.
With this in mind, as Catholics the hope of Heaven must always be before us. Indeed, as Catholics we know that there’s no point to living this earthly life if we don’t go to Heaven at the end of it.
While all of the sacraments help us to get to Heaven, the Eucharist is particularly helpful because of the frequency with which we can receive it. As I mentioned last Sunday, the Eucharist is itself a foretaste of Heaven.
Once again this week we hear from the Bread of Life Discourse of John, chapter 6. Today Jesus tells His followers that His flesh is bread for the life of the world, and that whoever eats this bread will live forever.
Last Sunday I spoke about how our Lady helps us to receive Holy Communion worthily and with perfect integrity. As the Mother of our Lord, and therefore the Mother of the Eucharist, Mary desires all of her children to glean the great spiritual benefits contained within Holy Communion.
But the spiritual benefits of Holy Communion: union with Christ, forgiveness of sins, greater love for our Lord and one another, and personal sanctification are only available to us if we receive Holy Communion in a state of grace.
It’s also important for us to realize that if we receive Holy Communion in a state of mortal sin, not only are these spiritual benefits that help prepare us for Heaven not given to us, but we bring even greater damnation upon our souls!
Before receiving Holy Communion at Mass, priests are required to say prayers of private preparation, one of which underscores this possibility of redemption or damnation being brought upon a soul in the reception of the Eucharist.
The prayer is this: “May the receiving of your Body and Blood, Lord Jesus Christ, not bring me to judgment and condemnation, but through your loving mercy be for me protection in mind and body and a healing remedy.”
This prayer reminds us that we must be most vigilant in receiving our Lord’s body and blood in Holy Communion. Receiving Communion is an action that must never be undertaken lightly or without sufficient recollection about the state of our soul.
Quite simply, if we fear we might have some grave sin upon our soul that we’ve never confessed, we shouldn’t receive Holy Communion until we’ve gone to confession first.
But we must also consider our relationship with the Church before receiving Holy Communion, because the Eucharist is the sign of our unity with the Church.
Thus, if we do not believe that the Eucharist is truly the Body and Blood of Jesus, or if we disagree with a dogmatic teaching of the Church, we should not receive Holy Communion because we are not in communion with the Church.
Yet, while the desire for human respect can make it difficult to refrain from Holy Communion when we know we should, we should always remember that not coming forward for Communion when we are not properly prepared for it is an act of integrity!
Honestly, my brothers and sisters, although it is tempting to do so, we should never fear being judged by our fellow man if we do not go to the Communion rail.
We should fear only the judgment of God! Few things will draw down the Lord’s ire upon us at Judgment Day like unworthily receiving Holy Communion.
Moreover, we shouldn’t despair if we find that we are not properly prepared for Holy Communion. Instead, we should simply turn to our Lady.
As I mentioned last Sunday, if we struggle with our belief in the Eucharist, Mary strengthens our faith. If we have difficulty with a teaching of the Church, she enlightens our minds to the Truth. If we find ourselves falling habitually into mortal sin, she removes our despair and strengthens us in our battle against temptation.
If we entrust ourselves completely to our Lady, with whatever problems we may have, Mary works to resolve them. Like a good mother, Mary is always working to help us receive her Son worthily and with perfect integrity.
And when we do, when we receive Holy Communion in a state of grace (even if we have venial sins on our soul), and if we receive in a recollected and reverent manner, we are made a little more like Christ and made a little more ready for Heaven!
Grace floods our souls when we receive our Lord worthily, with contrition for our sins and a desire to be completely united with Him and His Church, and we taste a bit of Heaven. Indeed, we are led closer to Heaven!
Our first reading today speaks of Elijah’s 40-day journey to Mt. Horeb, which is symbolic of Heaven. He undertakes this journey strengthened by bread given to him by God. Obviously, this story is a foreshadowing of the Eucharist.
Indeed, while we all need physical sustenance to help us maintain strength when we travel, the sustenance that we need for the journey to Heaven is found in the Eucharist.
Viaticum is the term used for Holy Communion when it is administered at the very end of a person’s life as part of the Last Rites. The word means: “provisions for a journey.”
So in our Catholic tradition we see the Eucharist as food for the passage through death to eternal life, signifying that the Christian follows Christ to eternal glory to partake of the heavenly banquet.
When a priest administers viaticum to the dying, after he says: “the Body of Christ,” he immediately adds: “May the Lord Jesus Christ protect you and lead you to eternal life.”
For this is the power of the Eucharist: it has the power to get us to Heaven – but only if we receive it worthily. So brothers and sisters, as your pastor I ask that you please examine yourself well and only receive Holy Communion if you’re properly disposed, so that the benefits of the sacrament might be yours.
Every day as I distribute Holy Communion at this altar rail, I pray for the salvation of each of you. When I come to you with the Eucharist, I say a silent prayer to our Lord that you and every member of this parish be saved on the Last Day.
Through the intercession of the Mary, Mother of God and Mother of the Eucharist, may this prayer be answered for all of us. May Mary show us all the way to Heaven.
12 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

 

Basilica of St. Mary Major

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2014/08/01 at 12:00 AM

High atop the Esquiline Hill in Rome sits the most important church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the whole world: the Basilica of St. Mary Major.

There is a delightful story that dates the founding of this church to the 4th century. As the story goes, a wealthy Roman and his wife were aging and had no heirs for their fortune.

So they prayed to the Virgin Mary to ask for her guidance as to how they should dispose of their wealth, and the Virgin appeared to the man in a dream on August 4th and told him to build a basilica on the site where he would find snow the following morning.

The man was confused by the dream, and so he went to Pope Liberius to tell him of his dream only to learn that Pope Liberius had had a dream in which he was told that he would find snow on the Esquiline Hill that morning.

When they visited the Esquiline Hill, they indeed found that snow had fallen in such a way as to outline the dimensions of the basilica they were to build. Thus, today is the feast day of the Dedication of St. Mary Major – a feast that used to be called Our Lady of the Snows.

While critics state that it is difficult to prove the historical veracity of this story, what we do know about this basilica is that its art and architecture, its sheer size and beauty all speak of the great dignity possessed by and the honor due to the virgin mother of our Lord.

She is indeed, without any doubt, the fairest honor of our race. Mary is indeed our life, our sweetness, and our hope. For in her virtues we can see the perfection of humanity, and in her maternal solicitude we find our most sure and certain advocate before her Son’s countenance.

By the Lord’s divine pleasure, it was Mary who produced for us a Savior who has redeemed us and made salvation possible. And it is Mary who, from her throne in Heaven, procures for us every grace we need to cooperate with the Lord’s gift of salvation.

To be sure, Mary is not extraneous to our Catholic faith. Marian devotion is not an option we can choose or not choose with no consequence. Mary is not optional at all! She is absolutely necessary to us!

Churches like St. Mary Major were built in part to remind us of the importance of Mary’s role in the life of the Church and to invite us to entrust ourselves completely to her care.

As the Mother of God we know that there would be no Savior without Mary’s consent, and as the Mediatrix of all Graces, we also believe that it is through her motherly hands that our Lord provides all the graces that we need to be saved.

Our readings today remind us of how our Lord provides for us. In particular, the Gospel today is taken from the Bread of Life Discourse found in the 6th chapter of the Gospel of John, and it speaks of our belief in the Eucharist.

Jesus says to the crowd gathered around Him in Capernaum: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

Our Lord also reminds the crowd, whom He had fed through the miracle of the loaves and fish we heard about last Sunday, to work “for the food that endures for eternal life” rather than “the food that perishes.”

In saying this, our Lord is recognizing that, while it is necessary for us to have physical food to live, there is a food that is even more necessary to our well-being, a food that is a foretaste of Heaven.

Of course our Lord is speaking of the Eucharist, the true bread that comes down from Heaven. Just as Moses and the Israelites received the manna from Heaven above, when you come forward and kneel at this communion rail, you kneel at the very edge of Heaven to be fed.

But it is not manna that you receive here. It is our Lord Himself, who so graciously gives Himself to us: body, blood, soul and divinity, under the appearance of bread and wine.

By our worthy participation in this sacrificial meal, we unite ourselves to our Lord and to His Church, and we show our desire to be the Lord’s true children.

In speaking as He does to the crowd in this Gospel passage, Jesus is preparing His followers to believe in Him and to believe in the Eucharist. But when Jesus tells them to work for the food that endures for eternal life, our Lord is not simply counseling them to believe in the Eucharist and to receive it, but also to prepare themselves for Heaven itself.

This is the topic that St. Paul tackles in our reading from his letter to the Ephesians. As always, St. Paul is calling his readers to conversion, reminding them that their belief in Christ means that they must change their lives – living no longer as the Gentiles do.

When we come forward to receive Holy Communion at Mass, we are making a commitment to honor the covenant that our Lord formed with us through the Sacrament of Baptism.
Just as a married couple seals and renews their vows through the marital embrace, through the worthy reception of Holy Communion we consummate and renew the promise we made at baptism to live as Christ’s followers – in short, a promise to be converted.

By receiving Holy Communion, we publicly demonstrate our belief that the Eucharist truly is the body and blood of our Lord, and that we believe and agree to live by all that Holy Mother Church teaches and proposes for our belief.

But even more than that, our reception of Holy Communion signifies our desire to be united with our Lord and to go to Heaven, and it is – as well – our pledge that we will do all that is necessary to cooperate with our Lord’s grace so that we might be saved.

According to St. Paul this means putting away our old selves and former ways of life that were corrupted by sin. It means being renewed in the spirit of our minds and putting on a new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth.

And when we do this well, when we kneel down and receive Holy Communion with integrity – with these intentions – then grace floods our souls, and we are made ready for Heaven!

Alas, it is difficult, is it not, to receive Holy Communion worthily and with perfect integrity? Although we may know that our very salvation depends upon it, we all struggle to give ourselves fully to our Lord as He gives Himself fully to us in Holy Communion.

And when we struggle, it is then that we must turn to Our Lady. For when we give ourselves to her and beg for her help, Mary removes all of those obstacles that make it difficult for us to receive Holy Communion worthily and in perfect integrity.

If we struggle with our belief in the Eucharist, Mary strengthens our faith. If we have difficulty with a teaching of the Church, she enlightens our minds to the Truth. If we find ourselves falling habitually into mortal sin, she removes our despair and strengthens us in our battle against temptation. She is in all ways our perfect mother.

My brothers and sisters, our Lord gives us His very self in the Eucharist. When we partake worthily of His body and blood in Holy Communion, we are graced with the gift of salvation.

Let us turn, then, to our Lord’s virgin Mother and gives ourselves to her. Let us trust that through her maternal intercession, we will be able to receive her Son’s body and blood worthily and well, with perfect integrity, love, and devotion.

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
5 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

 

Shepherding

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2014/07/25 at 12:00 AM

 

  • We are very blessed here at St. Ann’s to have some very lovely mosaics adorning our altar, baptismal font, and apse wall. But if you love mosaic art, one city in the world you must visit is Ravenna, which lies in northeastern Italy along the Adriatic coast.
  • Within Ravenna, which is a virtual treasure trove of ancient mosaics, perhaps the most outstanding and best-preserved mosaics are to be found in the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia.
  • Built by the daughter of Emperor Theodosius in the first half of the 5th century, this small brick building is home to some of the best Byzantine mosaics in the world.
  • Incidentally, all six of our mosaics – which were created by a mosaicist from Ravenna – were inspired in their color and design by the mosaics in this mausoleum!
  • Within the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, perhaps the most famous mosaic is of the Good Shepherd, which is above the north entrance of the building.
  • In this mosaic a beardless Jesus is resting on a rock surrounded by six sheep, all gazing at Him. Jesus appears muscular, youthful, and full of vigor. In His left hand is a staff topped with a golden cross, while His right hand is caressing one of the sheep.
  • What I love most about this mosaic is that it shows our Lord to be strong and protective yet so tender and gentle as well – just as a good shepherd should be.
  • Our readings today speak to us about shepherds, and in particular we see Jesus in the Gospel story today tending to the people who appear like sheep without a shepherd.
  • This Gospel story shows us the sacrificial love and solicitude our Lord has for His flock, and how He pastors and cares for His sheep out of His great love for them.
  • But in our first reading from the prophet Jeremiah those shepherds who mislead and scatter the Lord’s flock are given a stern warning, while the Lord promises the faithful that they will be given good shepherds to lead them.
  • What we can glean from our readings is that, while all of us are ultimately responsible for our own salvation, our Lord recognizes that we often need help along the way. We all need guidance and direction.
  • Broadly speaking, that’s why we have the priesthood. Priests – particularly pastors – act as shepherds for souls, pointing out the way to salvation for the flock entrusted to them. This we do through preaching, teaching, and offering the sacraments.
  • In this role as shepherd, we priests look to Jesus Christ as our supreme model for all that a shepherd should be. But even more than that, through the grace of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, we act in persona Christi capitis.
  • This means that when we act in accord with the intention of the Church in our official leadership capacity, it is Christ Himself who acts through us.
  • The Catechism teaches us that in an ordained minister’s service to the Church, “it is Christ himself who is present to his Church as Head of his Body, [and] Shepherd of his flock” (#1548).
  • By virtue of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, a priest is truly made like Christ and is given the authority to act in the power and person of Christ Himself. Thus through the person of the priest, Christ is made present within a community of believers (CCC #1548-9).
  • So when a priest baptizes, it is Christ who baptizes. When a priest confects the Eucharist, it is Christ who confects. When a priest forgives a sin, it is Christ who forgives. When a priest preaches in accord with the Church, it is Christ who preaches.
  • But even though it is truly Jesus working through the person of His priests as they seek to shepherd the people of God, Jesus and His ordained ministers are not the only ones who help to guide us along the path to salvation.
  • For example, each of us has a guardian angel, and each us has various patron saints who attend to us as well. From their place in Heaven the angels and saints inspire us and intercede for us – helping us to follow God’s will and to grow in holiness.
  • Preeminent amongst the angels and saints, of course, is the Blessed Virgin Mary.
  • While Mary doesn’t fulfill the role of a shepherd, she does help to point out for us the way tosalvation. Even more importantly, our Lady helps to form us into living images of her Son,endowing us with grace to grow in holiness so that we might be pleasing to Him.
  • Thus, just as we should entrust ourselves to Jesus the Good Shepherd, we should also entrustourselves to the maternal care of His mother, for by our Lord’s divine pleasure, Mary hasbeen given the role of Co-Redemptrix – one who helps with our redemption.
  • It’s not that our Lord needs Mary to do this. Our Lord is omnipotent, and thus He needs nohelp in redeeming fallen mankind. However, out of His own divine pleasure our Lord hasgiven to Mary a particular role in the redemption of man.
  • While her role in the redemption of man is not equal to that of Jesus’ role, her role is unique,and it flows out of her divine motherhood and her sharing in the life of Christ, mostespecially at the foot of the cross.
  • Blessed John Paul II explained that, “Having created man ‘male and female’ (cf. Gn 1:27),the Lord also wants to place the New Eve beside the New Adam in the Redemption. Our first parents had chosen the way of sin as a couple; a new pair, the Son of God with his Mother’s co-operation, would re-establish the human race in its original dignity.” (Pope’s Wednesday audience, April 1997).
  • Moreover, the Second Vatican Council teaches us that our Lady is not only the “Mother of the divine Redeemer”, but that she is also “in a singular way the generous associate”, who “co-operated by her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity in the work of the Savior in giving back supernatural life to our souls.” Thus, Mary is also a mother to us in the “order of grace” (cf. Lumen Gentium, #61).
  • So it is that we should turn to Mary with all our needs, most especially as we struggle with temptation and sin, and as we seek growth in virtue.
  • Our Lord Jesus Christ is indeed the Good Shepherd. And as the One who guides us to salvation, He has given us the gift of His Immaculate Mother to help us through the difficulties of this life.
  • Let us not simply turn to her in our need, but let us entrust ourselves whole-heartedly to Mary, confident that she will procure for us every grace we need to get to Heaven.
  • O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

 

22 July 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

 

Being Commissioned

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2014/07/18 at 12:00 AM

 

  • In our Gospel today we hear the familiar story of Jesus sending out the 12 apostles, 2 by 2, to spread the Gospel. In presenting us with this story, Holy Mother Church is calling us to do the same.
  • Just as the apostles were called to go forth and preach the Good News, we, too, are called to take the Gospel into our world. The Mass is our commissioning to go forth!
  • In the days before the liturgical reforms that followed the 2nd Vatican Council, the Mass ended with the phrase: “Ite, Missa Est,” which we render now in English as “go forth, the Mass is ended.”
  • When the priest or deacon proclaims this dismissal at the end of the Mass, he’s not simply telling us to leave the church because the Mass is over.
  • To the contrary, he’s telling us that now that the Mass is completed and we have been strengthened by the graces conferred upon us in the Mass, we are to go forth and share those graces with others so that they, too, might come to know our Lord!
  • Because of the importance attached to this dismissal, in the Traditional Latin Mass there are elaborate chants that accompany this dismissal to remind us of the seriousness with which we must take this charge to go out and spread the Gospel!
  • Truly, spreading the Gospel in our world today is of utmost importance.
  • Last Sunday I spoke a bit about the nature of truth, and I made the point that evil mencan only bend, distort, and try to destroy the truth if people who are committed to theTruth do not speak up and fight.
  • As Christians we are all called to joyfully spread the Truth of the Gospel. Indeed, ourworld needs the Gospel now more than ever – and so none of us gets us a pass in thistask of sharing the Gospel.
  • The fact that we are told in the first reading today that Amos was not a prophet bytraining or choice, but rather a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores, shows that ourLord can and will call any of us to preach His Word.
  • We must simply trust that the Holy Spirit will supply for any of our defects in orderto use us!
  • But while it is true that the Holy Spirit will supply for our defects and come to our aidas we try to accomplish His will, we must still seek holiness. For no human skill or talent will aid us as much as true holiness if we want to be effective ministers of the Gospel.
  • In our second reading today St. Paul makes it clear that we are all called to holiness. As he says to the Ephesians, we are called: “to be holy and without blemish before [the Father],” because He has adopted us to Himself through Jesus Christ.
  • Holiness is God’s gift to us, and it’s something that He desires for each of us. While it is the Holy Spirit who works within us and makes us holy, we must seek Him out.
  • You see, my brothers and sisters, while it is true that Christ has redeemed us by His blood, and that He offers us forgiveness for our sins, our blessed Lord wants more for us than simply redemption and forgiveness.
  • God doesn’t want us just to “squeak” our way into Heaven after being purified in the fires of Purgatory. He wants us to go straight to Heaven when we die. But this requires that we be saints here on earth! It requires that we be holy.
  • And Jesus wants us to be holy not simply so that we’ll go to Heaven, but “so that we might exist for the praise of [God’s] glory.” When we live holy lives, we are pleasing to our Lord, and our very lives give praise to God’s glory.
  • It’s for this reason that we need our Blessed Mother Mary, for of all people who have ever walked this earth, no one’s life has given more praise to God’s glory than hers.
  • When we consecrate ourselves to Mary, she takes charge of our life. She sets us onfire with God’s love – filling us with zeal for our Lord, for His Church, and for allmankind.
  • Moreover, Mary brings us the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, for when we are moreclosely united to her, we are more closely united to the Holy Spirit, for she is Hisspouse.
  • We say that Mary is the spouse of the Holy Spirit because she was perfectly unitedwith the Spirit in a way that no other human ever has been. In fact, her union with the Spirit is deeper than what we typically understand by a spousal relationship (Gaitley, p.54).
  • It was through the power of the Holy Spirit that Mary was conceived without any stain of sin in the womb of our patroness, St. Ann. And it was through the power of the Spirit that Mary conceived and brought forth from her own womb our Lord and Savior.
  • By the power of the Holy Spirit, Mary always and in every way perfectly fulfilled God’s will in every aspect of her earthly life. Indeed, she is united with God more perfectly than any other creature.
  • And this is precisely why we should unite ourselves to her: Mary brings us closer to the Holy Spirit so that He can accomplish His work of holiness within us.
  • St. Louis de Montfort teaches that “when the Holy Spirit, Mary’s spouse, finds a soul united to Mary, ‘He flies there. He enters there in His fullness; He communicates Himself to that soul abundantly, and to the full extent to which it makes room for His spouse’” (Gaitely, p. 108).
  • Just as Mary conceived and brought the Christ Child to birth some 2000 years ago, through the power of the Holy Spirit, Mary continues to give birth to Christ within the souls of the faithful united to her (Gaitly, p. 109).
  • The closer we are to Mary, the more fully the Spirit will work within us to make us holy.
  • Brothers and sisters, Holy Mother Church calls us to go forth from the Mass to proclaim the Good News of the Gospel. We will only do this effectively if we are holy. And if we wish to be holy, we must unite ourselves to Mary, the spouse of the Holy Spirit.
  • Let us pray that all of us may be steadfast in our love for the Mother of God. May we seek to imitate her virtues and call upon her with our every need.
  • And like trusting children running to the safe arms of their loving mothers, may each of us entrust ourselves fully to Mary’s maternal care and trust that through her intercession, the Holy Spirit will work within us to make us holy.
  • O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

 

July 1, 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

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Rebels and rebellions

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2014/07/11 at 12:00 AM

The prophet Ezekiel recounts for us today how the Lord sent him to the Israelites. The Lord says that the Israelites are “rebels who have rebelled” against Him; people who are “hard of face and obstinate of heart.” Certainly biblical history bears this out.

  • Although they were God’s chosen people, and despite the many miracles and wonders our Lord wrought in their midst, there were many times when the Israelites rebelled against our Lord and His ways – and always to their detriment.
  • Yet does not our country today resemble the Israelites of old? Is not our country today filled with many people like those our Lord describes to Ezekiel: people who have obstinately rebelled against the laws of God and the natural order?
  • As a nation we have been blessed beyond any other the world has ever known. And yet are we not turning away from our Lord and His laws by some of the laws that we have created?
  • So many things that are manifestly contrary to God’s law, most notably the destruction of innocent life through abortion, are not only legal but regarded as sacred rights in our country today. Thus, as a nation, we now find ourselves amidst terrible culture wars.
  • The arguments that we are having on so many issues – like abortion, contraception, same-sex unions, euthanasia, and even whether or not God & religion have a place in public discourse – will only become fiercer if the citizens of this country do not seek the truth of these issues.
  • And there is a truth to these issues; there is a right and wrong answer to these moral issues.
  • If we do not seek the truth, the fighting will continue because laws not based on truth will almost always lead to strife and division, for the truth is not something that can be destroyed.
  • While we may be able to hide it, distort it, or suppress it, Truth always has a way of eventually making itself known. This is because Truth is not a thing or simply an idea or concept. Truth is a Person: none other than our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
  • In looking through the course of history and the way evil has punctuated it, we can see that man has often positioned himself as an enemy of Truth. In order to fulfill his own political agenda, man often tries to distort, bend, or even destroy Truth.
  • But evil men can only distort, bend, or try to destroy the Truth if people who are committed to Truth do not stand up and fight.
  • And so that we might know the Truth, God gave us the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit. Founded by Jesus Christ, Who is the way, the TRUTH, and the life, to the Church has been entrusted the full revelation of Jesus Christ.
  • By the power of the Holy Spirit that truth has been passed down faithfully for 2000 years through Scripture and Tradition. The Catholic Church safeguards Christ’s truth, which we call the Deposit of Faith, and it has been enshrined in the constant teachings of the Church.
  • As Catholics we know that the Truth is a given. It’s not something that changes or evolves over time. It is what it is. Truth is eternal, and our Lord has written it upon our hearts.
  • We set ourselves up as the children of God to the degree that we conform our lives to the Truth, and we fashion ourselves as God’s enemies to the degree that we depart from it.
  • But it is not enough for us to know the truth in order for us to change our country so that it better reflects God’s laws. As I mentioned last week at the end of Mass, if we want to make our country a godly nation once again, we must be holy.
  • Because of our inherent tendencies toward selfishness and rebellion, holiness is difficult to attain. The remedy for our sinfulness that obstructs our ability to be holy is the cross.
  • When I say the cross is the remedy for our sins, I mean not only the salvation won for us by Jesus’ death on the cross, but also the crosses that come into our lives – the sufferings that we endure as part of life.
  • Every form of suffering that God allows to enter into our lives is meant to be an instrument in the hands of the Divine Physician to excise our sinfulness and help us grow in holiness.
  • It’s for this reason that our Lord rarely removes our crosses miraculously. So many times when suffering enters our lives, we beg our Lord to take it away, do we not?
  • Yet most of the time our Lord allows us to suffer our crosses – at least for a while – so that we might grow in holiness by carrying them.
  • In those moments of pain, we must remember the words of our Lord to St. Paul today: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”
  • But our Lord does not expect us to carry our crosses and endure our sufferings all alone.
  • To help us in our times of suffering, our Lord has given us His Mother Mary! As a loving mother Mary understands our weaknesses, and when we entrust ourselves to her loving care, she helps to correct our faults and failings through the power of her spouse, the Holy Spirit.
  • Our Lady also obtains for us the grace we need to carry our crosses with courage and dignity, and to profit by them. In short, if we give ourselves to her, Mary works to make us holy.
  • Indeed, St. Louis de Montfort stated that consecrating oneself to Jesus through Mary is “the surest, easiest, shortest, and the most perfect means to becoming a saint.”
  • It is for this reason that last week at the end of Mass I invited all of you to consider consecrating yourselves to Jesus through Mary this coming August 15th: the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the anniversary of our parish founding.
  • As the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, Mary’s role in the divine economy now “is to give spiritual birth to Christians, to feed and nurture them with grace, and to help them grow to full stature in Christ” (33 Days to Morning Glory, p. 25).
  • By consecrating oneself to Jesus through Mary, one is giving our Lady full permission to take on her motherly role of forming us into ever more perfect likenesses of her Son, Jesus.
  • Just as she gave birth to the Christ Child over 2000 years ago in Bethlehem, by her intercession and motherly love, Mary helps us to grow into the likeness of her Son, in whose image we were created. Consecrating ourselves to Jesus through Mary is the way that we fully entrust ourselves to her maternal care.
  • Because of the importance and solemnity of such a consecration, it is important toprepare. And we will do so by setting aside 33 days, beginning this Friday, July 13th,to do some readings and meditate upon them.
  • As I mentioned last week, these readings will come from Fr. Michael Gaitley’s book:33 Days to Morning Glory, which you can purchase from the Poor Clares or from an on-line retailer. We’ve also dedicated a special section on our parish website to the consecration.
  • For those of you who would like to make this consecration, I invite you to purchase Fr. Gaitley’s book, and then on Friday, begin with the reading for Day 1, and then simply follow the outline set forth in his book.
  • Then, after all of the Masses on August 15th, those who have prepared will make the consecration together.
  • If we want to change our country, we must be holy. If we want to be holy, we need Mary.
  • As a parish, let us enter into these 33 days with heartfelt prayer for one another as we strive to abandon ourselves to Mary’s loving task of making us holy.
  • While this retreat will be intimately personal, let us set out together, united in faith, to beg the help of our common Mother.
  • O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

 

08 July 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

 

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Mary Magdalene

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2014/07/04 at 12:00 AM

 While many modern scholars point out that there is no direct evidence that the sinful woman mentioned by St. Luke in our Gospel story today is St. Mary Magdalene, Pope St. Gregory the Great did recognize her as such.

 Further interpreting today’s Gospel passage, Pope St. Gregory also taught that the 7 devils exorcized from Mary Magdalene symbolized the 7 deadly sins.
 Thus when depicted in art, St. Mary Magdalene is often shown dressed as a penitent with the alabaster jar of perfumed ointment we hear about in the Gospel today.
 While scholars debate the true character of Mary Magdalene and whether or not she was a reformed prostitute, following the lead of Pope St. Gregory the Great, Church Tradition has always cast Mary Magdalene as the ideal penitent.
 While perhaps the sinful woman in today’s Gospel is not Mary Magdalene, I have no doubt that, as a saint, Mary Magdalene wept over her sins all the same. For outside of Our Lady, we are all sinners; we have all fallen short of the glory of God.
 In fact, being moved to the profound contrition we see in the sinful woman in today’s Gospel is part of becoming a saint. The closer we grow in likeness to our Lord, the more clearly we recognize the horror of our sins and desire to repent of them.
 The saints understood very acutely that there is no such thing as a small sin, but rather that all sin is a terrible injustice against our infinitely loveable and merciful God.
 But while man’s sinfulness is a sad reality, our readings today give us some measure of hope that even the worst of sinners can be reformed and live lives that glorify our Lord.
 In our first reading today, Nathan the prophet confronts King David about his sinfulness. And David was no ordinary sinner: he was both a murderer and an adulterer!
 Yet we see in the story of David, Uriah, and Bathsheba that conversion is possible, even for the worst of sinners, and that even the worst of sinners can receive God’s mercy.
 What we learn from this story is that none of us – no matter how we’ve been blessed and favored by God – is immune to sin. David was God’s anointed. He was chosen by God to be Israel’s leader, and yet he committed two of the gravest sins man can commit!
 The prophet Nathan reminds us so very clearly of how our sins offend the Lord, especially when we consider the blessings He has bestowed upon us. Nathan lists for David all the ways God has blessed him and then asks why he done evil in His sight.
 But more importantly, this story teaches us that if we confess our sins, as did David, God forgives – even the most serious of sins like murder and adultery.
 As we know by faith, there is no sin greater than God’s mercy, and to think that your sins are beyond God’s mercy is not humility, but the very worst form of pride – a pride that, if not corrected, can lead a soul to despair in this life and damnation in the next.
 Following Pope St. Gregory’s proposition that the sinful woman in the Gospel is St. Mary Magdalene, and given what we know about David’s life after this run‐in with Nathan, our readings today also teach us that the greatest sinner can become a great saint!
 This truth is one of the very beautiful paradoxes of our faith! While we may have to suffer the natural and destructive consequences of our sinful choices, when God forgives us He holds no grudges.
 Nor does He continue to judge us according to our sins once we’ve repented, as does the Pharisee with the sinful woman in our Gospel story. When we repent God forgives and forgets. Like the father of the Prodigal Son, He embraces us and showers us with love.
 But even though we may experience God’s mercy and love by repenting of our sins, sin nevertheless damages us – especially our mortal sins. This past Lent and Easter I spoke at length about the burdens of sin – of how sin damages us and our relationships.
 For this reason we should never willfully commit sin, presuming that we can go to confession afterwards and that all will be well. Sin damages us, and presuming upon God’s mercy without being fully contrite will leave us bereft of forgiveness.
 Yet the destructive and enslaving effects of sin need not last forever. Healing is possible with God’s grace, but our healing is contingent upon our response to our sins and the unfailing offer of God’s mercy.
 After being called out by Nathan, David repented in sackcloth and ashes, and while the child born of his adultery died because of his sin, Bathsheba eventually bore him another son and David’s kingdom prospered. More importantly, David became holy.
 The sinful woman in the Gospel is also a great example of true repentance. She knows that her sins are grave and she weeps over them. She makes reparation through a grand display of humility and love.
 In truth, God expects something similar from us. He expects us to humble ourselves and make reparation as best we can, especially for our grave sins.
 Last Sunday I mentioned how our Lord raises us to life from the death of sin through the grace of confession. I also mentioned how we should strive for perfect contrition, i.e., being sorry for our sins because they offend our Lord rather than being sorry because we fear the hell our sins merit.
 Along those same lines, I encourage you this week to consider how you confess your sins and how you do your penance. Do you prepare adequately before your confession, and are you brutally honest when you confess your sins – or do you make excuses for yourself as you confess and try to cast yourself in the best light?
 And when you do your penance, do you do it quickly so as to get it over with? Or are you deliberate, recollected, and loving toward our Lord?
 Moreover, if you have committed a particularly grave sin in your life like abortion, murder, adultery, sterilization, or a prolonged use of contraception, then I encourage you to consider making on‐going reparation for those sins.
 If you are sorry for the sin and have confessed it, be at peace with the knowledge that God has forgiven it. But out of a great love for God and gratitude for His mercy, make a grand gesture of your contrition.
 Praying the Rosary or Chaplet of Divine Mercy every day in reparation for your sins, making a significant donation to a charity, or regularly denying yourself things that you enjoy are all great ways to do this.
 Brothers and sisters, the sinful woman in today’s Gospel was forgiven much because she loved much. May we show our love for our Lord by making humble reparation for our sins.
 And may we trust that our Lord’s mercy and forgiveness will cover whatever sins we’ve committed in this life, no matter how grave they may be.
16 June 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

 

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Solemnity of the Nativity Saint John the Baptist

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2014/06/27 at 12:00 AM
  • In the 11th chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew, our Lord tells us that, “of those born of woman, none is greater than John the Baptist.” Today we celebrate the birth of this greatest man to walk the earth, save our Lord Himself.
  • Holy Mother Church has taken to heart our Lord’s words regarding St. John’s greatness, and we see this reflected most especially in our liturgical life.
  • For example, in the Litany of the Saints, which is a great prayer of supplication used to invoke the heavenly aid of the Holy Trinity, our Lady, the angels & the saints, St. John the Baptist is the first saint listed after our Lady and the angels.
  • His placement at the beginning of the litany – even before the beloved St. Joseph or St. Peter or St. Paul – tells us a lot about how much the Church reveres this important saint.
  • Moreover, while most saints have only one feast day in the liturgical calendar, St. John the Baptist (along with St. Joseph, St. Peter, St. Paul, and Our Lady) belongs to a select group of saints who have multiple feast days – again attesting to his importance in the life of the Church.
  • Furthermore, when we commemorate the feast day of a saint, we generally honor the day the saint died. But today we are commemorating the birth of St. John the Baptist.
  • In fact, outside of Jesus Himself and the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. John the Baptist is the only saint whose birth is celebrated during the liturgical year.
  • We celebrate these three particular births because the conception of each of these persons was miraculous, and because each of these people plays a very particular role in salvation history.
  • We get a sense that St. John was destined for greatness by the manner of his conception and his birth, detailed for us in the Gospel of Luke, as well as by the other readings we hear today.
  • Historically, the Church has always considered John as the last and greatest of the prophets. John represents the climax of the long tradition of Jewish prophets looking forward to the coming of the Messiah.
  • As such, John the Baptist is himself the bridge between the Old and New Testaments. Representative of the past, St. John ushers in a new era, and the prophesies of men like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel all culminate in the prophesies of the Baptist.
  • We know that St. John the Baptist is the humble yet courageous herald of Our Lord. It is he who announces the actual coming of the Messiah. He points out to us that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and he preaches a baptism of repentance.
  • Yet what is most remarkable about John the Baptist is not that he was obedient to our Lord’s will in announcing the coming of the Messiah – even in the womb.
  • What is most remarkable about John is that despite his lofty calling and placement in salvation history, he remained humble, simple, and steadfast throughout his life.
  • Realizing that he was not to be the main character in the great drama that is our salvation history, but merely the forerunner of the Savior, John the Baptist lived humbly in an out-of- the-way place: a desert.
  • He didn’t bank on the renown that surely came to him because of the miraculous events surrounding his conception and birth. Rather, John preferred poverty, wearing camel-skin clothing and eating only locusts and honey.
  • John the Baptist had a keen eye for truth, which is what enabled him to see his cousin for what He truly was: the Messiah. And John was obedient to his Messiah cousin when he asked to be baptized, despite his feelings of unworthiness in the face of such holiness.
  • Moreover, John bravely spoke the truth, rebuking Herod for marrying the wife of his brother, even though in the end it very literally cost him his head.
  • Decades before St. Paul preached about the need for the old man of sin within us to die so that Christ might live within us (cf. 2 Cor 5:17 & Gal 2:20), St. John knew that he must decrease so that Christ can increase (cf. John 3:30).
  • In August we will celebrate the beheading of John the Baptist. But his real death was his death to self, his radical detachment from himself. It is this death to self that we see reflected in the humble manner of his life that makes him so great.
  • Indeed it was John’s life of austerity that enabled him to be so detached. His life of self- denial, simplicity, and penance was what made him capable of dying to himself so that Christ could live within him. In this there is a lesson for us all!
  • St. John was not concerned about what others thought; he wasn’t concerned for himself at all. John’s only concern was that Christ be made known, and that he served Jesus well, with integrity and honor. He thought only of Jesus and not of himself.
  • Humility, simplicity of life, courage and honesty were the spiritual tools that made it possible for St. John to live a life of radical holiness. And if we are serious about becoming holy, they can work for us too!
  • Indeed, St. John’s life reminds us that there are tremendous spiritual blessings to living life simply. He also reminds us of the need to do penance regularly, to beg for forgiveness for our sins, to speak the truth always, and to call others to repentance.
  • Every time we deny ourselves something we desire, we further our own personal process of dying to self. Every time we speak the truth, especially when people don’t want to hear it, we further the process of dying to self. Every time we do some charitable act, especially one requiring a generous sacrifice, we further the process of dying to self.
  • While we may not be called to the same level of austerity as St. John, is it possible that if we endeavored to simplify our lives: living in simpler homes, driving simpler cars, wearing simpler clothes, and eating simpler foods, that we might die to ourselves in such a way that Christ might live more fully within us? Of course!
  • The question is whether or not we’re willing to simplify our lives!
  • My dear friends, the Church today honors one of her greatest saints: St. John the Baptist, thehumble yet courageous herald of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
  • Let us pray that through St. John’s intercession, we too may learn to die to self throughpenance and simplicity. May we never be afraid of the truth, even if it costs us our heads, as it did him.
  • May we imitate both his courage and his humility, and in so doing, may we grow ever moreinto the likeness of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
  • 24 June 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

Importance of Faith

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2014/06/23 at 12:00 AM
  • Our readings today speak of the ever-important virtue of faith. While St. Paul encourages us today to excel in faith, in the Gospel we are given two examples of great faith in the persons of the woman with the hemorrhage and Jairus, the synagogue official.
  • When Jairus was told that his daughter had died, Jesus said to him: “Do not be afraid; just have faith,” and so he did. And to the woman with the hemorrhage Jesus said: “your faith has saved you,” thus explaining to her the reward of faith.
  • In both we see people who trust well in our Lord’s goodness, mercy, and ability to heal. And ultimately this is what faith is: it is a confident trust in our Lord and His love for us.
  • The Catechism teaches us that: “Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself. By faith ‘man freely commits his entire self to God’” (CCC 1824).
  • Faith, along with the virtues of hope and charity, is a gift that is implanted within us by God at our baptism. But at the same time, “faith is a personal act – the free response of the human person to the initiative of God who reveals Himself” (CCC 166).
  • Faith is given to us by God to help us develop our relationship with Him. But at the same time, faith is not simply something we have; it’s something we must exercise.
  • Thus, our faith is not meant to be something completely personal that we share onlywith our Lord. To the contrary, there should be a public aspect to our faith as well whereby we share the fruits of our faith with others with the hope that, they too, might one day come to know our Lord and thereby be saved.
  • For this reason the Catholic Church has always engaged in works of education and charity of all types, most especially through her hospitals, schools, publishing houses, and social service agencies. Our provision of these services to others is a testament to our faith in God and a sign of His love for us all.
  • This week our country celebrates its 236th anniversary as a free nation. Throughout the course of our 236-year history, there have been many battles fought to ensure that there might be liberty and justice for all of us who call this great land “home.”
  • But sadly, even though we are well into our 3rd century as a nation, at this moment in our history there is not liberty and justice for all.
  • But contrary to popular belief, the next great civil rights issue for us Americans is not whether homosexual persons can marry. The true civil rights issue of our day is whether Americans of faith will have the right to fully exercise their religious beliefs.
  • To this end, the bishops of our country have dedicated this two-week period leading up to the 4th of July as a period of prayer and teaching on the issue of religious liberty.
  • In large part this “Fortnight of Freedom” is a response to the recent mandate of the Department of Health and Human Services that requires all employers to provide contraception, sterilization procedures, and abortion-inducing drugs in their health plans.
  • Obviously, this is in direct violation to some of our most deeply held beliefs as Catholics. The upshot of this mandate, if it is allowed to stand, is that Catholic institutions will be forced to close or pay fines rather than comply with these intrinsically evil actions.
  • While the Obama Administration has included a religious exemption in this mandate, in its temerity, the Administration has seen fit to define what constitutes a religious institution, and it has done so in such narrow fashion so as exclude organizations that employ or serve people who do not belong to their own religion.
  • So for example, the Diocese of Charlotte and our Catholic Social Services agency do not qualify as religious institutions according to the Obama Administration. Neither does Belmont Abbey College, or any other Catholic college or university.
  • By providing for the needs of the poor, regardless of their race or religion, or by providing education or health care to people who may or may not be Catholic, Catholic hospitals, publishers, schools, and service agencies have lost their status as religious institutions.
  • As we think through the ramifications of this mandate, it seems to me that our government is telling us that it’s okay if we keep our faith to ourselves, but that if we try to live our faith publically – as we are called by our Lord to do – then we’re going to be in trouble.
  • But as I mentioned earlier, our faith is not meant to be kept to ourselves; it’s meant to be lived publically. As Christians we must not only keep the faith but also profess it, confidently bearing witness to it and spreading it, for faith is necessary for man’s salvation (cf. CCC 1816).
  • We hear this in the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus tells us: “Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 10:32-33).
  • Living out our faith publically by charitably serving others is absolutely essential to being a Christian and helping others on the path to salvation.
  • Pope Benedict XVI made this very point in his first encyclical when he wrote: “The Church cannot neglect the service of charity any more than she can neglect the Sacraments and the Word” (Deus Caritas Est, #22).
  • To fail to perform works of charity is to be like the tree that does not bear good fruit that is condemned by our Lord in the Gospel of Matthew! Furthermore, if we fail to share our faith through charitable works, souls will be lost, for they will not be given the chance to hear the Gospel proclaimed. And so, my brothers and sisters, the stakes in this battle are high!
  • Fortunately, we don’t have to fight this battle alone. We have Christ on our side, and we also have His Immaculate Mother.
  • Indeed, Mary is our model of faithfulness, for she never lost her faith in our Lord’s power to overcome evil, even when she watched Him die on the cross. For this reason we call her the Virgin most Faithful.
  • But we also call her the Help of Christians. And we must look to her in this decisive battle for sure and certain help.
  • Throughout the course of our Christian history, Catholics have always turned to our Lady in times of turmoil and persecution, for as we pray in the Memorare: “never was it known that anyone who fled to [her] protection was left unaided.”
  • So let us turn to our Lady now, for while our own prayers to the Lord are good, her prayers are more powerful. Let us place all our hopes and trust in Mary, who, under the title of the Immaculate Conception, is the patroness of our country.
  • And let us not only have faith that God will indeed prevail in this struggle we are now experiencing, but let us live our faith publically with great confidence.
  • Mary, Help of Christians and Patroness of our country, pray for us!

July 1, 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

 

 

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The Most Holy Trinity

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2014/05/23 at 12:00 AM

• For those of us who are blessed to be Christians, the greatest mystery facing man is not whether or not God exists. We believe the answer to that question is self‐evident.

• Indeed, the great Greek philosophers reasoned their way to the existence of God long before Jesus was born and revealed God to us.

• And in dealing with the question of God’s existence, many of our great Catholic theologians have built upon the seminal philosophy of the Greeks, noting that the beauty, complexity, and interdependence of the various elements of creation point to the existence of a God who is not only all‐powerful, but all loving as well.

• Moreover, it part of our Christian anthropological tradition that knowledge of God’s existence is something written on our souls and discernible by the natural light of human reason. As such, we are hard‐wired, so to speak, to believe that God exists.

• And the grace of faith, first given to us at baptism, builds upon this very natural belief so that we can be certain of God’s existence and His love for us.

• While as Christians we know with certainty that God exists, His nature remains a mystery. Thus, the greatest mystery facing us is that God exists as a Trinity of Persons. It is this particular mystery of our faith that separates us from every other religion.

• Last week on Pentecost Sunday I briefly explained the roles of each Person of the Blessed Trinity.

• Specifically, it is the Father who creates us and sustains us in being; it is the Son who suffered and died for us in order to redeem us; and it is the Holy Spirit who works to sanctify us so that we can cooperate with the gift of salvation.

• Because each Person of the Blessed Trinity acts in our lives in different ways, it is important for us to develop a relationship with each of them.

• So for example, we pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance and inspiration. It is the Holy Spirit who helps us to know the divine will and act upon it.

• It is the Holy Spirit who prays within us, who awakens faith within us, and who restores the beauty of our souls lost through sinfulness. And it is through the power of the Holy Spirit that the Sacraments are made efficacious.

• Jesus, on the other hand, is the primary object of our devotion. It is He who became one of us, and thus we most closely relate to Him. For most of us, it is Jesus whom we come to know best, for He is both God and man, and we know His human history.

• Moreover, it is Jesus whom we receive and commune with through the Sacraments, most especially through the Holy Eucharist.

• However, God the Father is the primary object of our communal worship. It is to the Father that our prayers are directed at Mass and in the celebration of all of the Sacraments. As it is Fathers Day, perhaps it is most appropriate to focus on Him.

• The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that, “By calling God ‘Father’, the language of faith indicates two main things: that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent authority; and that he is at the same time goodness and loving care for all his children.” (#239)

• And while Jesus and the Holy Spirit, as the 2nd and 3rd Persons of the Holy Trinity, are consubstantial with the Father and not subordinate to Him in any way, the Catechism does teach that the Father is the origin and source of the whole divinity (#245).• It is for this reason, and in imitation of Jesus who taught us to pray to the Father, that our liturgical prayers are addressed to the Father. Indeed, when I stand at the altar at Mass and pray, even though I may be facing you, I am speaking to God the Father.

• The question of how we pray to God the Father in our liturgies is something that has been given considerable attention lately, especially by our Holy Father.

• Even before he was elevated to the Chair of Peter as Pope Benedict XVI, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger was studying and reviewing the liturgical renewal occasioned by the Second Vatican Council.

• For those of you who were born, perhaps, in 1955 or earlier, you remember well how much the liturgy changed in the years following Vatican II.

• But now that we’ve experienced 40+ years of this liturgical renewal, the Church recognizes that some modifications to the renewal are in order so that we may render worship to God the Father that is wholly appropriate and rooted in our traditions.

• It is for this reason that this coming Advent, we will begin using a new English translation of the Roman Missal, which is the book containing of all of our readings and prayers for the Mass.

• Hopefully you’ve been reading the excellent articles on the new translation featured in the Catholic News Herald each week to keep abreast of the upcoming changes.

• The primary purpose of the new translation is to provide an English text that is more faithful to the original Latin. The upshot is that our prayers and texts for the Mass will become much more formal, and yet much more beautiful and poetic as well.

• This is good, for you see, my brothers and sisters, we must never lose sight of the absolute holiness of God. Because God is Holiness itself, we must always treat Him with the proper respect and reverence.

• While it is so very important that we have a personal relationship with our Lord, we must never allow ourselves to be casual with Him. And this is particularly true when we worship Him at Mass.

• God is not like anyone else to whom we speak, and therefore the language we use with God must not be like the language we use with one another. His holiness demands more of us than that.

• The new translation we will begin using in Advent addresses this issue. In fact, it is reverence for God that has driven all of the liturgical changes we’ve made here at St. Ann’s in the past four years.

• Reverence for God was also the primary concern we had in designing and building this new church! Our goal was to build the very best church we could with the limited funds we had – and to do it for God’s glory.

• My brothers and sisters, to treat God the Father as we should and as He desires, we must be wholly convinced that nothing is too good for Him. Indeed, we must continually strive to give God the best of ourselves in every way, especially at Mass.

• All of the elements of our worship matter. The building in which we worship matters, the music we use matters, the attitude we bring with us to Mass matters, even the clothing we wear matters.

• If I may be so bold, I ask that you be very careful about what you wear to Mass. Shorts, t‐shirts, and “flip‐flops” have no place at Mass – no place at all.

• I realize that it’s hot in the summer time, but when we come to Mass, we must leave concerns of personal comfort and convenience aside in order to render our Lord the reverence and respect that is due to Him.

• So on this Father’s Day, I challenge you to think about your relationship with God the Father. How do you treat Him? Are you as reverent as you should be with Him? Do you always give Him the best you have to give?

• Most importantly, let us all consider how we pray to God the Father, especially here at Mass. And let us all strive to be as reverent as possible, so that all that we say, do, and think here at Mass will show forth a love and devotion that is truly worthy of the Lord and Creator of us all.

Copyright 2011 by Reverend Timothy S. Reid

Reverend Reid is pastor of St. Ann’s Catholic  Church in Charlotte, NC

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Nativity of the Lord

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2013/12/19 at 12:00 AM

The Nativity of the Lord  

• After much waiting and anticipation, our “great cloud of witnesses” has finally arrived here at St. Ann’s….. I think you’ll find their presence in our church to be very consoling. Already in the short time that they’ve been here, I’ve taken great solace in the feeling that these saints are looking down upon us, praying for us.

• Indeed, we are blessed to have them, and not simply because they add a great deal of beauty to our church. While it is true that statues and other works of art should provide a pleasing aesthetic to a church, they have a much more important role than just giving us delight.

• Statues like this make visible in a symbolic way an invisible reality. In this particular case, our statues make visible the mystery of the Communion of Saints.

• These statues remind us that the saints in Heaven are present to us, even though that great veil that separates Heaven and earth stands between us. They remind us that death does not fully sever our relations with those who have died in God’s friendship.

• While we cannot see them, we know by faith that the saints are with us, interceding for us. The saints spur us on to victory, showing us the way to holiness by the example of their lives on earth. They remind us of the authenticity of our Catholic faith.

• Throughout her history the Church has been the greatest patron of the arts, for she knows that man cannot exist as simply a utilitarian being. The human soul can never be satisfied with simply having its physical needs met. Mere functionality never fulfills us; we need beauty.

• In fact our souls crave beauty, because beauty transports us beyond the confines of our material reality, and instinctively we know that there’s more to life than what meets the eye. Instinctively, we know that there is an invisible world around us.

• Thus, good art and architecture are necessary components for churches, for it is here – in church – that we come by faith to meet and worship our invisible God. Good art and architecture work to strengthen our faith by making invisible realities symbolically visible.

• Christmas is a fitting time to discuss this and understand this, for this is the very holiday, the very holy day, in which we celebrate the fact that our invisible God became visible – and not simply in a symbolic way, but really, truly visible.

• As good St. John wrote in the prologue to his Gospel, the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. But God did not just become visible. He became one of us, which is a mystery we call the Incarnation, literally the “enfleshment.”

• Because God became man, because by the Holy Spirit Jesus Christ was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man, as we now say in the new translation of the Creed, salvation is now a possibility for us.

• Out of His unfathomable love, God created man in His own image and likeness from the dust of the earth, and He destined man to share in His own divine life as sons and daughters.

• But despite the immense charity and love shown to them, our first parents turned against God. Seduced by the serpent, Adam and Eve introduced sin and death into our world, forfeiting our rights to an eternal inheritance.

• And every person born since then, save our Lady and our blessed Lord, has been marked by that original sin of our first parents. Concupiscence and brokenness are now our inheritance.• Unpleasant as it is, this is a reality that we must come to understand about ourselves if we wish to move beyond it. For our sinfulness is not something that we can ever conquer alone. All attempts to do so will eventually fall short.

• No, my brothers and sisters, if we wish to move beyond our sinfulness, we must humbly recognize that we need a savior. We need someone to save us.

• On Christmas we celebrate the fact that the love of God is so great that He would not leave man to suffer forever in this terrible state created by man’s own sinfulness. Fully aware of our weakness, our dear Lord became one of us in order to make satisfaction for our sins.

• You see, my dear friends, Christmas is not simply the happy anniversary of our Lord’s birth. Christmas is the celebration of the birth of our salvation! We celebrate not simply the fact that God became man. We celebrate the fact that He became man to save us from our sins!

• In an even greater act of love than our creation, God wills to redeem mankind through the mystery of His Incarnation. And so Christmas is the celebration of this supreme act of love by God toward sinful man.

• Christmas is the celebration of the invisible becoming visible! In the mystery of our Lord’s incarnation we find the satisfaction of our souls’ deepest desires.

• Intuitively, man knows that he was created for more than this poor world can ever give us. At our deepest core, we all long and hope for Heaven. And at Christmas, we see this hope fulfilled in that tiny babe born on a cold night in Bethlehem some 2000 years ago.

• While wrapped in the flesh of a tiny child, our Lord is the antidote for our sinfulness and the sadness our sins bring us. He is the cure for all the ailments of our souls.

• Like the good shepherd who leaves everything behind to go into the dark valley to find His lost sheep, Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word of the Father, comes to us now, so great is His love for us. He comes to suffer and die for our sins, so that we might be made whole.

• No doubt most of us will receive many gifts this Christmas, and this is good. But let us not lose sight of the most important gift we are receiving: the gift of our salvation!

• May we receive our invisible God made visible with humble and contrite hearts. May we show true sorrow for our sins, confess them, and make reparation for them.

• And may we show the depth of our gratitude by following the saints in the path of holiness, so that we, in turn, might truly become like our Lord who became one of us.

• A blessed Christmas to you all.

Copyright 2011 Rev. Timothy Reid, Pastor of St. Ann Church, Charlotte, NC