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The Major Threats to Life

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2011/10/08 at 1:00 AM

While there are many topics that can be included under the banner of “threats to life,” there are two right now that stand out as the most dangerous to our society: abortion and same-sex unions.

Of course when it comes to abortion, it’s very easy to see why this is a threat to life. The good news is that an increasing number of Americans believe that abortion is wrong in every circumstance, and abortions are decreasing in our country.

Some states like our own are now enacting stricter abortion laws, and many abortion mills in the U.S. are experiencing financial difficulties. These are all reasons for us to be optimistic.

But the war on abortion is far from over, and as a Pro-Life community we must keep up the pressure through programs such as 40 Days for Life and by voting only for pro-life politicians.

Why same-sex unions are a threat to life, however, is not as easy to understand. And sadly, Americans are increasingly relaxing their attitudes toward this grave evil.

Before I go any further on this topic, I want to make it absolutely clear that the Church makes a distinction between those who suffer from same-sex attraction and homosexual acts. Certainly the Church teaches us to love the sinner yet hate the sin.

Experiencing same sex attraction is a disorder, but it’s not a sin. To be sure, there are many types of disordered attractions that humanity is subject to. But acting on this disordered attraction and engaging in homosexual activity is always gravely sinful.

Same sex unions are a threat to life because they change and pervert the very act by which new life is created. And they are a threat to our society because they undermines God’s plan for the family, which is the very building block of our society.

As Catholics we know that all human life is sacred because we are created in Gods’ image and likeness, and thus the act by which life is created is also sacred and is not to be misused.

When we use our free will to misuse the gift of procreation, we rob ourselves and others of our God-given human dignity. We become less than who we are called to be.

You see, the conjugal act is sacred and holy only when directed towards its purposes established by God: first, for the procreation and education of children, and second for mutual up building in love of a married couple joined together in a permanent covenantal relationship. Any conjugal act that is not open to these two purposes is intrinsically evil.

The very first chapter of the Bibles teaches us that: “God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27). God did not make them male and male, but male and female.

Thus, this passage teaches us that there is a necessary complementarity that must exist in the marital union, a complementarity that can only exist between a male and female.

The next verse continues: “God blessed them, saying: ‘Be fertile and multiply.’” Because they lack the complementarity necessary for true union, homosexual unions are not fertile and cannot multiply, and therefore they can never be open to the gift of life.

To the contrary, homosexual unions distort the marital act, destroying the procreative aspect of it as well as the unitive good, for love not rooted in Truth is not authentic love.

By legalizing same sex unions, we are not only consenting to grave sin as a society, but we are also changing the God-given nature of marriage. Salvation history teaches us that when we willfully turn away from God’s will, we set ourselves up for disaster.

Therefore, contrary to all the rhetoric we hear from the media, banning same sex unions is not a discriminatory act. It’s preventing the legalization of evil. It’s not a matter of denying someone happiness; it’s a matter of trying to save souls.

While I could talk for hours on the evils of abortion and same-sex unions, there is one evil that underlies and makes possible an acceptance of both abortion and same sex unions, and thus, it’s important to address this topic too. This root evil that has produced the rotten fruits of abortion and same sex unions is contraception.

Again, as with abortion and same sex unions, I have no intention of judging or condemning anyone who is caught up in this sin or has been in the past.

I know that many of you here right now are probably a bit uncomfortable. Well, I’ll tell you a secret: I’m uncomfortable too! Honestly, I don’t like talking about these topics. But considering the state of our society today, I can’t not talk about these things.

So I stand here today as both your spiritual father and your brother in Christ – as someone who loves you. And because I love you, I want you to have a fuller understanding of why these issues are evil so that you can make a more informed decision about them.

As I’ve said so many times before, truth is objective. It’s real and independent of us whether we like it or not. We don’t determine truth for ourselves. It simply is. And part of cooperating with God’s salvific grace is conforming our lives to Him Who is Truth!

In the parable of the landowner and tenants, Jesus tells us today of the consequences awaiting those who refuse to follow God’s will, and who instead do violence to those who represent Him: they do not inherit the Kingdom of God.

As Catholics, we are blessed that the fullness of truth has been revealed for us in Jesus Christ, who has enshrined this fullness of truth in the teachings of His Catholic Church.

As for contraception, we know that it is evil because it willfully sterilizes the marital act. By willfully eliminating the possibility of procreation, it distorts the purpose of the marital act.

By its nature marital love is meant to be fruitful and boundless. It’s like an intimate language in which spouses speak to one another and say: “I give myself to you fully.” When couples use contraception, it’s as if they are lying to each other when they engage in marital intimacy.

By contracepting we make the conjugal act something less than it was intended to be, and we take God out of the picture. This is why the Church teaches that using contraception is intrinsically evil and gravely sinful.

In essence contraception makes couples the arbiters of God’s plan for life rather than the servants of that plan. It’s an inherently selfish act and a refusal to accept the responsibilities that come with marital love. It’s a refusal of the fullness of marital love.

More than anything else, it is the widespread acceptance of contraception in western society that has led to the ill-begotten belief that the marital act can be about something other than the procreation of children. This is a terrible lie that has led to terrible consequences for us.

Pope Paul VI predicted that with the widespread use of contraception, there would be a general increase in promiscuity, adultery, and illegitimate births, as well as an increased divorce rate and the eventual acceptance and proliferation of abortion. Sadly, he was right.

This is because contraception teaches us that we can engage in the conjugal act without love and responsibility. It teaches us that we can use each other for our own gratification without consequence. This same mindset of using the conjugal act for our own selfish ends is now leading to an acceptance of same sex unions.

My brothers and sisters, look around at our society. We are drowning in an ocean of disordered sexuality. Every form of sexual perversion and impropriety is readily accepted and defended in our society as long as the people involved are consenting adults.

But we are mocking that which is sacred in God’s eyes. We mock God Himself. And it’s time that we Catholics fully embrace our faith and say “ENOUGH!” It’s high time that we rise up, speak out, and defend our society from these evils that are afflicting us.

I know that having children can be a scary proposition, and it’s often because of this that people turn to abortion and birth control. I also understand that embracing a life of celibate chastity can be lonely, which may lead those with same sex attractions to sinful unions.

But please remember that you will never find the peace and freedom we all desire apart from God’s will. And engaging in these evils is never part of God’s will for any of us.

Let us pray today for the courage not only to follow God’s will in all of these matters, but also to speak up and make these truths known for the good of our country.

10/2/11   Reverend Reid is pastor of St. Ann’s Catholic  Church in Charlotte, NC

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Assumption, August 15

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2011/08/13 at 8:00 AM

• If we are serious about our devotion to Mary, we must bear a special love for her in our hearts, constantly asking for her prayers, and completely entrusting ourselves to her just as little children fly without reserve into the arms of their mothers.

• And believe me, we have every reason to entrust ourselves to her maternal protection.

• Our first reading today gives us a rather interesting view of the Blessed Mother. The Book of Revelation describes her as “a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.”

• In other words she is clothed in supernatural glory, a glory that is the reward of her perfectly sinless life.

• We know by faith that our Lord preserved Mary from all stain of original sin, and thus she was immaculately conceived. And we know by faith that God the Father gave Mary this particular grace so that she would be a fitting mother for His Son, Jesus Christ.

• Because Mary lived a life of perfect obedience to God’s will, because she perfectly fulfilled all that our Lord asked of her, God further honored Mary at the end of her life by assuming her, body and soul, into heaven.

• And it is this great mystery that the Church ponders and celebrates today. Although this mystery is not something that the human mind could know by its own natural power, this is a truth revealed by God and contained with the deposit of faith.

• Pope Pius XII defined this dogma infallibly in 1950, and thus it is a tenet of faith that Catholics are obliged to believe.

• The beauty of this feast is that our Lady’s Assumption is a foreshadowing of the perfection that the Church hopes to reach! Mary is an image of the Church as it will be in eternity! Thus, Mary’s Assumption is a great sign of hope for all Christians.

• The bodily glorification of Mary is an anticipation of the glorification that awaits all of the elect! Thus today is a day of great rejoicing for all mankind.

• One of the other interesting elements about the depiction of Mary from our first reading is that we see her juxtaposed against a “huge red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns”, whom the Church has always identified as satan.

• What we learn from this juxtaposition of Mary and satan is 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 heavenly host.

• Curiously, the belief in satan and evil spirits has been downplayed by many in recent decades. However, our Church has always been steadfast in the belief that satan and other evil spirits exist.

• In fact, the reference in today’s first reading that the dragon’s “tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky” has been interpreted by Church Fathers to refer to the angels that followed satan in rebelling against God, and who are now demons.

• Our Catholic faith teaches us that satan and his evil minions are completely and wholly malicious entities. They are predators who prowl the earth “seeking whom they may devour.” Indeed, they seek to devour the souls of all mankind.

• And whether we know it or believe it, they are constantly looking for ways to lead us away from God, from His will, and most importantly from God’s mercy and love. In ordinary circumstances they do this by tempting us to sin.

• They observe us and know our weaknesses and faults, and they are utterly pernicious in using our weaknesses against us, hoping to lead us into mortal sin, which drives God from our souls and cuts us off from His mercy for as long as we persist in mortal sin.

• While the evil one and his cohorts may certainly seem fearsome at times, we must not allow our fear of them to consume us or rule us.

• Today’s feast reminds us that God has designed us for Heaven! Regardless of the vocation He has chosen for us to live out our lives on earth, He desires that all of us go to Heaven when we die.

• Today’s reading from John’s Revelation teaches us that in addition to St. Michael the Archangel and all of the angels, we also have our Lady to help us in our personal struggle against sin and evil.

• 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.

• And when do fail and fall into sin, Mary gently prompts us to reconcile with our Lord in the confessional so that we may be healed of our spiritual infirmities and once again be counted amongst God’s children.

• Thus she is the known as the Help of Christians and the Refuge of Sinners. She is the tender Mother of Fairest Love, and yet she is as awesome as an army in battle array.

• Therefore, we should be quick to place ourselves under her protection, affectionately invoking her holy name for all of our needs.

• 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 thank her for all the times she has interceded for us, protecting us from evil and procuring for us the graces we need to avoid sin and grow in holiness. And let us learn to honor her as our mother and as the model of all we are called to be as God’s children.

Copyright 2010 by Reverend Timothy S. Reid

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

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Faith

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2011/07/29 at 6:11 AM

• The Quaker theologian, D. Elton Trueblood, once said that: ‘Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation.”

• The Gospel  gives us two wonderful examples of faith in the woman with the hemorrhage and Jairus, the synagogue official. In both we see people who trust unreservedly in our Lord’s goodness, mercy, and ability to heal.

• Yet with both Jairus and the woman with the hemorrhage we are given an indication that they had some fear, which in the spiritual life is the opposite of faith.

• We are told that the woman with the hemorrhage approached Jesus with fear and trembling, and after Jairus is told that his daughter is dead, Jesus tells him to not be afraid, but to have faith.

• But despite their fear, both Jairus and the woman with the hemorrhage reach out with faith to our Lord, which makes their faith all the more beautiful.

• Their faith in Christ is stronger than whatever fear they are experiencing, and in trusting Jesus without reservation they reap the rewards of faith: Jairus’ daughter is raised from the dead, and Jesus tells the woman: “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.”

• 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 how we adhere to God; it’s how we grow in our relationship with the Lord. And yet faith does not act in a vacuum. Faith must be exercised with her sister virtues of hope and especially charity. As St. James tells us: “Faith without works is dead” (Jas 2:20).

• In other words, our faith can be lost! If we fail to practice our faith, if we fail to trust our Lord as we should, our faith will wane. If our faith wanes, we will not grow in virtue.

• It is not easy for man, wounded by sin, to maintain moral balance. Yet, Christ’s gift of salvation offers us the grace necessary to persevere in the pursuit of the virtues.

• Therefore, everyone should always ask for the grace of light and strength, frequent the sacraments, cooperate with the Holy Spirit, and follow God’s calls to love what is good and shun evil if we wish to grow in faith, and thereby grow in holiness. (cf. CCC 1811).

• As Christians we must not only keep the faith and live on it, but also profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it, for faith is necessary for 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).

• The one thing that undermines our faith the most is fear. Fear weakens our faith, thereby weakening our relationship with God, making it harder for us to be saved. When we live in fear rather than faith, we forfeit our Lord’s grace and are carried away by the cares of the world.

• Think of the story of St. Peter stepping out of the boat to walk on the water. Unlike the other apostles, Peter had the faith to get out of the boat and begin walking on the water.  Unfortunately, he became frightened because of the stormy waves, and thus he began to sink.

• Peter’s fear was his undoing in that moment, and so he fell prey to the stormy waters. And the same is true for us. If our faith in Jesus is not rock solid, or if we give in to fear, we, too, will fall prey to the storms of life.

• So the question before us is how do we strengthen our faith to overcome whatever fears plague us? Our answer can be found in the first epistle of John. St. John tells us that: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear” (I John 4:18).

• And so my friends, if we want to overcome fear and grow in faith, we must learn to love God with all our hearts, mind and strength. But at the same time we must also learn how much God loves us.

• We get a glimpse of the great love God has for us in the second reading. St. Paul tells us about the “gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, for your sake He became poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich.”

• Paul’s point, of course, is that God loves us so much that He gave up everything – even His very life – so that we might become the sons and daughters of God.

• And, of course, we see the great goodness and love of Jesus in the way He heals both the woman with the hemorrhage and the daughter of Jairus in today’s Gospel.

• As followers of Christ we must live our lives firmly convinced of God’s deep and abiding love for all of us – faithfully trusting that He will always do what is best for us.

• Considering the great suffering that we see in our world, perhaps it is easy for us to think that God is indifferent, that He doesn’t care for us. Yet our readings today tell us differently. They tell us very clearly that God is love!

• Moreover, the sufferings we bear in this life are often the means God uses to strengthen us in faith, hope and love.

• Look around us, my friends. God constantly reveals Himself to us: in the beauty of creation, in the love we experience with our family and friends, in the way He providentially cares for all of our needs.

• We see God’s indescribable love in the liturgy, in the gift of His Body and Blood in the Eucharist, and most especially in His Passion, death, and resurrection. Look at the crucifix! Could anyone but a loving God do so much for us?

• My dear friends, ask yourself what it is you fear in this life. What is it that keeps you from living your faith fully?

• Then examine all the ways that God shows His love to you and to all of us, and make the decision to love God more so that your faith will grow! Cast aside your fears and learn to trust God without reservation, for He is a good and gracious God, full of kindness and mercy.

• Pray for the grace to be strong in faith, and in all things act with the love of God in mind so that you may cast your fears away and receive that grace.

Copyright 2009 by Reverend Timothy S. Reid

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

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Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ by Fr. Reid

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2011/06/23 at 11:11 PM

• With today’s feast of Corpus Christi, we are quickly coming to the end of that time of year in which we celebrate so many of the important mysteries of our Catholic faith.

• Last week we honored our Lord as a Trinity of Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and in so doing we called to mind that our Lord is not an abstract concept or an uncaring or unknowable God. Rather, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, our Lord exists as a Communion of Love.

• In fact, God’s very nature is love. He is Love Itself, and as His creatures created in His image and likeness, we are called to be love in the world, and to enter into this Communion of Love for all eternity. This is what God desires for us.

• That our one Lord exists as a Trinity of Persons is one of the central tenets of our Catholic faith, because the mystery of the Trinity is the mystery of God in Himself, and therefore it is the source of all the other mysteries of our faith.

• Indeed, the mysteries of our faith do not exist in a vacuum. They are all interconnected and build upon and support one another. Moreover, the mysteries of our faith all flow from and point to this fundamental reality that we see in the Holy Trinity: that God is love.

• And the mystery of our faith that we commemorate today, the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, is certainly no exception!

• As I just mentioned, at the heart of the Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is love. Love is God’s very nature; it’s His essence. And each of the three persons of the Holy Trinity show forth God’s love in a particular way, and we see this in the feasts of the Church.

• Two weeks ago we celebrated Pentecost, the feast of the coming of the Holy Spirit. In this feast we are reminded of the great love the Holy Spirit has for us, which is shown by the fact that He has come to us to guide and bring us peace.

• Pentecost reminds us that the Holy Spirit is our Advocate and our Comforter. He is the Spirit of Power that renews us and strengthens us for a life of holiness and virtue.

• Pentecost also brings to completion the Easter Season, which commemorates the particular love of Jesus Christ, who loves us so much that He suffered and died a very cruel and agonizing death on the cross in order that we might be saved from our sins.

• In the great celebration of Easter we are reminded not only of the great love Jesus showed us by dying on the cross, but also the love He has showed for us in rising from the dead so that we, too, might be raised up on the Last Day.

• And last week on the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity our readings reminded us of the abiding love God the Father has for His people, which has been shown by the tremendous ways He has manifested His power in human history.

• Today, as we honor our Lord’s Most Holy Body and Blood, we come to an ever greater understanding of the tremendous love our Lord has for us, for in this mystery of our faith we come to see once again that our Lord will go to any length necessary to help us achieve the end for which we have been created: complete union with Him.

• It is God’s great desire that we be in intimate union with Him, that we be joined to Him as a man is joined to his wife, which is why we refer to the Church as the Bride of Christ.

• In order words, God desires that we have a covenantal relationship with Him. A covenant is a binding agreement in which two parties join themselves together in mutual love and fidelity; it is an agreement to give one’s very self for the sake of the other.

• Our readings today speak of the sacrificial offerings the Israelites of old made to our Lord in order to obtain forgiveness for their sins and to enter into a covenant with the Lord.

• To signify this covenant, our first reading tells us that Moses sprinkled the people with the blood of sacrificed bulls, saying: “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you.”

• In contrast our second reading from Hebrews tells of how Christ effected a new and eternal covenant. As the great high priest, Christ offers a new and unblemished sacrifice: His very self. In so doing He enters into the sanctuary of Heaven to obtain eternal redemption for all.

• Lastly in the Gospel we hear Mark’s account of the Last Supper where Christ initiates the new covenant with the words: “This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many.”

• Unlike the flesh and blood of sacrificed bulls which merely symbolized the covenant and the forgiveness of sins – a covenant that was broken over and over again, the Body and Blood of Christ actually creates a new and everlasting covenant that cannot be broken.

• As if it were not enough for our Lord to offer His very body and blood on the cross at Calvary some 2000 years ago, today’s feast teaches us that He loves us so much that He wishes to renew this covenantal action with us even daily!

• Not content to simply suffer, die and rise again for our redemption, Jesus Christ wanted also

to leave us a memorial of His death and resurrection. Indeed, He wanted to leave us His very body and blood as real food and real drink.

• Thus it is that He gave us the gift of the Eucharist, His very Body and Blood, at the Last Supper. And to be sure, this is not just any gift. The Eucharist, my friends, is the very gift of salvation!

• And it’s in part because of this understanding that we have of the Eucharist that the Church obliges Catholics to attend Mass every Sunday and on holy days of obligation. The Church obliges us to go to Mass so that we can receive this gift of salvation!

• Whenever we receive Holy Communion worthily, we are saved! God’s saving grace is given to us in that moment: our venial sins are wiped away, we are strengthened against future mortal sins, and we grow in spiritual communion with our Lord.

• There is power in the Eucharist: the power to heal us, to forgive our sins, to convert us, to save us. For it is not just bread and wine that we receive in the Eucharist: it is really and truly our Lord’s Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity!

• My dear friends, our Lord is Love Itself. Jesus is Love Incarnate. And He wishes to share His very self with us in a covenantal relationship that is forged in our baptism and is consummated in Holy Communion.

• As we come forward today once again to receive the incomparable gift of the Eucharist, let us pray that we may always receive the Body and Blood of Christ worthily, so that we may become more like Him Whom we worship.

Copyright 2009 by Reverend Timothy S. Reid

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

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Most Blessed Trinity by Fr. Reid

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2011/06/18 at 7:00 AM

• One of the great creedal documents of our Faith is the Athanasian Creed, which provides a rather terse but clear exposition of our Catholic beliefs regarding the Trinity as well as the Incarnation.

• While whether or not St. Athanasius is actually the author of this creed is subject to debate, the theological content of this creed is not. Indeed, this beautiful document – which was originally intended for liturgical use – is a wonderfully concise treatise on what is often considered one of the most difficult to understand dogmas of our faith.

• I mention the Athanasian Creed because today, my friends, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. In doing so we are celebrating the central tenet of our Christian heritage: that not only does God exists, but that He exists as a Trinity of persons.

• Belief in the Holy Trinity is the central tenet of our faith because it is the mystery of God in Himself, and as such it is the source of all the other mysteries of our faith.

• To be Christian means to express faith in not just a god, but in a triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and to enter into relationship with Him.

• When we are baptized, we are baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Through our baptism we are called to actually share in the life of the Blessed Trinity, both here on earth and eternally in Heaven.

• Making the sign of the cross is our constant reminder of the Trinitarian reality of our God and our call to share in the life of the Trinity.

• As we celebrate this central tenet of our faith, there are two fundamental points for us to consider. First, the mystery of the Trinity is a dogmatic mystery of the Faith that we will never fully comprehend in this life.

• God is infinite, but our minds and our capacity to intellectually grasp things are quite finite. Therefore, when we come to study our Lord and the mysteries of our faith, naturally there are going to be certain things that we cannot fully understand.

• When we run across these mysteries that we cannot fully grasp, we must simply accept them obediently with faith. And while obedience is not always valued in our American society, it is vitally important for the practice of our faith.

• One of the secrets of the spiritual life is that obedience is often a precursor to understanding. When we choose to be obedient to the Lord and accept difficult teachings with faith and love, we are often graced with a deeper understanding of the mystery.

• The humility and docility that obedience requires of us has a way of opening our minds and hearts more fully to mysteries of our Faith, and thus we should learn to be obedient to all the teachings of the Church – even if at first blush we may not understand or agree with them.

• The second point for us to consider today is that the Trinity shows us that we are all called to the vocation to love. Our Lord exists not simply as a trinity of person, but as a communion of love. As St. John tells us in the Scriptures, God is love.

• So as we meditate on the Trinity today, we are called to meditate on God’s love, on His goodness. Our first reading today from the Book of Deuteronomy speaks of God’s love.

• Deuteronomy speaks of the abiding love God has for His people, which has been shown by the tremendous ways God has manifested His power in human history.

• Certainly it makes perfect sense that God would reveal Himself in ways that manifest His love for us because God is Love. Love is God’s very nature, His essence. And as we are created in His image and likeness, it is our nature, too, to love. Indeed, it is our vocation as Christians to love.

• Recently, I spoke about vocations to priesthood and religious life as well as the vocation to married life in homilies during the Easter season.

• As Christians, regardless of whether or not we are called to those particular vocations, all of us are called to the vocation of love. All of us are called to love one another and to be joined in the loving union of the Trinity. It is what our Lord has created us for.

• St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans reminds us today that we are children of God and heirs of God with Christ. Therefore, we are called to be and act like Christ if we wish to be glorified with Him. We must learn to love as God loves, if we wish to join in that communion of love in Heaven.

• The Holy Trinity teaches us exactly what love is, and the true love we learn about from God is much different from the false forms of love we see portrayed on TV or in the movies. It is much different than the love our society propounds today.

• The world tells us that love is a warm feeling that is primarily expressed through intimate physical contact. The world tells us that love is fragile, that it is easily lost, that it doesn’t require commitment or even fidelity to the one we love.

• And the world also tells us that we can stop loving someone if it’s inconvenient, costs us too much or causes us too much pain.

• In contrast, if we look at the actions of the Blessed Trinity, Who Is Love, we get a different picture of what love really is. Consider the actions of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity for a moment:

• God the Father, Who Is Love, chose to create the world and gave man every material thing he needed to survive and be happy.

• The Father also gave us His laws to live by and entered into an eternal covenant with us, helping us to understand what is truly right and good so that we could live in complete freedom as His children. And when man transgressed that law, the Father punished man so that he could learn from his mistakes.

• God the Father, Who Is Love, loves us so much that He gave us His only Son. And this Son, Jesus Christ, Who Is also Love, loves us so much that He suffered a very cruel and agonizingdeath so that we might not perish, but might have eternal life.

• And this Son, Who Is Love, loves us so much that He sent us the Holy Spirit. And this Holy Spirit, the Comforter and Advocate, Who Is also Love, and Who proceeds from the Father and the Son, loves us so much that He comes to us to guide us and bring us peace.

• As long as we remain in a state of grace, the Holy Spirit remains in our soul!

• From the Blessed Trinity we learn that true love is a choice, it’s an act of the will. From the Trinity we learn that love is creative, generous, faithful and helps to correct the faults of the lover and the beloved.

• From the Blessed Trinity we learn that true love is sacrificial and often demands suffering for the sake of the beloved. From the Blessed Trinity we learn that true love gives comfort, direction, and peace to the beloved.

• This is the love our Lord gives to us, and it’s the love we are called to give to Him and to one another.

• My dear friends in Christ, know now and fix in your hearts that the Lord is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other.

• And most importantly, know that this Lord whom we worship is Himself a communion of love in whose life we are called to share.

• Moreover, He makes the promise to be with us always, even until the end of the world.

• Therefore, let us learn to love God and one another well here on earth so that we will be properly prepared to be united with our Lord and one another in Heaven.

Copyright 2009 by Reverend Timothy S. Reid

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

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Solemnity of Pentecost by Fr. Reid

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2011/06/11 at 7:00 AM

• Immediately before the Alleluia today we heard the singing of the Pentecost Sequence, Veni Sancte Spiritus, which is a poetic text set to a Gregorian chant mode.

• While there have many sequences for various Masses composed over the centuries, since 1570 there are only four feast days in the liturgical calendar that still employ these beautiful chants: Easter, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, and All Souls Day.

• The purpose of the sequence is to help us delve more deeply into the mystery of Faith that we are celebrating, but to do so in a way that not only provides some measure of catechesis, but that also inspires us with its artistic beauty.

• Moreover, the use of a sequence at Mass marks a feast day as being particularly important to the life of the Church. As such, today’s feast of Pentecost is one of the most important feasts that we celebrate each year!

• This is because this is the particular day of the year that we honor the 3rd Person of the Holy Trinity: the Holy Spirit, who is the Paraclete, the Advocate, the Comforter, and the Sanctifier.

• The sequence that we used today serves as an invitation to the Holy Spirit to come to us. Indeed, Veni Sancte Spiritus means “Come, Holy Spirit!” And in this sequence we invite Him to come and impart to us His gifts of holiness, comfort, and peace.

• On this glorious feast of Pentecost, not only should we beg for the Holy Spirit to come to us, but we should also meditate on His nature and role in salvation history.

• As the Holy Spirit is one of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity, because He is God, it is impossible to fully understand Him, but there is much that we do know.

• As we mediate on the Holy Spirit and contemplate His role in salvation history, we can see that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Love, and the Spirit of Power.

• It is Jesus who, in the Gospel of John, refers to the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth, and in doing so Jesus tells us that when the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of Truth – comes, He will guide us to all truth.

• This is because the Holy Spirit is a unifying force who has come not only to enlighten our hearts and minds, but Who also safeguards the Church’s teachings from error. He is also a light that shines upon our intellects so that we may know and accept the teachings of Christ.

• Jesus knew that He would not be staying on earth forever and that He would need a mechanism for continuing His mission on earth after He ascended into Heaven.

• Thus He created the Church, built upon the foundation of the apostles, to be both the repository for His teachings and the means for spreading those teachings throughout the world.

• Because man’s salvation depends upon His teachings, it makes perfect sense that Jesus would want some means in place to protect the truth of His teachings, and that means of protection is the Holy Spirit.

• Thus, because of the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Truth, we can be confident that the teachings of the Catholic Church in matters of faith and morals are all objectively true and therefore can never be changed.

• While Church leaders may themselves fall into sin or have lapses of judgment, the Holy Spirit is our guarantee that what we believe as Catholics in matters of faith and morals is true and has been revealed by Christ Himself.

• The Holy Spirit is also the Spirit of Love, enflaming our hearts with desire for our Lord.

• The Scriptures tells us that when Our Lady and the Apostles were gathered in prayer at

Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended upon them like tongues of fire. In fact, the red vestments that we wear today are meant to symbolize this fire of the Holy Spirit.

• This fire of the Holy Spirit is a fire of love, which purifies our hearts of sin and evil desires and enflames us with a desire to serve our Lord and our fellow man.

• As the Spirit of Love, the Holy Spirit enkindles within us a burning charity that helps us reach out to others and that ultimately sanctifies us.

• Thirdly, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Power, a power that not only can affect natural phenomena, as we hear in the first reading today, but that can also change and purify hearts and bring unity and peace to people of disparate lands, cultures, and languages.

• As we consider the mystery of Pentecost, we must realize that the Pentecost is not an isolated event in Church history. Indeed, the Holy Spirit continues to come upon His Church in this way, particularly through the Sacrament of Confirmation.

• While we may not experience the same phenomena of tongues of fire and rushing winds that our Lady and the apostles experienced at the first Pentecost 2000 years ago, the Holy Spirit is no less powerful today.

• We experience the power of the Holy Spirit within ourselves. At times we experience Him as an inspiration or a sudden thought to do or say something. At other times we experience Him as a deep and abiding sense of peace in the midst of trials and sufferings.

• The history of the Church is suffused with examples of the Holy Spirit working in and through the saints. The Spirit has guided many holy men and women to witness to the Faith with their very lives, to found religious orders, and to teach and explain the doctrines of Catholicism.

• It was the Holy Spirit that led St. Augustine to conversion and inspired his teachings that the Church still relies upon today. It was the Holy Spirit that gave St. Paul the courage to preach the truth of Christ in the midst of terrible sufferings and persecutions, even to the point of death.

• It was the Holy Spirit who inspired Blessed Mother Teresa to found a religious order to care for the poorest of the poor. And it was the Holy Spirit who nurtured and stirred the young heart of St. Therese of Lisieux to teach the Church how to love.

• As we consider how the Holy Spirit works through us and in us as the Spirit of Truth, Love, and Power, we must do our best to receive Him and cooperate with Him.

• We do this first by exercising the virtue of docility, which enables us to be obedient to the teachings of Christ and His Church, which guide us and protect us from sin.

• We do this by seeking to unite ourselves to Him in prayer, conversing with Him, listening to His promptings, and asking Him to fill us with His love.

• And finally, we do this by exercising the virtue of courage, which enables us to embrace the cross, which is the heart of living our Christian faith and which is absolutely essential for growing in a life of holiness.

• Suffering comes to all of us, and this is not because God doesn’t love us. God allows suffering because He does love us! And it is the Holy Spirit that enables us to courageously accept our sufferings so that we may become more like Jesus.

• My dear friends, as we invite the Holy Spirit to come to us today, may we truly receive Him. Through humble docility, prayer, and the exercise of courage, may He transform us, comfort us, and sanctify us. And may He bless us always with His peace.

Copyright 2010 by Reverend Timothy S. Reid

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

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The Ascension of Our Lord, Jesus Christ by Fr. Reid

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2011/06/03 at 9:04 PM

• There is a beautiful expression that says “home is where the heart is.” The meaning, of course, is that a home is not simply an address to which our mail is sent. A home is not simply a house we happen to occupy.

• Our home is a place that is endearing to us. It is a place that is special to us. And most importantly, our home is the place where we feel a sense of belonging.

• One of the beautiful blessings of my life is that my parents still live in the home I grew up in, and it is built on property in Indiana that has been in my family for decades.

• There is a certain joy that I feel every time I begin the journey home to visit, which I try to do a few times a year. When I make it home, I am always greeted by a sense of comfort and peace. Read the rest of this entry »

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Marital Commitment by Fr. Reid

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2011/05/29 at 12:25 AM

• Both the second reading and the Gospel today come from St. John the Beloved Disciple.  And both of these readings focus on love, reminding us that as the children of God, we are called to love one another just as God – Who Is Love Itself – has loved us.

• Indeed, love is one of those topics that we cannot over-emphasize in the Church because our Lord teaches us that the greatest commandment is to love. We are called first to love our Lord above all things, and then to love one another as we love ourselves.

• Love comes in many forms: there is the charitable love that exists between friends and neighbors, the nurturing love that exists between parents and children, the fraternal love that exists between siblings, and, of course, there is the life-giving love that exists between a man and his wife.

• While I could give homilies on any of these forms of love, I want to focus today on this last type of love: marital love, because in many ways this is the most important form of love that we exercise with one another.

• Marriage forms the basis of family life, and families are the building blocks of any human society. For better or worse, marriage is public; it’s not just a private arrangement between two people, and therefore the success or failure of a marriage has an impact on society as  a whole.

• Therefore, it’s important that we all be invested in protecting the institution of marriage, which is very sadly under attack today. It’s also important that we live out our marriages in conformity with God’s laws. But to do this, we must understand what marriage is all about.

• If you look at the documents of Vatican II (Gaudium et Spes) and Canon Law, you’ll find that marriage is the intimate, exclusive, indissoluble communion of life and love entered into by a man and woman. God designed this sacrament for the procreation and education of children and for the purpose of the spouses own good.

Read the rest of this entry »

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St. Ignatius Loyola by Fr. Reid

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2011/05/19 at 9:19 AM

• In the left transept of the church in Rome known as “il Gesu”, i.e., the Church of the Holy Name Jesus, is one of the most elaborate and beautiful tombs in all of Rome.

• Decorated with lapis and marble, this tomb is the final resting place of one of the Church’s most illustrious sons: St. Ignatius of Loyola.

• St. Ignatius, as you probably know, is the founder of the Society of Jesus, the religious order more popularly known as the Jesuits.

• While there is much to appreciate about the life of St. Ignatius and the amazing contributions the Jesuits have made to the life of the Church in the past 450 years, what I admire most about St. Ignatius is simply the way that he came to love our Lord.

• As a young man Ignatius was a soldier and a member of the royal court in the Kingdom of Castile. There the young Ignatius quickly developed a taste for all the luxuries and vanities that were available to him.

• At the age of 30, during a battle with the French in the city of Pamplona, Ignatius was wounded by a cannon ball and was forced to spend many long weeks recuperating at his home castle in Loyola. Read the rest of this entry »

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Blessed John Paul II by Fr. Reid

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2011/05/12 at 8:40 AM

• As you may already know, the Vatican recently announced that the Venerable Servant of God, Pope John Paul II, is now “Blessed John Paul II.” His beatification on May 1st was the speediest in history, edging out Mother Teresa’s by one day.

• This means he will be just one step away from becoming “St. John Paul II.”

• Personally, I was thrilled to receive this news. John Paul was elected to the Chair of Peter when I was 8 years old, and although I wasn’t a Catholic as a child, he has always seemed like a lifelong friend.

• For many Catholics of my generation, Pope John Paul II is the reason why we love and embrace our Catholic faith with such fervor, particularly we Catholics of the John Paul era who have become priests.

• Pope John Paul II was the voice of reason, clarity, compassion, and enthusiasm for those of us trained in a post‐conciliar Church that has often been marked and marred by theological confusion, liturgical inanity, and scandal.

• I consider it a great blessing that I was among the last class of priests ordained in his pontificate, for he died during my first year of priesthood.

• Indeed, the title Blessed Pope John Paul II is appropriate, for he was certainly a great blessing to our Church and to our world, and now he is blessed with the beatific vision.

•In the Beatitudes from Jesus used the word beatitude which means “blessed.”  The Sermon on the Mount from St. Matthew’s Gospel is a roadmap for all who wish to be blessed in the afterlife, for all who wish to enjoy the Beatific Vision. For the Beatitudes encourage us to be like God, and it is in being like Him that we become one with Him.

• They encourage us to be humble and lowly. We are reminded by St. Paul that God chooses the foolish, the weak, and the lowly to accomplish His will so that no one might boast before God.

• In doing so St. Paul challenges us to consider the type of person we want to be, and the type of person our American society often encourages us to be. As Americans today we are the wealthiest, most powerful, and best‐educated society the world has ever known.

• Since our founding nearly 235 ago, we have risen from a wayward and revolutionary band of 13 cantankerous colonies situated on the eastern edge of an unknown continent to a superpower spanning the breadth of this great continent and possessing more money, more education, and more power than any other country in existence.

• And while we are certainly not without our weaknesses and flaws, and while we are certainly not completely invulnerable – as 9/11 proved so dramatically – we are still the undisputed power in the world today – at least for the moment.

• And we’ve risen to this apex through a tough‐nosed, independent, can‐do attitude that embodies what it means to be an American today.

• Popularly‐speaking, to be an American is to be strong, to be independent, to be determined, to be a people who can truly accomplish anything that we set our minds to.

• Our culture very naturally imbues this national mindset within each and every one of us. We are a competitive people, and we seek to get ahead. We are encouraged to work hard, to go to the best schools, to get the best job and make the most money.

• This of course has led to a deep sense of societal pride. And while trying to do our best in life is not wrong, there is always a danger in the pride engendered by our mindset.

• Furthermore, as Catholics we must remember that this sense of pride, this sense of accomplishment, this sense of independence that imbues our American culture and psyche is not authentically Christian.

• The truth is that despite our national or personal accomplishments, we are nothing without Christ. The truth is that we are sinners in need of a savior.

• The truth is that God is constantly extending His love and mercy toward us, but we often and quite stubbornly turn away from him through our sinfulness. The truth is that, left to our own devices, we cannot save ourselves.

• But if we humble and lowly, my friends, we can see the truth of things. Humility helps us to see the dangers of our societal mindset as well as our personal shortcomings.

• Humility helps us to put our relationship with God into its proper context, making us recognize our utter and total reliance upon Him for everything.

• But more than that, humility opens up our hearts to the saving grace of Christ Jesus. It makes us thankful for all of our many blessings, and it makes us aware of how truly merciful and loving our Lord is, and why we should constantly seek virtue and holiness.

• The Gospel speaks of the Beatitudes, which are really invitations to a life of virtue.

• Virtue is moral excellence and righteousness; it is goodness. It is the habitual, wellestablished, readiness or disposition of man’s powers directing them to some goodness or act. Virtue, in whatever form it takes, directly opposes sin.

• At first blush it may seem that the Beatitudes are an invitation to the virtue of humility, and indeed they are. But on a deeper level, the Beatitudes also invite us to practice the theological virtue of hope!

• Saints have referred to humility as the root of all virtue because without humility, none of the other virtues can flourish, and one the greatest and most important virtues that humility engenders is hope!

• What we must understand about humility is that humility is not a matter of thinking less of ourselves. Humility is a matter of thinking less about ourselves.

• Humility enables us to see the truth about ourselves. It helps us to turn away from the selfishness that pride always engenders within us.

• But whereas humility turns our consciousness outward so that we no longer think of ourselves, the virtue of hope helps us to direct our consciousness solely toward God, Who is both our Creator and our final end.

• Through humility we recognize that we are beggars before God. And as beggars we come before Him with empty hands. Through hope we know that if we come to God with empty hands, He will fill us with His salvation.

• Humility gives us the detachment we need to be empty‐handed before God. Hope gives us the confidence that our Lord will raise us up in our lowliness to be like Him.

• As we face our world with all of its sufferings and challenges, we must do it with hope, knowing that all that happens – whether good or evil – is within God’s loving providence, and that ultimately, Jesus Christ will prevail.

• Having the humility to realize this, having the humility to live a life of Beatitude that engenders hope for heaven, will ensure final blessedness for us.

• May our gracious Savior fill us all with the virtues of humility and hope, and may Blessed John Paul II always pray for us!

Copyright 2011 by Reverend Timothy S. Reid

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