Just outside of the old walled city of Jerusalem, on the Mount of Olives, stands a small, circular mosque of little architectural or artistic value. In truth, it’s really quite humble.
But while this building may appear insignificant to the common passer-by, its humble appearance belies the great mystery of our faith that it represents.
For in this tiny circular building maintained by Muslims is the spot where it is believed our blessed Lord ascended into Heaven 40 days after His resurrection.
The most notable element of the mosque is a human footprint preserved like a fossil in the stone floor that is purported to be the right footprint of Jesus in the very place that He ascended from this earth into the glory of Heaven.
To those who see it, this footprint is a seed of faith that helps us believe not only that Jesus really did ascend into Heaven, but that Jesus really is Who He said He Is: the Word made flesh, both God and man, our Savior and Redeemer.
Indeed, the Ascension of our Lord no doubt served to solidify the nascent faith of the apostles and the first Christians. Seeing our Lord ascend body and soul into Heaven as the Scriptures attest could not but strengthen the faith of all who witnessed it.
But for us Christians of today who commemorate this mystery 2000 years after the fact, the Ascension of our Lord calls us to practice the virtue of faith all the more assiduously.
ItisacallforustomaketheactofthewilltobelieveinourLordandtoloveHimasour sovereign king with greater strength and fervor.
My brothers and sisters, we are now living in an age of ever-growing disbelief in the Christian mysteries. The beautiful faith that we possess and profess no longer holds the prominence in the world that it did even just 40 or 50 years ago.
Consumed by materialistic and selfish desires, consumed by a sinister pride that believes himself to be the measure of all things, modern man is quickly deciding that faith in God is at best an unnecessary and tedious ornament to culture, and at worst an infringement upon man’s freedom and an obstacle to man’s self-actualization.
Every year polls show that the numbers of people who consider themselves atheistic or agnostic is growing in the western world, while governmental assaults on religious freedom and public religious expression are growing more hostile and virulent.
So what is the faithful Christian soul to do in the face of this rising cultural and political opposition to faith? We are to believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and the teachings of our beautiful Catholic faith with all the more tenacity. We are to be more faithful!
And today’s celebration of the Lord’s Ascension is our invitation to do just that.
On the Sunday after Easter we recalled the story of St. Thomas refusing to believe in ourLord’s resurrection without seeing and touching our Lord for himself.
Wishing the good Thomas to have the faith of an apostle, our blessed Lord obliged Him byappearing in his presence and inviting Thomas to touch the wounds in His hands and side. As we all know, Thomas then believed – so much so that he died a martyr’s death for his faith.
But as we should all recall, our Lord chided St. Thomas for relying on the experience of our Lord’s physical presence in order to believe in His resurrection.
Seeing something in the flesh and coming to believe it is not faith, my brothers and sisters. It’s simply verifying that something is indeed true. True faith requires much more of us than believing in something because we’ve been able to prove its veracity.
The author of the Letter to the Hebrews tells us that: “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). It is the way that man personally adheres to God (cf. CCC #150).
Faith is not a feeling. Faith is a virtue. It’s an act of the will. While faith is a gift that our Lord implants within us at baptism, for our faith to grow we must choose to exercise it by making the act of the will to believe.
Indeed, exercising faith is a matter of submitting one’s intellect and will to God (CCC #143); it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed (CCC #150).
Our Lord desires that we make these acts of the will, for it is by willing to believe in our Lord and in His promises through faith, and by faithfully obeying the teachings of His Church, that we show our Lord just how much we love Him.
And our love is what He desires most from us. But we cannot love Him without truly having faith in Him – without believing in Him – first.
Believing in God and submitting our intellects and wills to Him in faith can be difficult today, especially as we consider that our society is constantly striving to give us reasons not to trust in God.
Our politicians and the laws they legislate often work against our faith, and the media and entertainment of today constantly promote values contrary to our Catholic beliefs.
If we fill our minds with today’s media and political rhetoric, without being properly formed in the truths of our faith, then it can be very easy for us to question God.
Yet, that’s the absolute beauty of our Lord’s Ascension! Who else but our Lord could ascend body and soul into Heaven on His own power and by His own authority?
Who but God alone can command the veil between Heaven and earth to open so that He might pass from time into eternity at will?
So as we consider this amazing final episode in Jesus’ time on earth, an event witnessed by hundreds of people, how we can deny that Jesus truly is Lord? And if He is Lord, how can we doubt His teachings held in trust by His Church and safeguarded by the Holy Spirit?
Truly, in addition to the healings, the exorcisms, the raising of people from the dead, and other miracles, as well as His own death and resurrection, the Ascension of our Lord is another perfect reason for us to place our trust in Jesus.
My dear brothers and sisters, may we all be strengthened in our faith by the mystery of our Lord’s ascension into Heaven. By believing in God more, may we love Him all the more.
And in believing in God and loving Him more, may we all be better prepared for the glory of Heaven!
12 May 2013

© Reverend Timothy Reid

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

Homilies from June 17, 2012 onward have audio.
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• In the 25th Chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus gives us this grand vision of how, at the Final Judgment, He will judge each of us just as a good shepherd separates the sheep from the goats (cf. Mt 25:31-46).
• Jesus tells us that He will place the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. To the sheep He will say, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” And they will inherit eternal life (Mt 25:34).
• And to the goats Jesus will say, “Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels,” and these will go off to eternal punishment (Mt. 25:41).
• Our Lord explains in this very important passage that each of us will be grouped with either the sheep or the goats based on our love for Him shown in our service to others in need. Specifically, Jesus speaks about fulfilling the corporal works of mercy.
• Does this mean that we can earn our way to Heaven simply by serving the poor? Of course not. We are saved by God’s grace, not by our works.
• However, although God’s saving grace is freely extended to all people, we must choose to accept or refuse His grace. Our willingness to serve Christ by serving the poor is a sign that we’ve accepted His grace. It’s a sign of our willingness to fulfill the great command to love.
• As our Gospel for today explains, we must listen for the voice of the Good Shepherd and follow it. Christ calls each of us by name and leads us, and we who recognize His voice willingly follow the path He marks out for us.
• If we wished to be saved, we must choose to be one of His sheep by being obedient to His commandments, most especially the command to love Him above all else and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
• Yet, our Gospel makes clear that Christ is also the gate through which we enter into salvation. The sheepfold – the pasture – within which we find salvation is His Body, the Church. Christ is both priest and victim; He is both shepherd and sheepgate.
• To believe that we can find salvation through anyone other than Christ, or to allow ourselves to be shepherded by those who are not faithful to His teachings is like placing ourselves into the hands of thieves and robbers, who come “only to steal and slaughter and destroy.”
• Christ alone is the way, the truth, and the life. No one can go to the Father except through Him! (John 14:6)
• Through our baptism, we enter into the Church – into our Lord’s sheepfold, and once in the Church we are shepherded by Christ’s teachings, which are safeguarded by His Church and communicated by His faithful shepherds, each of whom is an alter Christus.
• But remember my brothers and sisters: we must choose for Christ! This is a choice we must continue to make daily, even once we are inside His sheepfold!
• Even though our choice for Christ is made in a fundamental way at our baptism, we must renew our choice for Him constantly, for in our brokenness, we are often prone to wander far from Him.
• As we consider His great love and mercy that we celebrated 2 weeks ago on Divine Mercy Sunday, why wouldn’t we choose Him? Jesus offers to us His unfathomable mercy, which is unlimited as long as we live on this earth.
• Not only are the worst of sinners welcome to partake of our Lord’s mercy, but Jesus said to St. Faustina that the worst sinners have the greatest right to His mercy!
• Jesus is the Good Shepherd who willingly lays down His life for His sheep. Our Savior allowed His Sacred Heart to be ripped wide open by a cruel centurion’s lance so that all mankind could find a home there!
• That wound caused by Longinus’ lance not only opened up the sacramental life of the Church; it opened up the floodgates of God’s mercy!
• In our first reading we see St. Peter proclaiming to the house of Israel that Jesus, whom they crucified, is indeed the Christ! He sets the choice before them: they can either accept Jesus as their Lord or deny Him – but they have to choose.
• St. Peter tells the crowd that choosing for Christ requires that we repent of our sins. It requires that we turn away from the corruption of our generation.
• Once inside our Lord’s sheepfold, we must follow Christ by imitating Him in every aspect of our lives. In all things we must seek the Father’s will rather than our own will.
• Yet as the second reading today makes clear, following Christ and doing the Father’s will sometimes means that we are going to suffer – just like He did.
• But, my dear friends, this should not be a cause for anxiety or worry for us. For when we look with the eyes of faith, we can see that suffering is often the sweetest gift God gives us to us because suffering borne with patience really helps to shape us into an image of Christ.
• As St. Peter tells us today in our second reading, “if [we] are patient when [we] suffer for doing what is good, this is a grace before God.”
• Just as the rough grit of sandpaper is used to smooth and shape wood into something beautiful, so too does suffering smooth the rough patches of our soul caused by sin so that we may be shaped into something more beautiful.
• So just as God the Father allowed His only begotten Son to suffer so that we might be redeemed, our Lord allows us to suffer so that we may imitate His Son, make reparation for our sins, and be strengthened in virtue.
• When we willingly accept our sufferings and unite them to Christ’s suffering on the cross, we console our Lord!
• Truly, if Jesus, who is the Good Shepherd, leads us by way of the path of suffering, we can be certain that it is probably because we need it for our own growth in holiness.
• Allowing us to suffer then, is a way that our Lord shows us His mercy, and we can be certain that as the Good Shepherd He will lead us through the path of suffering into greener pastures.
• My dear friends, as our Lord’s precious sheep, we must train ourselves to know the voice of the Shepherd. And as we learn to hear the voice of the Lord, let us strengthen our wills so that we may follow Him unreservedly, even when He leads us by the path of suffering.
• For by faithfully following Him who loves us more than we can ever imagine, and by imitating Him in all things – even in suffering – we will be covered in His mercy and inherit eternal life.

© Reverend Timothy Reid

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

Homilies from June 17, 2012 onward have audio.
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© 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:
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In the church of Santa Maria del Populo in Rome is an often-overlooked painting by the master artist Caravaggio called The Crucifixion of St. Peter.
In this painting the apostle is elderly but still virile and muscular, and it depicts the moment when three men are just hoisting the newly crucified Peter and his cross off of the ground.
The three men, whose faces are obscured, are obviously struggling with the weight of this cross, perhaps suggesting that the crime they are committing is already weighing upon their hardened consciences.
In our Gospel today Jesus gives St. Peter a foreboding of his death, telling him that some day he will grow old, will stretch out his hands, and will be lead where he does not want to go – signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God.
Tradition tells us that St. Peter was crucified in the area of the modern day Vatican City during the persecution of Emperor Nero around 64 A.D., and his body was buried in a nearby cemetery, above which the Basilica of St. Peter now stands.
Tradition also tells us that, because he didn’t think himself worthy to be crucified in the same manner as Jesus, St. Peter asked to be crucified upside down, which is the way Caravaggio depicted Peter’s martyrdom in his painting.
No doubt being crucified upside down was an act of humility for St. Peter, but perhaps it was also an act of reparation, for a man of St. Peter’s character and holiness surely understood the depth of his sinfulness and his need to make reparation.
In fact, we see St. Peter’s first act of reparation in the Gospel today. Having denied our Lord three times, Jesus requires St. Peter to make a three-fold confession of love to make amends.
While our Lord has undoubtedly forgiven Peter for his sin on that first Holy Thursday night, in justice St. Peter still must make reparation for his sin.
Last Sunday we celebrated our Lord’s Divine Mercy, the Church’s annual reminder to us that the mercy of God is inexhaustible and always available to those who are sorry for their sins.
The primary message of Divine Mercy Sunday is that we must never despair of God’s mercy because it is deeper and richer than we can possibly imagine. But all the same, we must never presume upon our Lord’s mercy.
There can be no doubt that our Lord is generous with forgiveness of sins. In fact, when St. Peter asks Him in the Gospel of Matthew how many times he must be willing to forgive those who injure him, our Lord replies “seventy-seven times” (cf. Mt 18:22).
This response by our Lord is a symbolic one, meaning that we must always be willing to forgive those who injure us. But the generous requirement of forgiveness does not in any way cancel out the requirements of justice.
In no passage of the Gospel does forgiveness or mercy imply an indulgence toward evil, sin, injury or insult. To the contrary, making reparation for our sins and for the evil and scandal they cause, as well as making compensation or satisfaction for injuries and insults we commit, are conditions for forgiveness (cf. JPII: Dives et Misericordia).
This is precisely why we are given a penance whenever we go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Our penances are the way we make reparation for our sins.
Without doing penance, our confession is not complete. Simply put, there is a price to pay for our sins. Of course the existence of Hell is the ultimate proof of this truth.
So we must in some way right the wrongs we have committed and the damage we’vecaused, even though our sins are forgiven. While making reparation through penance doesn’t undo our sins, it does set them aright by rectifying the injustice our sins cause.
If we fail to make satisfaction for the temporal punishments due for our sins, but die in a state of grace, then we will have to undergo a final purification in Purgatory before we enter into Heaven.
So while Lent is over and with it our Lenten fasts, our need to make reparation is not over – for we still sin, do we not? Therefore, penance must continue to be a part of our lives even now during this glorious season of Easter!
Not only should we make reparation for our own sins, but like the saints, we should strive to make reparation for the sins of others as well, as so many people in our world habitually sin without any thought to asking for forgiveness, let alone making reparation for their sins.
At the heart of our penances and reparations must be a genuine love for God.
While it is a good and holy thing to fear the pains of Hell and seek to avoid them andto mitigate as much as possible the sufferings of Purgatory, ultimately we shouldmake reparation for our sins as a sign of our love and respect for God.
More than fearing the pains of Hell, we should fear ever offending our Lord even inthe smallest matter, for that is where merit is to be found.
Indeed, what makes our reparation just and our penances satisfactory is not the rigorof the penances we take on as much as it is the love with which we do them.
In fact, St. Catherine of Siena taught that one Hail Mary, said with perfect love, wasenough to atone for the sins of a lifetime! Just one Hail Mary!
So not only must we make penance a regular part of our daily lives, we shouldconstantly strive to do our penances well, with deep love and devotion, with truesorrow and contrition.
The beautiful thing about living a habitually penitential life is that, over time, ourpenances will foster a deeper love for our Lord and for our fellow man within our souls. As we learn to do our penances with a deeper love, they become more efficacious and beneficial.
During this happy season of Easter we, as a Church, put a great deal of effort into celebrating all of these marvelous feasts and festivals. This is completely and wholly appropriate as we consider the sheer magnificence and vital importance of our Lord’s Paschal Mystery.
But in the midst of our celebrations this time of the year, even if we lessen our penances to some degree in order to more fully celebrate, we mustn’t lose sight of them altogether!
Even after His resurrection, Jesus still bore the wounds of humanity’s sin. The holes in His hands, His feet, and His remained. In like fashion, we must still be willing to
bear the wounds of sin through voluntary penance – even in this time of joy and

celebration.

Like good St. Peter may we be willing to welcome with both courage and deep lovefor our Lord whatever crucifixions He deems us worthy to bear.
Through our daily voluntary penances, may we make reparation for our sins and thoseof others, and in so doing may we show our Lord just how much we truly love Him.
14 April 2013

© Reverend Timothy Reid

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

Homilies from June 17, 2012 onward have audio.
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• That last line of the Gospel is a bit of a doozy, isn’t it? Jesus says to us: “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Of course the question we must ask is: what does it mean to be perfect?
• If it means never to commit a sin, then we are all in trouble, aren’t we? Certainly refraining from sin is part of Christian perfection, but refraining from sin cannot be the totality of Christian perfection, for Jesus would never command the impossible of us.
• Lots of saints spoke or wrote about the meaning of Christian perfection, and the explanation that I find most satisfactory comes from St. Anthony Mary Claret.
• St. Anthony wrote that: “Christian perfection consists in three things: praying heroically, working heroically, and suffering heroically.”
• Notice that he uses the word “heroically.” What’s interesting about this is that “heroic” is the word the Church uses to define the standard of virtue a person must meet in order to be declared a saint.
• In other words living a life of Christian perfection means living a life of heroic virtue.
• In fact, the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints issues a “Decree of Heroic Virtues” when a
person who is up for sainthood has been found to have lived a life of profound union with God and
fidelity to Church teaching.
• So in calling us to perfection today in the Gospel, Jesus is calling all of us to be saints!
• Certainly we know of lots of saints who prayed heroically, like St. Teresa of Ávila who prayed so
heroically that she went into ecstasies, or St. Rita, who through her heroic prayers was able to
obtain miracles for even the most impossible of causes.
• We also know of lots of saints who worked heroically, like St. Anthony of Padua who died at the
age 36 from exhaustion, or St. Raymond of Penyafort, who lived to be 100 and worked strenuously
for almost all of those years.
• Perhaps of most interest, though, are the heroic sufferings of the saints. In this vein it’s hard to top
St. Lawrence, who was roasted to death on a gridiron but still managed to crack a wry joke to his
tormenters as they were martyring him.
• While we generally remember saints for one or two aspects of their lives, in truth all of the saints
prayed, worked, and suffered heroically in that they prayed, worked, and suffered as God willed
them to do so. This heroic union with God’s will is what made them saints.
• And the saints were able to pray, work, and suffer heroically because they loved both God and neighbor in heroic fashion. They were heroic in their charity – and so should we be.
• Our readings today remind us that we are not only called to a life of perfection, a life of holiness, but our readings also set the bar for the charity we must exercise if we hope to reach the Christian perfection of the saints.
• In particular, our readings speak of charity toward others with regard to how we must bear with those who have hurt us or who have treated us unjustly, which is probably the truest measure of one’s charity.
• Our first reading from the Old Testament Book of Leviticus commands us: “You shall not bear hatred for your brother or sister in your heart.” We are told to “take no revenge and cherish no grudge against any,” but to “love [our] neighbor as [ourself].”
• In the Gospel, which like last Sunday’s Gospel is part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, our Lord tells us that we must love even our enemies, famously calling us to turn the other cheek when struck, and to pray for those who persecute us.
• In saying all of this to us, Jesus is teaching us how to exercise heroic virtue. Christian perfection requires that we love everyone, even our enemies. He tells us that if we are able to pray for our enemies, this will make us children of God.
• Really, to understand what Jesus is asking of us, we must put ourselves on the cross with Him and remind ourselves of how Jesus looked upon those who had crucified Him during those agonizing hours atop Calvary.
• Do you remember His words? “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Even in the most terrible and agonizing moments of His suffering, Jesus was merciful to those who had crucified Him. He was merciful to all of us.
• The responsorial psalm captures this well: “Merciful and gracious is the LORD, slow to anger and abounding in kindness. Not according to our sins does He deal with us, nor does He requite us according to our crimes.”
• Thus, all of us who are serious about holiness must learn a certain detachment from ourselves, from our pride, in order to grow in heroic virtue. Instead of indulging our pride and selfish anger, we must be willing to endure suffering at the hands of others for the sake of growing in virtue.
• We must be willing to go the extra mile for others when they don’t deserve it, and to some degree, patiently overlook the bad behavior of others. Doing these things is how we love others in heroic fashion rather than merely exercising love as the pagans do!
• While I have always been fascinated by the stories of the martyrs, I’m also quite fascinated by those saints who were heroic in their love for others, especially in their forgiveness of those who wronged them.
• One beautiful example of a saint who practiced heroic forgiveness is St. Maria Goretti, who is also one of the modern martyrs of the Church.
• At the age of 12, Maria was grabbed by an 18-year old neighbor, named Alexander, who tried to rape her, and when she said that she would rather die than submit to something so offensive to God, he took her at her word and began stabbing her.
• As Maria lay dying in the hospital that same day, she forgave Alexander, who was eventually captured, convicted, and sentenced to 30 years of imprisonment.
• Unfortunately, Alexander remained unrepentant in prison, until one night he had a dream of being in a garden, and of Maria handing him a bouquet of flowers. Upon waking, Alexander was a changed man and repented immediately.
• When he was finally released from prison, Alexander went straight to Maria’s mother to beg her forgiveness. To her credit Maria’s mother said, “If my daughter can forgive you, who am I to withhold forgiveness.”
• Alexander was present at St. Peter’s Basilica in 1950 when Maria Goretti was canonized.
• As we consider today’s Gospel, we may be tempted to ask if we should ever oppose evil. Should
we not hold people accountable for their sins or at least correct them?
• Certainly we should. Justice is one of the four Cardinal virtues, and admonishing sinners is a
spiritual work of mercy. So it is a noble and good thing to seek and practice justice.
• However, we must learn to temper justice with mercy, just as Christ did on the cross. In justice
Jesus could have condemned us all, but He chooses to have mercy on us.
• If we seek only to employ justice in a strict fashion and fail to show mercy, we may find that we are
denied God’s mercy at the final judgment.
• Through the intercession of Our Lady, St. Joseph, and all the saints, may each of us learn to pray,
work, and suffer heroically in this life so that we, too, might be saints in the next!
• May we learn to balance justice and mercy as Christ did so that we may love and forgive in heroic fashion. St. Maria Goretti, pray for us!

© Reverend Timothy Reid

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

Homilies from June 17, 2012 onward have audio.
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When we come together to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, after we make the Sign of the Cross, the very first thing we do is call to mind our sins, and then we make a public acknowledgement of our sinfulness by praying together the Confiteor.
This is an ancient prayer that has varied over time, but its usage at the beginning of Mass has been a mainstay in both Eastern and Western liturgies for many, many centuries now.
The purpose of the Confiteor is not simply to acknowledge our guilt before God, but also to dispose ourselves to receive His grace.
And to emphasize our contrition, we are encouraged to beat our breasts three times as we say the words: “through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault” – a homage of sorts to the humble tax collector we hear about in today’s Gospel.
Today’s Gospel parable gives us a very important look into the mind of Christ and how He views sinners.
In His parable our Lord compares a Pharisee and a tax collector. The irony of this story is that Pharisees were supposed to be holy and righteous people, while tax collectors were thought to be the most morally bankrupt people in ancient Hebrew society.
Yet it is the humble tax collector whom our Lord holds out to us as a model in the parable. Unlike the Pharisee, who is convinced of his own righteousness, the tax collector fully recognizes and admits his sinfulness in the face of the Almighty.
What we learn in this parable is that even the worst sinners can be made righteous in the eyes of God. Regardless of the gravity or number of our sins, there is hope for us all.
Even if we have committed the most terrible of sins – and even done so repeatedly – we can still be made righteous; we can still be saved!
The key is humility. This is why the Confiteor at the beginning of Mass is so important: it helps us to be more humble, and this makes us more pleasing to God.
Our first reading shows us that not only does the virtue of humility help to justify us in God’s eyes, our humility disposes God to listen to our prayers. Sirach tells us that: “the prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds; it does not rest until it reaches its goal.”
As we know, humility is nothing more than a recognition of the truth about oneself. It is through the virtue of humility that we see ourselves as we truly are in God’s eyes.
Humility is the recognition that God is God, and that we’re not – and that we’re in constant need of His grace and mercy. Thus, it is the foundational virtue that we all must cultivate if we ever hope to grow in holiness.
Humility shows us our sinfulness and spiritual poverty; it also shows us how good God is, and how merciful He desires to be to all mankind. Yet without humility, we have no claim on God’s mercy.
The beautiful thing is that the more humble we are here on earth, the more exalted we will be in Heaven! Jesus Himself tells us in the Gospel today that, “whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
We see this played out in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who, during her life on earth, perfectly embodied this most important of virtues. And now in Heaven she is the most powerful, glorious, and exalted saint of all!
Our Gospel makes another point that we should carefully heed. That is that we should be careful of judging both others and ourselves. The Pharisee makes two critical errors: thinking too highly of himself, and too quickly thinking poorly of the tax collector.
When we see others commit sin, especially if the sin is grave, we are often quick to impugn the character of that person, often ascribing to them motives that we have no way of knowing are present in that person’s mind and heart.
And yet at the same time, when we are caught in a serious sin, how often do we make excuses for our behavior? How often do we hold others to a higher standard than we hold ourselves? How often do we think more of ourselves than we really should?
During this past year I’ve made it a point to speak a lot about the nature of sin. This is because I want you to understand, brothers and sisters, that sin is an affliction, a cancer.
It is the most destructive force in the universe, capable of robbing a person of eternal salvation – and there’s no greater tragedy than that.
If we do not quickly repent of a sin or if we fail to root out a sin from our lives, it quickly becomes an enslaving habit. And if the habitual sin is mortal, its binding power is all the more fierce, making it even harder to be free of it.
So while sin is an affliction that one brings upon himself through his own choices, as we consider sin’s cancerous and destructive power, we can see that our fellow sinners are in need of our pity more than they are in need of our wrath and judgment.
The truth of the matter is that we never know what circumstances have led a person to commit the sins he commits. So we mustn’t judge their hearts.
But let’s be clear about something: having pity on a fellow sinner doesn’t mean that we should ever excuse sin. Sin not only hurts the sinner and those around him, it is an offense to God and should therefore be always avoided, and at all cost.
So while we should never judge another person’s heart, we are called to judge actions.
If we see that someone is doing something wrong, we should – in charity to that person andout of love for God – point that out to them, for correcting or admonishing a sinner is a
spiritual work of mercy.

But our aim in correcting others should never be to appease our own anger or to inflate ourown sense of self-righteousness. Rather, because sin is so destructive, our aim should always
be that person’s repentance and freedom from the cancer of sin.

This is especially important for parents to remember as they admonish their children. Whileit is natural for parents to get angry when they see their children sin, anger mustn’t be the
driving factor in correcting a child; concern for their soul should be!

If ever we find it difficult to admonish a fellow sinner without pride or rashness of judgment,we would do well to consider our own sins and our own need for mercy.
Again, this is why the virtue of humility is so very necessary! Humility helps us to see thatwhenever a person sins, even if they sin against us, it is still God Who is most offended by
the sin. And humility reminds us of the many times we wronged others.

As we call to mind our own sins, humility helps us to bear wrong patiently, which is anotherspiritual work of mercy.
My brothers and sisters, each of us is a sinner in needs of God’s mercy. Let us then bear withone another patiently, correcting each other as necessary out of love.
And let us always strive to confess our own sins and faults courageously and humbly so thatwe may always be pleasing in God’s sight and receive His mercy.
Our Lady, Virgin Most Powerful and Refuge of Sinners

27 October 2013

© Reverend Timothy Reid

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

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

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Blessed John Henry Newman, the great 19th century English convert and preacher, once wrote that: “Life is short, death is certain, and the world to come is everlasting.”
And because of these three simple truths, Blessed John, as well as all the saints throughout history, have encouraged us to spend our earthly lives preparing for Heaven. That’s really the primary message of our readings today, i.e., that we must be prepared to meet our Lord.
Coming from the same chapter of the Gospel of Luke, our Gospel today follows upon last Sunday’s Gospel quite well.
Last Sunday’s Gospel reminded us of the dangers of being attached to the things of this world, while this Sunday’s Gospel encourages us to store up riches in Heaven so that we might be well prepared for meeting our Lord.
Like last Sunday, today’s Gospel reminds us of the necessity of preparing for the afterlife, but this Sunday we are also told that our Lord has certain expectations of us based upon the natural gifts, talents, and graces He has given us in this life.
Yet even though our Gospel speaks of judgment and punishment and the expectations our Lord has of us, there is great hope expressed in our readings as well. Specifically our readings call us to live with faith in God’s goodness.
Living in this way: conscious that we will one day face judgment for our earthly lives, yet hopeful in God’s mercy and in His desire to save us from our sins, is at the heart of the Christian understanding of God and of how our relationship with Him should be ordered.
Specifically, our Catholic faith teaches us that there is a certain balance to be struck in the way we approach our Lord and relate to Him. Having a properly ordered relationship with God now while we live on earth prepares us to meet Him face to face in eternity.
By faith we know that God is our loving Creator, Who has endowed each of us with certain blessings and talents that He expects us to use in a way that glorifies Him. In short, our Lord expects a certain return on His investment in us.
Moreover, our Lord gives each person every grace necessary to be saved, and He implants within our hearts an understanding of His laws – of what is truly right and wrong – so that we may live according to His commandments. This is why God has certain expectations of us.
Yet while there is a certain fear that is appropriate in our relationship with God, our Lord also encourages us to trust in Him and in His promise of mercy.
As Jesus says to His disciples today: “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.”
Look at the tenderness of our Lord’s words to us! In these words we can see that God wants to save us, and that He wants us to have faith in His desire to save us!
My dear brothers and sisters, our God is a mighty God to be sure, One Who is all-powerful and all-knowing. He is the Creator and Ruler of all things. Nothing exists or remains in existence without Him.
And yet despite His ineffable greatness, He remains a personal God – One we can come to know. He is a God of love, a God of mercy. He is a God Who suffers both with and for His people. He is a Good Shepherd Who sees us as His flock.
And it’s for these reasons most of all that we should have faith in His power and desire to save us from our sins. Indeed, faith in God must be the foundation of our relationship with
Him. It is a properly formed faith that rightly orders our relationship with God – helping us

to both love and fear Him – and thus preparing us to meet Him.

The first reading from the Book of Wisdom speaks of the faith the ancient Israelites had intheir covenant with God. The Israelites knew that they were God’s chosen people and that
He would save them from their foes.

Certainly our Lord did just that when He delivered them from the slavery of the Egyptiansand eventually led them into the Promised Land.
Yet let us remember that our Lord did not lead the Israelites directly to the Promised Landafter freeing them from the cruel slavery of Egypt. Because of their lack of faith that led
them into sin, they had to wander in the desert for 40 years.

But once their faith was purified and strong, our Lord once again did mighty deeds in themidst, and the Israelites were allowed to enter into the Promised Land, the great
foreshadowing of our hope of entering Heaven.

The passage from the Letter to the Hebrews describes for us the essence of faith and its linkto our hope for salvation, as we see so perfectly lived out by Abraham.
Abraham’s faith was tested in incredible ways by our Lord, yet he nevertheless was obedientto all that the Lord bid him to do, confident in the promises the Lord made to him.
Ultimately, our readings today call us to examine what we believe about God and whether ornot we are living our lives according to our beliefs. Ultimately our readings call us to
examine our faith in the Lord.

My dear brothers and sisters, do you believe that our Lord in Heaven wants to save you fromyour sins that you might enjoy eternal life? Do you believe that He loves you and is giving
you every grace you need to be saved?

Do you believe as well that He will be our judge, and that one day we will have to make anaccount for both the good and the evil we have committed in this life?
If so, then be sure to live your life in a way that is consistent with this belief! “Gird yourloins and light your lamps, and be like servants who await their master’s return from a
wedding, ready to open immediately when He comes and knocks.”

Remember: “Life is short, death is certain, and the world to come is everlasting.” And while our Lord is faithful to His promise of mercy for those who fear Him, once we have died, we must be ready to face His judgment.
Therefore, let us draw near to His altar, knowing full well that we are sinners who mustn’t presume upon our own merits, but who are confident, nonetheless, in His great compassion and mercy.
Let us turn to our God and call upon His mercy, displaying to Him our wounds, seeking from Him forgiveness for our sins and failures, and hastening to Him for divine protection.
And let us do this all with an unwavering faith, a faith like that of Abraham, that we may indeed be those faithful and prudent stewards who are ready for their Master’s return.

11 August 2013

© Reverend Timothy Reid

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

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

Link to Homilies:
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• Today is an extraordinary day in the life of the Church, for today is Divine Mercy Sunday, and it is the day that two of our more recent popes: Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II, are being canonized!
• The canonization of Pope John Paul II today is especially important, for it was John Paul II who gave us this remarkable feast of Divine Mercy Sunday in 2000.
• More remarkable even still, John Paul II died on the vigil of this feast in 2005, and he was beatified on this same feast day in 2011.
• Many of you are familiar with St. Faustina, the Polish nun who received apparitions of our Lord Jesus in the 1930s. In these visions our Lord asked St. Faustina to spread a message around the world.
• The message from our Lord was simple: that God’s mercy is deeper and richer and greater than any of us can ever imagine – and that it is available to all mankind, most especially the worst of sinners.
• Jesus first appeared to St. Faustina in 1931, dressed in white and holding His left hand to His chest while holding His right hand as if giving a blessing – as can be seen in the Divine Mercy image.
• From our Lord’s wounded chest flowed two rays: one of red, denoting blood; the other of a lighter shade, denoting water – just as flowed from His side pierced by the centurion’s lance. The pale ray stands for the water that makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the Blood that is the life of souls.
• Upon appearing to St. Faustina in this way, Jesus said to her: “These two rays issued forth from the very depths of My tender mercy when My agonized heart was opened by a lance on the Cross. These rays shield souls from the wrath of My Father. Happy is the one who dwells in their shelter, for the just hand of God shall not lay hold of him.”
• Jesus appeared to St. Faustina because He wants us to receive His mercy now while we are alive on earth, for after we die we must face His justice. And without His mercy, we will perish. Please understand: none of us will make it to Heaven on our own merits. His mercy is our only hope for Heaven.
• Thus, Our Lord desired that this Sunday after Easter be consecrated to His Divine Mercy, and of this feast Jesus said to St. Faustina:
I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. (Divine Mercy in My Soul, n. 699.)
• If you’ve never taken the time to read St. Faustina’s Diary, which is called Divine Mercy in My Soul, I cannot recommend it highly enough to you. For in reading this diary, one is given a clear understanding of the great love our Lord has for all sinners – and how much He desires to give us sinners His mercy.
• Truly, it’s one of the Church’s greatest spiritual treasures from the 20th century. Not only does it tell us of God’s incredible and inexhaustible mercy, but it also tells us how to live a life of mercy, to be merciful to others by treating them with true Christian charity.
• In short, our Lord wants us to know that His love and mercy are greater than any sins we can ever commit. He wants us to know that He loves us no matter how great our sins may be.

• Truly, Jesus is offering us more than just forgiveness for sins. He desires to give us incredible graces to heal and strengthen our souls from whatever spiritual maladies we may suffer from.
• So today is a day of mercy for us. Thus, it is a day for miracles. I encourage all of you to take the time to consider the areas of your lives that are most in need of God’s mercy and healing and to ask for a miracle of mercy!
• Furthermore, Jesus was emphatic with St. Faustina that this devotion to His Divine Mercy is important, because as He said to her: “You will prepare the world for My final coming. (DMIMS, n. 429).
• That’s why today’s feast is so important. According to Saint Faustina’s diary, Jesus said of this feast day:
I am giving them the last hope of salvation; that is, the Feast of My Mercy. If they will not adore My mercy, they will perish for all eternity… tell souls about this great mercy of Mine, because the awful day, the day of My justice, is near. (DMIMS, n. 965)
• And so there is very definitely an urgency in Christ’s words to St. Faustina, an urgency that perhaps our Lord’s 2nd coming isn’t that far in the offing. So today is also a day to think about our sins and truly repent of them.
• But even if the end of the world is still a long way away, we certainly never know when we will die. Any of us can be called to judgment at any time. So we must take advantage of the great graces being held out to us today!
• In fact, any Catholic who attends Mass and receives Holy Communion today, goes to confession within 20 days, and offers prayers for the intentions of the Holy Father, may receive a plenary indulgence for the remission of sin.
• As always, we should do these things “in a spirit that is completely detached from the affection for a sin, even a venial sin.” (Apostolic Penitentiary Decree)
• So that we might all take part in these graces, I ask all of you to please kneel and to reflect for a moment on your sins. Think as well on any areas of your life in which you need a miracle of mercy.
• Together we will first recite An Act of Contrition, followed by an Our Father and the Creed, and the phrase “Jesus, I trust in You” three times. As we do, make a firm act of the will to reject all of your sins and repent of them. Confidently ask as well for any miracle of mercy you may need.

© 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:
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• On Holy Thursday night we remembered Christ as our great high priest as He instituted for us the inseparable gifts of the priesthood and the Eucharist, and as He showed us how to love one another through the humble acts of charity.
• On Good Friday we wept as our great high priest became our paschal lamb. Though priest, Christ incredibly became the innocent victim for our sins, dying a terrible and shameful death – for us and yet because of us.
• And today we celebrate Christ as our conqueror; we celebrate the fact that the Victim has become the Victor! And we, the sheep of His flock, get to share in the glory of His victory – even though we were cause of His victimhood.
• It is for this reason that, of all the great feasts Holy Mother Church celebrates, this feast: Easter – is the greatest of them all! For this is our feast of victory: victory over sin, victory over death, victory over the father of lies and all his minions.
• This is the day that our faith is confirmed, our hope is renewed, and our charity is enflamed!
• And all that remains for us now is to ensure that this victory be not hollow by falling again into the terrible bonds of sin and death, by falling back into our former ways of life.
• At the beginning of Lent, I mentioned that the great Cistercian abbot, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, once wrote that, “The capacity of any one’s soul is judged by the amount of love one possesses” (SBoC: Song of Songs, 27:10).
• His point was that, even though our souls are not material in nature, they have a spiritual capacity to expand or contract, and the more one practices the virtues – especially charity – the more the soul expands.
• And as the soul expands, the soul becomes a more spacious dwelling place for God, and consequently it takes on a greater likeness to God.
• Throughout the past 40 days of Lent, we have taken on the soul-expanding exercises of prayer, fasting, and alms-giving. And in a particular way this Lent, I asked all of you on Ash Wednesday to make reparation for sin – our own and those of the whole world.
• When we make reparation for our sins, we cannot help but grow in charity, for doing so makes our relationship with God whole again – enabling us to love Him more fully.
• Our sins damage our relationship with God, and while our Lord so graciously forgives us whenever we ask for His forgiveness in the confessional, we must still make up for the injustice we have committed against Him by our sins.
• When we make reparation for the sins of others humbly and with a generous heart, our souls expand greatly – for by doing this, we imitate well our Lord, Who with love and generosity beyond compare, gave Himself up to suffering and death so that our sins might be forgiven.
• Now as we celebrate this magnificent feast of Easter, we must ask ourselves if we are willing to continue this soul-expanding pursuit of holiness that we began in Lent.
• Will we continue growing in virtue and self-mastery, or will our old selves prevail?
• My friends, let us not waste the grace that we have received these past 40 days, and let
us not waste the grace of Easter that we are now receiving! Instead let us allow the grace of Lent and Easter to continue transforming and sanctifying us!
• This process of personal transformation and sanctification began, though, not just with Lent, but with our baptism. And today is the day above all others when we should renew our commitment to living a life of holiness.
• In fact immediately after the homily, the Church includes a renewal of our baptismal promises as part of the Easter liturgy. And at that time we will all make the promise the renounce sin so as to live in the freedom of God’s children.
• We will renounce the lure of evil, and we will renounce satan himself. And we will reaffirm all the central tenets of our Catholic faith.
• But my dear friends in Christ, let us do so with integrity of heart and firmness of will. Now that Easter is here, we must not slip back into lives of sin and indifference.
• Let us celebrate with joy this feast of our salvation. Let us honor our Lord, Who is both Priest and Victim, for His great work of redemption, but let us do so by living a life of genuine holiness that increases the love we bear in our souls.
• May our Lord bless all of you abundantly this Easter season!

© 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