• For those of you [who will be baptized at Easter or] who come to the Easter Vigil in a few weeks, you will hear the remarkable prayer of blessing of water for baptism.
• This prayer is remarkable because it walks us through salvation history and shows us how God has used water as a rich symbol of the grace that comes to us through the Sacrament of Baptism, namely, sanctifying grace, which is the grace of salvation!
• The prayer recalls how God’s Spirit hovered over the waters in the first moments of the world’s creation; it reminds us of how, through the waters of the great flood, God brought an end to the world’s vice in Noah’s day and a made a new beginning of virtue.
• This prayer speaks of how the children of Abraham passed dry-shod through the Red Sea, set free from slavery to Pharaoh, while prefiguring the Sacrament of Baptism.
• This prayer also recalls how Jesus was baptized by St. John in the Jordan at the beginning of His ministry, and of how water and blood gushed forth from His side as He hung upon the cross at the end of His earthly life.
• And so through this prayer we hear how our Lord has used water throughout human history as a means of sanctifying us and of drawing us closer to Him.
• Water plays a prominent role in our readings today as we hear the story of the Israelites thirsting in the desert, and how our Lord brought forth water from a rock for His chosen people, providing for them in their every need, despite their unworthiness.
• Even more poignantly, in the Gospel today we hear of the Samaritan woman at the well, who at first was in search of only natural water, but who, after conversing with our Lord, desired the waters of ever-lasting life.
• In truth, all of us thirst for God. Indeed, the deepest longing of every human heart is to be united with our Lord, for eternal union with Him is why God created us. God designed us so that we would long for Him and seek Him out!
• Sadly, many people do not recognize that the thirst they feel deep inside is a thirst for God, and in an effort to slake their thirst, many people turn to the things of this world for fulfillment, just as the Samaritan woman sought to slake her thirst with men.
• But truly, God is the only thing that will ever fulfill us. He alone can slake that great thirst each of us feels within the depths of our souls. And God will only slake this great thirst if we unite ourselves to Him by living a life of holiness.
• For the past two weeks I’ve spoken about the soul-expanding process of becoming holy. As we begin our spiritual lives, growth in holiness comes about largely through our own efforts.
• Through the practices of fasting and prayer, and by seeking to detach ourselves from the things of this world, we prepare our souls for union with our Lord. But as we do these things, we often must contend with temptation and suffering.
• The evil one always knows when we are making progress in the spiritual life, and so he will always try to derail it by tempting us to sin and turn away from God.
• But the devil is not the only one who tests us. As I mentioned last Sunday, God often allows suffering to enter into our lives as a means of strengthening us and of helping us detach from earthly things so that we might become more attached to Him.
• Suffering is always a test because of our natural tendency to become angry with God when bad things happen. How we deal with suffering is a great measure of our faith, because suffering is always an invitation from Christ to join Him on Calvary.
• God doesn’t send us suffering because He wants us to suffer per se. Rather, God allows suffering to come into our lives so that we might become more like His Son!
• When we persevere in prayer and fasting, when we root out the grave sin in our lives, when we detach ourselves from worldly things and suffer with faith, hope, and charity, little by little, God begins to quench our great interior thirst.
• As we make progress in holiness and our souls expand, we begin to drink of our Lord’s water in prayer, which becomes in us a spring welling up to eternal life.
• As our union with God is strengthened, our prayer becomes less and less something that we do, and more and more something that God does within us. The more intent we are on doing the will of God, the more our Lord unites Himself to us in prayer.
• However, I think the real lesson of today’s Gospel is not that we thirst for God, but rather that God thirsts for us, and that He cannot resist a soul earnestly seeking truth.
• Keep in mind how shocking it was for Jesus even to be speaking to a Samaritan woman. There was bitter enmity between the Jews and the Samaritans, and thus the Jews and Samaritans typically had nothing to do with each other. Moreover, He was exhausted!
• Yet in our Gospel narrative we see Jesus not only engaging the woman at the well, but leading her down a path to conversion. He wants to win her soul, and so like a master fisherman, he sets to work reeling in this big fish!
• And through the course of their dialogue, the Samaritan woman responds to God’s grace. Not only is she open to talking to a Jewish man, but she humbly admits her sin, and shows a sincere desire to know more when He moves her away from the task of drawing water to seeking the water that wells up to eternal life.
• And as the woman at the well shows willingness to accept the true teachings that He is giving her, Jesus reveals His true identity, and not only does she profess belief in Him, but she shares her newfound faith with her neighbors.
• My brothers and sisters, we are all thirsty. Deep in our souls is a thirst that only union with God can quench. But for that thirst to be quenched, we must do our part to respond to the grace of conversion that He gives so generously to us all.
• But more importantly, God thirsts for us. He thirsts for our souls, and His greatest desire is that all of us join Him one day in Heaven. But again, we must do our part.
• May we continue steadfastly with our Lenten fasting, penances, and prayers that help us to be detached from worldly goods and more attached to God. May we be willing to turn away from temptation and endure all sufferings with faith, hope, and true love.
• And like the Samaritan woman at the well today, may we accept our Lord’s graces and drink deeply of His life-giving water so it may well up within us to 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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• As I mentioned last Sunday, with the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord two weeks ago, we are now in what is called “Ordinary Time” in the new liturgical calendar.
• This is the longest of the liturgical seasons, and it is dedicated to honoring the mystery of Christ in its fullness, and not just specific mysteries.
• But in some senses I wonder if “ordinary” is the best way to designate this period of the year, for since the Advent of our Lord’s Incarnation 2000 years ago, there really is nothing ordinary about time anymore.
• You see, the fact that our eternal and infinite Lord became man was no ordinary event. It was a wholly extraordinary event, as Christ’s conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary was an intersection between heaven and earth, between the invisible and the visible, between infinity and finitude, between eternity and time.
• Indeed, with the in-breaking of eternity into the finitude of time, time itself has now been radically changed: time has been sanctified.
• The rest of human history will always be marked and measured by our Lord’s presence on earth. The people of old understood this, and this is why when calendars in the western world were devised, a division was made between the time before our Lord’s birth and the time after it.
• The anno domini (“AD”) that we see with the number of the year together denote for us how many years it has been since that pivotal moment in human history when our Lord appeared in human flesh.
• Those secularists and academics who of late have been insisting that we change the designation “AD” to “CE” for “Common Era,” are actually denying our Lord’s Incarnation.
• In doing so they are denying the central event in human history: that God, in His love and mercy, became one of us. Not only are they denying this central event in human history, but they are also denying something fundamental to our human nature.
• You see, not only did our Lord’s Incarnation change and ennoble the very nature of time; it changed and ennobled human nature as well!
• We, who once were lost because of the disobedience of our first parents, now have the Savior so long awaited by God’s chosen people. Salvation has become possible! And our weak human flesh has found new dignity in our Lord’s taking it upon Himself.
• And the salvation that our Lord brings is not only for His chosen people. As Sts. Peter and Paul both discovered and agreed upon, God’s salvation is for all people, Jew and Gentile alike.
• Thus we have the beautiful words of Isaiah today in our first reading: “Anguish has taken wing, dispelled is darkness: for there is no gloom where but now there was distress. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone.”
• With our Lord’s incarnation and subsequent passion, death, and resurrection, sin no longer has to be the defining and central characteristic of human nature. For while it is true that we are still sinners, we are redeemed and can be saved despite our sins!
• This is a most crucial distinction that as Christians must direct our lives. This knowledge of our redemption must form our hearts, our minds, and thus our behavior!
• Again, as Isaiah tells us today: “For the yoke that burdened them, the pole on their shoulder, and the rod of their taskmaster you have smashed, as on the day of Midian.”
• Jesus Christ, our Incarnate Lord, is now our light and our salvation, and we who know Him and love Him may dwell in His house. We may gaze upon His loveliness and contemplate His temple! Thus, despair has no place in the heart of the Christian.
• While we still have our daily struggles with sin and temptation, Christ Jesus Himself is our remedy. And we need only to turn to Him with sorrow for our sins to receive that mercy that will open up for us the gates of Heaven!
• Thus we have in today’s Gospel Jesus giving us a very simple and direct command: “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” When our Lord says that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, I think we can understand this in two senses.
• First, there is the imperative sense in which our Lord is reminding us that we never know when we will have to face our Maker. There is an immediacy to His words, and He wants us to be ready at a moment’s notice for Heaven.
• But we must also remember that as Catholics, we know that Heaven can be experienced even now – at least in a limited and nascent way – through prayer and the Sacraments.
• You see, my dear brothers and sisters, Heaven isn’t so much a place as it is Person! In Heaven we will be united with our Triune Lord for all eternity. And through our prayer and the grace of the Sacraments, we can begin to experience Heaven even now!
• And so our lives as Christians should be a matter of continual repentance, always seeking to grow in holiness by the constant turning away from those sins that tempt us, and doing our best to correct our faults and failings.
• But today’s Gospel also shows us that the life of the Christian must also be marked and measured by our obedience to our Lord and our willingness to follow Him, just as we see in the apostle brothers Andrew and Peter and James and John today.
• I love this passage because in this little vignette from the life of Christ we see the power Jesus has to attract followers to Himself, a power strong enough to draw men away from their livelihoods, to drop everything and follow Him.
• What I believe must have drawn the apostles was the fullness of truth, beauty, and goodness that Christ possesses within Himself.
• This calling of Jesus that we see being given to the apostles is given to all men. On a most fundamental level, our Lord calls to each person through one’s conscience and the natural law. In the depths of our consciences, every man is given the opportunity to hear our Lord’s voice and to know what is right and wrong so that we might follow Him.
• But our Lord also calls to us more directly through the preaching of the Gospel, which has been the Church’s primary task ever since Pentecost.
• Every time we hear or read the Scriptures, every time we listen to a homily that is faithful to the Church’s teachings, we are called by Christ to follow Him, just as Andrew, Peter, James and John were called in our Gospel story.
• My brothers and sisters, in His mercy and love our eternal Lord has broken into the limits of time and become man. In doing so, He has not only ennobled time, but He has ennobled our human nature as well and made salvation possible.
• In His love and mercy, our Lord constantly calls each us to Himself. May we hear His voice and heed His call by repenting of our sins! May we whole-heartedly believe that Jesus is our light and our salvation so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its
meaning.
• May Jesus Christ be praised, now and forever!

© 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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The story of how the devil fell from grace through his rebellion against God is recorded for us in the Book of Revelation.
Faced with an eternity of loving and serving God and sharing in the Lord’s glory, or serving himself out of a devilish pride, the evil one chose to rebel against God in a complete and irrevocable way – taking, it is believed, a third of the angels with him.
Tradition tells us that his famous words of rebellion were: “Non serviam” – “I will not serve.” And with those words he set out to oppose God in every way, most especially by making war on God’s most precious creation: mankind.
Whether we recognize it or not, all of us are drawn into this war with the evil one on a daily basis, most especially through the temptations to sin that we regularly suffer.
We can see from his actions that the devil’s primary sin is pride, a pride that he expresses most especially in jealousy and a murderous hatred of God and man.
Our readings today speak to us about these primary sins of the devil: pride, jealousy and hatred. In presenting us with these readings, Holy Mother Church is warning us of the destruction these terrible sins can cause in our souls.
While all sin has a corrosive effect upon our souls, these sins and the other capital sins have a particularly damaging effect, and if left unchecked, will lead a soul to hell with expediency.
No doubt all of us have been tempted by each of these sins at some point in our life, and when these temptations come, we must guard ourselves carefully! For giving into these particularly destructive sins is an invitation to allow the devil to reign in our hearts.
We see each of these sins in the sentiments of the wicked men described for us in our reading from the Book of Wisdom. Truly, this reading shows forth the ugly side of man’s fallen nature in their desires to destroy the just man because he is just.
The wicked men know of the just man’s innocence and goodness, but their sins have hardened their hearts to such a degree that the just man’s very presence is a reproach to them.
Thus this reading gives us an example of how sin can harden our hearts and blind us to truth and goodness. While this passage is often understood to be a prophecy of Jesus’ passion and death, it shows us clearly how sin can devastate us morally.
This reading reminds us that we must choose who will reign in our hearts: either our Lord or the evil one. We must choose daily whom it is we will imitate, whom it is we will serve.
Our second reading also speaks of the sins of pride and jealousy, and St. James distinguishes for us the terrible fruits of these vices and the good fruits of true wisdom and righteousness.
St. James talks about what falling prey to our sinful passions can do to us. He tells us that: “where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice.”
He then asks: “Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from? Is it not from your passions that make war within your members?”
St. James’ point is that if we fail to fight against our sinful passions and inclinations, we will lose our inner peace, making us vulnerable to falling even deeper into sin.
The problem is that all of us are marked by concupiscence, which is a disordered attachment to sin. Concupiscence is man’s sad inheritance from our first parents, the direct result of Adam and Eve giving in to the temptations of the serpent in the garden so long ago.
So all of us, from time to time, feel that draw toward sin. And when our passions are inflamed and concupiscence is aroused, we often believe that giving into our temptations is the only way to find relief from the turbulence of our passions. But that’s a lie.
Giving in to our passions only inflames them all the more and allows concupiscence to grow even stronger within us. And when the sins we commit are mortal, we are robbed of our interior peace as our souls are robbed of grace and plunged into spiritual darkness.
Furthermore, the more we give into our sinful passions and inclinations, the less able we are to see the Truth and act in accord with it. Sin blinds us to the truth.
Sin also hardens our hearts, and if we fail to fight the sin in our life, our hearts can harden to the point that we begin to hate that which is good and holy – just like the wicked men in the first reading.
So a life of growing in holiness necessarily entails that we seek to order our selves rightly, learning to master our passions and our will so that we do not fall prey to sinful inclinations and so that we can align our wills with God’s most holy will.
The good news is that our inheritance from being created in the image and likeness of God is stronger and more fundamental than the concupiscence we have received from our first parents!
Through baptism God has stamped all of our souls with Himself. He has created each of us for glory, the glory of His only begotten sons! And it is God’s most holy will that all of us one day share in His glory in the eternity of Heaven.
Even if we have damaged ourselves through habitual mortal sin, even if we have lived a most sinful life, our Lord is capable of healing us and restoring us to full spiritual health. But in order for this to happen, we must align our wills with His most holy will.
This begins by learning to be humble, obedient, and charitable. This is the lesson the devil never learned: that true greatness is found in humility, obedience, and generous charity.
You see, humility rightly orders our relationship with God, and obedience and charity are the beautiful and good fruits of that right relationship that strengthen us in holiness.
The more we grow in humility, the more we see God and ourselves as we truly are. The more that we understand our relationship with God, the more we love God for Who He Is. The more that we know God and love God, the more we want to obey and serve Him.
In the Gospel today Jesus says to the 12 apostles: “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” Then taking a child and embracing him, Jesus tells the 12 that they must be ready to receive such a child in His name.
In these words and actions of Jesus, we see the virtues humility and charity extolled, and we hear the call to obey our Lord, just as the apostles were called to obey Him.
Jesus calls His disciples today to put away all ambitious pride, and He calls us to do the same. He calls us to follow Him, to serve Him, to be like Him. And it is in doing all this that we find holiness and are led along the path to Heaven.
My dear brothers and sisters, let us learn to turn away from all sin, especially the sins of pride, jealousy, and hatred, by strengthening ourselves against our passions and sinful inclinations. Instead, let us strive for humility, obedience and charity.
Let us refuse the proud pull of sin toward which the devil tempts us. Indeed, let us avoid sin at all cost, not only because of its corrosive effects on our souls, but also because of our love for God and our desire to be with Him for all eternity.
We all have to choose who will reign in our hearts. Let us choose Christ, and let our choice be strong: for the glory of God and for the salvation of our souls. May our Lady, Help of Christians, strengthen our resolve and lead us always to her Son.
23 September 2012

© Reverend Timothy Reid

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

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

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

 On our baptismal font is an inscription in mosaic that reads: Here a people of godly race are born of heaven; the Spirit gives them life in the fertile waters.
 This is part of a longer quote that Pope Sixtus III had inscribed in the baptistery of St. John Lateran, the mother Church of all Christendom, that continues: The Church-Mother, in these waves, bears her children like virginal fruit she has conceived by the Holy Spirit. Hope for the kingdom of heaven, you who are reborn in this spring, for those who are born but once have no share in the life of blessedness. Here is to be found the source of life, which washes the whole universe, which gushed from the wound of Christ. Sinner , plung e into the sacred f ountain to w ash a w a y y our sin. The w ater receiv es the old man, and in his place makes
the new man rise. Y ou wish to become innocent; cleanse y ourself in this ba th, w ha tev er y our b urden ma y be, Adam’s sin or your own. There is no difference between those who are reborn; they are one, in a single baptism, a single Spirit, a single faith. Let none be afraid of the number of the weight of their sins: those who are born of this stream will be made holy.
 Remarkable, isn’t it? In baptism we are reborn to new life; we are prepared for Heaven! Whatever sins we may enter with into the baptismal font are washed away so that we may become like Christ Himself! It is to this remarkable sacrament that we turn our eyes today.
 Throughout the course of every Christmas Season, we celebrate the very mysterious fact that some 2000 years ago, God became man and dwelt among us.
 While His birth in the obscurity of a stable in the backwater town of Bethlehem may seem counterintuitive for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, we know by faith that simply in choosing to be born for us, God chose to be known by us (St. Peter Chrysologus).
 The invisible and infinite Lord became visible, and we have seen His glory, the glory of the Father’s only begotten Son, full of grace and truth.
 And so it was that his earliest visitors were not only shepherds and farm animals, but also 3 kings from the East who, through the guidance of a wondrous star, came to adore Him and present Him with gifts befitting His sovereignty: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
 In this rather strange and astonishing event in the early life of Jesus, which we celebrated last Sunday with the Feast of the Epiphany, we recalled how God’s hidden presence as a tiny babe born to the Virgin Mary was made manifest to the whole world!
 Today, we celebrate a further manifestation of Christ’s divinity as He is baptized in the Jordan River by St. John the Baptist.
 For today we hear God the Father Himself attest to Jesus’ divinity as He says from Heaven: “You are my beloved Son; with You I am well pleased.”
 And Jesus’ divinity is made manifest to us not simply to show us that God desired to be one of us. Our Lord’s divinity is made manifest to us so that we might know for certain Who He Is and become like Him! And becoming like Christ begins in baptism.
 Just as a dove came to Noah in the ark, announcing that the flood waters washing away the sins of humanity had receded from the earth, so too now in Christ’s baptism do we witness another dove, the Holy Spirit, announcing that man’s shipwreck has come to an end (cf. Peter Chrysologus)!
 As water was the means for purifying the earth in the days of Noah, through the baptism of our Lord, water becomes once again the means of washing away humanity’s sins so that a new and eternal covenant with God can be formed.
 Though He was in no need of the healing and regenerative power of baptism, by being baptized Jesus shows us the way to eternal life! And as we step into those healing waters imbued with the power of the Holy Spirit, we enter into a life-giving covenant with our Lord.
 Throughout the course of the Old Testament we read time and time again of how our Lord formed covenants with His chosen people, the Israelites. And we read time and time again of how those covenants were broken through the sins of the Israelites.
 The Old Testament history of the Israelites is a story of promises made between God and man, and of those promises sadly and selfishly broken by man. It is a story of sin and its consequences, of mercy and redemption.
 Through it all, through all the terrible sins and infidelities of the Israelites, we see the constant willingness of God to take them back and to renew His covenant of love with them.
 Truly, their history is our history.
 For in Christ’s death and resurrection, a new and eternal covenant was formed with man, a covenant that we enter through the Sacrament of Baptism. Thus, our baptism is the inauguration of our relationship with Christ, opening to us a life of sanctifying grace.
 Through the grace of this sacrament and all the other sacraments, we are given everything we need to grow in a life of genuine holiness – for that is our call as Christians!
 To profess and practice the Christian faith, which begins with our baptism, is a vocation to holiness. So everyone who has been baptized is called to holiness; we are called to be saints!
 As St. Paul wrote to St. Titus in our second reading today, God’s grace is given to us so that we might “reject godless ways and worldly desires, and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age.”
 Through the “bath of rebirth,” we have been cleansed and saved, so that we might be God’s own people, “eager to do what is good.”
 And we are called to be saintly not simply for our own salvation, but that we might be “a light for the nations,” that we might “open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.”
 Indeed, holiness is never a gift solely for the one who is holy. Holiness is meant to be shared. We must be willing to encourage others to a life of holiness by living saintly lives.
 So, my dear brothers and sisters, as we delve into this new year with all sorts of resolutions, let us make the resolution to be a saint! In our baptism we were given the gifts of faith, hope, and charity. We were made members of the Body of Christ, and so we are His co-heirs: sons and daughters of God the Father with Jesus!
 Calling upon the graces of our baptism that are strengthened and renewed through our worthy reception of the sacraments, may we live our baptismal promise of obedience to the Lord well so that we may indeed be saints.
 And in choosing to be saints, may we each be another manifestation of Christ in the world!
13 January 2013 © Reverend Timothy Reid Fr. Reid is the pastor of St. Ann Catholic Church, Charlotte, NC Homilies from June 17, 2012 onward have audio. To enable the audio, lease go directly to Fr. Reid’s homily homilies and select the matching date. Link to Homilies: http://stanncharlotte.org/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=8&Itemid=61

• Today in the ancient calendar of the Church, we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family, our annual reminder that family life is one of God’s most precious gifts to mankind.
• Perhaps after spending the holidays with your family members some of you beg to differ! It’s a sad reality for us priests that we often spend these first weekends of the year hearing confessions of sins committed against family members during Christmas!
• Sometimes nothing shows us just how much we need our dear Lord to come to us as man and redeem us like spending time with family members celebrating a holiday! But let us not despair, my brothers and sisters.
• For today’s feast day is both a feast of hope, and a feast that challenges us to live our lives within our families in a holy fashion.
• This feast day is a feast of hope because in the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph we see the possibilities for familial bliss. In them we find just how wonderful and well- ordered family life can be.
• Theirs was a life of perfect harmony, a life in perfect accord with the Father’s will. But we should note well that this does not mean their family was without suffering.
• We get a sense of some of what they suffered in our Gospel story today as we hear of how of Mary and Joseph suffered while Jesus was lost for 3 days in the Temple. Truly, no family – no matter how well ordered – escapes suffering.
• Family life will always have some suffering, no matter how holy it’s members may be. Indeed, while following God’s will brings us peace, it often entails some amount of suffering, just as it did for Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
• What’s notable about the Holy Family is that they faced all of their sufferings with courage and with perfect obedience to God’s will. In doing so, Jesus, Mary and Joseph show us how to grow in holiness as we order our own families.
• Our epistle from St. Paul’s Letter to the Colossians gives us the basis for how to order our families properly, namely, that we should order our families with virtue.
• He tells us to put on: “mercy, benignity, humility, modesty, patience.” We are told to bear with one another, to forgive one another.” But above all, we are told to have charity, which he calls “the bond of perfection.”
• And even more, St. Paul calls us to seek out Christ’s peace, rejoicing in it in our hearts, and to be thankful. He tells us to allow the word of Christ to dwell within us, and to teach and admonish one another.
• Finally, St. Paul tells us to do all things in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. As we know from last Sunday’s Mass, there is great power in the Holy Name of Jesus – a power that not even the devil himself can overcome.
• So, in other words, as we live out our lives within our families, we should call upon the very power of Christ Himself so that all members of our families may grow in holiness. We should look to Christ to order our families properly.
• In the Rite of Marriage we are taught that marriage is a symbol of the love that Christ has for His Church. Therefore, marriage and family life should be ordered in a way that resembles the ordering of Holy Mother Church.
• As we all know, the Church has a hierarchy, with Christ as its head. Jesus is the Bridegroom, and we – the members of His Body – are His bride. Christ is our leader.
• If we were to continue reading from this same chapter of Colossians that we hear in our epistle today, we would find how St. Paul says that family life should be ordered.
• Namely, it is the husband who exercises the role of Christ within the domestic church.
• Therefore, the proper structure of family life calls husbands to lead and direct the
family as its head, while wives, placing themselves under their husband’s leadership
and protection, are called to be the heart of the family.
• St. Paul also reminds us of the duty children have to be obedient to their parents in all
things, always respectfully trusting in the authority of their parents.
• At the same time parents must make sure to treat their children well, not provoking
them or causing them to be discouraged in any way.
• But most importantly, St. Paul reminds us that we must in all things put on love. True
love must govern all of our familial relationships.
• To love someone means that we will, that we desire, what is best for that person. But
true love is also sacrificial, meaning that we must be willing to give of ourselves, to
sacrifice our own wants and desires, for the sake of those whom we love.
• When it comes to family life, showing love for one another ultimately requires that each
family member put aside all selfishness in order to care for the needs of the others.
• In practical terms this means that children should always share with their siblings,
giving deference to their brothers and sisters. It also means that kids should be quick to
obey their parents without complaint or hassle.
• For parents true familial love requires seeking first the salvation of your children,
placing that as the highest good. This in turn requires that you protect them from the evil and harmful influences that are so prevalent in our society, especially in the various forms of media.
• It means that you teach them our Catholic faith, ensuring that your children go to Mass each Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation, and that they receive the Sacraments. It means that you teach your children to pray, and to love and honor God.
• For spouses, true familial love is best expressed in constantly looking for ways to serve your spouse, caring for their needs above your own. It means praying for and with your spouse. It requires warm affection and a ready forgiveness when necessary.
• Ultimately, true familial love demands that we be willing to undergo any suffering whatsoever to help ensure that our family members go to Heaven. It means that we be willing to die to self for the sake of our family members.
• My dear brothers and sisters, family life is one of God’s greatest gifts to us. Let us strive to live it well, not simply for the natural pleasures that can be derived from it, but so that we can better prepare ourselves for eternal life with our heavenly family.

© 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 medieval times if you walked into a Catholic church, you would often find a curious architectural element called a rood screen, which separated the nave (where the pews are) from the chancel (the part of the sanctuary containing the altar).
 Often elaborately carved and decorated, the rood screen served to demarcate the most sacred part of the church, but it also partially obscured the view of the altar so that worshippers in the nave could not always see clearly what the priest was doing.
 The point of the rood screen was to remind the faithful that, like the Holy of Holies in the Jewish Temple, there are some places that are sacred, where only the priest should enter.
 But the rood screen also reminded people that what takes place at the altar during Mass is a mystery – a mystery that none of us will ever fully understand in our earthly lives. Thus, this architectural element was really an invitation to us to strengthen our faith.
 It was a reminder that there is more than meets the eye when it comes to Mass, and that what is necessary to penetrate the mystery of the Mass is not good eyesight, but the eyes of faith.
 While we no longer use rood screens in Catholic churches, we have retained some liturgical elements that remind us of the mysterious nature of the Mass, things like incense, Latin, and even when a priest uses the ad orientem posture at Mass.
 The smokiness of incense obscures our vision just a bit to heighten the sense of mystery. And Latin, too, because most of us cannot understand it, acts as a sort of auditory veil that reminds us that God and the mysteries of our Faith are ineffable.
 When a priest faces ad orientem, i.e., toward the East, so that only his back is visible to the faithful in the pews, what’s taking place on the altar is obscured from view, also heightening the sense of mystery at Mass.
 After the priest consecrates the bread and wine at Mass, he says: “The Mystery of Faith.” These words are a statement of fact that what is taking place is indeed a mystery. But these words are also an invitation to enter, by faith, into the mystery of the Mass.
 In the past 5 1⁄2 years we’ve modified our liturgy here at St. Ann’s considerably, in large part to heighten the sense of mystery and to make it clear that the Mass is not reducible to a coalition of ministries. The Mass is so much more than that.
 Mass is not something we “do”, nor is it an event that we merely attend like a baseball game. Rather the Mass should be something that we are swept up into.
 Actively participating at Mass does not require you to be an usher, or a lector, or sing in the choir. While I’m so grateful to all of you who help in these ways, true participation in the Mass happens by entering into its mystery through prayer.
 We actively participate in the Mass by fervently praying through it, offering ourselves and those we love to God the Father, just as Christ – in the person of the priest – offers Himself to the Father, serving as both Victim and Priest.
 As we prayerfully participate in the Mass, we are taken to Calvary, and the sacrifice our Lord made of Himself upon the altar of the cross is re‐presented to us in an unbloody fashion. This is a mystery that we experience every Mass, and it’s remarkable!
 Throughout the course of the liturgical year, we celebrate many mysteries of our faith. In this, the Christmas Season, we focus on the mystery of the Incarnation: that God became man, and did so without any loss of His divinity.
 And not only did our Lord become man, but He humbly became a helpless baby, born miraculously of a virgin, and laid in a manger to be adored by shepherd and king alike.
 Our second window on the left side of the church shows us an image of today’s feast: the Epiphany. Here we see our infant Lord being presented with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh by the three Magi from the East, with the star that guided them to Bethlehem in the background.
 In this event we see our Lord being made manifest to the world, as He is worshipped and adored by the three wise men – giving credence that what we believe by faith is true.
 The Epiphany reminds us that the tiny child whose birth we celebrated 12 days ago is noordinary child. He is the Word‐made‐Flesh, the eternal king!
 In the adoration of the Magi, who are from a foreign land, we see that the newborn Christis the Savior of all people, Jew and Gentile alike.
 Because Christ was born so that He might save us from our sins, it’s a tradition toannounce the dates of the Easter mysteries on Epiphany, as we did after the Gospel. Thisproclamation reminds us of all that hinged upon Christ’s birth: our very salvation!
 Indeed, He is the light that shines in the darkness, the light that dispels the thick clouds ofsin and darkness that cover the peoples. So we are told in our first reading to “rise up insplendor,” for our “light has come,” and that “the glory of the Lord shines upon [us].”
 But while we may know this to be true, being 2000 years removed from the miraculous and mysterious events of our Lord’s life can leave us a bit slow to believe, can it not?
 The demands and frantic pace of daily life, coupled with the allure of worldly things and the brutal assaults on the veracity of our faith by our media, culture, and even our government can also erode and debilitate our faith in God and His Church.
 And because the mysteries of our Faith are precisely that: mysteries, we cannot rely on our senses and our intellects alone to bring us to certitude. It is only by faith that these mysteries can be grasped – a faith bolstered by hope and strengthened by charity.
 So as we consider the great mystery of our Lord becoming man so that He might die for our sins, we must be willing to strengthen our faith so that we might believe as we should, not only for our salvation – but also to render our Lord the proper respect.
 And the way that we strengthen our faith, my dear brothers and sisters, is through a living relationship with our Lord that we build through prayer. That begins here at Mass! By prayerfully entering into the Mass, we enter into a relationship with Christ!
 As we begin this new year, I urge you to make the resolution to go to Mass each Sunday and holy day of obligation.
 Holy Mother Church obliges her children to go to Mass every Sunday and Holy Day of obligation not because she’s a strict mother, but so that you won’t miss out on your relationship with Christ.
 And at Mass, make it a point to pray ‐ as best as you are able. Set aside all else for this one hour each week and allow yourself to be swept up into the mystery of it all so that you may truly pray.
 As you do, ask our blessed Lord to manifest Himself to you – just as He manifested Himself to those three wise men so long ago. God withholds Himself from no one who perseveres in prayer (St. Teresa of Ávila).
 And when He does manifest Himself, respond in kind by giving Him your best: not gold, frankincense, or myrrh, but a true and lively faith, bolstered by the hope of Heaven, and strengthened by charity toward your neighbor.
 So much of our faith is a mystery, a mystery that we can grasp only with the eyes of faith. May we all make the effort to strengthen our faith while on earth so that we will be well prepared to enjoy the mysteries that will be revealed to us in Heaven.

Microsoft Word – Epiphany – 2013

06 January 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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• In the 12th and 13th centuries, there arose in southern France and parts of northern Italy a heresy of great vigor and violence known as the Albigensian Heresy.
• The Albigensians were dualists who believed that the material world, including our bodies, were evil, while the spiritual or non-material world, including our souls, were good.
• Because of this they advocated suicide, especially by starvation, as a means of freeing one’s soul from its evil body. They also eschewed marriage, and they didn’t believe in the divinity of Jesus. As such, they were a menace to both Church and state.
• In fact, as the Albigensians grew in strength and in numbers, they worked zealously to subvert the teachings of Holy Mother Church, opposing her Sacraments and all of her teachings, in particular her belief in the Incarnation.
• For decades this heresy threatened the Church spiritually and materially, until in 1274 at the Council of Lyons, devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus was encouraged.
• With the ferocity of their denial of the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, came a concomitant increase in blasphemy amongst the Albigensians.
• Thus the fathers of the Council of Lyons believed that faithful Catholics should be encouraged in their devotion of the Lord’s Holy Name as a means of making reparation for and combating the blasphemy of the Albigensians.
• And thus through the diligent efforts of the Dominicans in the 13th century and the Franciscans in the 14th and 15th centuries, especially St. Bernadine of Siena, devotion to our Lord’s Holy Name began to spread throughout Europe.
• And it must have worked, for how many Albigensians do you know?
• Now, centuries later, our liturgy and our churches are very commonly marked by this
important devotion to our Lord’s name. This is why it is customary to doff our birettas
and bow our heads whenever we hear the name of Jesus.
• This is why it is so common to find the Holy Monogram of our Lord’s Name inscribed in
churches, just as we have it here under our tabernacle and as I have it embroidered on
this chasuble.
• What must be understood about this devotion to the Holy Name is that we do not
reverence our Lord’s Holy Name because we think it to be a magical formula that drives
away evil and procures for us whatever we desire.
• Rather, when we speak the name of Jesus we are reminded of all the grace and mercy
we receive from Him – of all that He has done for us.
• Just as Catholics devoutly kiss the crucifix on Good Friday as a means of honoring our
Lord’s Passion and death, so too do we honor His Holy Name as a means of thanking
Jesus for His many blessings to us and acknowledging His omnipotence.
• Our reverence for our Lord’s Holy Name is a sign of our love for Him; it’s a sign of our
gratitude to Him for being our Redeemer; it’s a sign of our submission to Him.
• Of course while we know the Holy Name is not a magical incantation, there is power in
our Lord’s Name, and Sacred Scripture reveals to us this power.
• In his letter to the Philippians, St. Paul teaches us that, because Jesus humbled Himself
and became obedient unto death, God the Father bestowed upon Him the name that is above every other name, and “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those
in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” [Phil 2:10-11.]
• In the Gospel of Mark Jesus tells His apostles before ascending into Heaven that, “These
signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. They will pick up serpents [with their hands], and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” [Mk 16:17-18.]
• The Book of Acts gives us proof of this as the apostles healed the lame and even raised the dead by confidently invoking the Name of Jesus (cf. Acts 3:6, 9:34, 9:40).
• And so we see how confidently calling upon our Lord’s Holy Name can bring us help in our needs. Indeed, in the Gospel of John, Jesus tells us that, “whatever you ask the Father in my name He will give you,”(Jn 16:23), which is why we commonly conclude our prayers with the words: “through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
• The Church’s experience with spiritual warfare over the centuries has also taught us that the devil and his demons fear even the utterance of the name of Jesus, for they, like the angels that did not fall, know all too well how efficacious our Lord’s name is.
• Think of all the stories in Scripture in which the demons were powerless to disobey our Lord when He commanded them to leave a person whom they were tormenting.
• And so our Lord’s name, when uttered confidently and with His authority, still has the power today to deliver us from the snares of evil.
• So as we devoutly honor our Lord’s Holy Name today, let us not simply bow our heads in customary homage, but let us bow our hearts and minds as well to that infant who is both King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
• May we confidently and devoutly rely on our Lord’s power by having regular recourse to His Holy Name. And as we do, may we grow ever more in love with Him.
• May Jesus Christ be praised, now and forever!

© 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

While most of the world calls this day “New Year’s Day,” today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. And nowadays – some 2000 years after Mary’s life on earth – we don’t even blink at this audacious title.
But if we stop for a moment and think about this title, we might be a bit confused. How can anyone be called the Mother of God?
God is eternal, and is therefore unborn. He existed before time began; He is unbegotten. It is He Who made everything and holds everything in being. So how can God have a mother?
The early Church fathers wrestled with this very question, and in fact they were so reluctant to give her this title that it took them 400 years to do so.
The title “Theotokos” – which means “God-Bearer” – was not accorded to Mary until 431 AD at the Council of Ephesus – a full four centuries after the death of Christ! And this was done only amidst great controversy and division. But it is ultimately from this council that we get today’s feast.
What we must understand about this feast is that it does not stand alone. To fully appreciate it the richness of it, we must understand it in connection with the great solemnity we celebrated just one week ago: Christmas!
In fact, today’s Gospel returns us to the Christmas story. What the Church is telling us with this Gospel is that we can only understand Mary’s virginal motherhood by looking at the Incarnation.
Very simply put, Mary is called “Theotokos”, she is called the “Mother of God” because God the Father chose to send His Son, Jesus, the eternal Word in Whom and through Whom all things were made, into this world.
And why did He do this? St. Paul gives us the answer in today’s second reading. He tells us that God sent His son to ransom those under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons! In other words, He sent His son to save us by making us His very own.
But today’s feast is not only connected to Christmas. To fully appreciate Mary’s role as Mother of God, one must look at all of the great Marian feasts.
For example, for God to bring about the miracle of the Incarnation, He needed a vehicle, someone who would be willing to say “yes” to bearing His Son.
But even before He could ask someone to bear His Son, He needed to preserve her from all stain of sin so that she would be worthy to bear the Christ Child. By a singular grace, God preserved Mary from all stain of original sin – she was immaculately conceived.
And because of this grace, she was asked by God through the Archangel Gabriel to bear the Christ Child – a miracle we recall every March 25 with the Feast of the Annunciation.
And because Mary said “yes” at the Annunciation, the Word was made flesh: Christ was born of Mary: the mystery we call the Incarnation, which we know from St. Paul is really the mystery of God procuring our salvation.
As a result of receiving the singular grace of being immaculately conceived and saying yes to God, Mary receives the august title “Mother of God” – because it is she
who bore Jesus, who is the second person of the Blessed Trinity and who is our Lord and Savior. God further honors Mary at the end of her life by assuming her, body and soul, into heaven.

The point is that today’s feast, as well as all of the great Marian feasts, are all part of the mystery of our salvation. Mary is not some passive spectator in salvation history: she is an integral part of it. Without her “yes”, we would be in big trouble! And the Church, in recognizing this, accords her great honor with the title “Mother of God.”
My friends, as we begin this new year, let us remember that while Mary does not of herself bring about our salvation, as Catholics we know that she does play an indispensable part!
Therefore, let us pray earnestly for Our Lady’s intercession in our own lives so that she may help each of us along our own personal roads to salvation. She is God’s Mother, and therefore she is our mother too.
Have a happy and blessed new year!
1 January 2012

© Reverend Timothy Reid

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

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

Link to Homilies:
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