In the north transept of the ancient and magnificent cathedral of Lyon, France, is one of the most interesting clocks in the world.
Dating from the 14th century, this astronomical clock keeps track of not only the hours of each day, but also the dates of both the regular calendar and our Catholic liturgical calendar.
The most fascinating part of this clock is its different automatons that come to life at various hours of the day, giving the clock an entertaining quality while it calculates and marks the feast days of saints as well as the position of the stars above Lyon each night.
Truly an engineering marvel, this clock has delighted and fascinated pilgrims and visitors of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Lyon for centuries. But more importantly, this clock and its automatons teach us something about time and about our Catholic faith.
As the automatons move about at various hours, they depict the Annunciation, the moment when the Archangel Gabriel announced to Mary that, though a virgin, she would conceive and bear the Christ Child.
And by uttering her fiat of assent to the divine will, the Word was made flesh. The infinite Lord, Who lives outside of time, took on the finitude of human flesh and entered into time. God became man, and the world has never been the same.
So this beautiful old clock in Lyon reminds us so cleverly of the most important moment in human history. And as it marks hours, days, and years of time, this clock points us to a greater reality that exists beyond time: it points us toward eternity.
By calling to mind the most important moment in human history: the moment God became man, we are reminded that it is our deepest hope as Christians that we men will someday become like God as we are united with Him eternally in Heaven.
Time is an important element of our faith. The reckoning of time by the Church has become a bit complicated since the reform of the liturgical calendar that came with Vatican II.
For parishes like our own that offer both the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms of the Mass, and therefore follow both the old and the new liturgical calendars, days like today can be difficult!
While both the old and the new liturgical calendars recognize October 28 as the Feast of the Apostles Simon & Jude, in the old calendar the last Sunday of October is the Feast of Christ the King, while in the new calendar today is simply the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
But the complexity of calendars and feast days heightens our awareness of just how seriously the Church considers time. For while we certainly hope to live one day in the eternity of Heaven, whether or not we do so depends on how we spend our time on earth.
So time is important to us Catholics, especially considering that none of us knows just how much time we will have to prepare for eternity.
Recognizing the power of time, occasionally Holy Mother Church will set aside a year for the Church at large to ponder upon a particular mystery of our Catholic Faith. In the past we’ve had years dedicated to Mary, to the priesthood, and the Eucharist.
Recently our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, proclaimed a Year of Faith beginning on October 11, 2012, and concluding on November 24, 2013 – the Feast of Christ the King in the new calendar.
The beginning of the Year of Faith was chosen to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the opening of the 2nd Vatican Council and the 20th anniversary of the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
So why the focus on faith? Well, because there is really nothing more important than our faith! In his letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul reminds us that, “it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith” (cf. Eph 2:8). Salvation is a free gift of God’s grace, but we must exercise faith in Him to make use of the gift. We must believe.
And certainly we see the importance of faith in the Gospel stories in which Jesus heals people. In today’s Gospel we hear the story of the blind man, Bartimaeus, who cries out: “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me,” despite the rebukes he receives for doing so.
When asked by Jesus what he wishes, Bartimaeus replies: “Master, I want to see.” And Jesus heals him, saying: “Go your way; your faith has saved you.”
We see this same type of encounter between Jesus and sick people repeatedly throughout the Gospels in which Jesus heals the sick person because of their faith in His power to heal.
The Gospels also show that Jesus encouraged His apostles to have a strong and unshakeable faith as they witness His miracles, His Transfiguration, and even His mastery over nature itself.
Who can forget the Gospel story in which St. Peter asks to walk on water, only to falter because of his lack of faith? We see in this story the necessity for all of us to be strengthened in our faith from time to time – even the greatest of saints.
And so this time set aside for a Year of Faith is meant to do exactly that: to strengthen us in faith, to strengthen our belief in God, so that we might be better prepared for eternity.
So during this Year of Faith, Holy Mother Church is inviting us to study our faith, to take more time for daily prayer, and to give more attention to Mass and the Sacraments.
But in addition to shoring up our own faith, I think this Year of Faith should also be a time of renewed evangelization efforts for those of us who are people of faith.
There can be no doubt that our society is growing increasingly hostile to faith. The tide of secularism is rising, pulling people who are weak in faith away from God, and therefore away from the probability of eternal salvation.
Jesus is clear. In the Gospel of John He tells us: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). If we want to go the Heaven, we need to know Christ and have a relationship with Him!
So as we seek to strengthen our own faith in this coming year, we should also seek to strengthen the faith of others, especially those who have fallen away from our Lord and His Church, as well as those who have never known Him.
But let us keep in mind that faith does not stand alone. Along with hope and charity, faith is one of the three theological virtues that God gives us at our baptism. And these three virtues work within us to strengthen us in holiness, and to make us credible witnesses to the Gospel.
If we want to win people over for Christ and His Kingdom, we must be willing to share our faith with others, but we must do so in a way that is imminently charitable and that inspires hope. Very few people will come to know Christ through argument.
But if we show ourselves to be people with a deep hope for Heaven and an uncompromising love for God and others, then our faith will appear all the more credible and attractive.
My dear brothers and sisters, time is precious, for none of us knows how long we have to live on earth. So let us use this Year of Faith well, that we might be better prepared for eternity and help others along the path to Heaven as well.
May we always make good use of our time, knowing that in just a little while, it will be eternity.
28 October 2012

© Reverend Timothy Reid

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

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

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

A little over 20 years ago when I was preparing to convert to Catholicism, I made my first confession to a gentle, older priest who was very kind to me.
After I made that first confession, we spent about an hour talking about why I was converting to the Catholic faith, and the priest asked me whom my favorite saint was.
Sadly, at the time, I didn’t know much about any saints. I had heard a few names bandied around: St. Joseph, St. Francis of Assisi, and a few other “name brand” saints – but I didn’t really know any of them.
But after listening to the priest talk about the importance of the saints, I decided to get to know at least a few of them. And so I did, and in the past 20 years that I’ve been a Catholic, I’ve been blessed with many favors and divine aids from the Church’s saints.
So when we built this church, I wanted to make sure that we had many images of saints placed throughout the building. That’s why it was such a delight to find our stained glass windows and our relics, and to create our beautiful statues.
Having images of the saints is important because they are truly that great cloud of witnesses that inspires us to rid ourselves of every burden and sin so that we might persevere in running the race that lies ahead of us.
From their place in Heaven they encourage us and intercede for us. And if we are devoted to them, they become devoted to us, showering us with the gift of their assistance in our times of need. They become our friends.
But what I’ve found most important about the saints is that they show us that holiness in this life is possible. They show us how to love our Lord in heroic fashion. And truly, showing love to our Lord is what today’s feast is all about.
Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. As we honor our Lord’s Most Holy Body and Blood, we come to an even greater understanding of the tremendous love our Lord has for us.
For in this mystery of our faith we come to see once again that our Lord will go to any lengths necessary to help us achieve the end for which we have been created: complete union with Him.
It is God’s great desire that we be in intimate union with Him, that we be joined to Him as a man is joined to his wife, which is why we refer to the Church as the Bride of Christ.
Indeed, God desires that we have a covenantal relationship with Him. A covenant is a binding agreement in which two parties join themselves together in mutual love and fidelity; it is an agreement to give one’s very self for the sake of the other.
Our readings today speak of how our Lord has reached out to man in this covenantal fashion. From our first reading we hear of the covenant our Lord made with the Israelites through Moses.
To signify this covenant, the Book of Exodus tells us that Moses sprinkled the people with the blood of sacrificed bulls, saying: “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you.”
In contrast our second reading from Hebrews tells of how Christ created a new and eternal covenant. As the great high priest, Christ offers a new and unblemished sacrifice: His very self.
Instead of the blood of bulls, in this new and eternal covenant the blood that signifies and effects this life‐giving covenant is Jesus’ blood, poured out on Calvary.
We enter into our personal covenant with our Lord through the Sacrament of Baptism, and we consummate it through the reception of Holy Communion.
Just as a bride receives her bridegroom in an intimate, life‐giving way, so too do we – the Bride of Christ – receive our Lord in an act of intimacy that promises eternal life.
This covenant that we have with God gives us a claim on Him, and it gives Him a claim on us. This covenant binds us in a union of love with our Lord. The Eucharist is the sign of this holy bond of love.
And so it is that our lives here on earth should be one continual act of love to God. Everything we do, even the mundane acts of daily life, can be offered to God as acts of love.
Moreover, it is for the love of God that we’ve been having our 40 Hours devotion this weekend. It is for the love of God that we have adoration for 33 hours every week. It’s why we’re having the Eucharistic procession after the 10:30 Mass today.
Indeed, the love of God should be the primary reason we come to Mass, and the main motivation behind our prayers and private devotions.
You see, every little act of pious devotion, every sincere prayer, every quiet sacrifice we make and penance we take on, every act of charity done for another is a means for us to love God.
And these little acts of love are so important, for they prepare us for even greater acts of love – such as we see in the lives of the saints. The lives of the saints show us that we never know what our blessed Lord may call us to do out of love for Him.
So we must be prepared, my brothers and sisters, for we are all called to be saints. We are all called to love our Lord in heroic fashion. Thus, let us prepare to love our Lord in this way by forming ourselves now with little acts of love.
In particular, as we celebrate this great feast of Our Lord’s Most Holy Body and Blood, let us show our love for God by our reverence for Christ’s true presence in the Blessed Sacrament.
Let us make time to visit our Eucharistic Lord regularly in humble adoration; let us show modesty, reverence, and respect whenever we are in His presence; and let us always receive Him with souls free of mortal sin and with true devotion.
And let us trust that by so doing, we too will one day be amongst that great cloud of witnesses the Church venerates as Her saints.
O Sacrament Most Holy, O Sacrament Divine, all praise and all thanksgiving, be every moment Thine!
10 June 2012

© Reverend Timothy Reid

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

You can go directly to his homilies:
http://stanncharlotte.org/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=8&Itemid=61

On my left you can see our magnificent statue of St. Augustine, one of the Church’s greatest saints. St. Augustine was not only a great intellect, but his conversion story has consoled, encouraged, and inspired countless souls throughout the centuries.
While St. Augustine is one of history’s greatest theologians, no writing of his is more popular than his Confessions, the autobiographical book that details his conversion. It’s for this reason that our statue of him has him depicted holding the book of his Confessions.
Perhaps the popularity of this book stems from the fact that it reads almost like a love story. In it Augustine details the progression of his awareness of God’s love for him, and his response of love to God in return.
Truly, St. Augustine captures – perhaps better than any other spiritual writer in history – the dynamic of love that exists between our Lord and those souls who earnestly seek Him.
What we find in St. Augustine’s Confessions is that God is constantly reaching out in love to His creatures, to invite us to share in His divine life, if only we have the faith to see it.
Today’s feast of the Most Holy Trinity challenges us to see God’s love for us and to respond to Him in love by seeking holiness. The promise that our Lord makes to us in seeking holiness is that we will be joined with Him forever in Heaven in an eternal embrace of love.
Holiness is likeness to God, and becoming holy – becoming like God – is the primary challenge of every Christian and the goal to which every vocation is ultimately directed.
While holiness is difficult to attain, it is possible for us all. Its genesis within us is the love that we have for God. The good news is that we have plenty of reasons to love God, as our readings point out for us today.
In our first reading Moses is explaining to the Israelites why they should believe in God. He’s challenging them to choose God and His ways because the mighty works God has worked for them should make it evident that God has chosen them as His people!
Moses’ point is that God has reached out to the Israelites in marvelous, even miraculous ways. For this reason he exhorts the Israelites obey God’s laws.
The same is true for us! Like the Israelites of old, we have become God’s chosen people through baptism. Through baptism we share in the life of the Blessed Trinity here on earth as a means of preparing for sharing in the life of the Trinity eternally in Heaven.
So baptism is so very important, and that’s why we hear our Lord commanding the apostles in the Gospel today to go out and evangelize the nations by baptizing them in the name of the Trinity.
In our second reading St. Paul explains to the Romans how God has chosen us to be His adopted children. While we are all born in the darkness of sin, baptism washes our original sin away so that we might be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
As His children we are heirs of God the Father with Christ, and the inheritance that our Lord desires to share with us is the love that exists between the three Persons of the Trinity! Complete and endless joy in the eternity of Heaven is His promise to us.
And thus it is that we should strive with all our might to obey God and follow His laws, for obedience is the foundation of the spiritual life and our preparation for holiness.
Indeed, we cannot ever expect to be holy, we cannot expect to be like God, if we do not follow the way He’s marked out for us.
I realize that this it often seems difficult to obey God’s laws, which are enshrined for us in the teachings of the Church. Generally speaking, even though the Church’s teachings are clear, there is great confusion in our society about what’s really right and wrong.
One of the secrets of the spiritual life is that obedience is often a precursor to understanding. When we choose to be obedient to the Lord and accept difficult teachings with faith and love, we are often graced with a deeper understanding of God’s laws.
The humility and docility that obedience requires of us has a way of opening our minds and hearts more fully to mysteries of our Faith, and thus we should learn to be obedient to all the teachings of the Church – even if at first blush we may not understand or agree with them.
Moreover, obedience makes us pleasing to God. Just like any parent, our Lord delights in all His creatures, but like any parent He delights in His children more when we behave!
So, we can make ourselves more pleasing to God by being obedient to His laws and by seeking to imitate Him in every way.
But there is more to holiness than mere obedience. In addition to being obedient, St. Paul tells us today that we must be willing to suffer, as did Christ.
Last Sunday I asked what it is that keeps you from being holy and from being wholly consumed by the Holy Spirit. The basic answer to that question is the same for all of us: attachments – to ourselves, to the things of this world, and in the worst case: to sin!
And that’s why St. Paul tells the Romans today that if they wish to be glorified with Christ, they must be willing to suffer with Him. Suffering, in whatever form it comes, has the capacity to cut away our attachments that keep us from being holy.
So if we wish to be like our Trinitarian Lord so that we might be joined with Him forever in Heaven, then not only must we obey, but we must be willing to follow the Master wherever He may trod – even up the difficult path to Calvary.
Loving obedience and a willingness to follow Jesus even to a point of suffering are the sure path to eternal union with the Most Holy Trinity in Heaven.
But in our Gospel today Jesus tells us that our union with Him, and thus our union with the Trinity, begins even now as He tells us that He is with us always! So, union with the Trinity is not only a goal for eternity, but can be a reality here and now.
We live in union with the Trinity now through prayer, but this union is still contingent upon our obedience and willingness to seek God’s will in all things.
As St. Augustine wrote in his Confessions, the Lord’s best servant: “is he who is intent not so much on hearing his petition answered, as rather on willing whatever he hears from [God].”
If we are to be conformed to God’s will, then at a minimum it is necessary that we strive with all our might to stay always in a state of grace. If we wish to grow in holiness, we must first eliminate all mortal sin from our life.
When we think of mortal sin, we tend to think of sins against the 6th and 9th commandments. While sins against chastity are indeed very grave, we must also bear in mind that sins against the virtue of charity can also be mortally sinful.
Sins by which we offend our Lord, like intentionally missing Mass or taking the Lord’s name in vain can be mortal sins, as can sins by which we offend those around us, like participating in gossip, detraction, or serious lies – so we must root out these sins, too.
Today’s feast of the Most Holy Trinity calls us to meditate on the great love our Lord has for us. Not only has He created us and given us everything, but He also became one of us to save us from our sins. He constantly reaches out to us to draw us to Himself.
Let us respond with true filial love and devotion by seeking genuine holiness so that we might be pleasing to Him.
Through holy obedience and a firm intention to follow His will, even to the point of suffering, let us prove our love for our Trinitarian Lord. And let us trust that when we die we will experience the joyful reward of our labors.
St. Augustine, pray for us.

03 June 2012

© Reverend Timothy Reid

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

You can go directly to his homilies:
http://stanncharlotte.org/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=8&Itemid=61

“Come, Holy Spirit. Let the precious pearl of the Father and the Word’s delight come. Spirit of truth, you are the reward of the saints, the comforter of souls, light in the darkness, riches to the poor, treasure to lovers, food for the hungry, comfort to those who are wandering; … you are the one in whom all treasures are contained.
Come! As you descended upon Mary, that the Word might become flesh, work in us through grace as you worked in her through nature and grace.
Come! Food of every chaste thought, fountain of all mercy, sum of all purity. Come! Consume in us whatever prevents us from being consumed in you.”
These words were penned by St. Mary Magadalene de Pazzi, a Carmelite nun and mystic from Florence, Italy, who died in 1607. This past Friday, May 25th, was her feast day.
As we celebrate the great feast of Pentecost, these words of hers are so very appropriate, for this feast not only celebrates the Holy Spirit, but is itself an invitation to the Holy Spirit to fall upon the Church once again as He did upon our Lady and the apostles 50 days after our Blessed Lord’s resurrection.
As we gather today, we should not only celebrate Who the Holy Spirit is and what He does for us and for the Church, but we should beg Him to come to us again as He did at our Confirmation, to renew us and sanctify us.
Last week I spoke briefly about art and how it helps make the invisible realities of our faith visible. Art keeps the mysteries of our Faith before our eyes so that we may ponder them in our hearts.
Perhaps there is no greater invisible reality than the Holy Spirit Himself! He is not perceptible to our physical senses, but we know that He is always with us, inspiring us and guiding us along the path of salvation.
Incidentally, it is a common feature of Catholic churches to have a dove representing the Holy Spirit above the altar – as we do here – to remind us not only of His presence, but of His action at Mass, for His work in the liturgy is His most important work of all.
Sacred Scripture speaks repeatedly of the Holy Spirit to describe His actions. Through the prophet Ezekiel the Lord tells us that He will put His Spirit in us so that we may live.
Although dead in sin like dry bones scattered in a desert, through the power of the Spirit the Lord gives us true life, for it is the Holy Spirit who makes us holy.
St. Paul tells us that the Spirit is given to each individual, enabling us to call upon Jesus as Lord. Indeed, the Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness, interceding for us according to God’s will.
The Gospel of John teaches us that the Holy Spirit causes grace to well up within us like flowing water, for He is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, and who will guide us into all truth. And nowhere is the more evident than at the Mass!
While at the Mass, we – the Church, the Body of Christ – gather to receive the Body of Christ in the Eucharist, this can only happen through the power of the Holy Spirit!
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that in the liturgy: “…the Holy Spirit acts in the same way as at other times in … salvation [history]: he prepares the Church to encounter her Lord; he recalls and makes Christ manifest to the faith of the assembly.
By his transforming power, he makes the mystery of Christ present here and now. Finally the Spirit of communion unites the Church to the life and mission of Christ” (#1092).
It is the Holy Spirit who awakens faith within us, converts hearts, and gives us the desire to adhere to the Father’s will.
These three dispositions are necessary both for the reception of other graces we receive in the Mass and for the graces of the Mass to bear fruit within us afterwards (cf. CCC #1098).
And so it is that the Holy Spirit is the great Sanctifier. It is He who makes us holy through the graces of the Mass. But even more than that, it is the Holy Spirit who makes the mystery of Christ present in the Mass.
You see, the Mass “not only recalls the events that saved us but actualizes them, makes them present. The Paschal mystery of Christ is celebrated [at Mass], not repeated.
It is the celebrations that are repeated, and in each celebration of the Mass there is an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that makes the Paschal mystery present” (cf. CCC #1104).
There is an element of the Eucharistic Prayer that we call the epiclesis, which is the point at which the priest calls upon the Holy Spirit to change the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ.
You’ll know that it’s happening when you see the priest extend his hands over the gifts and bells are rung.
But we not only pray that the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, we also pray that, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we ourselves might become a living offering to God (cf. CCC #1105).
So, in essence, the work of the Holy Spirit in the Mass is to prepare us to encounter Christ; to recall and manifest Christ to us; to make the saving work of Christ present and active by his transforming power; and to make the gift of communion bear fruit within us (cf. CCC #1112).
So just as the Holy Spirit transforms the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, He also transforms us into living images of Christ!
Through the power of the Holy Spirit cowards become courageous, the impious become pious, fools become wise, and the faithless become faithful.
He is indeed the reward of the saints, the comforter of souls, light in the darkness, riches to the poor, treasure to lovers, food for the hungry, comfort to those who are wandering; He is the one in whom all treasures are contained.
As we gather to witness His power making present the wondrous mysteries of our redemption once again in the Mass, let us ask ourselves what it is that we are lacking…what it is that prevents us from being holy, from being consumed by Him.
And as we receive the Body and Blood of Christ, which His power has made present for us, let us invite the Holy Spirit to enter into us once again and supply for whatever defects of virtue that we might have so that we may truly become more like the One whose Body and Blood we are receiving.
© Reverend Timothy Reid

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

You can go directly to his homilies:
http://stanncharlotte.org/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=8&Itemid=61

27 May 2012

As Catholics we know that there is more to this world than meets the eye. Indeed, we know by faith that there are invisible realities that are, in a sense, more real than those realities that we can perceive with the senses.

For example, while we cannot see it, or touch it, or hear it, or taste it, or smell it, there is such a thing as grace. It is a reality that is beyond the power of our senses to perceive, but we know by faith that God’s grace is real, and that it is by God’s grace that we are saved.
But because we are weak and willful creatures, humanity often needs a little help in believing those things that cannot be perceived.
This is one of the reasons why the Catholic Church has always been the greatest patron of the arts. The arts help to remind us of these invisible realities of our Faith. The arts help us to perceive and know that which, left on our own, cannot be perceived by the senses.
So for example, our beautiful statues of the saints here in the church are not simply reminders that these holy people once lived here on earth. The statues remind us that, even though they are in Heaven, the saints are with us now as a great cloud of witnesses, looking after us and interceding for us so that we might one day join them.
The music that we hear in the Mass is a reminder that the angels, who forever adore our Lord seated on His throne in Heaven, are with us too, rejoicing and worshiping with us at the Mass.
We cannot see the angels or the saints; we cannot hear or touch them. But these forms of art help to make these invisible realities of our faith knowable to us so that we might be strengthened in our faith and cling all the more closely to our Lord.
With today’s celebration of our Lord’s Ascension into Heaven, the last act of our redemption has now been completed. Jesus our Lord, Who became visible to us as flesh and blood that we might see and know Him, becomes invisible to us once again.
Since Holy Thursday night when our Lord’s suffering began, the Church has immersed Herself in Christ’s Paschal Mystery, which is the mystery of our redemption.
Through His suffering, death on the cross, Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven, Jesus has redeemed us and made salvation possible. He has opened up for us the way to Heaven.
Today we witness our Lord passing through the veil separating heaven and earth. He does this not to obscure Himself from us, not to abandon us, but to lead us deeper into the mysteries of our faith.
While the Ascension marks the last time man was able to experience in the flesh the humanity of Jesus, we know by faith that our Lord has not left us, but that our Lord’s visible presence has now passed into the sacraments He has entrusted to His Church (St. Leo).
So while we experience Jesus in a much different way than those who lived with Him on earth 2000 years ago, we experience Him nonetheless.
All that He gave to the people of His time is available to us through the Sacraments: His healing, His mercy, His strengthening, His encouragement, His consolation, even His very own Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity is available to us.
So while we may be tempted perhaps to feel some sense of loss as we see our Lord ascend into Heaven, by ascending into Heaven our Lord is now able to be with all of us at all times through the sacraments. Thus, the Ascension is a great gift to the Church!
Even more so, the glorious Ascension of our Blessed Lord is yet one more proof that Jesus is precisely Who He says He is: the only begotten Son of the Father!
St. Paul recounts for us in his 1st Letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 15:4-6) that over 500 people witnessed the resurrected Jesus, and our reading today from the Acts of the Apostles again speaks of witnesses to this final act of our redemption.
In other words, because we have eyewitnesses to the Ascension of our Lord, we know that it really happened!
Thus, the Ascension of our Lord reminds us that our worship of Jesus and our faith in Him is rooted not simply in a pious belief, but rather in factual, historical events. As such, we cannot dismiss our Lord and His teachings simply because we don’t like them.
The world today often tries to make our Catholic faith look silly, outdated, and over-bearing. Our Church, founded by Christ Himself, is often attacked and marginalized because our teachings are demanding and are thus seen as limiting to man’s freedom.
But the Ascension reminds us why we believe as we do, because like the Resurrection, the Ascension is proof positive that Jesus is Who He Says He Is: He is Lord! He is the way, the truth, and the life.
Thus, my dear friends, we must take our Lord and our Catholic faith seriously! This means that we must strive to live our Catholic faith with true integrity. Of course this means being obedient to the Church’s teachings, but our integrity must go beyond mere obedience.
It means that we must strive to imitate Jesus in every aspect of our lives. Our belief in Him must transform us so that we become like Him in every respect such that our very lives witness to the truth of Who Jesus Is!
Our readings today also remind us of the great blessing of believing in our Lord. Our second reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians speaks of the enlightenment of heart, the hope, the riches of glory, and the surpassing greatness of His power for those who believe.
In the Gospel today Jesus tells His disciples that those who believe and are baptized will be saved. And not only that, they will be mighty signs that accompany those who believe.
While our world may hold fast to the saying that “seeing is believing,” as Catholics wefollow the admonition our Lord gave to St. Thomas: blessed are those who have not seen
and yet have believed (John 20:29).

My dear brothers and sisters, the glorious Ascension of our Lord shows us that Jesus Is WhoHe says He Is! Today He gives us every reason to believe that He is our sovereign Lord.
Let us hold fast to our belief that He is indeed the only begotten Son of the Father, our Saviorand our Redeemer.
While we may not be able to see Him in the flesh, we know by faith that He is present to usin the Sacraments. So like His disciples of old, may we be His faithful witnesses so that the gift of His salvation may be brought to all mankind.
20 May 2012

© Reverend Timothy Reid

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

You can go directly to his homilies:
http://stanncharlotte.org/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=8&Itemid=61

In 1961 Gianna Beretta Molla was a pediatrician in northern Italy pregnant with her 6th child. Married in 1955 to a man 10 years her senior, Gianna had already given birth to three children and had miscarried two others.
In her second month of pregnancy Gianna developed a fibroid on her uterus, and so her doctors gave her three alternatives: 1) get an abortion, 2) have a complete hysterectomy, or 3) a surgery that would remove only the fibroid.
While Catholic teaching forbids abortion under any circumstance, Catholic moral theology would have allowed a hysterectomy in this circumstance, but Gianna did not want to do that because it would have unintentionally resulted in the death of her unborn child.
So Gianna had the surgery to remove the fibroid, but even after the surgery she continued to suffer with various complications in her pregnancy, just as she had suffered with serious complications in her other pregnancies.
Knowing that her delivery was bound to be dangerous, Gianna told her family and doctors that if the situation arose in which a choice had to be made between saving her life or the life of her baby, she wanted them to save the baby. She was very insistent upon this.
On April 21, 1962 – Good Friday – Gianna was taken to the hospital where her daughter had to be delivered via c-section. Gianna, however, continued to suffer severe pain after the delivery, and she died of septic peritonitis a week later.
Gianna was eventually beatified in 1994 and canonized on May 16, 2004. Incidentally, the miracle that led to her canonization involved a mother, who at 16 weeks of pregnancy sustained a tear in her placenta that drained her womb of all amniotic fluid.
The doctors told this woman that her child had absolutely no chance of survival. But after praying for Gianna Molla’s intercession, this woman was able to deliver a healthy baby despite the lack of amniotic fluid in her womb.
This story of St. Gianna’s sacrifice for her unborn child seems very appropriate today as we celebrate Mother’s Day. But it also ties in very well to the theme of our readings today.
Our readings speak not only of the command from God to love, but they also speak of the nature of true love.
In our second reading from the 1st Epistle of St. John, we are told to love because love is of God! St. John tells us that: “everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.”
So in other words, our Lord desires us to love because doing so brings us into relationship with Him and makes us more like Him!
In the Gospel today our Lord reminds us once again that love is shown by obedience to His commands. But in addition to encompassing obedience, our Lord teaches us today that true love is also sacrificial in nature.
Jesus says: “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
So in addition to being willing to sacrifice our own desires by being obedient to our Lord, if we wish to truly love, we must be willing to sacrifice for the sake of others, too.
St. Gianna showed this love well by her willingness to lay down her life for her child, even though, strictly speaking, our Catholic moral theology would have allowed her to have a hysterectomy that would have saved her life.
Thus St. Gianna shows us the great good that can be achieved by seeking that which is ideal in God’s eyes, and not simply that which is acceptable. Because of Gianna’s willingness to lay down her life, her child was given life, and Gianna herself became a saint in the process!
Indeed, loving as God calls us to love, makes us saintly!
But even beyond Gianna and her family, how many pregnant mothers have been encouragedand edified by her witness? How many have been aided by her intercession?
Sadly, St. Gianna stands in stark contrast to the feminine values our world promotes todaywith regard to motherhood. In our world today the gifts of fertility and motherhood aretreated as things to be managed and manipulated for our own desires and convenience.
Women are encouraged to suppress their fertility unless they are absolutely desirous ofpregnancy, and if they get pregnant unintentionally, they are encouraged to abort theirunborn child. Truly, this is a selfish way to think and behave.
St. Gianna understood that motherhood and the creation of new life is an absolute gift, evenas it requires great sacrifice from a mother.
Indeed, more than anyone else in a family, a mother is called to a life of sacrifice for herhusband and children, for the mother is the heart of the family – the primary dispenser offamilial love that binds all the family members together.
With their husbands women are called to be generous with their fertility: to lovingly acceptchildren, making room for them not only in their wombs, but in their hearts as well.
Lately the media has portrayed the Catholic Church as waging a “war on women” because ofour opposition to the HHS mandate that all insurance plans provide contraception,sterilization, and some abortifacient drugs.
What the world does not understand is that each of these things is completely antithetical tothe nature of true motherhood, for each of these things is rooted in selfishness, and thereforemilitates against the generous and sacrificial nature of the love that is proper to mothers.
While all of us – men and women alike – are called to sacrificial love, a love that enables us to lay down our lives for the sake of others, there is a particular beauty to the feminine love,and we see this exemplified by our Lady.
In our Lady are united the two perfections of femininity: virginity and motherhood. Whenlived in godly fashion, both virginity and motherhood require a total gift of self: either to God or to a husband; and when lived in godly fashion, both are a means of growing in holiness.
Mary was completely devoted to God and to her family. Out of love for our Lord, she made her fiat at the Annunciation that triggered our Lord’s incarnation and bound her in love to Christ, who is both God and man.
And throughout the course of her life, the Virgin was the Father’s perfect handmaid, the Son’s perfect mother, and the Spirit’s perfect spouse.
In this month in which we honor Our Lady in a particular way, we also honor the vocation of motherhood, a vocation that only finds true fulfillment and authentic expression in a love that is both generous and sacrificial.
May all women learn to model their lives on the generous and sacrificial love of Mary, and by doing so, may they bear witness to the world of the true nature of feminine love.
St. Gianna Molla, pray for us!

13 May 2012

© Reverend Timothy Reid

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

You can go directly to his homilies:
http://stanncharlotte.org/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=8&Itemid=61

While this date has passed, the reasoning is solid.

Bishop Jugis and Bishop Burbidge of the Diocese of Raleigh have asked that the following letter be read at all Masses in our state today. Please listen carefully.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

This coming Tuesday, May 8th, North Carolinians will have the opportunity to adopt the proposed Marriage Amendment to our State Constitution. This amendment defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman and as the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State. We, the Bishops of North Carolina, have repeatedly voiced our strong support FOR the Marriage Amendment and we are asking Catholics in both Dioceses to vote FOR the amendment.

We are FOR this definition of marriage, because we believe it is a vocation in which God calls couples to faithfully and permanently embrace a fruitful union that is open to the gift of children, a gift that comes from the sexual expression between a man and a woman. The children born of this union have the right to the indispensable place of a father and a mother in their lives. Children grow, are loved, nurtured and formed by those whose unique vocation is to be a father and a mother to their child.

Some have insisted that the Amendment will codify discrimination against homosexual persons. As Catholics, we believe in the immeasurable dignity and equal worth of all persons. We believe that our human dignity comes from God, and so, we reject hatred or the unjust treatment of any person. The fact that we do not embrace same sex marriage though can never be seen as discriminatory, as we believe that the source of our human dignity and the respect we owe to all people, flows not from the expression of our sexual orientation nor any of our actions, but rather from the dignity given to each of us by God. Therefore, the marriage of one man and one woman, which forms a unique, complementary and fruitful bond, does not negate the respect and equal worth of all people, but is rather a union which strengthens all of our relationships with others.

While our State already has a law that prohibits same-sex marriage, as we are well aware by what has taken place in several other states, such laws can be overturned by judicial or legislative action. This is why it is so important for us to vote to protect traditional marriage and pass the amendment to make this definition of marriage part of our State Constitution. The vote this week places this decision in the hands of the people of North Carolina.

We ask you to join us in our support FOR the sacred vocation of marriage and what its definition means to us and to the future of our great State. Vote FOR the referendum and Vote FOR marriage on Tuesday, May 8th.

Sincerely in Christ, Most Reverend Peter J. Jugis, Bishop of Charlotte, and Most Reverend Michael F. Burbidge, Bishop of Raleigh.

I know we’ve heard a lot about this marriage amendment over the past several months, and perhaps some of you are tiring of it, but this amendment is so important because marriage is the fundamental building block of our society, and it touches the core of what it means to be human.
Thus, this is a very complex and emotionally charged issue too, and many Catholics are confused about the necessity of this amendment. So bear with me as we head into this breach once again!
Marriage was designed by God to be the means for the procreation and rearing of children. As the bishops’ letter states, the vocations of mothers and fathers are indispensable for the proper rearing of kids. Certainly study after study shows that kids who come from homes with a mother and father married to one another are the most likely to be happy, healthy, and successful.
If we support the idea of gay marriage, not only are we encouraging people to live a sinful lifestyle, we are also stripping the children brought into these unions of the fundamental human right to be raised by both a mother and a father.
As the bishops’ letter explains, protecting the traditional definition of marriage is not an act of discrimination against homosexual persons. Supporting this amendment is simply a recognition that marriage is something sacred, designed by God for a particular purpose, and is therefore not to subject to the relativistic whims of sinful humanity.
Obviously, our bishops have timed this letter for the election this coming Tuesday. But there are some important elements in our readings that make this letter all the more appropriate today.
In our Gospel today Jesus tells us that He is the vine and we are the branches, and He urges us toremain in Him, for “a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine.”
And Jesus begs us to remain in Him, for “anyone who does not remain in [Him] will be thrownout like a branch and wither…and they will be burned.”
In the epistle we are told that we remain in our Lord by keeping His commandments. The bottomline is that we cannot expect to be saved and go to Heaven apart from our Lord, and we cannot be
united to our Lord unless we follow His teachings. It’s that simple.

Thus, obedience is the key! If we are always obedient to our Lord’s commands, which come tous through the teachings of His Church, then we will have nothing to fear on judgment day!
But if we willfully choose to disobey Him by disobeying the teachings of the Church, wejeopardize our souls. This is the whole point of today’s Gospel. Contrary to popular belief, Jesus
was not a rebel, but rather an obedient Son to the Father. We are called to be the same!

What I want you to understand about the teachings of the Church is that they are not arbitraryrules imposed by old, celibate men in the Vatican. Our teachings flow from the revelation of Christ; they come from our Lord! Therefore, in matters of faith and morals, the Church cannot err – for God can never be wrong. That’s the promise our Lord made to the Church in sending us the Holy Spirit!
Thus, when we run across a Church teaching with which we disagree, our first question should not be: what’s wrong with the Church? In all humility, we must recognize that when we disagree with a Church teaching on a matter of faith and morals, the problem is with us.
Our Lord’s commandments that come to us through the teachings of Holy Mother Church are not meant to deny us certain freedoms or to make us unhappy. The Lord’s commandments are ordered toward helping us use our God-given freedom in a way that will make us holy. They are ordered toward helping live according to God’s will.
The problem is that our broken humanity often tends towards misusing God’s gifts, especially those that are pleasurable. As we develop bad habits arising from the misuse of God’s gifts, our intellects become warped too, such that seeing the truth of a situation becomes more difficult.
One comment I’ve heard a number of times from opponents of the marriage amendment is that Jesus would never support it. Arguing from emotion, they hypothesize that since God is love, He would never deny two people who love each other the right to be married.
But instead of emotionally hypothesizing what we feel Jesus might say or do in a given situation, I think it’s always a far better exercise look at what Jesus actually did and said!
Jesus was always kind and merciful to repentant sinners, but let us not forget that He encouraged them to sin no more, as was the case of the woman caught in adultery.
But to those who perverted the truth and who were obstinate in their sins, like the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus was harsh in condemning them, calling them a brood of vipers.
So while it is true that Jesus loves us all despite our faults and imperfections, Jesus does not love our faults and imperfections. To the contrary, Jesus desires that we do our best to find healing for our faults and imperfections and avoid sin, and He gives us His grace to make this possible.
There can be no doubt as to the Church’s teaching on homosexual activity. The Catechism states: “Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered” (cf. CCC #2357).
This means that in every situation, no matter what, homosexual acts are always evil. Therefore, out of a genuine charity for our brothers and sisters, we must not do anything that will encourage them to fall into this sin.
Supporting the notion that homosexual persons have a right to get married is an encouragement toward grave sin because it supports the idea that there’s nothing wrong with homosexual acts, and it support the idea that homosexual unions are analogous to the complementary and procreative union of a man and woman.
This is a terrible lie, a lie that if believed, is destructive to individuals and toxic to our society.
Thus, in point of fact, Jesus would not have voted “No” on the marriage amendment, but ratherwould have supported it whole-heartedly – and that’s precisely why our bishops are telling us that we should too.
Jesus tells us today that He is the vine and we are the branches. Let us always remain in Him bykeeping His commandments. And let us joyfully and courageously stand up for His teachings!
6 May 2012

© Reverend Timothy Reid

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

You can go directly to his homilies:
http://stanncharlotte.org/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=8&Itemid=61

In addition to being the 4th Sunday of Easter, today is the feast day of St. Catherine of Siena, whom I’ve mentioned a number of times in homilies over the years.
While we do not have a statue of St. Catherine, we do have an image of her in the first window on the left side of the church. As an aside, I can tell you that it’s because of St. Catherine that we have our beautiful stained glass windows.
Many of you may remember the Sunday 4 years ago when I announced that we had the opportunity to buy these windows. Our architect had found them and thought they’d be perfect for our church, but we had to move swiftly as another church was interested in them.
The problem was that we didn’t have the money to buy them, and we had to make a decision on the windows without having the necessary monies on hand – and without even seeing them in person. All we would get to see were pictures of the windows.
While waiting for the pictures to come, I prayed to our Lord and told Him that if there were an image of St. Catherine somewhere in the windows, I’d take that as a sign that He wanted us to buy them. Once I saw the pictures and knew she was in the windows, I began praying to St. Catherine for the necessary cash! Obviously St. Catherine answered the prayer!
I bring up St. Catherine again today because of the example she provides us with her single- minded devotion to Christ. From the time she was 6 years old and had her first vision of Jesus, St. Catherine was completely devoted to Him – even bearing His wounds with her stigmata.
Despite the very considerable pressure from her family to marry, despite the persecutions she faced from so many others for her work, St. Catherine never consciously deviated from following God’s will to the best of her abilities. She stayed united to Him throughout her life.
St. Catherine knew that there was no middle ground between serving Christ and serving the devil. She understood well the dangers of vice and the slippery slope of sin it engenders. Her writings reveal that she was ever conscious of avoiding giving our Lord the least offense.
Sadly, so many of us today do not take sin seriously. As St. John Vianney once said, “we play with sin.” This is because we simply don’t realize how terrible and how offensive to our Lord even the smallest venial sin is.
And so many of us carelessly commit sins, excusing ourselves because we think they don’t really matter much. But my brothers and sisters, this is so terribly dangerous, for willfully giving in to sin – even venial ones – makes us playthings of the devil.
In the Gospels [cf. Matt 12:30] Jesus tells us that we are either for Him or against Him. When we sin, even in a venial way, we set ourselves against our Lord. But if we wish to be saved, then we must remain with Him by remaining within the safe pastures of His Body, the Church.
For to be a Christian, to be a follower of Christ, we must be united to His one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church.
Our readings today follow this same line of thought. In the first reading, St. Peter makes it clear we must choose for Christ, who is the stone rejected by the builders, rather than be like the chief priests and elders of the Jewish people who rejected Him, for there is no other name under Heaven by which we can be saved.
Thus we must entrust ourselves to Him, following Him just as sheep follow the voice of their shepherd. For as our Gospel passage for today attests, our Lord is not simply any shepherd; He is the Good Shepherd! And our salvation – not to mention our peace and our joy in this life – is only found in being one of the sheep of His flock.
We become one of the Lord’s sheep through our baptism. But after baptism we must continue choosing to be a member of His flock by humbling obeying Him and the teachings of His Catholic Church, which is the instrument through which God saves mankind.
Unfortunately, there are many wolves in the world today that would lead us sheep astray from the true and fertile pastures of Holy Mother Church.
Not only are there false religions and ideologies that pervert, distort, or obscure the teachings of God’s one true Church, but there is the ever present problem of rampant materialism that tells us that happiness is only found in the consumption of created things.
But perhaps the worst wolf of all is that selfish form of pride that tempts us to believe we can decide for ourselves what is right and wrong, that we can create our own truth by which to live. Ultimately, this wolf in sheep’s clothing leads us to the belief that we don’t need God at all.
This is a terrible lie.
As the Responsorial Psalm tells us today, it is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trustmen. For as St. Peter reminds us, there is no salvation in anyone other than our Lord.
This is a truth that St. Catherine and all of the saints understood so well. Indeed, all of thesaints attest by the way they lived their earthly lives that to live one’s life for anyone or
anything other than our Lord is an utter absurdity and a ticket to hell.

And so it is that our choice for or against Jesus Christ is the most fundamental choice each ofus has to make in this life, and herein lays the mystery of human freedom.
God created us to love Him, but there is no true love without the freedom to choose. Thus it is that our Lord gave us this capacity to choose. What we must understand is that this capacity tochoose for or against God is nothing less than the capacity to determine our eternal destiny.
Simply put, we choose heaven or hell by how well we conform ourselves to Christ in this life. The mystery of human freedom is that anyone would ever choose hell over heaven. But somedo!
Our Catholic faith teaches us that hell exists, and I think it’s irrational to believe that hell existsand that no one is in it!
But let us be clear about one very important point: the choice for heaven or hell is not a one-time event in our life. We make this choice so very gradually by every moral decision we
make – even the small ones.

Indeed, Heaven is won or lost not so much in the big decisions of life, but rather in the littleday-to-day decisions we make. Every act of the will by which we seek to follow our Lord and
His Church is a step toward Heaven.

Conversely every sin, no matter how big or small, every act of defiance against our Lord, andevery act of disobedience to the teachings of the Church He founded, is a step away from our
Lord and heaven, and a step toward hell.

Truly, as a priest there is nothing sadder to me than seeing a Catholic defiantly or even casuallyturning away from the Church and her teachings. This is because we Catholics have the extraordinary grace and privilege of knowing the fullness of God’s truth through the teachings of the Church.
Truly, there is no salvation outside the Church. To live as if there is, is to risk your soul.
Of course in making our daily decisions to sin or not sin, we must fight our passions, ourprejudices, and our pride. We must fight against the spirit of this world, which constantly encourages us to rebel against the ways of God in order to devote ourselves more fully to the false consolations of mammon. At times we must even fight the devil himself.
But our good Lord does not leave us alone in this fight! He is our good shepherd, and He lays down His life for His sheep. Not only has He given us the teachings of the Church to guide us as make decisions, but He also gives us the grace of the sacraments, which strengthen us and conform us ever more closely to Him.
And when we fail, He gives us His mercy through the Sacrament of Reconciliation – no matter how serious our sins may be. Truly, if you make it a habit to go to confession regularly, you will be saved! But if you don’t use this sacrament, your chances for salvation are iffy.
While our Lord desires us to be perfect, living a perfect life here on earth is not a requirement for salvation. But loving our Lord by being humble obedient is. Being contrite for our sins and confessing our sins is.
Just as the chief priests and elders of the Jewish people rejected him 2000 years ago, our Lord continues to be rejected by our world today. But as Catholics we know that despite the rejection of the world, Jesus is Good Shepherd who alone can lead us to eternal life.
And being one of His sheep is a choice we make every day, most especially in the little decisions to either sin or not sin, to follow His will or turn away from it.
So, brothers and sisters, let us choose to be one of the Lord’s sheep by always choosing to be faithful children of Holy Mother Church. Let us strive to avoid even the smallest of sins so that we may always be pleasing to Him in every way.
May St. Catherine of Siena always intercede for us.

29 April 2012

© Reverend Timothy Reid

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

You can go directly to his homilies:
http://stanncharlotte.org/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=8&Itemid=61

 This morning we celebrate the great gift of our salvation. It is a day of hope and rejoicing, a day best summed up with the one word: Alleluia!

 And as we recall the great and marvelous events of salvation history that prefigured and led to our Lord’s death and resurrection, we recall that the price of our salvation was not something of fleeting value like gold or silver, but the costly shedding of the blood of Christ, the lamb without blemish.
 For our sake Christ was obedient, accepting even death, death on a cross, and the blood of Christ shed upon that awful cross washes away all our sins.
 And so our celebrations today must not be vapid or mundane. While we are called to be joyful, our joy must be not be capricious or worldly, but rather a joy imbued with a mature knowledge of not only what Jesus has done for us, but Who Jesus Is!
 For if any of us dare hope to make good use of the marvelous gift of salvation held out to us today by our Lord’s resurrection from the dead, then we must know Christ and love Him, and not simply know about Him.
 We are now living in a very chaotic time in our country. The culture wars that began in earnest in the 1960s (but whose roots are much, much deeper) are increasing in intensity such that even amongst Christians there are serious disagreements on moral issues on which, just a few decades ago, there was nearly complete unanimity.
 The moral chaos and divisions of our times are leading people to ask deeper questions about the meaning of man and his place in the universe.
 But I submit to you, my brothers and sisters, that we can never fully understand who we are and what our place in the universe is unless we know God, for it is through knowledge of Him that we come to understand ourselves.
 Thus, the fundamental division between peoples in this world is not between liberals and conservatives, or between Republicans and Democrats. It’s not even between Catholics and non‐Catholics, or between Christians and non‐Christians.
 The fundamental division is between people who truly know God and therefore love Him, and those who truly do not know God and therefore do not love Him – for a man of good will cannot truly know God and not love Him.
 We come to know our Lord through prayer and through the sacraments. But we also come to know Him through obedience to His teachings. In being obedient to our Lord’s commands, we are conformed to Him.
 Likewise, when we are disobedient to our Lord’s commands – whether willfully or through ignorance – habits of vice are formed within us that rob us of our knowledge of Him and hinder our efforts to truly love Him.
 On this glorious feast of Easter, we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord from the dead.
 This is the most important feast day of the year because the death and resurrection ofJesus Christ prove definitively that Jesus is whom He says He is: the only begotten Son
of God. For who else but God alone has the power to rise from the dead?

 We must remember that these events of Jesus’ life that we have been commemoratingthis past week are factual events. We know them to be historical and not just the pious beliefs of Christians because they were attested to by many secular eyewitnesses, not just Christians.
 And so as we consider the holy week events, the only logical and rational conclusion we can make is that Jesus is Lord! And if Jesus is truly Lord, shouldn’t we trust Him and be obedient to Him?
 In the Gospel of John, Jesus equates loving God with being obedient to Him. He says: Whoever observes my commandments is the one who loves me….Whoever loves me will keep my word (cf. John 14: 21&23).
 Moreover, as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, Jesus alone has the answers to the deeper questions we are asking in this chaotic time. And He speaks to us through the Church He Himself founded: the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church!
 Brothers and sisters, on this Easter Sunday we remember once again that Jesus truly is God. And in seeing the love Jesus pours out for us through His death and resurrection, we are invited to love Him and obey Him in return.
 Let us pray today for the grace to come to know Jesus better so that we may love Him better. And let us pray, as well, for the grace to prove our love for our Lord by always being obedient to Him. A blessed Easter to you all!
08 April 2012

© Reverend Timothy Reid

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

You can go directly to his homilies:
http://stanncharlotte.org/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=8&Itemid=61

Of all the Masses that the Catholic Church celebrates in the course of a year, none is more important than the Mass we are celebrating at this moment.
Indeed, “by most ancient tradition, this is the night of keeping vigil for the Lord, in which, following the Gospel admonition, [we], carrying lighted lamps in our hands, should be like those looking for the Lord when He returns, so that at His coming He may find [us] awake” (Roman Missal).
“Tonight Holy Church meditates on the wonders the Lord God has done for His people from the beginning, trusting in His word and promise until, as day approaches, with new members reborn in Baptism, the Church is called to the table the Lord has prepared for His people” (Roman Missal).
Because this is the most solemn of all Masses, it has many additional elements we don’t typically see on Sundays. But all that we do speaks of the incredible mystery of our salvation in Christ Jesus!
The author of the Letter to the Hebrews tells us that God is a consuming fire! (Hebrews 12:29). And so, gathering around a blazing fire, we lit the paschal candle, a symbol of Christ adorned with grains of incense representing His five glorious wounds, and we processed in the darkness, proclaiming Christ as our light and giving thanks for Him!
As the Israelites of old followed the pillar of fire out of the darkness of Egypt and through the waters of the Red Sea to freedom, so too did we, the new Israelites, follow the pillar of fire tonight – symbolizing our walking out of the darkness of sin into the warm embrace of Holy Mother Church.
Once inside the church we listened to the Exultet, the Church’s great song of praise celebrating Christ’s resurrection. And then we listened as the magnificent story of salvation history was recounted to us through the pages of Sacred Scripture.
But the great story of our salvation is not simply something we are simply listening to tonight. No, my brothers and sisters, for those of you entering into the Church this night, you will actually participate in salvation history through the Sacraments!
We see this most clearly in those of you being baptized, wherein we will use water, which is a rich symbol of the grace our Lord gives us the Sacrament of Baptism.
In the great events of Salvation history: Noah and the flood, the crossing of the RedSea by the Israelites, and the crossing of God’s people through the Jordan River into
the Promised Land, we see how our Lord prefigured the Sacrament of Baptism.

The waters of the great flood in Noah’s day were a sign of the waters of Baptism, thatmake an end of sin and a new beginning of goodness. (cf. CCC, #1219)
In the days of Moses, “our Lord freed the children of Abraham from the slavery ofPharaoh, bringing them dry-shod through the waters of the Red Sea, to be an image of
the people set free in Baptism” (CCC, #1221).

“Finally, Baptism is prefigured in the crossing of the Jordan River by which thePeople of God received the gift of the land promised to Abraham’s descendants, an
image of eternal life” (CCC, #1222).

Through this first of sacraments, we die with Christ so that we might rise with Him tonewness of life! By passing through the waters of baptism, just as the Israelites passed through the Red Sea, we enter into a new and eternal covenant with our Lord.
As Pharaoh and his evil forces were drowned in the waters of the Red Sea, so too are all our sins washed away in the waters of Baptism.
Once baptized, our initiation into the Church is continued through the Sacrament of Confirmation, the sacrament that strengthens us in our Christian witness so that we may live our Catholic faith with integrity and courage.
It is our confirmation that enables us to be good soldiers in the army of the Church Militant, willing to fight against evil for our salvation and that of others.
Lastly, as the Israelites were fed by our Lord during their years in the desert with manna, we, too, receive the living bread that comes down from Heaven: the Eucharist, which nourishes and sustains us on our lifelong journey and completes our full incorporation into the Body of Christ and brings us fully into the Promised Land of Holy Mother Church!
Indeed, tonight is no ordinary night. Tonight is the night of our salvation, which comes to us through the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
Through the grace given to us in the Sacraments, may we all die to sin so that we might live in union with Jesus. May we practice our beautiful Catholic faith with integrity and humility.
And by carrying the lighted lamps of faith, hope, and charity in our hands, may we all be found perfectly ready when the Master returns.

© Reverend Timothy Reid

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

You can go directly to his homilies:
http://stanncharlotte.org/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=8&Itemid=61

07 April 2012