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Losing a Colleague and Friend

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2015/06/19 at 12:00 AM

 

As I begin today I want to first thank all of you for your words of encouragement and your condolences expressed both to Sr. Judy and me.
It’s been a tough week, and we are both so grateful for the many kindnesses we’ve received from you as we’ve dealt with the sudden death of Sr. Helene.
Neither Sr. Judy nor I have family around, and so you are our family. And we have both felt very supported and well loved this week. On her behalf and my own I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your goodness to us.
In listening to so many of you, it seems that we were all shocked by the suddenness of Sr. Helene’s death.
Not only were we deprived of a chance to say good‐bye to her, but the way she died was a very pointed reminder of the fragility of human life and the fact that our good Lord can call us home anytime He so chooses.
Sr. Helene’s sudden death reminds us that our blessed Lord is indeed omnipotent, and that, at times, He can seem very unpredictable. Our readings today speak to these qualities of our Lord.
In our first reading from the prophet Ezekiel, our Lord proclaims His omnipotence boldly to us as He speaks of how He brings “low the high tree, lift(s) high the lowly tree, wither(s) up the green tree, and make(s) the withered tree bloom.”
Our Lord’s point here is that He can and will do with us as He chooses. All things are possible to Him; all creation is subject to Him.
In our Gospel today Jesus tells the parable of the man scattering seed on the land. He tells us that the kingdom of God is like this man, whose seed sprouts and grows, he knows not how.
In other words, our Lord is telling us that there’s a very mysterious element to the kingdom of God. There are things that happen that we do not always understand.
To be sure, life is a holy mystery! We can plan all we want, but God can change our plans in the wink of an eye.
I know that last weekend Sr. Helene had plenty of plans…and frankly, having a heart attack wasn’t one of them. But our Lord chose to take her as He did. And whether we like it or not, we must accept this hard reality.
But in accepting this hard reality, we need to make a decision: either to trust in our Lord’s providence, believing with St. Paul that all things do work for the good of those who love God; or we can harden our hearts toward God – disbelieving His promise of mercy and fearing His omnipotence.
As a man of faith, I can tell you that surety on this side of the veil separating heaven and earth can only be found by giving ourselves to the Lord whole‐heartedly, by trusting in His will.
But nevertheless, it can seem a bit counter‐intuitive to give oneself fully to a God Who at times can seem so unpredictable. And so we must look to words of St. Paul to the Corinthians today for courage.
St. Paul tells us to walk by faith, not by sight. In other words, St. Paul is encouraging us to walk according to Whom we know, and not what we know.
We must walk according to our faithful belief that our God is a loving God, that He is a God Who always desires what is best for us – even as it requires suffering, rather than walk according to the ways of the faithless, who do not believe in the Lord’s goodness, and who harden their hearts in the face of suffering.
Indeed, my brothers and sisters, God’s seeming unpredictability should not be cause for alarm within us, but rather an invitation to greater abandonment and faith in Him.
The Psalmist today tells us that God is just, and that in Him there is no wrong. We who have the courage to aspire to please Him “shall flourish like the palm tree.” Indeed, “They that are planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.”
And so it is that we must always seek to belong to the Lord rather than to the world.
We live in a world today that prides itself on its technological advances and scientific
knowledge. Certainly the sciences have greatly aided our understanding of nature and

of the universe, and technology has given man great mastery over creation.

The downside of technology and science is that man’s successes in these areas can tempt us to believe that we are greater than we really are. Sadly, many place their
hopes and trust in science and technology to the peril of their faith in God.

But no matter how far technology advances, man will never be omnipotent. Only God is
omnipotent. And no matter how far science advances, man will never be omniscient.

There will always be things that are knowable only to God.

Despite how good technological advances and scientific knowledge can be, they will
always leave us wanting in some way.

In humility we must accept that that there are limits to what man can and should
achieve, and that we will always be subject to our Lord’s omniscience and omnipotence.

As we reflect on God’s goodness and mercy, do we really want it any other way?

Therefore, with our Lady and with all the saints who have already passed through this
vale of tears faithfully and courageously, let us abandon ourselves completely and

entirely to our Lord’s providence.

Let us thank Him today for all the many blessings He has so lovingly bestowed upon us.
But let us thank Him for our sufferings, too, trusting that He allows crosses to come into

our lives in order to strengthen and sanctify us.

And lastly, let us each pray for an increase of faith in our world, that all mankind may
come to know and trust our sovereign Lord.

17 June 2012

© Reverend Timothy Reid

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

© Reverend Timothy Reid

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

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

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

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“Implore Divine Mercy”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2015/06/19 at 12:00 AM
For each one of us, as for Lazarus, it was really a veni foras – come out – which got us moving. How sad it is to see those who are still dead and do not know the power of God’s mercy! Renew your holy joy, for opposite the man who is decomposing without Christ, there is another who has risen with him. (The Forge, 476)

It is good for us to consider the wiles of these enemies of the soul: the disorder of sensuality and easy‑going superficiality, the folly of reason that rejects God, the cavalier presumption that snuffs out love for both God and creatures. All these obstacles are real enough, and they can indeed cause us a great deal of trouble. For these very reasons the liturgy invites us to implore divine mercy: “To you, o Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust, let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me” [1], as we prayed in the introit. And in the offertory we shall go back to the same idea: “Let none that wait for you be put to shame.”

Now that the time of our salvation is approaching, it is consoling to hear from the lips of St Paul that “when the goodness and kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not by the works of justice which we have done, but according to his mercy” [2].

If you leaf through the holy Scripture, you will discover constant references to the mercy of God. Mercy fills the earth [3]. It extends to all his children [4], and is “all around us” [5]. It “watches over me” [6]. It “extends to the heavens” [7] to help us, and has been continually “confirmed” [8]. God in taking care of us as a loving father looks on us in his mercy [9] — a mercy that is “tender” [10], welcome as ”rain‑clouds” [11].

The life of Jesus Christ is a summary and compendium of the story of divine mercy: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” [12]. And on another occasion our Lord said: “Be merciful, therefore, even as your Father is merciful” [13]. (Christ is passing by, 7)

[1] Ps 24:1‑2
[2] Tit 3:5
[3] Ps 32:5
[4] Sir 18:12
[5] Ps 31:10
[6] Ps 58:11
[7] Ps 33:8
[8] Ps 116:2
[9] Ps 24:7
[10] Ps 108:21
[11] Sir 35:26
[12] Matt 5:7
[13] Luke 6:36

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“We are ordinary Christians who lead an ordinary life”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2015/06/12 at 12:00 AM

God is not removing you from your environment. He is not taking you away from the world, or from your condition in life, or from your noble human ambitions, or from your professional work… But he wants you to be a saint – right there! (The Forge, 362)

No matter how much we may have reflected on all this, we should always be surprised when we think of the thirty years of obscurity which made up the greater part of Jesus’ life among men. He lived in obscurity, but, for us, that period is full of light. It illuminates our days and fills them with meaning, for we are ordinary Christians who lead an ordinary life, just like millions of other people all over the world.

That was the way Jesus lived for thirty years, as “the son of the carpenter” [1]. There followed three years of public life, spent among the crowds. People were surprised: “Who is this?” they asked. “Where has he learned these things?” For he was just like them: he had shared the life of ordinary people. He was “the carpenter, the son of Mary” [2]. And he was God; he was achieving the redemption of mankind and “drawing all things to himself” [3].

As with other events in his life, we should never contemplate Jesus’ hidden years without feeling moved. We should realize that they are in themselves a call to shake off our selfishness and easy‑going ways. (Christ is passing by, 14-15)

[1] Matt 13:55
[2] Mark 6:3
[3] John 12:32

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