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Homily My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ: How wonderful it is to see so many of you gathered here to celebrate the Holy Eucharist! Your continuing participation at Saint Charles Parish is a great blessing. I join with you here today to encourage you in your journey of faith. We are a pilgrim people. God created us in His own Image and Likeness. He is good and gracious. God loves us totally and completely. He blesses us in many, many ways all the days of our lives here on earth. With these blessings and graces, we are able to prepare for eternal life. Jesus speaks to us in the Gospel. He tells us that we should not be afraid because He is always with us. Therefore, He challenges us to live good and holy lives on this earth so that someday we can have eternal life in heaven with Him. To help us prepare for eternal life, Jesus came into our world. He lived here. He suffered and died for us. He established the Church to share Himself with us. Through this Church, our Catholic Church, we are instructed and guided on the journey of life. Through this Church, we come to know, love and serve God. We are truly God’s people. As your Archbishop, I want to share with you the beauty and the blessings of our Catholic faith. I want to encourage you to live the fullness of our Catholic faith. Therefore, I must remind you of the very serious obligation we have as Catholic people to participate in Mass every single Sunday. We do not come to church just for the music. Nor do we come just for the preaching. Nor are we here just to socialize. We come to church for all these reasons but most especially, we come to meet Jesus. Here we can find Him Who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Here we find Jesus most assuredly because here in the Mass, He gives Himself to us. He says “Take My Flesh and eat It. Take My Blood and drink It and you shall have life everlasting.” This is the promise which Jesus makes to us. This is the promise fulfilled in Holy Communion. This is the reason the Church obliges us to participate in the Mass every single Sunday. If we come to church every Sunday and listen to the readings and instruction, we will also become more knowledgeable about our Catholic faith. We will begin to realize how important it is to obey the ten commandments of God. We will want to share this good news of Jesus with our families and friends. We will begin to live the fullness of our Catholic faith. Once again, let me say how very happy I am to be able to come and celebrate this Eucharist with you and for you. Be assured that I will continue to pray that Almighty God will bless you and your loved ones always. Most Reverend Eusebius J. Beltran |