CHARLOTTE — Bishop Michael Martin celebrated three Christmas Masses Dec. 24-25 in Charlotte, encouraging all those present at St. Gabriel Church, St. Patrick Cathedral and Our Lady of the Assumption Church to respond positively to God’s call and desire to be a part of their lives.
Bishop Martin began by acknowledging our culture’s increasing inability to RSVP for events, noting that we have so many possibilities that it’s easy to get caught up in all the options and lose track of what really matters. He said the secular culture’s attitude is, “I'm not so interested in what's in front of me. I'm more interested in what else there might be.”
Instead, Bishop Martin challenged Catholics, “Our God comes to us this day and invites us, are we ready to respond, or are we waiting for a better offer?”
In churches across the diocese, thousands responded by filling the pews for joyous Christmas Masses celebrating Christ’s birth.
St. Gabriel Church in Charlotte
The 4:30 p.m. Vigil Mass for the Feast of the Nativity of the Lord at St. Gabriel Church started with an empty wooden cradle set before the altar. More than 1,500 parishioners watched Bishop Michael Martin alongside Deacon Jim Keaney place the baby Jesus in the manger to mark the beginning of the Christmas season and the arrival of Christ’s light in a fallen world.
In his homily, the bishop noted, “We have to acknowledge the darkness to celebrate the light.”
He said God offers us a way out of that darkness, but He asks for the courtesy of a response.
Committing to Jesus “is not a one-time response. It is a constant, full-throated, ‘yes, I’m yours’,” Bishop Martin said. “Did you all come for that tonight?”
When about a hundred people said yes, he called it a "tepid” response, which prompted the crowd to respond loudly with a joyful "yes.”
“We need to hear ourselves praise our God,” he said. “Our response has to be heard and seen.”
The bishop said visiting drive-thru nativity scenes and singing a few songs at Christmas is not what God wants from our relationship with Him, but it is the way some have carved Him into their lives in these times.
“Our readings tonight tell us that Jesus wants to invite us into the fullness of life in every single centimeter of our existence,” he said.
He went on to invite parishioners to repeat the words from Isaiah in the first reading, “The people that have walked in the darkness have seen a great light.”
That darkness is sin, and it needs to be called out, he warned, before people start getting comfortable in that dark state.
“Life without Christ is really, really dark,” he noted. “Call it what it is. You can acknowledge the glory of the great light.”
St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte
On a sunny Christmas morning, several hundred parishioners, guests and visitors were up bright and early for Bishop Martin’s 9 a.m. Mass for the Feast of the Nativity of the Lord at St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte.
From those who were just learning to genuflect to seasoned parishioners, they heard the bishop’s message that God chose the humblest way possible to enter our lives – in a cold stable surrounded by the smell of animals and near some “sketchy” shepherds.
“It is that world that Jesus steps into to save you, and there is not a component of your life that you could ever imagine that He does not want to be a part of,” the bishop said.
But for that to happen, God needs us to respond with a “yes,” Bishop Martin said.
Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Charlotte
At noon on Christmas Day, hundreds crowded into Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Charlotte to hear Bishop Martin celebrate Mass and deliver his homily in Spanish.
Reiterating the core message of his earlier sermons, he noted that Christians need to be present during their journey with God and to look for help along the way.
He noted that the Church is the true north that shows us where to go when the world confuses the righteous path. Just as angels announced the birth of Jesus, he said we need angels to announce the Good News today.
“My brothers and sisters, I have a mission for every single one of us to take on that angelic role,” Bishop Martin said. “To go out in the world and say, ‘I have come to know Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, and that is the Good News that I am basing my life on. Come rejoice with me.’”
But, as he noted at St. Patrick, that requires us to RSVP not just today, but tonight, tomorrow, the day after, and every day going forward, concluded the bishop.
St. Gabriel parishioner Regina Gellineau was delighted to hear the bishop and felt his words in her heart.
“This was my first time seeing him, and I was so surprised,” Gellineau said of the Vigil Mass. “His words just filled me up. His homily was absolutely wonderful. What I liked the most was that he said that the time is now and that God is with us all the time. I mean, he put it all into perspective.”
Laura Melvin, who attended Mass at St. Gabriel with her children and husband, said the bishop’s message hit home.
Melvin said, “This definitely reminds me how I need to live my vocation every day, not just when I feel like it.”
— Lisa M. Geraci and Trish Stukbauer. Photos by Troy C. Hull and Brian Segovia.