 Welcome to Tan Academy's Alpha and Omega series. My name is Father Carter. I'm a priest of the diocese of Charlotte. Very excited and honored to walk with you through this series. Ever since I was a boy, my family made it a point of going to Christmas midnight mass. As a child, many times, I just fall asleep halfway through the mass. But as I got older, I would stay awake for longer and longer. Eventually I had to stay awake through the entire mass because I was an altar boy. But my most favorite part of that night wasn't the lessons and carols before the mass or even the mass itself. I always remember that right before the mass was about to start, the canter would sing the Christmas proclamation. This is a long announcement that we were finally celebrating Christmas. It marked the time of Christ's birth, counting the number of years since the flood, the exodus, David's reign as king. But finally, my most favorite line came. Jesus Christ, son of God and son of the eternal father, desiring to consecrate the world by his most loving presence was born of the Virgin Mary. That line, desiring to consecrate the world by his most loving presence, so beautiful. At the creation of the world, God walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Paradise. There was a perfect relationship between God and man and between Adam and Eve. But when this was ruined by original sin, God no longer walked with them. For generations and generations, God was only present by words of revelation, but he wasn't really walking with man as he did in the Garden. There was no longer a real relationship where man could be dependent upon God for everything he needed. Man was destined to work, toil, suffer until the time of his redemption. So when that line is sung every year, desiring to consecrate the world by his most loving presence, every year it reminds me of the fact that God wanted to bless us with his son's presence and that changed everything. When we look at Christ coming, it's humble and simple. He came into this world and was immediately wrapped in a cloth, but he came for one purpose and that was our salvation. In order to accomplish this, he was born to die and we accomplished the great work of the cross. He was again wrapped in a cloth, like at his birth, but this time he was placed in the tomb, not a manger. The price of love was death, but through death and his resurrection, he opened the gates of heaven and established a path to union with the Father. But how do we get there? If I wanna go to my brother's house, for example, I have to get in my car and hit the road, but to get to heaven, we have a different vehicle. I wonder if you've ever heard the area of the church where the congregation sits being called the nave. This is the proper name of the area with the pews and it comes from the Latin word navies, which means boat. And in many churches, especially the more traditionally constructed ones, the ceiling, if we look up, it looks like the inside of an upside down boat. One of the classical images used to describe the church is the bark of St. Peter, the boat of St. Peter. This refers to Peter's work as a fisherman before he was called by Christ. He continued though to steer, if you will, the ship of the church. It's in that boat, in communion with the church, that Christ channels his graces and the fruits of redemption. It's within the bark, the boat of St. Peter, within the boat of the church, that we're saved from the stormy waters of the world. And so there's two important realities that we have to keep in mind. The first is that God chose to use the church, the priesthood and the sacraments to communicate divine life to us. Could he have chosen some other way, some other organization, agency, or institution? Of course. But he didn't. I say this because we can tend to think from time to time, well, can't God work in other ways? Yes, obviously can. And he can work outside of the sacraments in his church, but you and I can't. Our sure way to salvation is through the means that God gave us. And the second important reality to keep in mind has to do with living out the truth that the church through her life in sacraments has the means to eternal life and redemption. When we acknowledge this reality, it motivates us to want others to share in it. It makes us want to be missionary. God might not be calling us to serve the native peoples of Australia or Africa who haven't heard of the message of Christ, but we can all be missionary by inviting our non-Catholic friends to mass and youth group. We're missionary when we're on a rosary walk and someone asks us what those beads in our hand are. We should joyfully respond by sharing the truth of our faith. If we have the fullness of truth in the means of achieving salvation, we should wanna share that with others so that they too can have divine life. Part of the Christian life is to live the peace, joy, and communion in this life that will be totally fulfilled in the next life. When we profess one baptism, the forgiveness of sins, in the communion of saints, we're professing our intention to live those realities now. By spreading the faith, bringing others to believe in Christ and by accompanying souls to the saving waters of baptism, we're building up the communion of saints to the body of Christ. As the church militant on earth, we fight for the salvation of our own souls and also fight for the salvation of our neighbors. When we're wounded in battle, we have Christ's forgiveness through reconciliation. The whole time we're connected to the saints in heaven who are our witnesses and intercessors. So let's never forget to ask for their help along the way.