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Reflection for the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B "The First Commandment"

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Msgr. Bernard Bourgeois Americans like things summed up easily and in few words. We like short news bytes and easy to understand directions that pop up on our phones. Simple, quick, and easy are words we live by. At first glance, today’s Gospel from Mark offers such a summary for today’s Catholic. A scribe asks Jesus, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Here is Jesus’ answer: " You shall love the Lord, your God , with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: " You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments." Simple, quick, and easy—love God and love neighbor. It sums up everything Jesus teaches and is thus the center of the law of Christ. As anyone who takes faith seriously knows, these two commands of Christ are anything but simple, quick, and easy. They’re easy to say and even to believe; they are some

Reflection for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

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Fr. Charles Irvin Wisdom 7:7-11; Hebrews 4:12-13; Mark 10:17-30 We have all heard the phrase: “Money is the root of all evil.” But scripture never calls money inherently evil. In fact, wealth is often portrayed throughout God’s Word as a blessing from the Lord. Think of Abraham or Solomon or other biblical figures. Matthew was a rich man. So was Zacchaeus. In today’s gospel reading about the rich young man we find St. Mark reporting: Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, ‘You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ The bible reports several people whom Jesus especially loved. One was Lazarus, the man He raised from the dead. Jesus, the gospels tell us, loved him along with his sisters, Martha and Mary. St. John the Apostle was another Jesus especially loved. Several times he is referred to as “the one Jesus loved”, or the Beloved Disciple. And there was of course His own mothe

Reflection for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

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Fr. Charles Irvin Genesis 2:18-24; Hebrews 2:9-11; Mark 10:2-12 Jewish sages wrote the Book of Genesis as a series of meditations on the origin of the universe and the genesis of humankind. A popular form of Jewish writing was employed setting forth very profound ideas in simple forms of storytelling. Everything happened, they told us, because a caring and loving Creator in the beginning willed it so. All that has happened comes from His personal love and inner drive to share Himself. All lovers know of that inner drive. God did not create anything by chance – everything is purpose made, especially man and woman who are created in God’s own image and likeness so that He can share Himself with them as He does with no other creatures. He breathed His life, Genesis tells us, only into man and woman, not into His other creatures. Note that the creation of man was prior to the creation of any other form of life. Into man God breathed His Spirit, His very life and love. Then God creat

Reflection for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

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Fr. Charles Irvin Numbers 11:25-29; James 5:1-6; Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48 Who’s in, and who’s out? That’s a question that cuts through so many areas in our lives these days especially in this political season. Here are a few for instance: What do the opinion polls tell us about the standings of those who are running for the presidency of the United States? Who’s in, and who’s out? How should we treat undocumented aliens? What benefits of U.S. citizenship should they enjoy, and what should they not be entitled to in our legal system and governmental social service programs? Who’s in, and who’s out? Which student applicants should be admitted and which should not be admitted to our public universities and what criteria should be applied to them? Some Catholics are busily concerned with “Who is a real Catholic and who is not?” Some Fundamentalist Christians are busily concerned with “Who is going to hell and who’s going to be saved?” Who’s “in” and who’s “out”? We hear si

Reflection for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

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Fr. Charles Irvin Wisdom 2:12, 17-20; James 3:16-4:3; Mark 9:30-37 After we were born our parents found days and months of sheer delight as they cuddled us, held us, played with us, and watched us become little persons. Each boasted of the characteristics they saw in us that they were sure came from their own genes. In generous moments they gave attribution to the other parent or the other parent’s family. It was not long, however, that our parents had to begin dealing with something within us that I can only describe as “The Imperial Self.” We all had one, you know – and still do! And what is amazing is how soon that Imperial Self asserts itself after we’ve been given life. The darling, lovable baby soon strives to become self-willed and demanding. In that emergence the words “I,” “me,” and “mine” become no longer descriptive, they become imperious. Our parents soon became more willing to break the wills of those little wild horses by trying to put bit and bridle on their willful

Homily for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

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Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) In many situations asking the right question is critically important, but coming up with the right question at the right time is an art. If a scientist doesn’t ask the right question, he or she will follow paths that do not lead to solving a problem. If the president of a corporation doesn’t ask the right questions at the right time he will not successfully provide for his company’s future. If you are an employee, think of the importance of questions you put to your bosses. Asking the right question can lead to your promotion. Think of how important it is for a police detective to ask the right question, or a doctor, or a psychiatrist. Asking the right question is a skill, an art, one that allows you to avoid going down a lot of blind alleys. And then there those who are in love. Lovers spend hours and hours and hours asking each other questions because they want to know everything there is to know about the

Homily for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 5, 2021, Year B

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Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) You just now heard an old Aramaic word: “Ephphatha.” It means, “be opened” and was used by our Blessed Lord, the Son of God, as a divine command. He was, of course, dealing with a deaf man who lived in a city name Tyre located in what we know of today as southern Lebanon. Immediately prior to this event Jesus had driven out an evil spirit from the daughter of a Phoenician woman. They lived in a nearby city called Tyre. Jesus delivered this man from the bondage of deafness. In the bible passage immediately before this one Jesus had delivered a little girl from some sort of evil spirit that had taken over her inner soul. Both the man and the girl had been blocked from experiencing the goodness life in which God intends for us to live. Ephphatha – be opened. Are we open or are we closed? Ephphatha — be open to what life offers you. If you are living all closed up and apart from the goodness that surrounds yo

Reflection for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

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Fr. Charles Irvin Deuteronomy 4:1-2,6-8; James 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27; Mark 7:1-8,14-45,21-13 Over the past few decades we’ve all become increasingly concerned with preserving and protecting the natural environment in which we live and upon which we must survive. Ecology has entered our vocabulary. We know now about rain forests, the ozone layer, global warming, and the toxic effluents generated by our means of production. Pollution is a terrible reality. We know, too, about our terrible rate of consumption of the world’s natural resources. A lot of evils and human suffering result from the way we live not only here in America but in other parts of the world as well. There is another problem equally as serious to which we’re giving some attention these days… that’s the toxic presence of moral pollution that’s pervasive in our culture and that’s threatening the future lives of our children and grandchildren. Living in a clean world involves more than simply what we’re doing to the mat

Reflection for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

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Fr. Charles Irvin Joshua 24:1-2a, 15-17; Ephesians 5:21-32; John 6:60-69 Today’s readings prompt me to share some thoughts with you about choices, decisions, and commitments. Each and every day we consider choices presented to us, and then make our decisions. There comes a moment when our consideration ends and we raise a choice to the level of our wills, and thereby make it a freely chosen decision.   A decision can be of a short-term sort, or one intended to last over a long period of time, perhaps a lifetime decision carrying a permanent quality – a “forever” decision. Some of those permanent decisions are raised to the level of vows. They are given and placed in the hands of God; they are made and given in God’s presence, power, and love. Being human we all suffer from a weakness imbedded deep within us, namely the original sin depicted in the story of our first parents, Adam and Eve. Their resolve was weakened, their choices and decisions were corrupted, their willpower was c

Reflection for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

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Fr. Charles Irvin 1st Kings 19:4-8; Ephesians 4:30-5:2; John 6:41-51 Some time ago I received an e-mail telling me about cactus plants, a topic that had not in the past provoked much interest on my part. After all, I pictured them to be gawkish and unattractive, although I have seen some cacti that appeared to have surrealistic heads and arms resembling human forms that exercised my imagination. Nevertheless, I read on. Pictures came as attachments to that e-mail, and when I opened them up and viewed those pictures I was delighted to find that cacti produce stunningly beautiful blossoms, all of which brought me to reassess my judgments about cactus plants. Evidently there was a whole lot more to them than I thought. My “know-it-all” previous judgments about cacti completely blocked me from seeing the beauty that lay hidden within them. That lesson can be applied to the way we see people, especially people about whom we have a “know-it-all” attitude. All of us are familiar with w

Reflection for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

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Fr. Charles Irvin Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15; Ephesians 4:17, 20-24; John 6:24-35 At many points in our lives we all must face and deal with change, change that requires us to abandon the old familiar patterns in which we live and move into new and unfamiliar ways of living. We seem at times to want change and when it occurs we don’t like it, don’t want it.  In times of change our emotions must cope with fear of the unknown. The loss of our sense of security forces us to muster up the courage and strength to enter into what changes bring to us in the way we think, feel, and act. Fear plays upon us, causing us to resist change; and because change always brings loss with it, the loss of our former securities and patterns of living that we both want to change and don’t want to change. Deep within our hearts and souls insecurity conflicts with security in a war between each other. We experience an internal war between two states of being, passivity and change. The readings we just now heard i

Reflection for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

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Fr. Charles Irvin 2 Kings 4:42-44; Ephesians 4:1-6; John 6:1-15 Once upon a time a cruel hunter killed a beautiful mother eagle. A chicken full of compassion took the eagle’s egg from its nest and put it with her own eggs. It was a bit uncomfortable because the eagle’s egg was considerably bigger. But that detail isn’t of any significance for us here. When the egg hatched the farmer named the baby eagle “Chickie” and treated her as he treated all baby chickens. As she was growing she just assumed that she was a chicken like the others. One day “Chickie” saw some birds flying high in the sky. How “Chickie” envied those birds in the sky! She so much wished she could fly like they did. Unfortunately, no one told her that she was an eagle and could fly high up into the heavens. Then one day a stranger came into the barnyard, caught sight of “Chicky” and instantly recognized what she was, an eaglet — not a chick. He took her out into a nearby field and began to make her hop from his

Reflection for the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

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Fr. Charles Irvin Jeremiah 23:1-6; Ephesians 2:13-18; Mark 6:30-34 Plans. All of us are familiar with plans. There are family plans, school plans, plans at work, travel plans, game plans, and all sorts of other plans. Our days are lived out in them. Even our fun times are planned… sometimes over-planned. Some people can’t stand plans. They want things to be spontaneous and enjoy the surprises that can come when things are unplanned. Others can’t stand to do anything, and I mean anything, without a plan. They need structure; they go nuts without structures. The world in which we live these days, with all of its many demands, requires us to plan ahead. Few of us have the luxury of unplanned holidays and vacations. Most of us cannot get away unless we plan time for getting away from all the tasks that face us in our everyday weeks, months, and years. In today’s Gospel we heard about the apostles who had been out preaching and had come back to Jesus to report about all they had bee