BIG C CATHOLICS

Fr. Charles Irvin Senior Priest Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for today’s readings ) Here we are at the beginning of a new year with high hopes that this year will be better than 2015. We have our hopes even though we know that there is much in our world that is wrong. Without going into a long dismal list of the many things that are wrong let me point out just a few of them. The gap between the rich and the poor is widening, not closing. Political corruption and the politics of gridlock darken our perceptions of those we have elected to office. Terrorism and abortion along with ISIS murders cause us to realize that in the minds of many, human life is cheap and regarded as disposable. We face much that is sinful, evil, and criminal in our world. All of these things we know quite well are exceptions to the way things ought to be; they are out of the general order of what should present in our relations with others. How do we know that? What gives us this perspective and rec

Fr. Charles Irvin Senior Priest Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for today’s readings ) When did Jesus know who He really was? We can reasonably assume that as a little boy He grew into knowledge of who He was. Somewhere (and I am speaking here of Jesus in his human nature) He moved from being a little boy to being a young man and along the way He became aware of the fact that He had a unique relationship with our Father in heaven. In His maturation he came to know who He really was and that would determine His destiny in life. We cannot possibly pinpoint when that realization came to full flower. But certainly at His baptism in the Jordan River by John the Baptizer He had in full measure that realization. Certainly at that moment, the one we just heard about in today’s Gospel account, He was committing Himself to the destiny that lay in front of Him. A booming voice from heaven proclaimed: “You are my beloved Son. On you my favor rests.” Jesus knew that our heavenly Father h

Fr. Charles Irvin Senior Priest Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for today’s readings ) From Advent until now the readings and themes of our liturgies have all centered on God’s coming to us. The underlying movement has been God seeking us out and offering Himself to us in His Son, in the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. He is the Messiah first promised to the descendants of Adam and Eve after their Fall. In today’s Liturgy the basic movement shifts. Now it’s all about our seeking, specifically our seeking out God in His Christ, and by the word “our” I mean all of humanity. The Magi we need to note were not Jews. They were the representatives of the gentile nations and peoples. They were kings who were sages, wise men, visionaries, men who searched beyond what is obvious; searching into the mysterious non-scientific world in which we exist as distinguished from what is merely technical and material. The word "question" has the word "quest" tucked inside it, a