BIG C CATHOLICS

Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. La Salette Missionaries of North America Hartford, Connecticut ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) Have you ever known someone who “got religion”? In 1977 it was being reported that the famous publisher of a pornographic magazine had been converted through the efforts of Ruth Carter Stapleton, sister of President Carter. Many were skeptical, especially since the conversion resulted in no change to the publisher’s business or lifestyle. No one was surprised when he later said he was an atheist. Every year in Lent we see people returning to church, seriously intending to resume the practice of their Catholic faith. We rejoice to see them, we hope for the best, but we also know that in some cases the enthusiasm will fade. Of course, in many cases, the conversion is genuine. Still, for those who know the individuals in question, it is normal to take a wait-and-see attitude. That seems to be what happened to St. Paul, who was as it were put on a shelf for abo...

Fr. Charles Irvin Ezekiel 2:2-5; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10; Mark 6: 1-6 Shortly after He began His public ministry, Jesus went back to His hometown of Nazareth. What happened there was very sad. All of the familiar things and people were there — but it was far from being a happy homecoming. They gave Him the cold shoulder and He ended up leaving Nazareth never to return. As St. Luke gives the account, the people there in Nazareth froze Him out and then tried to throw Him over a cliff. Why? The whole episode seems terribly strange to you and me. How could an entire town treat Him that way? They were not mean spirited. St. Mark didn’t give us this account in order to vilify the people of Nazareth. His reason for reporting this event was probably to show us that they were not so very different from you and me. Here we find them standing face to face with God’s very Truth made flesh and blood for us. Here was God offering himself in His only-begotten Son to people just like us. They were...

Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. La Salette Missionaries of North America Hartford, Connecticut ( Click here for Sunday's readings ) In today’s Responsorial Psalm we have the splendid verse: “At nightfall, weeping enters in, but with the dawn, rejoicing.” This reminds me of a book I encountered as a high school seminarian. The title was But with the Dawn Rejoicing . It was the autobiography of a woman named Mary Ellen Kelly. In her teens she had begun to develop rheumatoid arthritis. By the age of 20 she was almost totally immobile. On a train she couldn’t use the sleeper car, but had to travel in the baggage car, strapped to a board. She had the use of only two fingers on one hand; it once took her over two hours to write a note just twenty-five words long. She had plenty of reason to feel sorry for herself, and indeed she did. In due time, however, she met Fr. Joseph Higgins, a Missionary of Our Lady of La Salette. One day he “read her the riot act,” so to speak, and shocked her into...

Fr. Charles Irvin Senior Priest Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for today's readings ) Your doctor informs you that you have cancer. Your wife tells you she has been seeing another man. Your husband tells you he’s found a younger woman and is going to marry her. You son announces that he has AIDS. Your employer tells you that your job as been outsourced and your services will no longer be needed. Any number of events can bring your life crashing down. People of faith do not necessarily have trouble free and painless lives and people with little or no faith at all can be found living wonderful, prosperous, and problem free lives, or so it seems on the surface. Life’s blows come to us all no matter what things may seem like on the surface. If you look deeply into the lives of the rich and famous you will find loss, pain, and suffering. Moreover, if you look into the lives of great men and women you will find that most of them rose above pain, loss, and suffering and because...

Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. La Salette Missionaries of North America Hartford, Connecticut ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) When a child asks you what an unfamiliar word or expression means, you may well find yourself beginning the explanation with, “Well, it’s something like...” You start with something the child already knows, in hopes of providing the appropriate insight. This is a natural and quite universal teaching method; recognizable images and interesting stories have always sparked understanding. It should not amaze us, therefore, that Jesus used this approach so often, thirty-two times that we know of, in three Gospels. Surprisingly, there are no parables in John, and only four of Jesus’ parables occur in all three of the other Gospels. Some of the parables have a moral, such as, “So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart,” at the end of the parable of the unforgiving servant. In other cases the evangelist gives us th...

In Matthew 6, Jesus teaches us how to pray the "Our Father," which includes the petition, "Thy kingdom come." "Our Father, who art in heaven hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." .Jesus references the first heir to the Davidic Kingdom – Solomon – several times, including Matthew 6:29, and 6:33, when he urges people to seek the kingdom above all else and trust that in this kingdom, God will provide for their needs even more than he provided for Solomon’s. Jesus’ wisdom was greater than Solomon’s, but he still used many of the same methods of passing on that wisdom; Both taught through parables. In Matthew 13, Jesus teaches about the kingdom through seven parables, including: The Parable of the Sower, the Parable of the Mustard Seed, the Parable of the Leaven, the Parable of the Hidden Treasure, the Parable of the Wheat and Weeds, the Parable of the Pearl of Great Price, and the Parable of the Dragnet. Through...