BIG C CATHOLICS

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) High up on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, Michelangelo’s magnificent painting depicts the Creation Account found in the Book of Genesis. In Michelangelo’s depiction God’s finger reaches out to touch Adam’s finger. Into Adam’s already perfectly created body, God is about to endow Adam with an immortal soul. The hand of God is limpid, relaxed. God’s finger is beckoning, not accusing, gentle, not harsh. Recently I found a copy of that painting and meditated for a while on what was transpiring. God’s creation of all else had been completed – this was His final and highest act of creation. Adam’s body had been brought into being. It now was about to receive an immortal soul and thenceforth all of Adam’s descendants would, because of him, be born with immortal souls. God’s profound and infinitely generous love was about to be given to us, His creatures brought into being from the slime of the ea...

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) There are three characters that in this parable Jesus is asking us to examine. Actually, Jesus is presenting them to us so that we might take a look at ourselves in them. How does each one of these characters mirror us, reflect back to us our attitudes and our condition relative to God? Parables invite us to enter into the actors and see ourselves in them. The first is the younger son. It’s important for us to pay attention to his fundamental condition in which we must see ourselves. The first thing to see is his radical departure from God our Father. When he asks for his inheritance, he isn’t just asking for a big sum of money. He is in effect saying to his father: “I’m treating you as if you’re dead. And I want to get now what I’m supposed to receive after you’re dead.” How many people do you know who live and act as if God is dead… as if God may as well be dead? Or how often have we had an “attitude” ...

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) In our newspapers we read of disasters and watch catastrophes on television. And we deal with painful tragedies in the lives of our friends and loved ones, and ask: “Where is God?”, “How can God allow these things to go on?” It is implicitly the question put to Jesus in this Gospel account dealing with the fact that the Roman Governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, the same one who condemned Jesus to be crucified, murdered a number of Jews in Jerusalem while they worshipped! He mingled their blood with the blood of their temple sacrifices. It was a terribly shocking thing to do, to say the very least. Some people explain away tragedies by telling us that it is sinners who suffer tragedies. Tragedies, they claim, are God’s way of punishing us for our sins, justified punishments from God inflicted upon us for our sins. That, of course, may or may not be true. Why? Because bad things happen to good people –people ...

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) We hear a lot about the high cost of living. Today I’d like to turn the phrase a bit and share some thoughts with you about the high cost of transformation. Becoming someone greater than we are now does not come freely or easily… it comes at a great price, a price that takes us out of our comfort zones. We all know that nothing in this life, except perhaps love, comes to us free. And we all know that the really valuable things in life cost us in terms of our own personal efforts. So, too, the cost of transformation demands its price for us to pay. You and I live in a time in which excellence and perfection are much sought after when it comes to material things, but are ignored when it comes to spiritual things. It is a great American goal to have a perfect body. To be physically attractive is something that’s constantly put in front of us in all of the media images we receive. But how many of those physica...