BIG C CATHOLICS

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) I want to begin today by putting in front of us some phrases I am sure you have all heard. “Talk is cheap, it’s actions that count.” “You have to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.” “Actions speak louder than words.” There are those who will haughtily dismiss these thoughts as mere truisms. It is probable that those who dismiss them want to avoid paying attention to how these thoughts apply to their relationships with others. You and I have all been hurt by promises given and then broken. Some of us have been given sweet talk and words of love only to later discover that we were, in the name of love, only used. On other occasions we have been given words that have hurt us, really hurt us, not because they were nasty but because we relied on them and were later betrayed. What was the setting for today’s Gospel account about the two sons? Jesus had the day before thrown the moneychangers out of

The theme of this year's Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is "Your Right Hand, O Lord, Glorious in Power." (Exodus 15:6). The octave of prayer for the promotion of Christian unity takes its impetus from Exodus 15:1-21, the words of Moses. Day One   You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt  The Israelites’ memory of being strangers in the land of Egypt lay behind the Law’s instruction that God’s people were to welcome the stranger in their midst. The memory of their own exile was expected to prompt empathy and solidarity with contemporary exiles and strangers. Like Israel, our common Christian experience of God’s saving action goes together with remembering both alienation and estrangement - in the sense of estrangement from God and from his kingdom. This kind of Christian remembering has ethical implications. God has restored our dignity in Christ, and made us citizens of his kingdom, not because of anything we did to des

The theme of this year's Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is "Your Right Hand, O Lord, Glorious in Power." (Exodus 15:6). The octave of prayer for the promotion of Christian unity takes its impetus from Exodus 15:1-21, the words of Moses: Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord: “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my might, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name. Pharaoh’s chariots and his army he cast into the sea; his picked officers were sunk in the Red Sea. The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone. Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power— your right hand, O Lord, shattered the enemy. In the greatness of your majesty you overthrew your adversaries; you sent out your fury, it consumed them like stubble. At t

Father Thomas Mattison There are so many remedies for those who suffer unjustly that we have begun to imagine that suffering itself is wrong. Worse! We begin to think that those who suffer willingly or without complaining must be “sick” or uninformed or, maybe, getting what they asked for when they didn’t take care of themselves at some earlier time. In a fixable world, sufferers lose any right to compassion. Those of us who are of a certain age learned a different answer: Offer it up! We may want to laugh at that, but it holds a profound spiritual truth. Compared to what others can do and have, I may be impoverished. But that impoverishment does not diminish the reality of God’s love for me. Nor does it rob me of the ability to be brave, to be generous, to be patient, to be forgiving, to be compassionate, to be loved, to be grateful. Some impoverishments may even provide me with the ability to inspire others; isn’t that what a support group is about? Suffering can make me m

On November 24th the Church celebrates the memorial of Saint Andrew Dung-Lac, a 19th century Vietnamese priest and companions, who lost their lives for the Faith. St. Andrew was one of 117 people who were martyred in Vietnam between 1820 and 1862. The last of these martyrs were 17 laypersons, one of them a 9-year-old, executed in 1862. The suffering they endured was barbaric. Christianity came to Vietnam through the Portuguese. Jesuits opened the first permanent mission at Da Nang in 1615. They ministered to Japanese Catholics who had been driven from Japan. The emperor Minh-Mang, banned all foreign missionaries and commanded Vietnamese Catholics to renounce their religion by trampling on a crucifix. Their churches were destroyed and catechesis forbidden. Christians were branded on the face with the words ta dao (false religion) and Christian families and villages were destroyed. Like the priest holes in Ireland during English persecution, many Catholics were offered sanctuary

By Father Thomas Mattison When thinking about childlessness and celibacy and voluntary renunciations of various sorts, let us take note, too, of those deprivations, hurts, injustices and differences that seem to be visited so unjustly on so many. Even the most basic human concern asks: Must one suffer these lacks? When so posed, the question begs the answer: One must not so suffer. In an age that worships technology’s – medical, pharmacological, legal – ability to ‘fix’ what is judged to be broken. The clear implication of that response is that one who suffers has a right to be fixed, to be changed, to have others changed, to have the whole culture changed and to have the ‘justice’ system arrange for the costs to be borne by someone else. And if that cannot be arranged, then they right to be helped to die! There are so many remedies for those who suffer unjustly that we have begun to imagine that suffering itself is wrong. Worse! We begin to think that those who suffer willi

Reformation Day is the Protestant observance of Martin Luther's consequential action on October 31, 1517 which would lead to the onset of the Reformation. According to legend, the young Augustinian monk nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral, changing Christianity, and the world, forever. On this the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's historic theses, we bring to your attention two articles of interest. Glenn Stanton writing for the Federalist offers a fascinating examination into the myths, lies, distortions and outright fabrications surrounding Luther's momentous dissent. In " Luther Didn’t Actually Nail Up His 95 Theses, And Other Curious Reformation Day Facts ", Stanton observes: The results of this theology professor’s world-changing action are beyond dispute. What actually happened on what is celebrated as Reformation Day, however, is highly questionable. Simply put, it’s unlikely the door episode ever happened. It certainly d

The Martyr’s Oath: Living for the Jesus They’re Willing to Die For , (published 2017, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, Carol Stream, Illinois, 240 pages) by Christian (Evangelical) pastor, author, speaker, media personality, communications executive, and humanitarian Rev. Johnnie Moore, examines the escalating genocide against those who profess belief in Jesus Christ. From the publisher’s website: "We are witnessing an astonishing escalation in Christian persecution like we have rarely seen since the first century. Some estimate that every five minutes, a Christian is martyred for his or her faith. Countries like Egypt have experienced more Christian persecution in the last five years than in the previous six hundred years combined. And who could have missed the atrocities of ISIS in Syria, Boko Haram in Nigeria, and the continued persecution of Christians in North Korea? Johnnie Moore, like many American Christians, didn’t fully appreciate the extent of what was going on—until

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) I want to begin today by putting in front of us some phrases I am sure you have all heard. “Talk is cheap, it’s actions that count.” “You have to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.” “Actions speak louder than words.” There are those who will haughtily dismiss these thoughts as mere truisms. It is probable that those who dismiss them want to avoid paying attention to how these thoughts apply to their relationships with others. You and I have all been hurt by promises given and then broken. Some of us have been given sweet talk and words of love only to later discover that we were, in the name of love, only used. On other occasions we have been given words that have hurt us, really hurt us, not because they were nasty but because we relied on them and were later betrayed. What was the setting for today’s Gospel account about the two sons? Jesus had the day before thrown the moneychangers out of

This idea of Christians and the Christian Church as the soul of the world, a people set apart, animated by a divine calling that is discipleship — evokes the scriptural imagery of salt and light, found in the Gospels and the Sermon on the Mount. As Christians we are expressly called to be in but not of the world. Our Lord tells us: You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father. (Mt 5:14-16) Tertullian of Carthage, "the father of Latin Christianity", a prolific early Christian apologist and successful polemicist against heresy, in a tract from his theological treatise , discusses the Christian’s duties in a way reminiscent of Our Savior: So we sojourn with you in the world, abjuring neither forum, n

By Father Thomas Mattison There is no such thing as a Church teaching that is not social. Once upon a time the bishop of the Diocese of Burlington was named Robert F. Joyce. He was a native of Proctor and installed as bishop of Burlington in 1957. He resigned as bishop after 15 years at age 75. He would not have been grateful to be called an ecclesiologist — an expert in the theology of the Church — but he was just that. At every Confirmation ceremony he gave the same sermon -- every one! And he would make everyone in church repeat the message after him: Don’t go to heaven alone; take someone with you. RFJ clearly understood that there is in each of us a tendency — a temptation — to think of ourselves before thinking of anyone else and, even, to the exclusion of everyone else. But he understood, too, that such a focus on the single self was absolutely antithetical to Christianity. Just being a Christian means being — at very least — connected to Jesus. We have no connect

Fr. Charles Irvin Senior Priest Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for today’s readings ) Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche lived from 1844 to 1900. He turned out to be a philosopher of considerable stature — and an atheist. He is probably responsible, more than any other one individual thinker, for the rise of the Nazi Third Reich and all that the Nazis stood for, as well as for the shaping and formation of Adolph Hitler’s mind. He was the generator of Superman — not the comic book character, but rather the sort of character seen in many modern men and women of our day. Nietzsche believed, and taught others to believe, that God is dead… or if not dead, then God is irrelevant, immaterial to our lives and ways of thinking and living. Said Nietzsche: “Two great European narcotics are alcohol and Christianity.” In his last great effort, Nietzsche wrote a book blasting everything associated with Jesus Christ. He titled his book The Antichrist , and in it wrote: “I call Christianity the on

In a much awaited decision, the State Department has finally declared that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is committing genocide against Christians. For a detailed report on the persecution see, " Genocide against Christians in the Middle East ", compiled by  In Defense of Christians and the Knights of Columbus . It offers irrefutable evidence of the ongoing atrocities at the hands of militant Islamic extremists. Our persecuted brothers and sisters in faith face intimidation, torture and death for being disciples of Christ. We must assist them any way we can, even if only in prayer. Our prayers are always efficacious no matter how desperate the situation or the fact that God does not always grant our petitions. To help, visit ChristiansAtRisk.org and Nasarean.org .

Icon of the 21 Coptic Christian Martyrs who have been officially recognized as Saints by the Coptic Church. Earlier today, In Defense of Christians and the Knights of Columbus presented their report on the persecution of Christians by ISIS in the Middle East. The historic findings are irrefutable evidence of genocide against Christians by militant Islamic extremists. The press release accompanying the report reads in part: Washington, D.C.--In Defense of Christians (IDC) and the Knights of Columbus released an extensive report this morning chronicling the genocide of Christians in territories controlled by the Islamic State (ISIS) and its affiliates. The nearly 300-page report, " Genocide against Christians in the Middle East ", resulted from a State Department request for specific evidence related to crimes committed against Christians by ISIS. Submitted to Secretary of State John Kerry yesterday, the report was compiled from evidence of a recent fact finding mi

O God of all the nations, the One God who is and was and always will be, in your providence you willed that your Church be united to the suffering of your Son. Look with mercy on your servants who are persecuted for their faith in you. Grant them perseverance and courage to be worthy imitators of Christ. Bring your wisdom upon leaders of nations to work for peace among all peoples. May your Spirit open conversion for those who contradict your will, that we may live in harmony. Give us the grace to be united in truth and freedom, and to always seek your will in our lives. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. Our Lady, Queen of Peace, pray for us. Prayer composed by Archbishop William E. Lori, Supreme Chaplain. Via the Knights of Columbus .

Members of ISIS prepare to behead twenty-one Coptic Christian Egyptians. Christians have become victims of religious cleansing in the Middle East and elsewhere. For almost 2000 years, Christians have called Mosul, Iraq home. Today, not one is left. The lack of international response has been shocking. If we don't come to their aid, who will? 55% of Americans agree that the targeting of Christians and other religious minorities by ISIS meets the U.N. definition of genocide. [ Knights of Columbus/Marist Poll, 2015 ] This past December, the Knights of Columbus sent a letter, signed by over twenty Catholic leaders in academia, diplomacy and the Church , to Secretary of State John Kerry, urging the State Department to call ISIS's atrocities against Christians genocide: The Genocide Convention defines genocide as killing and certain other acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” We have extensive files s

Members of ISIS prepare to behead twenty-one Coptic Christian Egyptians. Christians and others have become victims of religious cleansing in Iraq and Syria. For almost 2000 years, Christians have called Mosul Iraq home. Today, not one is left. The lack of international response has been shocking. If we don't come to their aid, who will? Help the Knights of Columbus to provide support for terrorized Christian Communities. 100% of all donations directly supports humanitarian assistance and raising awareness for persecuted Christians and other religious minorities, especially in the Middle East. The situation grows more dire by the day as last July's New York Times Magazine article, " Is This the End of Christianity in the Middle East? ", ominously attests: For more than a decade, extremists have targeted Christians and other minorities, who often serve as stand-ins for the West. This was especially true in Iraq after the U.S. invasion, which caused hundreds of

The most persecuted and victimized people in the world today are Christians in the Middle East. The perpetrators of the widespread destruction of that region's Christian community? Islamists. Middle East expert Raymond Ibrahim lays out the grim details. Visit our Nasarean.org page  for information about helping Christians in the Middle East.

Many of the Church’s detractors criticize her in light of adherents who don’t “walk the walk.” When encountering such comments, we should remember this quote by G.K. Chesterton: Most Christians fail to fulfill the Christian ideal. This bitter and bracing fact cannot be too much insisted upon in this and every other moral question. But, perhaps, it might be suggested that this failure is not so much the failure of Christians in connection with the Christian ideal as the failure of any men in connection with any ideal. That Christians are not always Christian is obvious; neither are Liberals always liberal, nor Socialists always social, nor Humanitarians always kind, nor Rationalists always rational, nor are gentlemen always gentle, nor do working men always work. If people are especially horrified at the failure of Christian practice, it must be an indirect compliment to the Christian creed.  — G.K. Chesterton

Mohandas K. Gandhi The following quote attributed to Mohandas Gandhi has been used as a rhetorical cudgel against Christians, portraying them as vain, materialistic, hypocritical disciples: "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." — Mahatma Gandhi Another version attributed to Gandhi elaborates on how Christians are unlike Christ: "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. The materialism of affluent Christian countries appears to contradict the claims of Jesus Christ that says it's not possible to worship both Mammon and God at the same time." Despite the ubiquity of this saying on the internet and elsewhere, I find no evidence that Gandhi uttered these words. First, whenever it is invoked, no source is provided. Second, Gandhi says, " your  Christ" and " your  Christians" as if he were addressing a follower of Jesus. Mohandas