BIG C CATHOLICS

Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. La Salette Missionaries of North America Hartford, Connecticut ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) In the story of creation we are told several times that “God saw that it was good.” There was only one exception: “It is not good for the man to be alone.” The first reading, from Chapter 2 of Genesis, spells out in greater detail what was stated in Chapter 1: “Male and female he created them.” God’s plan is to make a “suitable partner” for the man. This expression is the latest in a long list of possible translations: “Help meet, a helper comparable to him, a helper who is just right for him, a helper suitable for him, a helper fit for him, a helpmate—his like, a helper as his counterpart.” A commentator named Kaiser paraphrases the verse as follows: “I will make (the woman) a power (or strength) corresponding to the man.” He justifies this because the word translated as “help” or “partner” is used most often in the Bible in speaking of God. In Psalm 33

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) How often do you hear the cry “It isn’t fair?” It is, of course, a complaint you hear many times from children and teens. Students complain their teachers aren’t fair with their exams. Some adults and parents complain that giving grades on performance isn’t fair. How often do parents tell us that teachers aren’t fair? And what about university admissions policies, are they fair or unfair? The Hurricane Katrina disaster brought forth a host of concerns about fairness. So, too, in follow-ups from other natural disasters. Capitalism, we are told, isn’t fair. In the name of fairness, socialism and communism were tried and found not to be fair. The Church, we are often told, isn’t fair. The way it treats women isn’t fair, we are told. The way it appoints bishops isn’t fair. The way it treats victims of abuse isn’t fair, nor is the way it deals with priests who have broken the law and grievously sinned

Feast Day - September 8th The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary has been celebrated since approximately the 6th century, although there are other conflicting accounts of when this particular feast came to be observed. It likely originated in the Eastern Church in response to the Council of Ephesus, in which Mary was officially proclaimed "Mother of God" ( Theotokos ). It is thought that the date of September 8th was chosen because the Eastern Church year begins in September. Later, this feast would help to determine the date of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. There is an apocryphal story associated with the birth of our Lady, found in the Protoevangelium of St. James. Though not historical in origin, it does reflect the piety of the times. According to this account, Anna, who was barren, and Joachim prayed in earnest for a child; as often happened in biblical accounts, the child they were blessed with was given to them to advance God’s plan for salvation. &qu

Fr. Charles Irvin Senior Priest Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for today’s readings ) There are three paths to knowledge that we frequently walk… thinking using concepts, thinking using pictures or images, and thinking using our experiences. They are all routes to truth even though experience seems to be the favored route these days. This is curious to me because learning through experience gives us some of life’s harshest lessons. We learn the hard way along that route. The other routes are not so harsh. From its earliest days, the Catholic Church has relied on images — pictures found in stained glass windows, statues of saints and holy people, and glorious mosaics found in so many of our churches. Television, movies, and computer images have surrounded us during the last century. As never before in human history our children are learning via images. Today I am going to share some thoughts with you about the Holy Trinity using mental images. It’s better that way.

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) In speaking with you about Pentecost I must speak of what cannot be fully explained. All we can do is reverently gaze into the mystery of God’s final movement toward us, the alienated and distant men and women who, with Adam and Eve, have broken off relations with God. Words cannot capture the enormity God’s merciful love for us; they buckle under the weight of it. So Scripture and the Church employ symbols to try to carry Pentecost’s meaning to us. Sometimes symbols are more effective than words in conveying the truth of stupendous events. Essentially Pentecost is the final movement of God’s journey toward us. The initial movement begins in Genesis with God in the Garden of Eden. Note that it is God who makes the move. It is God who initiates; God who offers; God who loves us first. He chooses us. We do not choose him. He chooses us first because He is the superior. If it were otherwise, and inde

Fr. Charles Irvin Senior Priest Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for today’s readings ) We have all heard the phrase “Seeing is believing.” The idea comes, I suppose, from skeptical people who won’t believe anything is real or anything is true unless and until they see it for themselves. In today’s Gospel account the phrase “Seeing is believing” is paradoxically both proved and disproved. It is proved by the blind man eventually seeing Jesus and acknowledging that indeed Jesus is “from God.” The blind man recognized Jesus for who He is. The Pharisees, on the other hand, men who were sighted, did not or would not see Jesus for who He is. The blind man could see, the sighted Pharisees were blind. Seeing, they would not believe. In this Gospel account Jesus gives us some additional clues as to who He really is. You will recall that in the Book of Genesis we find God creating us from “the slime of the earth.” Here we find slimy mud formed from Jesus’ saliva bringing lig

Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. La Salette Missionaries of North America Hartford, Connecticut ( Click here for today’s readings ) One of my favorite Scripture quotations is, “As cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.” (Proverbs 25:25) Today, however, I feel I should quote Samuel Taylor Coleridge: “Water, water, every where, nor any drop to drink.” The first half of the quotation seems apt for today’s readings. Water, water everywhere! In their wanderings in the desert, the Lord led his people to an area where, as we read: “There was no water for the people to drink.” The dramatic scene depicted in the first reading follows immediately. Here water is obviously meant in the strictly literal sense. Water is even more prevalent in today’s Gospel. The word occurs eight times in Jesus’ conversation with the woman of Samaria. But here, as often happens in John, the literal sense is soon eclipsed by a deeper symbolic sense. As we read, it becomes clear

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) God asked Abraham to leave his land, take everything and everyone with him and move to a new land. Later God asked Moses to take the Hebrews from Egypt into a promised new land. And Jesus? Well, He too had to leave Joseph and Mary back in Nazareth and begin his mission out on the road. Jesus once remarked: “The foxes have their dens and the birds of the air their nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” And when He was crucified and died, He didn’t even have a tomb of His own. One of the hardest things I face as a priest is not having my own home, a place I can call my own. My only home is the Church. My only family is all of you… along with all of the other members of Christ’s family throughout the world. Many people today experience homelessness. Lots of people, even young kids, live out in the streets. Many members of gangs belong to gangs because they are looking for family, fo

Here is the second lesson in the Saint Paul Center for Catholic Biblical Theology 's Lenten Scripture study, Genesis to Jesus. Follow along, and by the end of Lent, you'll understand the importance of Easter in light of God's plan for our salvation. Sign up to receive new video lessons [ here ] and buy related study materials. _____________________________________________________ In our last lesson, we learned how, in the beginning, God established a covenant with creation. We learned that the seventh day, the Sabbath, is a sign of the covenant. It completed and crowned God’s cosmic temple. We also saw that man and woman were created in the image and likeness of God. And that God designed marriage to be a covenant between man and woman. It is a sign, an icon of the Divine Family of the Trinity. Now we will consider how everything went wrong in Adam and Eve’s fall from grace and how it happened. But as noted at the end of lesson three, this story ends with an incredib

Editor's note: Occasionally on Tuesday we will feature posts relating to St. John Paul the Great's Theology of the Body; his reflection on our nature and life as persons made in the image and likeness of God, conjugal love, the meaning of celibacy, and the eternal beatitude to which every human being is called. ________________________________________ Saint John Paul II The link between secularization and the crisis of marriage and of the family is only too clear. The crisis concerning the meaning of God and that concerning moral good and evil has succeeded in diminishing an acquaintance with the fundamentals of marriage and of the family which is rooted in marriage. For an effective recovery of the truth in this field, it is necessary to rediscover the transcendent dimension that is intrinsic to the full truth of marriage and the family , overcoming every dichotomy that tends to separate the profane aspects from the religious as if there were two marriages: one

It's no accident that the first reading for the second Sunday of Lent (Year B) is the testing of Abraham's faith. Genesis chapter 22 begins: "God put Abraham to the test. He called to him, 'Abraham!' 'Here I am!' [Abraham] replied. Then God said: "Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him up as a holocaust on a height that I will point out to you." "When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. Then he reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the LORD's messenger called to him from heaven, 'Abraham, Abraham!' 'Here I am!' he answered. 'Do not lay your hand on the boy,' said the messenger. 'Do not do the least thing to him. I know now how devoted you are to God, since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son.' As Abraham looked about, he spied a ram

Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. Provincial Superior, La Salette Missionaries of North America Hartford, Connecticut ( Click here for today’s readings ) One thing is certain. For Peter, James and John, after what they experienced on that mountain, everything was changed. For Abraham, after what he experienced on another mountain, everything was changed. One was an experience of glory. The other was a test. And what a test! How could God do such a thing to Abraham? How could Abraham accept it without a fight? How could Isaac, presumably a teenager by this time, let himself be tied up and placed on the altar of sacrifice? These are questions that people raise in perfectly good faith. The whole thing seems incredible to us, impossible; which is our way of saying: “I couldn’t do that!” Even granting, as I often say, that it was “another world,” in which it seems child sacrifice was practiced by the pagans, the sacrifice of Isaac is hard for modern readers to make sense of. The au

Editor's note: Occasionally on Tuesday we will feature posts discussing St. John Paul the Great's Theology of the Body; his reflection on our nature and life as persons made in the image and likeness of God, conjugal love, the meaning of celibacy, and the eternal beatitude to which every human being is called. ________________________________________ Most Reverend Robert J. Baker, S.T.D. Bishop of Birmingham, Alabama  (Excerpted from a pastoral letter delivered as Bishop of Charleston)   Only a careful reflection on Sacred Scripture, done in unison with the Tradition of the Church, can provide the understanding of the human person which the Church can present for our reflection. This is what Pope John Paul II did as he took the Lord's discussion with a group of Pharisees and especially noted that the Lord made reference to the original intent of the Creator when he said, "from the beginning it was not so" (Matt. 19:8). Then, going to the beginn

Fr. Charles Irvin Senior Priest Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for today’s readings ) How often do you hear the cry “It isn’t fair?” It is, of course, a complaint you hear many times from children and teens. Students complain their teachers aren’t fair with their exams. Some adults and parents complain that giving grades on performance isn’t fair. How often do parents tell us that teachers aren’t fair? And what about university admissions policies, are they fair or unfair? The Hurricane Katrina disaster brought forth a host of concerns about fairness. So, too, in follow-ups from other natural disasters. Capitalism, we are told, isn’t fair. In the name of fairness, socialism and communism were tried and found not to be fair. The Church, we are often told, isn’t fair. The way it treats women isn’t fair, we are told. The way it appoints bishops isn’t fair. The way it treats victims of abuse isn’t fair, nor is the way it deals with priests who have broken the law and g

Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. Provincial Superior, La Salette Missionaries of North America Hartford, Connecticut ( Click here for the special readings for the Feast .) ( For the story of Our Lady of La Salette, click here .) The anniversary of the Apparition of Our Lady of La Salette is September 19. As La Salette Missionaries around the world we celebrate the event on the nearest Sunday. My homily today is therefore not based on the readings for the [24th Tuesday] in Ordinary time but on special readings for the Feast. One might find the story from Genesis, about the rainbow after the flood, to be an odd reading for a feast of the Blessed Virgin. The rainbow makes its appearance as the sign of the covenant that God makes with Noah. The bow, an ancient symbol of war, now becomes a sign of peace. God is starting over, re-creating, reconciling humanity to himself, promising he will never again give up on us. Other covenants followed, with Abraham, with Moses, u