BIG C CATHOLICS

Fr. Charles Irvin Senior Priest Diocese of Lansing Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  ( Click here for today’s readings ) Once again the Book of Life is opened and the Liturgy calls us to recognize ourselves and recognize our God. Once again the Church places the Passion of our Lord before our eyes. In it we can see ourselves and see God’s only begotten Son in our humanity, this time in man’s inhumanity toward man. The same roles are there; the same actors, the same forces at work in our world just as they were in the year 33A.D. First there are the indifferent, the easy-going, those who simply drift uncaring through life, those who give consent to the Passion by silence. There are millions and millions in this majority. They wash their hands of the whole thing. They never budge as long as the blows of life fall on the backs of others. They have no opinions to voice, no stand to take. They simply let events take their course. These silent ones let the sufferings

Here is the seventh 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. ___________________________________________________ When we ended the last lesson, the descendants of the twelve sons of Israel were enslaved in Egypt. In this lesson, we will see how their enslavement to Pharaoh ends. More importantly, we will see how the Lord delivers Israel from spiritual bondage in the Exodus, while he brings judgment on Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt. Now we move out of the Book of Genesis and into the Book of Exodus. We learned in the Book of Genesis that salvation history is the story of God’s family. In that family, Adam was created to be the first-born son of creation. Adam falls, failing in his duties as first-born

Here is the sixth 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 examined the story of God’s covenant with humanity through Noah. We saw the parallels between the original creation story, and the account of the great flood in which the world experienced a kind of rebirth. Now we’ll look at how God’s covenant blessing passes to all nations, through the great patriarch Abraham. Among other things, we will see the connection between covenant blessing, and the trials that God’s faithful children undergo. We’ll also examine how God rewards Abraham’s obedience by renewing the covenant he made with him. That renewal comes with an incredible p

Fr. Thomas J. Lane S.T.D. Professor of Sacred Scripture Mt. St. Mary's Seminary Emmitsburg, MD ( Click here for today’s readings ) What a contrast between the cruelty of the scribes and Pharisees and the compassion of Jesus in our Gospel (John 8:1-11). The scribes and Pharisees had no regard for the woman. They were only interested in using her to try to trap Jesus. She was a pawn in their game of chess. They had no regard for the fact that maybe she did not initiate the sin, perhaps it was the man. But Jesus is full of compassion. He restored the woman again, in two ways. He restored her spiritually by forgiving her, telling her he did not condemn her, while also insisting that she not sin again, and he restored her to society by saving her life. No one knows what Jesus wrote on the ground but some people suspect Jesus wrote the sins of the scribes and Pharisees. Notice also that it was the eldest who went away first. The eldest had committed more sins, those who had lived

Here is the fifth 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. _____________________________________________________ The second covenant God enters into with man is God’s covenant with Noah. The story of Noah and his ark is one of the most famous of all time. It’s inspired a multitude of books, movies, and countless homilies. But there’s a whole lot more than just the story of how humanity was saved from a terrible flood safe within an immense wooden boat filled with all kinds of animals. This is a story of how God renews his covenant with creation, a rebirth of sorts, which foreshadows the sacrament of baptism. There are also parallels between Noah and Adam, as well as the flood and creation. But let’s b

Fr. Charles Irvin Senior Priest Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for today’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 our selves 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

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