BIG C CATHOLICS

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) Today’s Gospel account comes to us from the Gospel of St. John, a Gospel dominated by the theme of God’s love. Of the four Gospels, John’s is the Gospel of Love, particularly God’s commitment to you and to me to care for us, to cherish us, and to belong to us if we give Him our love in return. In St. John’s Gospel the first miracle of Jesus Christ takes place at wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. At that banquet Jesus, performing His first miracle, changes water into wine. St. John closes his Gospel with another wedding feast, the Last Supper. The bible speaks of it as the “Wedding Feast of the Lamb.” There Jesus, performing His last and greatest miracle before suffering and dying on His Cross, changes bread and wine into His Body and Blood. In the first wedding feast He changes water into wine, in the last wedding feast He changes wine into His Blood, Blood to be poured out for us in redemptive, self-sacrifi

Everyone is interested in a marriage. If the human heart does not have enough love in its heart, it seeks out those who are in love. The most famous marriage in history was at Cana, because Our Blessed Lord was present there. A marriage in the East was always a time of great rejoicing. The bridegroom went to the home of the bride, and in those days it was never the bride who kept the bridegroom waiting, but rather the bridegroom, as in the parable, who kept the bride waiting. The bride was veiled, from head to foot, to symbolize her subjection as a wife. Both partners fasted the whole day before the marriage and confessed their sins in prayer as on the Day of Atonement. Ceremonies began at twilight, for it was a custom in Palestine, no less than in Greece: To bear away the bride from home at blushing shut of day. The Cana marriage is the only occasion in Sacred Scripture where Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is mentioned before Him. It is very likely that it was one of her relatives wh

Fr. Charles Irvin Senior Priest Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for today’s readings ) Here we are at the beginning of a new year with high hopes that this year will be better than 2015. We have our hopes even though we know that there is much in our world that is wrong. Without going into a long dismal list of the many things that are wrong let me point out just a few of them. The gap between the rich and the poor is widening, not closing. Political corruption and the politics of gridlock darken our perceptions of those we have elected to office. Terrorism and abortion along with ISIS murders cause us to realize that in the minds of many, human life is cheap and regarded as disposable. We face much that is sinful, evil, and criminal in our world. All of these things we know quite well are exceptions to the way things ought to be; they are out of the general order of what should present in our relations with others. How do we know that? What gives us this perspective and rec

Fr. Simon Francis Gaine O.P. Regent of Studies, English Province of the Dominicans Professor of Theology, Blackfriars Oxford, UK ( Click here for today’s readings ) Today’s Gospel takes us beyond the biological fact that Mary was a biological mother. It tells us more about her motherhood than that she gave birth. We learn how Mary, together with Joseph, had the baby circumcised when he was eight days old, introducing him into the covenant between God and the Jewish people. At the same time they gave the boy his name, Jesus, which means Savior, because he would save this people – and all peoples – from their sins.  With these actions, we see Mary undertaking the ongoing work of being a mother, treasuring every moment of this motherhood in her heart, just as she had already treasured her Son since she conceived him in her womb. Mary’s motherhood is not simply to conceive and give birth as a biological fact. Together with Joseph, she has the responsibility of nurturin

This Sunday’s Gospel about the wedding feast at Cana was the subject of a thoughtful commentary by Venerable Bishop Fulton J. Sheen in his book The World’s First Love . The Venerable Bishop’s remarks cannot be improved upon. Rather, the following observations underscore Mary’s indispensable role in leading humanity to Christ, and Christ’s incomparable benevolence in showing us the way to the Father. 1. Jesus' first recorded miracle is at a wedding feast.  Sacred Scripture begins with a marriage, [the primordial marriage of Adam and Eve] and ends with the marriage supper of the Lamb in Revelation [where Christ (the Lamb) is eternally united with his Bride (the Church) in Heaven]. It is no accident that Christ's first recorded miracle happens amid a wedding celebration. Indeed, Christ’s actions prefigure the ultimate end of human history and the singular goal of Salvation History – namely the joining of God and man in the Beatific Vision. Moreover, Jesus’ miracle demonst