BIG C CATHOLICS

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) For a moment I would like you to imagine yourself at a party, maybe a party that you have been to, or one that you have given for friends and acquaintances. Let’s say it’s a costume party and people are there with altered ways of seeing each other. Everyone has a fresh start and a new beginning at being different persons. Past histories are forgotten. The guests present themselves, and are seen by others, as new persons. Everyone at the party is having a wonderful time, chatting, laughing, enjoying each other, and sharing the happiness of a really good time. But then you notice someone over in the corner, all alone and sulking… miserable in his isolation and loneliness. You go over and try to talk with him but all you get for your trouble are a few grunts and a sour look. The more you try to break through his isolation the more you discover that he is disgusted with people who have a good time and re

Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. La Salette Missionaries of North America Hartford, Connecticut ( Click here for today’s readings ) When people become very old, others will often ask them the secret to a long life. George Burns, who died at 100, supposedly said, “If you ask what is the single most important key to longevity, I would have to say it is avoiding worry, stress and tension. And if you didn't ask me, I'd still have to say it.” Here are a few other secrets of longevity from less famous persons. A woman aged 116: “Mind your own business and don’t eat junk food. Treat everyone the way you want to be treated, work hard and love what you do.” A man aged 115: “Friends, a good cigar, drinking lots of good water, no alcohol, staying positive and lots of singing will keep you alive for a long time.” A man aged 108: “My secret to a long, healthy life is to always keep working. It keeps me busy and happy, and gives me a reason to stay alive.” A lady named Katheri

By Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. La Salette Missionaries of North America (Isaiah 25:6-10; Philippians 4:12-20; Matthew 22:1-14) “On this mountain,” proclaims Isaiah, “the Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face; the reproach of his people he will remove.” In telling the story of La Salette, we invariably speak of a mountain, of tears, and reproaches. In tears on that mountain, the Blessed Virgin Mary reproached her people especially for their lack of a living faith. Another image in common between La Salette and this reading from Isaiah, and with the Gospel, is the banquet. It occurs explicitly in Isaiah and Matthew, and implicitly in Our Lady’s message, when she speaks of the Mass. On the Mountain of La Salette she reminds us of the feast that the Lord has provided in the Eucharist. The identification of the Eucharist as a banquet goes back at least as far as St. Augustine, who died in the year 430 AD. He wrote: “You are seated at a great table… The table is la

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) What’s the one of the big things that has preoccupied you since you were a child and throughout all of the years that have followed? Isn’t it fear of rejection ? Recall your early days as a child. Even as a tiny baby you screamed, shrieked, and cried if you were not held, cuddled, and loved by your mother and your father. As a child you craved to play with playmates and you were miserable if they didn’t want to play with you. And when you were a teenager? Well, words can’t begin to describe the pain and fear teenager experiences when faced with rejection. When parents divorce isn’t a child’s primal fear and first thought that one or the other parent is rejecting him, particularly the parent who because of the divorce is forced to leave the child’s home? In divorce kids imagine they’re being rejected even though that isn’t the case. Sometimes we’re so obsessed with the fear of rejection that we trea

By Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. La Salette Missionaries of North America (Isaiah 5:1-7; Philippians 4:7-9; Matthew 21:33-43) Since ancient times, the lands of the Middle East and the Mediterranean have cultivated vineyards. So it is not surprising that the image of the vineyard recurs in their literature. A famous instance is in one of Aesop’s Fables, which gives us the expression “sour grapes,” describing the tendency to disparage what we want but cannot have. Isaiah’s parable of the vineyard uses the same image, but in a much different way. Translations vary: the grapes are wild, or bitter, or sour, even rotten. God expresses his disappointment with the rulers of his people, who have failed to produce the fruits of justice and right judgment. Jesus tells his own parable of the vineyard. The problem is not with the grapes, but with the tenant farmers who refuse to give the produce to the owner, and even kill the owner’s son. Immediately after this passage Matthew notes tha

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

By Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. La Salette Missionaries of North America (Ezekiel 18:25-28; Philippians 2:1-11; Matthew 21:28-32) Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 16: 24-25) These words of Our Lord come very close to those of the prophet Ezekiel: “You say, ‘The Lord’s way is inscrutable, mysterious, and above all, not fair!’” This week we are confronted once again with the question of God’s fairness. It is a matter of expectations. Jesus had only one expectation for his life: to accomplish his Father’s will. Even when, in the Garden of Gethsemane, he asked to be spared the suffering that lay ahead, there was no hint of blame. He was, as St. Paul writes, obedient to the point of death. Like the parable in today’s Gospel, the message of Christ presents opposing scenarios—refusal to