BIG C CATHOLICS

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) I want to begin today by going all the way back to our beginnings, back to the Book of Genesis and the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden to Eden. There we find Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and God walking in it to seek them out and be with us, their descendants. There we also find Adam and Eve just after they, sadly, had broken the bond between themselves and God by yielding to the temptation of the Serpent. In Genesis we hear: Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized that they were naked. So they sewed fig-leaves together to make themselves loin-cloths. The mam and his wife heard the sound of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from God among the trees of the garden. But God called to the man. ‘Where are you?’ he asked. ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden,’ he replied. ‘I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.’ (Genesis 3:7-10) I want to point...

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) At the time of Jesus officials wrote on very fragile materials like papyrus and vellum. Poor people among whom Jesus moved and who were His disciples didn’t have access to those materials. This caused Jesus to teach using very hard and cutting-edge images, images that His listeners would never forget. And so, we hear Jesus saying: “If your eye is a source of sin, pluck it out” and “if your hand is a source of sin, cut if off!” People would never forget those words, words used in His teachings, teachings that everyone would remember. With that in mind let me repeat a key part of today’s Gospel account: "And to another he said, 'Follow me.' But he replied, 'Lord, let me go first and bury my father.' But he answered him, 'Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.' And another said, 'I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my f...

The following is from Pope Benedict XVI's homily  delivered during the Mass for the solemnity of Corpus Christi, in the square of the Basilica of St. John Lateran on May 26, 2005. Afterward the Pope led the Eucharistic procession to the Basilica of St. Mary Major. He explains how the feast of Corpus Christi relives the events of Holy Thursday, but in the light of the Resurrection. Benedict reflects upon the gift of the Eucharist, in which we truly receive the body of the Lord.   Homily of Pope Benedict XVI on the Feast of Corpus Christi It is not possible to "eat" the Risen One, present under the sign of bread, as if it were a simple piece of bread. To eat this Bread is to communicate, to enter into communion with the person of the living Lord. This communion, this act of "eating", is truly an encounter between two persons, it is allowing our lives to be penetrated by the life of the One who is the Lord, of the One who is my Creator and Redeemer. The purp...

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) From time to time it is good for us to stand back and look at The Big Picture, so I want to begin by doing that as I share some thoughts with you on this Solemnity of Pentecost. In ancient times God approached us through the Jewish prophets and through their major leaders such as Abraham and Moses. It was through Moses that God gave us His Ten Commandments, commandments that allowed us not only to live as God intended us to live but to live with each other in peace and communion. Then in the fullness of time God came to us in His Word made flesh, in His only begotten Son who became man and thus brought the nearness of God into our very own humanity. “ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us ,” reports St. John in the Prologue to his gospel. After He lived among us, suffered and died for us, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, God came to us, and still does even now, in His Holy Spirit. From...

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) The nights are warm now. Sometimes I step outside and looking up marvel at all of those stars sprinkled all over the night sky. In such moments I have asked myself if there is another parallel universe that we don’t see, one that has other dimensions not subject to human measurements of time, space, weight and volume. I think there is. Because of Jesus Christ I am certain there is. A long time ago there lived in England a holy man named St. Bede. He lived from 673-735A.D. Among the things he wrote are the following words he penned while meditating on the death of loved ones. “We seem to give them back to you, O God, who gave them first to us. Yet as you did not lose them in giving, so we do not lose them by their return. Not as the world gives do you give. What you give you do not take away. For what is yours is also ours. We are yours and life is eternal. And love is immortal, and death is only a horizon, a...

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) God did not come to us in Jesus Christ and then go away leaving us orphans. No. God our Father loves us and will never abandon us. This teaching allows us to better understand what Jesus is telling us in today’s Gospel when He says “we” will come and dwell within the person who loves me. Jesus expands on that when He speaks of The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom He will send to His followers when He, Jesus, no longer walks among us as a human being. There is an intimate, personal relationship between Jesus, God our Father, and the Holy Spirit, so close that whatever one does the others with him do as well. Whenever God acts He acts triunely The Father sent Jesus into the world, so through Jesus and with Jesus God our Father will send the Advocate, the One who will be with us, not simply alongside us, but within us. God calls us to be temples of the Holy Spirit. Earlier in His discourse with His ...

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) There are times when we tell ourselves that nothing’s new, that human nature doesn’t change, and that history simply repeats itself. The Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes tells us: What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun . [Ecclesiastes 1:9] Yet we also find ourselves seeking what is new. We greet each other with the question “What’s new?” We watch TV news, read newspapers, pay attention to advertisements, and look for new models of things we already have. Advertisements are loaded with words telling us of new products, or “new and improved” products that we can’t live without. The world of computers is filled with new gadgets, new programs, new downloads, and so forth. We seem to be obsessed with what’s new. Jesus used the word “new” many, many times in His discourses and teachings, all the time trying to get us to see the new creation, the new ...