BIG C CATHOLICS

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) Of the four Gospel accounts written by Saints Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, St. Luke’s has been characterized by some scripture scholars as the most beautiful of them all. St. Luke’s Gospel contains accounts of the events surrounding Jesus’ birth, for instance. Mary, the mother of Jesus has a special place in his Gospel. Moreover, St. Luke has a special regard for women, for the hurting, the outcasts, and those who were seen to be at the bottom of the social heap in those days. The tender and compassionate heart of Jesus is prominent in St. Luke’s accounts of His life. Given that context it’s startling to hear the words in today’s Gospel account taken from St. Luke. Whatever happened to the Christmas message about peace on earth and good will toward all men and women? How do we understand the words of the Prince of Peace that we just heard in today’s Gospel? There are those who think of Jesus as being acc

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) What awaits us in our future? Today’s scripture readings put that question to us. What does the future hold in store for us? What awaits us when we die? Is what is awaiting us when we die determined by what we did or didn’t do in this life? These are the big questions we face today and in all of the days of our lives. Jesus talked with His disciples (and we are His disciples) about the future, telling them they were to face it not with fear but with hope and in a spirit of positive expectancy. He spoke to them in terms of making investments, investments in their future. “Sell what you have,” He told them, and buy into the sort of retirement plan I am offering you, a never-failing treasure with my Father and with me in heaven.  “Wherever your treasure lies,” Jesus told us, “there you heart will be.” Stated the other way around he’s telling us: “Wherever your heart is, there will your treasure be found.” But

Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. La Salette Missionaries of North America Hartford, Connecticut ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) I think Ecclesiastes had a favorite song. It was the ancient Hebrew equivalent of “I’m forever blowing bubbles.” The refrain was: “Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity!” Is life worth living? Of course it is. Then what makes it worth living? All we are really told in today’s readings is what doesn’t make life worth living. It is clearly not the accumulation of things. Greed is mentioned twice in today’s readings as the opposite of what we should seek in life. Jesus suggests that there are other ways, good ways of being rich, “Rich in what matters to God.” We can intuit what that might mean. St. Paul, with another one of his lists, helps us to understand, again in a negative way, what Jesus does not mean. But earlier in the same text he writes, “Seek what is above.” And later he says we have “put on a new self.” In the Old Testament, “rich” is often a sy

Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. La Salette Missionaries of North America Hartford, Connecticut ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) About 30 years ago I worked at a seminary. We had a librarian named Sr. Frances. Whenever she would remind me of something I had promised to do, I would answer, “In due time.” To which she always replied with a paraphrase of Luke 16:22: “In due time the beggar died.” Most of us know the type. They ask for something. They remind us the next day. And the next, and the next... Until we do it, convenient or not, just to make it stop! Today’s story of Abraham has a brief prologue that is not included in the lectionary.  “With Abraham walking with them to see them on their way, the men set out from there and looked down toward Sodom. The LORD considered: Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, now that he is to become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth are to find blessing in him? So the LORD said”—and here begins our text, “T

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) Hospitality, presence, and being personally attentive. All of these are qualities of character that should be a part of our living in relationships with others. In today’s readings the theme that comes to my mind is that of hospitality, hospitality in the sense of personal presence, an openness of heart that allows guests into the inner home of our hearts and souls. In my years of pastoring souls I have come to recognize that the way we treat others is the way we treat God and the way we treat God is the way we treat others. The Gospel account of Martha and Mary along with the Old Testament account of Abraham meeting God in his three guests give us an occasion to examine the notion of personal presence to others, and our personal presence to God in Jesus Christ. Abraham, as you may remember, felt that God was absent from him. After Abraham’s initial experience with God we find him in today’s first readin

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) Of all of the teachings of Jesus the parable of the Good Samaritan is undoubtedly the most famous, known to Christians and non-Christians alike. His parable is, of course, about responsibility, about caring for others no matter whom or what they may be. Today, however, I want to pay attention to some other responsibilities we have. Responsibility and caring for our neighbors is not enough even though the definition of “neighbor” is boundless. So what might be those other responsibilities? Strange as it may seem at first glance, we ought to take a look at how we can be responsible for ourselves. I say strange because we hear so much about our selfishness, our self-centeredness, and selfish consumerism that is gobbling up our world’s resources and damaging our environment. We must remember, however, that Jesus told us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. So it is important to realize that how we treat o

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