tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-188422862024-03-27T09:49:40.200-05:00Domine, da mihi hanc aquam!"A [preacher] who does not love art, poetry, music and nature can be dangerous. Blindness and deafness toward the beautiful are not incidental; they are necessarily reflected in his [preaching]." — BXVIFr. Philip Powell, OPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14970857401221305221noreply@blogger.comBlogger4172125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-3721228173960339822024-03-27T09:47:00.007-05:002024-03-27T09:47:50.026-05:00Speak kindly of Judas<div><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Wednesday
of Holy Week</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Fr.
Philip N. Powell, OP</span></span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">St. Albert the Great, Irving</span></span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I
will speak kindly of Judas. It has been fashionable among the
fashionable to look at Judas and see a man unjustly maligned for his
careful act of deceit and betrayal. Aren’t we being just a little
too hard on the poor man? He was under a lot of stress! The agony of
being the one of the Twelve who would betray his Master and friend
must have been horrible to bear. The sweaty nights tossing in his
bed, worrying about money problems. The constant gnawing bite of
ulcers, watching Jesus intentionally provoke the authorities. The
pounding headaches from anxiety as his Master and friend claims,
near-suicidally, in the middle of thronging crowds, that he is the
Son of God! The insults, the arguments with the priests and scribes,
even that day when the crowd starting throwing stones and they had to
run for their lives! Too much, too much. You can see why he did what
he did. All was lost anyway. Jesus’ end was inevitable. Who could
blame Judas for siding with the arc of History against a man
determined to die? You and I were in the crowd shouting “blessed is
he who comes in the name of the Lord!” All too soon, you and I will
be in the crowd shouting “crucify him!” On the last day, will we
ask him, “Surely, it is not I, Lord?”</span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> Some
suggest that Judas was predestined to hand Jesus over. Others will
claim that Jesus asked Judas to betray him in order to fulfill the OT
prophecies that prefigure his sacrifice on the cross. Still others
will claim that Judas is a modern, existential figure, a man
persecuted by history for making a hard choice and playing out the
consequences of that choice with focused integrity. Maybe. What we
know </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>for
sure</i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">
is that Judas went to the chief priest. Offered Jesus' freedom and
his life to those who would see him dead. He negotiated a price to
betray his friend – thirty pieces of silver, the fine for murdering
a slave. And then he continued living, working, ministering with
Jesus, waiting for an opportunity to hand him over to his enemies.</span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> But
I said I would speak kindly of Judas. We all should. Why? Judas is so
repugnant to us, so vile a man, and deserving of our contempt that,
if we believe, truly believe what Jesus died to teach us, we must
find it in our hearts not only to forgive him his violence against
Christ, but we must see clearly, staring back at us from the twisted
face of the Messiah’s betrayer, our own face – disobedient and
scarred by our battles against temptation, by our struggles to find,
grasp, and cling to God.</span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> If
the Christ is the best face we could wear, turned to the Father in
beatitude, then Judas is the face we could wear in those moments of
loneliness and distress, moments of despair at ever finding the light
again. His is the face we put on when that small devilish whisper
causally speaks our ruin: “This cannot be forgiven. Not even God
loves you that much.” What aren’t we capable of then? What act of
betrayal, deceit, selfishness, or violence is beyond us when we
believe we are unlovable?</span></span></p><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Speak
kindly of Judas. Not to excuse his sin, of course not. Not to make
right what is always wrong. But perhaps as an act of caution against
what we hope is impossible for us. He is our anti-exemplar, the model
of what happens in the ruin of despair, the wreck we make of
ourselves when we kill hope with yesterday’s hatred or today’s
temporary anxiety. Sometime today, ask in prayer, “Surely, it is
not I, Lord?” Wait for an answer and then, with whatever answer you
receive, remember mercy, and speak kindly of Judas.</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;">
</span>
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Fr. Philip Powell, OPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14970857401221305221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-92062572174731867432024-03-27T09:45:00.002-05:002024-03-27T09:48:47.009-05:00You are free<div><p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">5<sup><u>th</u></sup>
Week of Lent (W)</span></p>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Fr. Philip Neri
Powell OP</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">St.
Albert the Great, Irving</span></div>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> The
Jews think that they have never been slaves to sin b/c they are the
children of Abraham. Children of the covenant who have never
succumbed to idolatry. Fair enough. Except that Jesus isn't just
talking about the kind of slavery that comes with the generational
worship of idols. He's talking about the kind of slavery to sin that
comes with just being human. A condition every child of Adam and Eve
is born into. Because the Jews misunderstand the true nature of
spiritual slavery, they misunderstand the true nature of spiritual
freedom. Thus, in their minds, they are justified in trying to kill
Jesus. He's telling them that their covenant with God through Abraham
isn't enough to save them. Their freedom is deficient. He says,
<span style="color: black;"><span>“</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span>Amen,
amen, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.”
Covenant or no covenant, if you sin, you are a slave to sin. The
first step to spiritual freedom in Christ is to confess to being a
slave to sin. You cannot defeat an enemy you refuse to see. Jesus
says, “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples,
and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”</span></span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span><span style="color: black;"><span> There
are four stages here: remain in the Word; be a disciple of Christ;
know the truth; and be free. Notice that the last three stages are
rooted in the first: </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span><i>remain
in the Word</i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span>.
Remain in the Word of God, the Christ. Remain in the Word of
creation, what is really Real. Remain in the Word of Christ's Body,
the Church. Remain in the Word of Revelation, scripture and
tradition. Remain in him and with him and you will be a faithful
student of the Way, the Truth, and the Life. A disciple of Christ,
imperfectly Christ for now, but learning to become perfectly Christ
along the Way. And along the Way, your freedom is completed as is
your joy. Claiming to be a child of God while remaining in sin is
nothing else but claiming to be free while wearing chains. Even
worse: it's claiming to be free while wear chains you have put on
yourself. The truth will set you free. And the truth is: there is no
freedom from sin except in Christ Jesus. Consider Lent your cram
session for the final exam of Easter. There's just one question on
this final: will you be a disciple of the Word made flesh? If the
answer is yes, then you are already free. </span></span></span>
</span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p></div><div><br /></div>Follow <i>HancAquam</i> or Subscribe ----->
Fr. Philip Powell, OPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14970857401221305221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-33405841509564358202024-03-09T18:39:00.001-06:002024-03-09T18:39:31.207-06:00Raining on the righteous and the unrighteous<div><p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;">3rd
Week of Lent (S)</span><br /><span style="color: black;">Fr.
Philip Neri Powell, OP</span><br /><span style="color: black;">St.
Albert the Great, Irving</span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> A
Pharisee and a tax collector go to the temple to pray. The Pharisee
marches right into the temple courtyard, but the tax collector stands
off at a distance. The Pharisee prays aloud. The tax collector prays
silently. The Pharisee recounts his righteous deeds and gives God
thanks that he is “not like the rest of humanity—greedy,
dishonest, adulterous.” While the tax collector humbly beats his
breast in contrition and prays, “O God, be merciful to me a
sinner.” Watching from the sidelines, anyone with eyes to see could
tell the difference btw these two men. Their demeanor, dress, speech;
the stance each takes before God. All different. But can we see how
they are alike? Is there any reason to believe that either of two men
is lying? Not that I can see. Both are telling the truth. That's how
they are alike. The Pharisee is righteous. And the tax collector is a
sinner. What justifies each man, for Jesus, is what they do with
these truths. To what purpose do they put their spiritual condition?
Both the righteous and the unrighteous will be exalted if they humble
themselves before God.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> The
key to understanding this deceptively simply parable is understanding
the parable's audience. Luke writes, “Jesus addressed this parable
to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised
everyone else.” This parable at fired at those of us who are
certain that we are righteous AND – b/c we are certain of our
righteousness – despise everyone else. For a Pharisee to be sure of
his righteousness is hardly scandalous. Follow the Law and your
rightness with God is certain. There's no anxious hand-wringing about
being in a state of grace. Now that we are certain of our rightness
with God, what do we do? Well, one thing we do not do is despise
everyone else b/c we are righteous. Nor do we give God thanks for
helping us stay clean w/o also asking Him to pour out His graces on
others in need of His help. Rather than despising your fellow
sinners, your security in righteousness should compel you to further
acts of sacrificial love in order to bring as many as possible into
right relationship with God. The Pharisee's problem is his lack of
genuine humility before God and his lack of genuine gratitude to God
for his hard-won holiness. Humility and gratitude will persist in the
truly righteous soul.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> The
Lord says to Hosea, regarding His chosen people, “Your piety
[Judah] is like a morning cloud, like the dew that early passes
away.” In place of “piety,” other English translations use
love, goodness, loyalty. The Latin Vulgate uses <i>misericordia</i>,
which conveys the notion of a compassionate mercy, a sympathetic
humanity towards others. Through the mouth of His prophet, Hosea, the
Lord condemns Judah for its fleeting compassion, its fugitive
goodness and stingy mercy. He says, “. . . it is love that I
desire, not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than burnt
offerings.” Give Me your love, come to know Me in love. Keep your
sacrifices, your burnt offerings. Dare to be genuinely righteous
before Me; lay all your wounds before Me – your worry, your pride,
your fear, all of your secret sins. Set these ablaze before My altar,
come to know Me in love. And I will bind all your wounds. I will come
to you like the rain, like spring rain watering the earth. Then, when
you stand to pray, you can pray with genuine humility and give
wholehearted thanks. True righteousness can abide only when humility
and gratitude stand under you as your unbreakable foundation.</span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p></div><div><br /></div>Follow <i>HancAquam</i> or Subscribe ----->
Fr. Philip Powell, OPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14970857401221305221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-88594965923881993062024-03-06T05:56:00.002-06:002024-03-06T05:56:15.856-06:00Paid in full<div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">3<sup><u>rd</u></sup> Week
of Lent (W)</span></p>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">St. Albert the Great,
Irving</span></div>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> When
you order a book from Amazon, it arrives in a package marked “Amazon
Fulfillment Center.” When you pay a bill, you may receive a receipt
marked “paid in full.” The obligations of a commercial contract
are “fulfilled.” That word – “fulfill” – and all its
variations means to complete, to be done with, to satisfy. It can
also mean to perfect, to make whole again. So, when Jesus says he has
come to fulfill the Law, he's saying that he's here to perfect the
Law, to bring the Law to completion. Naturally, we need to ask: what
is the <i>telos</i>, the end of the Law? The <i>telos</i> of the Law
was and is to make of us a holy nation, a baptismal priesthood, a
people assembled together to carry out His will. For centuries before
Christ, the Law and Prophets worked toward this end. Sometimes with
great success. But most of the time without. At the appointed time,
the Son took on human flesh, becoming Man like one of us, and did
what we could not – he gave himself to death in an act of
sacrificial love so that our part in the Covenant could be fulfilled.
The Law is not destroyed. It is made perfect. All of the Law and the
Prophets is incorporated into the body and blood of Christ and our
duty under the Law is complete.
</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> Now
that the obligations of the Law and the Prophets are complete, are we
licensed to do as we please? No. The Law and the Prophets are
completed under the first Law of Love: love God and neighbor as you
love yourself. Do that and you perfectly obey the Law. You love
perfectly. What we are doing right now – during Lent – is frankly
inventorying our fidelity to the Law of Love. And while we take
account of how well we love or do not love, we remember that we are
only able to love in the first place b/c Love Himself loves us first.
It is only through His originating love that we exist at all. Only
through Him that we can love spouses, children, friends, and enemies.
Only through Him do we come at last to the source of creating and
re-creating love. If we follow Christ – and we say we do – and if
Christ fulfilled the Law and the Prophets – and he did – and if
we hope to find a place at the Wedding Feast – and we do – then
we too will live and breathe and have our being in the world as
fulfillers of the Law of Love. We are the Priests and Prophets of
Divine Love sent to show the world its salvation in Christ Jesus.</span></p></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Follow <i>HancAquam</i> or Subscribe ----->
Fr. Philip Powell, OPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14970857401221305221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-60811864542394683302024-02-28T04:43:00.003-06:002024-02-28T04:43:52.341-06:00Fakin' it ain't makin' it<div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">2<sup>nd</sup> Week of
Lent (W)</span></p>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">St. Albert the Great,
Irving</span></div>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> One
day during lunch at Notre Dame Seminary I was passing around an
Ignatius Press catalog. One of the seminarians glanced at the address
label and asked how I go the title “Very Reverend.” I said,
“Because I'm prior at St. Dominic Priory. They probably got it from
the Catholic Directory.” Seminarians being seminarians, they
started calling me “Very Rev Philip Neri.” I countered with,
“That would be 'the Very Rev. Fr. Dr. Prior' to you peons!” We
got a good laugh out of it. But my underlying – and formational
point, I hope – was that fancy ecclesial titles tell us nothing
about the holiness of the title's bearer. They tell us <i>nothing</i>
about the bearer's actual relationship with God. Father, Sister,
Brother, Your Eminence, Your Holiness – none of these is
descriptive of the person beyond his or her place in the hierarchy.
In fact, I'm almost convinced the Lord allows these titles to test
his vowed and ordained servants for humility and obedience. But
Catholic Officialdom is not the only place where religious theater
can quickly overtake one's earnest striving for holiness. By virtue
of baptism, we are all priests, prophets, and kings. Everyone of us
is vowed by baptism to be Christ in the world for the world. Here's
your Lenten challenge: are you Christ in the world for the world? Or,
are you an actor in religious theater?
</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> It's
a question for me as well. After all, the preacher preaches to
himself first! So I'm not just being rude. The temptation is real.
Very real. The rewards of appearing to be holy can be seductive. I
get to be thought well of. I get all the public benefits of being
holy w/o the bother of actually being holy. Who knows? Acting
religious in public might actually rub off on me a little! The best
part though is thinking of myself as holy, appearing holy, and
getting to judge those who are not as holy as I am. The problem of
course is that I could start to believe my part in religious theater
is real and mistake faking it for making it. The only audience member
clapping at that point is the Devil. When the sons of Zebedee ask to
be elevated above their fellow disciples, Jesus asks a pointed
question: <span style="color: black;">“</span><span style="color: black;">Can
you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?” They answer: “We
can.” A suicidal Hamlet says offstage: “Ay, there's the rub.”
The sons of Zebedee have no idea what that chalice is or what it
means. Besides, Jesus says, places of honor are not his to give. If
he can't give them to us, we certainly can't give them to ourselves.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"> What
the sons of Zebedee don't know and we do it is that the chalice Jesus
drinks is the chalice of sacrificial love. It's not a cup of power or
a cup of wealth and influence. It's the chalice of service and
surrender; a slave's cup, leading to the Cross, the tomb, and – in
hope – the resurrection. We are in a time of examination. Look hard
at your religiosity. Look hard at your public holiness. Make
absolutely sure that the inside matches the outside. Make sure that
the depth of your love goes deeper than a finely tailored costume and
a few scripted lines. Christ has handed you his chalice. Before you
take and drink, ask yourself: </span><span style="color: black;"><i>am
I Christ in the world for the world</i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: large;">?
Or, am I faking it so as to be seen making it?</span> </span></span>
</p></div><div><br /></div>Follow <i>HancAquam</i> or Subscribe ----->
Fr. Philip Powell, OPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14970857401221305221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-2414240873844857532024-02-26T09:30:00.001-06:002024-02-26T09:30:45.519-06:00Why do we love God?<div><p align="LEFT" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;">2nd
Sunday of Lent<br /></span></span></p><div><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;">Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP</span></span></div><div><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;">St. Albert the Great,
Irving</span></span></div><p></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span> </span><span style="font-size: large;">God
tells Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham goes up the mountain and
begins the sacrifice. He's willingly, obediently about to kill his
only son b/c God has ordered him to do so. We can stop here and ask:
does Abraham love God </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">more</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> than he loves Isaac? No, he
doesn't. But his obedience to God shows that he loves God </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">first</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">;
he loves God before he loves Isaac, therefore, Abraham loves Isaac
b/c he loves God first. At the very last second, an angel stays
Abraham's knife and God provides a substitute sacrifice in the form
of a ram. What we love most can only be loved through the love God
has for us b/c He is love itself. That God loves us is never in
question. He is love. Love is who He is and what He does. No
question. But there is a question about God and love that we must
ask, and ask daily: </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">do I love God? </i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">If so, what purpose does my
love for God serve? On Mt. Tabor – in the presence of Peter, James,
and John – the transfigured Christ tells us why we love. We love
God for the same reason He loves us: </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">so that we may be made holy.
</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">And in holiness we live out sacrificial love.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> So,
how do we help God make us holy? That is, what do we
do/think/say/feel on a day to day basis that assists God's love for
us so that we are actually growing in holiness? Loving God, yourself,
your family and friends, your neighbors, and even loving your enemies
is easy in the abstract. It is far more difficult to get out there
and perform loving acts; to perform forgiveness; to show mercy; to
treat everyone you meet – at church, at the bank, at the office, in
traffic – to treat everyone you meet as another soul deeply in love
with God and eternally loved by God. This is why the Church has
always bound faith and works together: our loving works demonstrate
our trust in God and our trust in God is made real in our loving
works. When we fail to love, we confess these failures as sins in
thought, word, and deed. So, how do we help God make us holy?
Well, <i>first</i>, we understand that loving God and those He
loves is not simply an abstract, intellectual exercise; <i>next</i>,
we understand that love is a behavior – like driving or walking or
getting dressed. To love is to see, hear, think about, and treat
yourself and everyone else the way God Himself treats us all. With
kindness, compassion, dignity, patience, and forgiveness. Do this and
you grow in holiness. You become more like Christ – set apart. You
are transfigured.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Becoming
more like Christ is we have vowed to do. But we need to hear this:
loving God, self, and everyone else – becoming more like Christ –
is dangerous. Dangerous how? Besides Jesus' promises of persecution,
trial, and death for those who follow him, we can point to the forty
days he spent in the desert being tempted by Satan. We too are
tempted to play the Devil's Games with sin and death. The Devil
always takes God's gifts and tweaks them ever-so-slightly and then
presents them to us infected with his poison. God's love and His
command to us to love is no different. With God's love and His
command to love comes His truth and His command to obey the
truth. <i>Love and truth cannot be separated</i>. When we love
intensely, we dwell intensely in the truth. And when we tell the
Truth we always express love. The Devil plays on our desire to love
by pointing out all the ways we appear to fail at love. He accuses
the Church of not loving women b/c we truthfully name artificial
contraception, abortion, and sterilization <i>evil</i>. He
accuses us of hatred b/c we truthfully call sex outside of a
sacramental marriage <i>evil</i>. He accuses us of not loving
orphans b/c we cannot place them in homes with two fathers or two
mothers. He accuses us of not loving non-Christians b/c we truthfully
teach that Christ is the only name under heaven through which all are
saved. What Satan is tempting us to do, want us to do, is <i>sever
truth from love and then love without truth</i>. This we cannot do
b/c our Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. We follow him so
that we may be transfigured.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Satan
and the world he rules teaches that “Love” is to be practiced
without Truth. Love w/o truth is nothing more than tolerance or
indifference, an emotion that feels good to emote but ultimately
leaves those who live it living a lie. Godly love is always true.
Never a lie. True love is always gives the glory to God. Never to
man. Love always carries us to goodness; never to evil. Love always
binds us in obedience; it never frees us to be disobedient. Godly
love always heals, always cleans, <i>sometimes hurts</i>,
sometimes cuts away. Love never winks at sin, shrugs at injustice, or
ignores the poor. Love always looks to Christ, his church, and his
Mother. Love never uses the bottom-line, the convenient, the
practical, or the efficient to destroy God’s creatures, <i>especially
His unborn children</i>. Love always encourages spiritual growth from
faithful experience. Love never gives license to novelty for
novelty’s sake nor does love trust innovation for the sake of
excitement. Love can be a terrible whirlwind, a bone-shattering blow,
a heart-ripping loss. But love always builds up in perfection, grows
in wisdom and kindness; love attracts questions about eternal things,
and discourages attachment to impermanent things. The love that Satan
and the world he rules wants to settle for is a passion for
indifference, permissiveness, choice w/o consequence, and,
ultimately, death.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Will
you be made holy? Let's ask that differently: <i>do you will to
be made holy</i>? If you will to become a transfigured instrument for
God’s Word, you will love as He loves you. You will speak the truth
and only the truth; you will spread goodness and only goodness; you
will honor beauty and only beauty; you will correct error, confront
sin, expose lies, forgive all offenses; and you will build up his
Body with works of mercy and open the doors of your faith to the
stranger. And you will remember – if you will to be made holy –
that you are not alone. God is with us, and who can stand against
Him?</span></span></p></div><div><br /></div>Follow <i>HancAquam</i> or Subscribe ----->
Fr. Philip Powell, OPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14970857401221305221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-84856733498511553902024-02-24T16:04:00.000-06:002024-02-24T16:04:18.294-06:00God loves those who hate us<div><p style="margin-bottom: 0.2in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;">1st
Week of Lent (S)</span><br /><span style="color: black;">Fr.
Philip Neri Powell, OP</span><br /><span style="color: black;">St.
Albert the Great, Irving</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> That
we may be children of our heavenly Father, we must love our enemies,
pray for them, especially those who persecute us. If there's a
teaching in scripture that is more contrary to our animal instinct
for self-preservation than this one, I'm not sure what it is. Loving
family and friends comes easily. We can even manage to love God and
ourselves without too much difficulty. But loving and praying for
those who would see us destroyed is not only contrary to our survival
it is downright suicidal. If our enemies defeat us b/c they are
stronger, smarter, and more numerous, well, that's unfortunate for us
but we can at least grasp the idea that we lost b/c our enemies were
stronger, smarter, and more numerous. What is beyond comprehension is
the idea that we would lose b/c we were too busy loving and praying
to fight with all our strength! That's not a battle, it's a retreat,
a surrender. And it's suicide. Jesus must be winking at the disciples
when he teaches them to love and pray for their enemies. He must've
spoken this nonsense in a sarcastic tone. As strange as it might be
to hear: no, he's deadly serious and there was no winking. We defeat
our enemies by wielding a weapon called Truth. “[The Father] makes
his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the
just and the unjust.” God loves those who hate us. And we must be
perfect as He is perfect. </span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> If
we will be the children of our heavenly Father, we must be perfect as
He is perfect. God is perfect in His love. He is Love. Love is Who He
is and What He does. In every thought we think, every word we speak,
and every deed we do, we too must be thinkers, speakers, and doers of
love. If we pick and choose whom to love, sort through the options
and select this one or that to love but not that one or this one,
then we do not love as God loves. The sun shines on both the good and
the bad; the rain falls on our friends and our enemies. Jesus asks
us, “. . . if you love those who love you, what compensation will
you have? Do not [traitors] do the same? And if you greet your
brothers and sisters only, what is unusual about that?” In other
words, how does loving only those who love you make you a child of
the Father? What truth are you living when you only pray for those
who pray for you? “Do not the pagans do the same?” Why imitate
those who would see us destroyed? Yes, we might die if we love them,
but it would not be by suicide.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> The
key to understanding this difficult teaching is to understand that
Jesus is pointing us to our lives beyond this one. Though our mortal
lives are immensely important, they are not ultimately important;
that is, in the Father's plan for our salvation it is more important
that we practice love than it is to merely survive. It is essential
to our eternal survival that we practice the love He gives us by
loving those He Himself loves. Our enemies hate us. We can fight them
with our own hatred, and we might even mortally defeat them. But in
fighting them with hatred, we are immortally defeated. We become our
own enemy, haters of self and God. Jesus understands our natural
instinct for survival, but he pushes us to think and feel beyond the
limits of this mortal life and live in the perfection of his Father's
love right now. We trust in the loving-goodness of our God. And this
is our fundamental strength, our deadliest weapon against the hatred
of our enemies. If we bombard them with prayer, then both we and they
win the battle against our mutual enemy – Sin and the death it
brings.</span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p></div><div><br /></div>Follow <i>HancAquam</i> or Subscribe ----->
Fr. Philip Powell, OPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14970857401221305221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-9300993277607706412024-02-21T18:48:00.001-06:002024-02-21T18:48:23.198-06:00The only sign we need<div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">1<sup>st</sup> Week of
Lent (W)</span></p>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">St. Albert the Great,
Irving</span></div>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> Jesus
seems irritated. Maybe “frustrated” is a better word. Apparently,
the crowd is clamoring after signs to prove that he is who and what
he says he is. We don't know if the crowd is genuinely interested in
his claims, or if they are just idly curious or bored. We can assume
that they don't believe him. That's usually the case when proof is
demanded. Evidence will support or refute his claim. Evidence will
settle the issue. But how often is evidence presented; the claim
obviously supported; and still acceptance of the claim is not
forthcoming? If my mind is made up on some hot button issue (gun
control, abortion, capital punishment, the identity of the Messiah),
how likely is it that evidence and good argumentation will change my
mind? Ideally, my mind is properly ordered to the true, good, and
beautiful and can be persuaded to see the true, good, and beautiful
wherever it is revealed. But we know all too well that once
entrenched into a pattern of thinking, changing one's mind is
difficult if not outright impossible. There's always a way to read
the evidence to fit my intellectual habits. The crowd wants signs so
that they can judge for themselves whether or not Jesus is telling
the truth. Unfortunately, signs are not going to help them. Nor will
they help us.
</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> Signs
won't help us b/c we already believe. Or we say we do. We have
already accepted Jesus' claim to be the Messiah and have ordered our
lives around being his followers. We aren't always and everywhere
perfect followers, but we have fundamentally taken on the mind of
Christ and vowed to be Christs in the world. Signs, for us, are
pointless. They add nothing to who and what we are. Apparitions,
locutions, weeping statues are all well and good, but they are not
signs – for us – of Jesus' identity and purpose. If we believe
that Jesus is the Messiah and we follow him, then we have a task to
complete that's bigger than seeking after signs. We are charged with
becoming the signs that the crowd seeks. You and I have agreed to be
the signs of God's power in the world. That's His choice and ours. He
loves the world through us and in the world we are loved by Him.
Thus, we, the Church, are the sacrament by which those in the world
encounter divine love. Lenten challenge: go be a sign of divine love.
Show the world -- in word and deed -- that Jesus is the Messiah. He died for sinners
so that we might live. His empty tomb is the only sign we need.</span></p></div><div><br /></div>Follow <i>HancAquam</i> or Subscribe ----->
Fr. Philip Powell, OPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14970857401221305221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-30039342738701181252024-02-04T20:20:00.000-06:002024-02-04T20:20:30.473-06:00Things fall apart<div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">5<sup>th</sup> Sunday OT</span></p>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">St. Albert the Great,
Irving</span></div>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> We
think of “healing” as returning a sick or broken body back to its
natural state. Kill the virus. Bandage the wound. Reset the bone.
Remove the tumor. We can also think of “healing” as
reestablishing the balance btw mind and body. Express the disordered
emotions. Work through disappointments, betrayals, and losses.
Conquer demons. Find some peace. The kind of healing Jesus does this
morning is really something altogether different. Yes, he physically
heals Simon's mother-in-law. And all the others who come to him. But
he does more than reset their broken bodies. More than give them back
their health. He sets them free. Free from sin, free from death –
free from the inevitabilities of mortality. By healing these people,
Jesus sets in motion a wave of spiritual remediation that reconnects
his Father's children to the Holy Family and brings them into an
inheritance that started building at the first Word of creation. He
makes them sons and daughters of the Most High. So, to be healed by
Christ is to be made whole and entire a perfected creature of the
Father.
</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> Job
tells us what it's like to be imperfect creatures of the Father. We
are miserable drudges. Restless hirelings and overworked slaves. Our
days fly by and our nights are troubled. You can almost hear the
despair in his voice: </span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">“<span style="color: black;">Remember
that my life is like the wind; I shall not see happiness again.” Of
course, Job's unhappiness is not his fault. He's done nothing to
deserve this misery. His friends interrogate him aggressively about
any possible transgressions he's made against God's law. There are
none. He's been abundantly blessed with a large family, material
wealth, good health, and he's accounted righteous among his peers.
Yet, he's tortured physically, mentally, and spiritually. He only
learns “the why” of his ordeal at its end. He is a creature – a
made thing – living in a mortal world subject to failure and death.
Everything he has and is is of the world. All of it subject to
failure and death. Nothing of the world is permanent. Nothing in the
world is exempt from passing away. Health. Wealth. Family. Friends.
All of it – himself included – is</span><span style="color: black;">
temporary.</span><span style="color: black;">
At the end, Job is taught: “</span><span style="color: black;"><i>Things</i></span><span style="color: black;">
fall apart.” Only God and those who belong to God endure. Jesus
heals to make us possessions of God. </span>
</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: black;"> We
should pray that we never need Job's lesson to learn the truth of our
creatureliness. 21</span><span style="color: black;"><sup>st</sup></span><span style="color: black;">
century middle-class, American comfort can hypnotize us with the
illusion of constancy, order, and progress. Things are tidy and
always improving. And even when there are setbacks in our orderly
progress, we're confident that some hard work and time will see
things set right. We can turn to God for help. A good thing. We can
turn to one another. Another good thing. But whether we turn to God
and/or one another, </span><span style="color: black;"><i>things
fall apart</i></span><span style="color: black;">.
Belonging to God in no way exempts us from the mortalities of the
world. Job was as righteous as a righteous man could be. All those
people Jesus healed – what had they done to deserve their diseases
and broken bodies? Who deserves abject poverty, systemic violence,
political oppression, or natural disaster? No one. But no one is
protected from the consequences of being human. What Christ offers in
his healing touch is a hope beyond the ravages of mortality. An
assurance that this world is not our </span><span style="color: black;"><i>telos</i></span><span style="color: black;">,
our end. We are not abandoned, left to fend for ourselves. Created
with a purpose, we have more than eating, sleeping, working, and
reproducing to look forward to. When our mortality fails, Christ's
healing immortality steps in to reveal the Biggest Possible Picture
of God's plan for our salvation. That plan needs our cooperation. It
requires our freely given assent for fruition. If you will be healed
into the Holy Family, you will receive Christ and preach Christ and
bear witness to your healing. In word and deed, you will proclaim
your healed up wounds, your scars, and you will give God the glory. </span></span>
</span></p></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">Follow <i>HancAquam</i> or Subscribe ----->
</span>Fr. Philip Powell, OPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14970857401221305221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-26324371775494397072024-01-17T19:26:00.001-06:002024-01-17T19:26:25.916-06:00Don't be a tool<div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">St. Anthony, Abbot</span></p>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">St.
Albert the Great, Irving</span></div>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> Our
translation says that the Pharisees “watch Jesus closely.” Other
translations say it better: they “spy on him.” In order to spy,
one must watch. But not all watching is spying. Spying implies
skulking for nefarious reasons. The Pharisees were colluding with the
Herodians – supporters of the Roman puppet king – to put Jesus to
death. More is at stake here than one man's withered hand. This
gospel scene is about the force of the Law; the need for mercy; the
realities of divine healing; and – most of all – the depths to
which some will fall in the acquisition and maintenance of political
power. Jesus' ministry is an existential threat to the power and
popularity of the Pharisees and the stability of Herod's rule. At
stake is the whole structure of a volatile state consumed by
rivalries, betrayals, and the potential for violent revolution. So,
the Pharisees spy on Jesus. They need him silenced. They need him
dead. To achieve this goal, the Pharisees set aside the truth. They
turn away from the Law. They lie, cheat, and set traps. All in
pursuit of power. Jesus counters their plot with divine healing and
mercy.
</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> The
Pharisees believe they are doing what's necessary to keep their
people and themselves safe. Jesus' ministry is a radical
reinterpretation of the Law. Jesus calls it the “fulfillment of the
Law.” But to the power brokers of the day, his apparent violations
of the Law are dangerous sparks aimed at an open powder keg. Their
machinations seem justified b/c they are motivated by a desire for
peace and stability. Getting Jesus out of the way – by whatever
means necessary – is a Good. What the man's healing shows them –
and us – is that lies cannot create truth. Cheating cannot create
justice. That compromise, confusion, and political calculation cannot
give us peace. And finally, that whatever is broken, sick, cast out,
and impoverished can be made whole by the Word of God alone. The
Pharisees believe they can control the world by using the tools of
the world. But the world makes them its tool. In the end, God reveals
who the Master Craftsman really is, using all of them to free us from
sin and death. Keep your hearts and minds squarely focused on Christ
– his truth, goodness, and beauty. Leave the tool-using and spying
to the Pharisees. Nothing created can bring us peace.
</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"> </p></div><div><br /></div>Follow <i>HancAquam</i> or Subscribe ----->
Fr. Philip Powell, OPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14970857401221305221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-70607463706478322572023-12-28T08:53:00.005-06:002023-12-28T08:53:48.745-06:00Renovation Update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFN5eZKou2uGBN2bONQF0hGIhFijouLJFvxp9hgzOp_fQTHpMbfhYK-eDCwt4Y3oFQz4BGfP2GJFBNkkLJRNpllaTfTmql9XNLKPbSC7lW98H9zQ1KfSo9NlxnPdKNSORmIu9G0bzf4xG7AE6CFncZxm1MNfo6OxLChXFvQ7zx_tlOxyFQce_j/s940/409643217_17973333512637561_6526898601547801019_n%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="788" data-original-width="940" height="536" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFN5eZKou2uGBN2bONQF0hGIhFijouLJFvxp9hgzOp_fQTHpMbfhYK-eDCwt4Y3oFQz4BGfP2GJFBNkkLJRNpllaTfTmql9XNLKPbSC7lW98H9zQ1KfSo9NlxnPdKNSORmIu9G0bzf4xG7AE6CFncZxm1MNfo6OxLChXFvQ7zx_tlOxyFQce_j/w640-h536/409643217_17973333512637561_6526898601547801019_n%20(1).jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That wall behind the crucifix was supposed to be finished on Dec 23rd. Didn't happen. But they are almost done. </div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The acoustics in the chapel are MUCH better with the tile floors. We actually sound good singing the Office. The choirs stalls will make it even better!</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Consider helping us out. We need about $90,000. We have around $8,000 with pledges for more to come in the next few weeks. </div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We're looking into putting name plates on the stalls for donors. </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.opdallas.com/renovate">https://www.opdallas.com/renovate</a></div><div><br /></div>Follow <i>HancAquam</i> or Subscribe ----->
Fr. Philip Powell, OPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14970857401221305221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-67297610813424162252023-12-25T14:44:00.001-06:002023-12-25T14:44:27.986-06:00Becoming the Christ Child<div><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;">Nativity
of the Lord (Day)</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;">Fr.
Philip Neri Powell OP</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;">St.
Albert the Great, Irving</span></span></div>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black; text-align: left;">On
“t</span><span style="color: black; text-align: left;">he
Twenty-fifth Day of December...in the 149th Olympiad; in the year 752
since the foundation of the City of Rome; in the 42nd year of the
reign of Caesar Octavian Augustus, the whole world being at peace,
</span><strong style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Jesus
Christ</span></span></strong><span style="color: black; text-align: left;">,
eternal God and Son of the eternal Father...was conceived by the Holy
Spirit...born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem of Judah, and was made
man...” On that same day in the same year, in virtue of Christ's
birth, life, death, and resurrection, you and I were given – freely
given – the gift of our salvation: to become Christs in the flesh,
to be made sons of God, heirs to the Kingdom; priests, prophets, and
kings to bear witness to His glory in the world. We are rescued,
healed, ransomed, adopted, and saved. But by far the greater gift,
the greatest grace is our freedom to become Him whom we love – the
Son born of Mary in Bethlehem. That son, her son, the Son of God. The
Son of God and the Son of Man, the Savior, the Messiah. His name is
Christ Jesus, the one sent to save us from sin and death by offering
us a share in his divine nature, participation in the divine love
that is the Blessed Trinity. This gift of eternal life came wrapped
in the flesh of a child born in a stable, adored by shepherds and
kings alike.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;"> It
is beyond strange – maybe even scandalous – that God chose to
offer us a share in His divine life by taking on our human nature. He
tried other ways – ritual sacrifice, the Law, the prophets – but
none of these served His purpose fully: to bring us into a
fundamental intimacy with Him. Human obstinance, vanity, pride, and
an inordinate love of worldly things always kept us just far enough
away to lose sight of our end. Maybe His older ways of saving us from
ourselves were too literal, or maybe they were too difficult.
Whatever the reason, we failed. Again and again, we wandered away
from the covenant, finding ourselves lost in the wildernesses of the
world. He used the nations to chastise us when we strayed. And He
used us to show the nations His glory. Finally, at the appointed
time, He took it upon Himself to fulfill the terms of the covenant
that we ourselves could not or would not fulfill. The Christ Child in
the stable in Bethlehem is His final means of bringing us into the
Holy Family, of enticing us back into the intimacy of divine love.
What the Law and the Prophets did not achieve, the infant Jesus
commenced in the manger and the Christ completed on the Cross. </span>
</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"> For
2,023 years the Church has marked the Incarnation as that singular
moment in human history when the Son of God came to us like us and
offered us the possibility of becoming perfectly human. From the year
“752 since the foundation of the City of Rome; in the 42nd year of
the reign of Caesar Octavian Augustus,” all of humanity, every
single human person, received and receives an invitation from their
Creator to become Christ. To live and die as a witness to the Word of
liberation from sin and death. To minister to those in need of
hearing His Word spoken and to see His Word lived out. Each one of us
is granted – by the Incarnation – a chance to not only grow in
holiness but to become the means of salvation for another. Christmas
is Santa Claus, presents, decorated trees, and glazed hams. But more
fundamentally, Christmas is a renewal of our Yes to the Father's
invitation to be a child of Christ, to become a Christ Child. “What
came to be through [the Word] was life, and this life was the light
of the human race.” Remember: you've said Yes. You are that light
that shines in the darkness.</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> </span></span>
</p></div><div><br /></div>Follow <i>HancAquam</i> or Subscribe ----->
Fr. Philip Powell, OPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14970857401221305221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-18951483752083244382023-12-19T13:33:00.000-06:002023-12-19T13:33:00.688-06:00Bro, take the win!<div><p align="LEFT" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.2in;">
<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;">3rd
Week of Advent (T)</span><br /><span style="color: black;">Fr.
Philip Neri Powell, OP</span><br /><span style="color: black;">St.
Albert the Great, Irving</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0.2in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> Zechariah
learns a hard but well-deserved lesson in prayer. You can pray for
what you think you want. Get it. Question the veracity of the gift.
Fail to be grateful. And. . .get your tongue glued to the floor of
your mouth. What makes this lesson most-poignant is that Zechariah is
a priest, praying in the Holy of Holies, in the presence of an
archangel, who tells him that his long-prayed-for son is on his way,
and he still has the audacity to bark out a dumb question like: “How
shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in
years.” I'm reminded of a recent incident in my philosophy class
when a seminarian correctly answered one of my questions. I
congratulated him on being correct. But he continued to argue with me
vigorously. One of his classmates shouted, “Bro, shut up and take
the win!” Zechariah, bro, take the win. Now, we could excuse
Zechariah's incredulity as a reaction to being addressed by an
archangel, or excitement at learning he's finally going to be a
father – at an advanced age. But it's a safe bet to take that the
real problem here is his understanding of God's providence and the
purpose of prayer. I'm betting that Zechariah thought of prayer as a
sort of cosmic Amazon Wish List. Put your wants on a list and God
will provide when you're </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ready</i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">
to receive. That's not how this works. God provides and we receive.
That's true. God provides what we need to return to Him freely in
love. Not every want that crosses our mind. He gives what we need
when we need it. Our job is to be always in a receptive mode. That
mode is called gratitude. Whether we have actually been given what we
need or not, we remain in gratitude. By remaining in gratitude, we
remain open to receiving, always ready to get what we have been
given. Zechariah muddles the recipe by adding a dash of doubtful
curiosity to the mix. That's like adding cilantro and garlic to your
brownie batter. Not good. The result is a dire punishment for a
priest: if you're not going to use your gift of speech to give God
thanks and praise, then you're not going to use it all. As you
prepare to receive the gift of the Christ Child six days from now,
contemplate how and why you pray. Are you praying with thanksgiving?
Are you praying to add to the Wish List, or praying to receive
whatever it is that God has to give you? Are you daring an angel to
put you on mute by doubting that God knows what He's doing? By
doubting that He can do what He wills? Last lesson from Zechariah's
fumble: you and I don't have to understand what God is doing in and
with our lives. We've already said Yes. Just give Him thanks and
praise.</span></span></span></p></div><div><br /></div>Follow <i>HancAquam</i> or Subscribe ----->
Fr. Philip Powell, OPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14970857401221305221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-13687040254084527522023-12-17T10:18:00.006-06:002023-12-17T10:18:48.330-06:00We are him whom we announce<div><p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;">3<sup><u>rd</u></sup>
Sunday of Advent</span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;">Fr.
Philip Neri Powell OP</span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;">St.
Albert the Great, Irving</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"> When
asked “who are you?” John confesses who he isn't – the Christ.
He's not Elijah. He's not a prophet. When pressed for an answer, he
says, “I am </span><em><span style="color: black;">the
voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘make straight the way of the
Lord.</span></em><span style="color: black;">’”</span><span style="color: black;">
What sort of person – one who isn't the Christ or a prophet –
cries out in the desert, “Make straight the way of the Lord”? We
would say that this sort of person is a herald, a harbinger, one who
goes out in front, giving warning that One greater than he is coming.
</span><span style="color: black;">He
is not the light, but goes out to testify to the light. We know who
John is and what he came to do. Who are we? What have we come to do?
We could say that we too are heralds, harbingers sent out ahead to
make the paths of the Lord straight. And that's true. We could say
that we have taken on the work of prophets, announcing God's Word,
preaching and teaching His truth. And that's true as well. But if we
see who we are and what we do as mere preparation for the Lord's
coming, then we miss the bigger picture: we prepare for Christ's
coming again by being Christs for others now. </span><span style="color: black;"><i>We
are him whom we announce</i></span><span style="color: black;">.
Each imperfect alone but more perfect together. </span><span style="color: black;">
</span>
</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"> The
Christ Child was born some 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem. He will come
again as the Just Judge at the end of the age. In the meantime, what
we call the End Times – that's right now –, Christ is here in his
Body, the Church. In each one of us as members of his Body. He is
with us always b/c he never truly left. He is in his sacraments as
priest. He is in his preachers as prophet. He is in his Church as
king. And yet, we wait on his coming again. What's the point of
waiting for someone who is already with us? What if we're not waiting
on him? What if he's waiting on us? That is, what if he's waiting on
his Church, his Bride to be fully prepared to welcome him? What if
he's waiting for you and me to exhaust our gifts in service to the
Gospel, to receive the fullness of the Father's holiness, to totally
surrender in gratitude to just being loved creatures desperately in
need of his mercy? What if we are imperfect Christs waiting to be
made perfect – and </span><span style="color: black;"><i>that</i></span><span style="color: black;">
is his Coming Again? It would seem that the only proper response is.
. .</span><span style="color: black;"><i>rejoicing!</i></span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"> What
else would we do? Cry? Laugh? Groan in disappointment? To be made
perfect in Christ – to be made a Christ – is the highest glory of
the baptized. And it's a transformation we must participate in. How?
Paul gives us a start: “</span><span style="color: black;">Rejoice
always. Pray without ceasing. </span><span style="color: black;">In
all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in
Christ Jesus.” Rejoice. Pray. Give thanks. This is the will of God
for us. That we rejoice, pray, and give thanks. “[Keep] what is
good. Refrain from every kind of evil.” Easily done if we are
rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks. If we are rejoicing, praying,
and giving thanks, we are growing in holiness, becoming more and more
like Christ, moving away from the world and toward the kingdom. The
closer we get to the kingdom, the closer we get to our perfection in
Christ and the closer we come to bearing witness to Christ coming
again. But we aren't just sitting around being perfected, passively
being worked on by the HS. In receiving all the Father has to give
us, we become conduits for those gifts, fire hoses of grace soaking
the world with His invitation to repentance and forgiveness. Like the
Christ we will become, we minister, attend to those with eyes to see
and ears to hear, showing them the mercy we've received, and bearing
witness to the mercy they show us. </span>
</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"> Paul
ends his letter with a blessing: “May the God of peace make you
perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be
preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” For
this blessing to take hold and bear fruit, we must acknowledge our
nascent Christ-hood and rejoice. “My soul proclaims the greatness
of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” </span><span style="color: black;">Rejoicing
is the wordless prayer of thanksgiving that leads to surrender. And
surrender leads to perfection. </span>
</span></p></div><div><br /></div>Follow <i>HancAquam</i> or Subscribe ----->
Fr. Philip Powell, OPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14970857401221305221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-560963019645173722023-12-15T05:04:00.001-06:002023-12-15T05:04:42.643-06:00Renovation: Kitchen & Chapel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLBvLvwQeTDHpNc3joDyt23WrL6QvV8NTHUYiWWJ_0XuBASYqlWIxrRGps-8KEJZHCU-kKmDamiZ53faDtrIeItAFHmz8tgx1EZBgSEJyxfqFmrNLRqI_d5RNcL3pP85tDCYzcpj4dQ8PAb-XxTKmahJUkdtxy6e1oNHIUkYDwMns8GNtRO7G-/s4080/IMG_20231209_091628676.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3072" data-original-width="4080" height="482" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLBvLvwQeTDHpNc3joDyt23WrL6QvV8NTHUYiWWJ_0XuBASYqlWIxrRGps-8KEJZHCU-kKmDamiZ53faDtrIeItAFHmz8tgx1EZBgSEJyxfqFmrNLRqI_d5RNcL3pP85tDCYzcpj4dQ8PAb-XxTKmahJUkdtxy6e1oNHIUkYDwMns8GNtRO7G-/w640-h482/IMG_20231209_091628676.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;">WE NEED CHOIR STALLS!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.opdallas.com/"><span style="color: red;">St Albert the Great Priory</span></a> in Irving was finished in 2002. It was built as a home for the friars who were serving the University of Dallas as profs and chaplains. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The house has 13 rooms for friars and one guest room. The kitchen was designed to be a "warming kitchen" b/c the friars used the catering service used by Holy Trinity Seminary. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The chapel (above) was designed by a commercial architect in a style very much in vogue in 2002 -- lots of natural light, no ornamentation, white/beige/tan, egalitarian arrangement of the furniture, etc. Serviceable but easily mistaken for a Quaker meeting room. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2005, the priory was designated as the novitiate for the province. From 2005 to 2019, we had novice classes ranging from zero to four novices and a senior community of six or seven. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last year, we had five novices. All professed vows and moved on to the studium in St. Louis. <i>This year we have seven novices!</i> We are on track to have seven more next year. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In early 2022, the friars decided to renovate the kitchen and the chapel. In the kitchen, we needed appliances that did more than warm up catered food. And in the chapel, we needed choir stalls for chanting the Offices, an altar of repose for the re-centered tabernacle, and tiled floors for acoustics. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We received a generous grant to begin the renovations. But we woefully underestimated the cost of the work. What we thought was going to be a $160,000 job turned into a $320,000 job! </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We are still soliciting bids for the choir stalls. . .after reducing the number of stalls and going with less expensive wood. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Work started on Nov. 1, 2023. We've been closed to the public since then, using our tiny library as a chapel. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We need around $110,000 to finish the work and reopen to the public. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">You can help us out: <a href="https://www.opdallas.com/renovate"><span style="color: red;">RENOVATE</span></a>. </div><div><br /></div>Follow <i>HancAquam</i> or Subscribe ----->
Fr. Philip Powell, OPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14970857401221305221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-84089992509242542722023-12-15T04:36:00.003-06:002023-12-15T04:36:34.561-06:00Get on with it<div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">2<sup><u>nd</u></sup> Week
of Advent (W)</span></p>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">St. Albert the Great,
Irving</span></div>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> I'm
tired. I've been tired for years. Not physically tired. Not even
mentally or spiritually tired. Just. . .ready to get on with it.
Maybe the right word is “antsy” or “fidgety.” Jesus says his
yoke is easy and his burden light. And I know this. I believe it.
He's done the hard part. All I have to do is bear witness to his
saving work by living a life that proclaims the Father's mercy to
sinners. All the while confessing that I am the principal sinner in
my one act play. This can be difficult or easy depending on whether
or not I choose to bear witness from my own efforts or his. Bearing
witness from my own efforts usually leaves me frustrated, confused,
and feeling distinctly unfinished. Why? Because there's something
dark and satisfying about holding a righteous grudge or making a
mountain out of another's molehill. But doing so rubs against what I
know to be the mercy I've been shown. And I'm left nursing an
ulcerous ingratitude that quickly grows into resentment. What makes
the upset worse is knowing that I chose to be burdened. I chose the
more difficult way. All this comes together to trap me in knowing the
way out AND choosing the heavier yoke.
</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> Thanks
be to God, yokes are movable. Knowing the Christ Child is coming and
knowing that the Christ Child is also the Just Judge, seeing the end
with the eyes of faith and a hope borne of trust, the heavier yoke
falls away, and I can receive the <span style="color: black;">“</span><span style="color: black;">strength
[that God gives] to the fainting” and the vigor He gives to the
weak. That's the only way mercy can find its way into the world. For
a reason known only to God, He wills that the only creature needing
His mercy should be the only means of showing mercy. Maybe that's why
his yoke is easy. He gets the apparent absurdity of it all! If, like
me, you're tired – or rather antsy – ready to get on with it,
then </span><span style="color: black;"><i>get
on with it</i></span><span style="color: black;">.
Set aside the questions, the objections, and the quibbles, and just
be merciful. Be mercy. Accept the lighter yoke, the easier burden and
allow His strength and vigor to flow through and out. The alternative
is a lifetime of fainting, weakness, frustration, and bitterness. A
lifetime of chosen dis-ease and injury. No farmer can pull his own
plow. For mercy's sake, it's better to wear the yoke of Christ.</span></span></p></div><div><br /></div>Follow <i>HancAquam</i> or Subscribe ----->
Fr. Philip Powell, OPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14970857401221305221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-33782958974540544302023-12-15T04:34:00.001-06:002023-12-15T04:34:14.679-06:00Are you a stubborn mule?<div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">St. Juan Diego</span></p>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">St. Albert the Great,
Irving</span></div>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> I've
never pulled a plow. But I've seen it done. Properly worn the yoke
fits across the shoulders and extends back so that the animal's
forward motion is pushed into the ground with blades tilling up the
soil. The farmer wears his own version of the yoke, using it to
stabilize and guide the plow. The yoke's burden is either heavy or
light depending on the condition of the soil and how patient the
farmer wants to be. No farmer in his right mind wants to increase the
burden of his yoke. So he makes steady, even progress across his
fields, making several shallower passes rather than one deep trough.
This takes disciple and time. It takes rapt attention and patience.
Jesus says that the burden of the Gospel is light. The work of
plowing the Kingdom's fields is easy. Ask yourself: <i>am I being a
stubborn mule by adding unnecessary work to the work the Lord has
given me to do?</i> Am I making my burden heavier than the Lord
himself demands? Our work in the fields of the Lord is to be restful.
We can take this to mean that we're to laze about doing much of
nothing. But that's not what he says. He says, <span style="color: black;">“</span><span style="color: black;">I
am meek and humble of heart...learn from me.”</span>
Here's what we learn: I don't do less work by wearing my own yoke
instead of Christ's. His fields are no less rock-strewn and stumpy
than mine. The same heat and humidity wear on me whether I'm yoked to
the Gospel or the world. The difference btw wearing my own yoke and
his is that his sits gently on my shoulders b/c he has already plowed
the field. From all eternity, my work for/with/in Christ is done. All
I have to do now is bear witness to the truth and beauty of the
field. Why would I insist on starting over? Why would I plant rocks
or stumps in perfectly tilled soil? Why would I presume to look at
Christ's field and think that I could do a better job? But that is
precisely what I do when I invent obstacles to my growth in holiness.
When I multiply requirements for accessing the Father. When I judge
the work of other farmers as insufficiently serious or faithful or
refined. Worse yet, I can find myself longing to plow a rocky plot of
clay and roots, thinking that my holiness depends entirely on how
difficult my work promises to be. The Kingdom needs faithful farmers
not self-flagellating heroes. The work is done, brothers. Now, we
have work to do.</span></p></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Follow <i>HancAquam</i> or Subscribe ----->
Fr. Philip Powell, OPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14970857401221305221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-57301888847302600842023-12-15T04:32:00.000-06:002023-12-15T04:32:00.380-06:00How ought we to live?<div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">2<sup><u>nd</u></sup>
Sunday of Advent</span></p>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">St. Albert the Great,
Irving</span></div>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> John
the Baptist makes his Advent appearance, looking like some homeless
guy under a Houston overpass and sounding like a street preacher at
<i>Mardi Gras</i>. As a reputable salesman for the Good News, he
lacks polish and – <i>let's be frank</i> – proper hygiene.
Despite his appearance and fragrance, he possesses one supremely
qualifying attribute: he recognized the Christ while both he and
Jesus were still in their mothers' wombs. Before he was fully formed,
he knew that Jesus was the Messiah. He knew this not b/c he was
superhuman or angelic but b/c he was formed to be The Herald of
Christ's Coming. His given purpose was to “make straight the paths
of the Lord.” At the instant he encountered the subject of his
purpose, he leapt in Elizabeth's womb, rejoicing that his Lord was
near. From that moment until his unfortunate end at the whim of a
stripper, John's life was singularly driven by the need to prepare
God's people for the arrival of their Savior. He lived outside the
world, just on the edge of the wilderness, preaching, baptizing, and
wildly crying out that Christ Jesus had arrived. Finally, the
long-awaited Messiah is here. How then ought we to live? What sort of
persons ought we to be?</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> Advent
is not Lent, but it's still an excellent time of the liturgical year
to take stock of who we are and how we choose to live. You've
probably heard it said that we are an Easter People. A tribe, a
nation founded in the resurrection of Christ, living day-to-day in
the joy of knowing that sin and death are dead and that we are free.
True enough. But we can't ignore the fact that we are an Easter
People living through an apparently endless Good Friday. The world we
occupy is still mired in sin and death despite the divine offer of
freedom. The world we occupy is still chained up in anger,
bitterness, deceit, passionate excess, and the worship of Self. That
this world tempts us with its temporary luxuries and easy indulgences
is all too evident, especially when we invite it across our borders
and give it refuge. Especially when we forget who we are and exchange
our freedom for shiny new chains. Advent calls us out of our
self-imposed bondage and demands that we fulfill our promise to be
witnesses – like John – to the coming of the Christ. Advent
admonishes us to “make straight the paths of the Lord.” We live
in a Good Friday world. But we do so as an Easter People.
</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> How?
How do we hold fast to the resurrection in a world hell-bent on the
daily crucifixion of Christ? Peter answers, <span style="color: black;">“...</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">since
you await [the new heavens and a new earth], be eager to be found
without spot or blemish before him, at peace.” While we await the
advent of the Lord, we work on being w/o spot or blemish. We wait in
the freedom of Christ, receiving his good gifts, sharing those gifts,
bearing witness to the mercy we've been given, and giving all the
glory to God. Even as the world swirls the cosmic bowl, we stand out
by standing up and following after the Baptist in crying out that
Christ has come, is coming, and will come again. We stubbornly refuse
to surrender to despair. Not b/c we're “betting on Jesus.” But
b/c we know – we KNOW – in hope that the victory is always,
already his and that his victory is ours by inheritance. Even as we
lose again and again in and to the world, we win from all eternity.
All we need do is endure in faith. This short time before his coming
as the Christ Child is the time to prepare, to make ready. It's our
time to get busy waiting. It's time to decide what sort of person you
ought to be. </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">
</span></span>
</p></div><div><br /></div>Follow <i>HancAquam</i> or Subscribe ----->
Fr. Philip Powell, OPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14970857401221305221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-41282296182070788782023-12-04T03:01:00.000-06:002023-12-04T03:01:10.649-06:00HOLD! HOLD!!<div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">First Sunday of Advent</span></p>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">St. Albert the Great,
Irving</span></div>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> Heavy
English cavalry sweep downhill, lances dropped into killing position,
charging the infantry line of Scottish rebels. When unarmored foot
soldiers face a ton of horse-flesh and plate steel, the result is
never in doubt. Unless you have the patience, courage, and
determination of Wm Wallace, Braveheart. As the English pound closer
and closer, Wallace starts screaming, “HOLD!” The tension is
almost unbearable b/c we know that he has a line of hundreds of
lances just waiting to be snatched up from the ground and staked into
the English knights. The scene flashes back and forth btw the
approaching wall of near-giant horses and the terrified Scotsmen.
Each scene shift is punctuated by Wallace screaming HOLD! HOLD! HOLD!
We know what happens next. But do we know why this is an Advent
story? Advent is about watching, waiting, getting ready; it's about
seeing the end of the charge toward Christmas but not reaching for
Christmas too soon for fear of being overwhelmed. Advent is Wallace
screaming HOLD! as Santa Claus, Mariah Carey, reindeer, snowmen, and
elves charge our lines and tempt us to jump too soon into a season we
are not prepared to celebrate. So, Jesus says, “Watch.”</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> Watch.
For what? For whom? For the master of the house to return. OK. But we
know he's arriving on the Nativity, Dec 25<sup>th</sup>. What's the
point of watching then? Why not just abandon the walls, put out the
watch fires, open the gates, and party til he gets here? We could do
that. We often do exactly that. But what we miss in the meantime in a
chance to get ready, a chance to prepare. To allow the anticipation
to build up. The waiting isn't a punishment or a penance. It's like
fasting before a blowout feast. If you feast everyday then Just One
More Feast is nothing special. And the Lord's arrival is just another
day. So, Advent is Christmas' Lent. The Time Before for self-denial,
examen, the small excitements of knowing the day is coming but not
quite here just yet. You could think of your life here on Earth as
one long Advent season. Christ comes at Christmas as a Child. He
comes again as the Just Judge at the end of the age. If you are
reaching for Christmas during Advent, then are you reaching for the
end of the age before you have fully lived your life? Surely, you
have things yet to do. Preparations to make. Surely, you are not NOW
ready to meet the Just Judge? If you answer no, then stare Santa
Claus and his elves in the eye and scream HOLD!</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> Christmas
in my family started around Dec 13<sup>th</sup>. That's when I got
home from college to help mom buy gifts, put up decorations, and
cook. Christmas ended Dec 26<sup>th</sup>. We spent the day
de-Christmasing the house. Being generic Baptists, my family had no
tradition of liturgical seasons. Holidays like Easter and Christmas
were one day events like the 4<sup>th</sup> of July and Memorial Day.
Nearly indistinguishable from civil celebrations and having no more
religious content. It wasn't until I became an Episcopalian that
holiday seasons became a thing for me, and I began to understand that
the liturgical calendar was more than switching out vestment colors
and whether or not we sang an alleluia. Liturgical seasons are a
different way to keep track of time. They mark the passage of days by
keeping us deeply embedded in the history of our salvation. When the
Son became Man, he entered human history, subjected himself to the
linear step-by-step process of moving through space marked by time.
The historical events of our salvation happened “at the appointed
time.” And so, we remember these events at the appointed time,
using a calendar set outside the world's calendar.
</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> We
have about three weeks of prep time until we welcome the Christ
Child. What do we do? We watch. We look for opportunities to get
right with the Lord. We contemplate what it could mean for the Christ
Child to also be the Just Judge. We find ways to relish the
anticipation of Christmas w/o bringing Christmas into Advent. We pray
for the Lord's coming again, and we also pray that we are ready to
receive him. And when the temptation to bring Santa Claus and Mariah
Carey and Frosty the Snowman and all the other worldly seasonal
characters into our Advent, we stare them down, and we scream HOLD!</span></p></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Follow <i>HancAquam</i> or Subscribe ----->
Fr. Philip Powell, OPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14970857401221305221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-25717262436763938602023-11-10T10:08:00.002-06:002023-11-10T10:08:26.580-06:00How do we know that Jesus is the Christ?<div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">St. Leo the Great</span></p>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">St. Albert the Great,
Irving</span></div>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> Jesus
says that Simon Peter knows that he – Jesus – is the Christ b/c
the Father revealed this truth to him. How do you and I know that
Jesus is the Christ? Has the Father revealed this truth to us?
Doubtful. Did we arrive to this truth through deductive reasoning?
No. Empirical investigation? No. Maybe we used a Ouija board?
Definitely not. Nor did we come to know this truth through angelic
visitation, lucky guesses, or alien abduction. Everyone one of us
came to believe that Jesus is the Christ b/c we chose to believe a
witness. Someone, somehow testified to you and me that Jesus is the
Christ. And we believed. Our witnesses also chose to believe a
witness. And those witnesses believed on another's testimony. And so
on, all the way back to Simon Peter. Since his testimony to the other
disciples in front of Christ himself, those of us who chose to
believe through the centuries have developed stories, poems, plays,
complex philosophical and theological systems, liturgies, and legends
around the mission and ministry of the Christ. We've received his
gifts, used them to bear our own witness to his mercy, and
jump-started many a sinner's movement toward becoming Christ
themselves. It all begins with Peter, the Rock, and Jesus' question:
“Who do you say that I am?” For our witness to continue, for our
witness to bear good fruit, we need to answer this question everyday
with Peter's own answer, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living
God.” If we answer any other way, we betray those who witnessed to
us. If we answer any other way, we call Peter a liar and deny the
Father's truth. If we say that Jesus is only a teacher; only an
advocate for the poor; only moral exemplar; only an agitator for
liberation; only an ideal or a model or an avatar for human love –
then we are liars and traitors. And our foundation is built on sand.
Jesus is the Messiah. Sent by the Father to become like us in all
ways but sin. To become sin for us and die on the Cross for our
eternal lives. He rose from the grave. Ascended into heaven. And now
he sits at the Father's right hand, drawing us to him with perfect
love. Do we know every detail of how this works with absolute
certainty? No. But we know Christ and him crucified. That's the truth
we have been sent to witness to. That's our testimony. </span>
</p></div><div><br /></div>Follow <i>HancAquam</i> or Subscribe ----->
Fr. Philip Powell, OPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14970857401221305221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-25008444884231919062023-11-10T10:06:00.012-06:002023-11-10T10:06:58.551-06:00You are a temple<div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">St. John Lateran</span></p>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">St. Albert the Great,
Irving</span></div>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> We
are flesh and blood temples of the Holy Spirit. Made for the worship
of God and preaching of the Gospel. Our foundation is Christ Jesus
and his mission to save the world from sin and death. When we are
properly built and maintained, we are mobile tabernacles, bringing
Christ with us wherever we go. Improperly built and/or poorly
maintained, we risk becoming a den for thieves. We risk becoming a
rented space for cheats, liars, cultural prostitutes, and
intellectual frauds. Through the centuries, these spiritual squatters
have changed names and faces, but the scam has always been the same:
use the supernatural appeal of the Good News to prey on the anxieties
and hopes of the least among us. Whether the squatters are promising
material wealth, bureaucratic utopias, or a wide-open gate to heaven,
they are defacing the temple of the Holy Spirit. Jesus drove them out
once. He can do so again. But the best defense is a good offense.
Never let them settle in the first place. Build your temple on the
rock solid foundation of the apostolic faith – the unchanging and
unchangeable truths of the Gospel. God's enduring love. The necessity
of repentance of sin. The freely offered mercy of the Father.
Christ's promise to be with us always. Never leave your temple
unattended. Pray always. Keep the tabernacle lamp lit. And guard the
door against anything and anyone who would bring the world's
language, images, and idols to the altar. Receive gifts with humble
thanksgiving and share the temple's wealth generously. Know Christ as
a person not just as an idea or an ideal. Know him as a friend, a
teacher, a brother. Know him most intimately in one another and those
you serve. When a sacrifice is necessary, remember that God receives
our fears, our desires, our lies, and our hopes. He makes them all
holy when we hand them over with child-like faith, trusting fully
that He bring the Good from our mess. Receive His gifts w/o prejudice
for your wants. And use them to keep your temple free of the world's
deadly distractions. Finally, ask yourself daily Paul's question to
the Corinthians: <span style="color: black;">“</span><span style="color: black;">Do
you not know that you are the temple of God,</span><span style="color: black;"><br /></span><span style="color: black;">and
that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” </span>
</span></p></div><div><br /></div>Follow <i>HancAquam</i> or Subscribe ----->
Fr. Philip Powell, OPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14970857401221305221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-6521389113172118542023-10-28T16:24:00.001-05:002023-10-28T16:24:05.768-05:00Apostolic foundation<div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Ss. Simon and Jude</span></p>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">St. Albert the Great,
Irving</span></div>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> Knowing
what they know about Jesus' soon-to-be bloody end in Jerusalem and
his promise that all who follow him will end in a similar way, I
wonder what the Twelve are thinking and feeling when the Lord chooses
them and sends them out. Are they excited? Afraid? Confused? Maybe
all of the above and more. Remember: since the Lord is still with
them in the flesh, the Holy Spirit has yet to be sent. Meaning they
have not yet been infused with the living fire of the Spirit and
empowered to preach and teach Gospel in many tongues. IOW, they are –
at the moment of their choosing – merely students who've witnessed
the Lord ministering while he teaches them the truth of the Father's
mercy to sinners. There must've been a palpable sense of anticipation
among the Twelve, a vigorous wanting to-get-on-with-it that fires up
the start of any monumental adventure. But they could not have known
the results of their work. Millions of followers of Christ spread
across the globe, working out their salvation in fear and trembling.
At the moment of their choosing, whatever else they were thinking,
they must've thought, “What will we do w/o the Lord?”</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> After
the coming of the HS at Pentecost, that question is answered: “We
will never be w/o the Lord!” One becomes Twelve and Twelve becomes
1.6 billion. And that 1.6 billion continues to grow by the hour. On
the foundation of the faith of the Apostles, the Lord's Body grows
and matures. The Church finds herself failing in one part of the
world and thriving in another. Under attack here and compromising
there. When the ordained hierarchy is flirting with the world, the
laity are picking up the slack. At any particular moment, somewhere
on the globe, the Lord's mercy is being witnessed to even if our
witness as a whole is less than muscular. This is what it is to
preach and teach the Good News to sinners, ourselves first and
foremost. The testimony of a witness is only as good as the integrity
of the witness. Being chosen and sent doesn't guarantee that
integrity. To wit: Judas Iscariot. What does guarantee the integrity
of the witness and his/her testimony is fidelity to the apostolic
deposit of faith. The Church is established and built on the witness
of the Twelve chosen and sent by Christ. W/o them we would've been
little more than a book club in fancy liturgical dress.
</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> We
avoid being just a book club in fancy liturgical dress by holding
firmly to the faith handed-on once for all. The Son of God became Man
– fully human, fully divine – died on the Cross for the
forgiveness of our sins; rose again, ascended, sent the HS; and
established his Church, his Body as the living, breathing corporate
witness to the Father's freely offered mercy to repentant sinners.
How we understand all this can vary. How we apply it can vary. But
the truth of it all is our foundation, our cornerstone. A book club
in fancy liturgical dress will abandon the foundation and welcome the
ever-shifting, always trendy nonsense that passes for wisdom in the
world. Such a club will come to believe that truth is created by
those we are vowed to seek it; that truth – that the HS – takes a
poll and changes policies when the cultural winds blow in a different
direction. That's not the apostolic faith. Our Lord chose and sent
Twelve men, including Simon and Jude, to bear witness to all that he
had taught them, to all that they had seen. Their testimony is
fundamental to our salvation. It cannot change anymore than the
choosing and sending of the Apostles 2,000 yrs ago can change. If you
will be a witness, tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
the truth.
</span></p></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div>Follow <i>HancAquam</i> or Subscribe ----->
Fr. Philip Powell, OPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14970857401221305221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-52793436262451377832023-10-23T05:20:00.001-05:002023-10-23T05:20:43.154-05:00Liberalism fails the Church<div><div style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">10/23/23: I found this post from 2009. It is deeply relevant to our on-going crisis in the Church.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">In 1966, the French philosopher, Jacques Derrida, read a paper at a conference held at Johns Hopkins titled, <a href="http://hydra.humanities.uci.edu/derrida/sign-play.html" style="color: #004505; text-decoration-line: none;">"Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences."</a> Thus was the American academy introduced to the corrosive influence of deconstuction's radical skepticism about the ability of language to convey truth. The history of the liberal arts in the U.S. since 1966 has been a long, sad story of decline into relativistic chaos and left-wing political manipulation. Deconstruction is essentially (no pun) a machine of critique. It is conceptually incapable of building anything. It can only destroy.<br /><br />In 1998, Francis Cardinal George stunned a congregation at Old St. Patrick's with this line delivered in his homily: "Liberal Catholicism is an exhausted project." Later, he was asked to elaborate and did so at a <a href="https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/how-liberalism-fails-church" style="color: #004505;">Commmonweal forum</a> held at Loyola University in 1999.<br /><br />An except from his elaboration:<br /><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><div style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">"We are at a turning point in the life of the church in this country. Liberal Catholicism is an exhausted project. Essentially a critique, even a necessary critique at one point in our history, it is now parasitical on a substance that no longer exists. It has shown itself unable to pass on the faith in its integrity and inadequate, therefore, in fostering the joyful self-surrender called for in Christian marriage, in consecrated life, in ordained priesthood. It no longer gives life."<br /></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br />What started as a much-needed critical review of Church doctrine and practice in the late 19th century, peaked in the documents of Vatican Two, and found its most strident voices in the 70's and 80's has become the sterilizing practice of postmodern dissent and heresy. The "necessary critique" of manual Thomism and semi-Janenist moral practice in the Church is indeed now "parasitical."<br /><br />Just as deconstruction demolished the absurd pretenses of liberal western culture and literature with its relentless attack on language, and now sits like a bloated toad on the university quad poisoning everything in its reach, the Spirit of Vatican Two refreshed a moribund institutional Church only to find itself haunting a decimated and demoralized body of believers.<br /><br />Lest we think the cure is nostalgia, Cardinal George quickly adds:<br /></span><div style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">"The answer, however, is not to be found in a type of conservative Catholicism obsessed with particular practices and so sectarian in its outlook that it cannot serve as a sign of unity of all peoples in Christ."<br /></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br />We cannot rebuild the Church if the only vision of the Church we can see and communicate is the Church as it was in the 1800's. The liberal project (exemplified by Newman) pushed the Church to engage the world in terms foreign to its basic philosophical foundations. In taking on this challenge, the Church gained an incredibly fruitful means of evangelization that saw amazing results in the decades leading up to the Second Vatican Council.<br /><br />Then, like most good things, one good thing was taken to be the only thing and aggressive, unrelenting critique became the mark of being a Catholic intellectual. Left aside were the pesky admonitions of tradition, ecclesial authority, reason, and just plain good sense. The only thing that came to matter was opposition to alleged oppression and the failure to be radical enough in one's take-down of the Church. This is the intellectual equivalent of deciding to renovate your kitchen by demolishing your house and killing your family.<br /><br />What both John Paul II and Benedict XVI have been trying to communicate to the Church and the world is this: the time for critical demolition is over. That project is done. It is time to retire the dynamite, return the bulldozer, fire the demolition crews, and start to rebuild on the foundation left for us by the apostles. At the very least, this means a return to the documents of Vatican Two, read and implemented through their continuity with the tradition and reason. They are not calling us back to an uncritical embrace of Baroque Thomism and manual moralism. Nor are they asking us to live in the illusions of a warmed-over 1950's nostalgia. All they are asking the Church to do is start in the present, look back to where we came from and forward to where we are going without getting lost in the bitterness and cynicism that a life of complaint and opposition engenders.<br /><br />Is that so hard?</span></div></div><div><br /></div>Follow <i>HancAquam</i> or Subscribe ----->
Fr. Philip Powell, OPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14970857401221305221noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-77744459244864712042023-10-20T05:02:00.005-05:002023-10-20T05:02:54.681-05:00Doubt. . .but worship<div><p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Ss.
John and Issac</span></p>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Fr.
Philip Neri Powell OP</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">St.
Albert the Great, Irving</span></div>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> One
of the strangest sentences in the Bible occurs in the readings this
morning: “When [the disciples] all saw [Jesus], they
worshiped, but they doubted.” They doubted him, but they worshiped
him despite their doubt. I think this sentence strange b/c we moderns
usually need to have something like “without a reasonable doubt”
before we grant the status of fact to a mere claim. Jesus has made
all sorts of bold claims in the disciples' hearing. Now, (at the end
of Matthew's Gospel) he's been crucified, dead, buried, resurrected,
and is appearing to them, making more claims that sound a little
dodgy. <i>Yet</i>. They worship. What does this sequence of
events – we doubt <i>yet</i> we worship – teach us? It
teaches us that we can have our doubts, we can be not quite sure and
still offer to God through Christ our sacrifice of praise and
thanksgiving. To the finite mind only finite knowledge is possible. A
plastic gallon jug can only contain a gallon of liquid. It cannot
contain two gallons, nor can it contain a bonfire. Nor can we say
that that jug contains all the liquid in the world simply b/c it's
full. The disciples doubt. But they worship. So, we can say: <i>worship
is a means of coming to know</i>.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"> At
your baptism, you were given the seed of a divine nature. This makes
you a disciple. Learning about Christ, the Church, the Scriptures
makes you an educated disciple. And faithfully living out Christ's
commandments perfects your discipleship, making your sacrifices to
God holy and acceptable. None of this would be possible unless you
participated in the Divine Life. Since we are finite creatures, our
participation in divine nature is necessarily finite. But we can
cooperate in perfecting our imperfect participation through worship.
Grounding ourselves in baptism and discipleship, we approach the
altar of God fully aware that we are not worthy of His love, and </span><span style="color: black;"><i>yet
</i></span><span style="color: black;">He
has made us worthy to be loved. </span><span style="color: black;"><i>And
so we are</i></span><span style="color: black;">.
And b/c we are, we are gifted with the possibilities of coming to
know and love Him to the limits of our capacity. If and when we
exhaust our capacity to know and love Him, He readily enlarges us,
increases our capacity, giving us more and better opportunities to
cooperate in grace, perfecting our participation in the Divine Life,
living and loving more fully in the divine nature.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"> So,
our worship is the immediate means of perfecting our participation in
the Divine Life. Worship brings the whole person to the task. Body
and soul. Intellect and will. Worship gives us ways of encountering
the Divine Life that nothing else can. We are together. One Body, one
Faith, one Baptism. With one voice we offer thanks and praise to God.
With one sacrifice we offer ourselves as an oblation to the Father.
With one love we offer ourselves to the Son to become his Words and
Deeds in the world. With one blessing we offer ourselves to the Holy
Spirit to be His presence to those who cannot yet see or receive His
gifts. When you come to the altar this morning, bring it all! Bring
everything you have collected. Bring your anger, your impatience,
your hatred, your need for revenge, your failures. Bring your
tribalism, your prejudices, your cramped biases. Bring your legalism,
your entitlement, your selfishness. But also, bring your joys, your
triumphs, your loves, and your blessings. Bring thanks and praise.
You live and move and have your being in the Divine Life of the
Blessed Trinity. He gave us Christ so that we might be perfect as He
is perfect. How do we start? Bring all you are and all you have and
give it to God. Give Him everything </span><span style="color: black;"><i>in
you and with you</i></span><span style="color: black;">
that isn't Christ. With Him, empty yourself out “for we who live
are constantly being given up to death for the sake of Jesus.” </span>
</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p></div><div><br /></div>Follow <i>HancAquam</i> or Subscribe ----->
Fr. Philip Powell, OPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14970857401221305221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-30034051738266408872023-10-15T14:37:00.002-05:002023-10-15T14:37:57.696-05:00Go to the Wedding Feast!<div><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">28<sup>th</sup><sup>
</sup>Sunday OT</span></span></p>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Fr.
Philip Neri Powell, OP</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">St.
Albert the Great, Irving</span></span></div>
<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /><br />
</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> Imagine:
you go into the hospital with a terrible but curable disease. Your
doc plans out your treatment. When the time comes to start the
medications, you refuse to take them. Your doc is confused but honors
your wishes and begins the discharge paperwork. You inform the doc
that you don't want to leave the hospital. Even better, you'd like to
arrange it so that you can be admitted to the hospital once every
week. No meds, no surgery, no therapy of any kind. Just an hour in
bed and you go home. The doc agrees and gives you a pamphlet
outlining some things you can do to help treat your terrible but
curable disease. You take the info, read it, and promptly throw it
away when you get home. You've come to believe that your weekly visit
to the hospital is sufficient to cure your ailment. You feel OK for a
few weeks. Then, after one of your weekly visits, you drop dead
outside the hospital. How many here tonight think that this is a
truly bizarre way to behave – sick, you refuse treatment but insist
on staying close to the source of your cure? Isn't this how many of
us think about our faith? Weekly visits to church is just enough to
treat and cure our spiritual diseases. Jesus says, “Many are
invited, but few are chosen.”</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> Everyone
is invited to the Wedding Feast. From the lowest to the highest; from
the smallest to the largest; rich, poor; black, white; male, female;
Democrat, Republican; everyone! And it's possible that everyone
invited to the Feast will show up. But this is no ordinary feast;
it's the Wedding Feast of the Lamb – a party to celebrate the
eternal marriage of Christ to his bride, the Church. Those who accept
their invitation are expected to show up properly dressed; that is,
properly prepared to party forever with Christ in heaven. You
wouldn't show up to a friend's church wedding wearing flip-flops,
short-shorts, and an AC/DC tee-shirt – especially if you were a
member of the bridal party! And you are a member of the bridal party.
You are a member of the Church, the Bride. So, accepting your
invitation to the Wedding Feast begins with baptism. You put on the
white garment of new life, and you proceed through the years to add
to your Christian wardrobe, always thinking ahead to the Big Party to
come. How do you go about acquiring the articles of clothing you need
to Party Well in heaven? Over your lifetime, how do you <i>choose</i> to
put your wedding outfit together?</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> Start
by considering what you do <i>not</i> do. You do not come
to believe that the absolute bare minimum is enough. Sure, those
flip-flops, short-shorts, and AC/DC tee-shirt cover all the necessary
bits. You aren't naked at the Party. And sure, baptism, confirmation,
weekly Mass, and a yearly confession cover all the basics. You
haven't lived a life-time w/o receiving some of the basic graces.
These most basic of the graces keep you coming back – for the most
part. Another thing you do <i>not</i> do in assembling your
Wedding Garment is come to believe that just any old piece of
clothing will serve your eternal end. Sure, that hot pink bandanna on
your head looks good with your tee-shirt, and those black socks look
comfortable under your shower shoes. And sure, praying the rosary
three times a day and fasting on Fridays helps you remember that you
are Catholic. Absolutely nothing wrong with hot pink bandannas, black
socks, the rosary, or fasting! But your Wedding Garment needs more
than the bare minimum and a few flashy accessories. Your Wedding
Garment must be in fashion for eternity. It must be durable, proper
to the occasion, and serve as a sign of your all-consuming love and
devotion to Christ. Your Wedding Garment must be made from the
organic silk of 100% pure charity.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"> You've
received your invitation to the Feast. You've accepted the
invitation. Now, you are gathering the pieces of your Wedding
Garment. We know that the bare minimum and flashy accessories aren't
enough. You need a lifetime of loving God, yourself, and others to
put this garment together. You need a lifetime of doing spiritual and
corporeal works of mercy; acts of selfless love, words and deeds that
proclaim to the world that you belong to Christ. You need a lifetime
of personal prayer – private conversations with God in the Spirit –
listening to His will and making His will manifest in the world. You
need a lifetime of allowing yourself to be transformed into Christ so
that those around you can see and hear him in your flesh. A lifetime,
Father? Yes. What if I've spent decades doing the bare minimum and
collecting flashy accessories? No problem. Your lifetime begins again
at the moment of repentance and confession. If you will stay at the
Party, start now gathering your Wedding Garment. Once the wailing and
gnashing of teeth begins, it is too late. Jesus says, “Many are
invited, but few are chosen.” Choose to Party with Christ forever.
And start now. </span>
</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
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Fr. Philip Powell, OPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14970857401221305221noreply@blogger.com0