A pattern of signs

33^rd Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Palm readers claim to see the future drawn by the lines in your hand. Astrologers calculate the position of the stars at your birth and claim to know your future. An ancient Roman haruspex would tell you that the significant events of your life could be read in the entrails of a ritually slaughtered animal. That anyone actually ever believed any of this nonsense to be true is dumbfounding. Yet, our impulse to get ahead of events by knowing our future seems to be part of our fallen nature. Every human culture in every age has entertained divination – whether it be reading the flight patterns of birds, or Tarot cards, or the latest election poll. Jesus makes a prediction in the Temple courtyard: “All that you see here – the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.” The crowd – no doubt stunned – asks, right on cue, “Teacher, when will this happen? And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?” NB. that they do not ask for a specific date. Or an exact time. They ask for signs. Instead of signs, Jesus gives them a pattern. Or better: a pattern of signs that point to the end.

Over the centuries, many have said that Jesus' “prediction” is vague, almost meaningless. When hasn't there been wars, famines, plagues, persecutions, and just general all-around strife among nations? That sort of “prediction” can't tell us much about what's coming. What if Jesus' purpose here isn't a prediction at all? Sure, the temple was destroyed by Roman troops about 40yrs later – if you accept that the Gospel of Luke was written before 70AD. Even so, remember, he's also talking about himself, the Temple made flesh, his Body, the Church. What if his “prediction” of the Temple's destruction is also a prophecy about the on-going battle btw the Church and the world? Rather than giving the crowd (and us) a foretelling of a specific future event, he's laying out a pattern of conflict that repeatedly plays out over the centuries. There will always be wars, famines, plagues, and persecutions before his Church is destroyed. And the Church in many places around the world has been destroyed – N. Africa, many in the Middle East, Communist China and Russia; a case can be made that the Church in Europe is all but gone. The buildings still stand, but where is the faith? Where are the faithful? Where are those who will love, forgive, and show mercy when the world once again persecutes Christ?

And here is where hope enters the pattern. Just like clockwork, when the world once again decides that the Church can no longer be tolerated, persecution ensues. Our instinct is to fight back, strike out, using the tools of our persecutors. When we do this, if we do this, our persecutors win. We become them. In effect, we join their side in violence and death. Our way of fighting is far more difficult than anything the enemy can manage. Jesus says, “Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand, for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute.” Our way is more difficult b/c we must prepare ourselves to be recipients of divine wisdom. Whether the attack is physical or legal or philosophical, Christ will give us what we need at that moment to defend his Gospel. This doesn't mean that we will win every battle. We won't. But it does mean that by responding as Christians we will preach the Good News to the faces of those who hate us b/c of his name. The goal is not total victory in this world, the annihilation of an opponent. The goal is living faithfully the victory we have already won from the Cross. If we cannot do this at peace, how can we do it at war?

We are fast approaching Advent – the annual season of preparation in anticipation of the Christ's birth. Now is as good a time as any to take stock of our faith. Ask yourself: how's my relationship with Christ? How am I praying? How am I being generous with all that God has given me? Am I receiving God's gifts fully, freely? Am I bearing witness to His mercy? Am I forgiving, loving, being Christ where I am planted? All these matter a great deal while you are at peace. Imagine how much more vital they will be at war. Am I predicting a persecution of Texas Catholics next week or next year? No. But I point you back to the pattern of signs laid out by Jesus in the Gospel. We will probably never be rounded up and executed like the Christians in Syria or Nigeria. Not anytime soon anyway. But this doesn't mean the world has surrendered to Christ and given up the fight. It just means the fight takes place at another level, the spiritual level. There the fight is furiously fought. Thanks be to God, our victory is won. Jesus promises, “...your perseverance you will secure your lives.”

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Seek Wisdom

St. Albert the Great

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Albertus Magus is in trouble with the Prior. In a fit of experimental zeal, he's taken some of the brothers' beer and fed it to a snake. The inebriated serpent escapes Albert's cell and is terrorizing the less scientifically studious friars by flopping around like a...well...like a drunken snake. For the sake of weak hearts and a calmer convent, the Prior forbids any future experiments with alcohol and snakes. You may have heard this story before. I told it last year on this feast to defend Albert against charges of curiositas. I tell it again this year to highlight the effects of seeking wisdom – namely, joy and gladness. Sirach promises, “Happy those who meditate on Wisdom, and fix their gaze on knowledge...Whoever fears the Lord will do this; whoever is practiced in the Law will come to Wisdom...Joy and gladness he will find, an everlasting name he will inherit.” Now, we can't say that Albert's confreres found joy and gladness in his pursuit of wisdom. Nor can we say from this single event that Albert himself did. We can say that he eventually found the Wisdom he sought his whole life and that's sufficient for us to conclude that he was and is joyful and glad. That we celebrate his feast today is enough to know that he has inherited an everlasting name. Seek Wisdom, know gladness and joy!

How do we seek Wisdom? Sirach suggests a sequence: meditate on Wisdom as an object; fix your gaze on knowledge; fear the Lord; and practice the Law. The last two steps in this sequence don't sound like things a seeker of Wisdom and knowledge would do. Fear the Lord. Practice the Law. How exactly do these help in the acquisition of Wisdom? Fearing the Lord, meaning (of course) standing in awe of God, guarantees that the seeker is properly humble as a creature. That is, that the seeker is aware of and lives as one of the Lord's creations and not as a detached observer outside of creation. Self-knowledge is as important to the seeker as Other-knowledge will ever be. Practicing the Law. Here Sirach means following the Mosaic Law, following God's revealed plan for human perfection. As followers of Christ, we take this to mean following the Law of Love: love God and our neighbors as ourselves. Following this law not only keeps the seeker humble but it also ensures that whatever else he/she does they do it for the good of the other. IOW, there is no such thing as “self-serving Wisdom.” Wisdom is, by nature, communal, constructive, and peaceable. So, where is the joy and gladness?

Albert's best student, Thomas Aquinas, teaches us that joy and gladness are effects of love. Love causes joy and gladness. And what better source of love than Wisdom, God Himself who is Love. As the highest cause of all things, God is the object of our search for Wisdom. Find God, find Wisdom. Albert knew this when he searched the Lord's created things, looking for their cause. He knew that studying creatures revealed their Creator. He found in them the logos of the Real. Their reason for being, a created order that ordered them to their given end. And he knew that that logos is Christ. We don't celebrate Albert this morning b/c he was a genius biologist, or a great botanist. We don't celebrate him b/c he was a renowned teacher and preacher. We celebrate him b/c he loved God, found Wisdom, and shared the fruits of his contemplation with his brothers and sisters. For the short time that we are here, revealing to self and others the glory of Christ – that's joy and gladness.

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Don't forget what you signed up for

Dominican All Saints

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

There's an old joke in the Order of Preachers: “If you want to be a Dominican saint, then live with a Dominican martyr. If you want to be a Dominican martyr, then live with a Dominican saint.” The implication here is that surviving life with a either a Dominican saint or martyr is a sure-fire way to get at least a memorial Mass with your name on it. Why? B/c living saints and martyrs can be challenging housemates. The religious fervor of a still-living Dominican saint easily convicts the evident laxity of less fervent brothers and sisters. And the self-sacrifice of the still-living Dominican martyr similarly exposes the selfishness of those confreres less inclined to surrender their preferences for the common good. Of course, the joke is: the religious fervor of the saint and the ease of self-sacrifice in the martyr is usually only present in the mind of the Dominican in question. The rest of us just chuckle and wonder. And probably pray a little harder for the grace of sainthood and martyrdom. You know, just in case. This feast taps all Dominicans on the shoulder and whispers, “Don't forget what you signed up to do and be.”

It never hurts to be reminded of our ideals. Dominic started this whole thing to “preach the Gospel and care for souls.” From the start, he sent us out two-by-two to universities to study God's Word so that our preaching would be grounded in the ancient apostolic faith. He gathered us together in community so that that ancient faith would always have a contemporary expression. He made sure we prayed together so that we'd learn to express that faith with one voice and at the same time shape that one voice to speak in different tongues. He knew that the Truth is always the Truth. But he also knew that our understanding of Truth grows by nature. So, he gave us the enduring habit of study, the habit of always seeking out the “manifold wisdoms of God.” Most importantly, most fundamentally, he gave us the grace of preaching, the gift of giving the Eternal Word a human voice to bring souls to Christ. On the more practical side of our life together, we have the vow of obedience, our only vow. It binds us, frees us, and makes everything we do and are possible. It gives life to Peter's declaration to Christ: “We have put aside everything to follow you.” Ideally, you could ask any Dominican, “What have you given up to follow Christ?” And he/she would answer, “Everything.” “And what have you gained?” The answer, “Even more.”

Our saints, blesseds, and martyrs show us what “even more” means in light of what they all sacrificed. From the 13^th c. to just a few weeks ago, they still bear witness to the power of Dominican life to bring the preaching of the Gospel to every nook and cranny of this needful world. Jesus promises Peter that his surrender will result in a hundredfold multiplication in this world and the world to come. That promise is our inheritance. What will we do with all that wealth? We'll pray, study, care for souls; and live together with one heart and one mind; forgiving one another; loving the grumps, the self-made martyrs and saints; correcting, teaching; and being docile to the Spirit, waiting for the advent of our Christ; and never forgetting that we do all of this willingly, freely for the sake of the Gospel. IOW, we'll spend our inheritance in the same way it was given to us – with generous abandon for the salvation of the world.  

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The dead minister to us

All Souls

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

The Christian dead minister to the living by reminding the living that we too will one day be dead. That's not exactly a cheerful reminder for a Sunday celebration of the Eucharist. But it is a necessary reminder. While we move about in this space and time-limited world, we can neglect the reality of the possible worlds we'll come to haunt. With faith lived in earnest hope, we look forward to haunting the Lord's table at an eternal wedding feast. That's one – hopeful – possibility. Another possibility – despairing, at best – is to choose to live eternally rejecting God's love. And then there's a third possibility, the Between Possibility, where we haunt for a while while being purged of whatever keeps us from the feast. If we're honest, most of us will confess to shooting for the third option. Fingers-crossed, relying on the prayers of family and friends, we are confident that purgatory seems our best after-death bet. Here's where the already-dead do their best work. We pray for those in purgatory and in doing so keep our hearts and minds turned toward the inevitable day of our own death. The dead minister to us by just not being here.

If all this talk of death and purgatory seems funereal, it's meant to. In its way, the Feast of All Souls is a funeral Mass for all the faithful departed. One day, one celebration for the repose of all the souls who are no longer with us. And like any funeral Mass for a single soul, this Mass has a double purpose: to pray for the eternal rest of the deceased and to shake the living out of their spiritual complacency. Mourning the dead is a ministry of the living. Shaking the living is a ministry of the dead. If we think the passing of “just souls” is a tragedy, their leaving us behind an affliction, remember that they are at peace. The Book of Wisdom says, “...chastised a little, [the souls of the just] shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself.” Of course He did! Paul writes to the Romans, “God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” Jesus himself says, “Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me...” Why wouldn't the just souls be greatly blessed and found worthy of God Himself? Even if they must be chastised for a little while.

It's too hard to think that one day you and I will be laid out in a box or poured into an urn. But that day is as inevitable as sunrise and sunset. That we are here this morning asking for God's mercy on the faithful departed is just one clear sign that we know our time is short. While we are here, still breathing, our work as those given to Christ by his Father is sanctifying; it's designed to bring us to and keep us in holiness. That work is the work of living freely in the hope of salvation, living freely in the love of God, and trusting absolutely that we are beloved sons and daughters of the Most High. If we are truly free to live as Christ remade us to live, then we will expend what time we have left in proclaiming in word and deed the mercy our Father offers to sinners. And we will be compelled in our proclamation by the reality that at some unknown hour it will be our turn to pass through the purging fire and onto the Narrow Gate. One mercy we can do for the dead is to pray for them. And ask for their prayers. In every sense that matters, they are more alive than we are. Even if they are being chastised, they are closer to God. Mourn for your dead joyfully b/c grace and mercy are with His holy ones. Allow them to bring you into the Wedding Feast.

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You gotta be the hose!

All Saints

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

I hear from the seminarians and my UD students all the time, “Father, I want to be a saint.” I usually respond with, “Good for you. And good luck.” If they get my weak attempt at humor, we smile and part ways. If they don't, well, we spend some time talking about what attaining sainthood entails. For the most part, they seem to think that becoming a saint is all about absolute moral purity. It's about never violating the 10C's. Or never thinking bad thoughts. Or being dramatically and publicly “humble.” Or all of the above. They usually have a favorite saint they try to imitate. And that saint is usually one with a fantastic backstory, including a harrowing conversion and a list of miracles James Cameron would find difficult to re-create in a movie. Nothing wrong with any of this. Having a holy hero to look up to is nothing to sneer at. But...we have to be careful that we do not make our saints out to be the Christian answer to the Avengers or the X-Men. Saints – those men and women fully realized in Christ – are more than superheroes. They are children of God who see Him as He is.

John tells us that we – those not yet fully realized in Christ – are children of God too. He says, “...we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed.” So, we might say that we are saints-on-the-way. I'm sure you feel it too. That “on-the-way” part seems much more real than the saint part. That is, the feeling of being incomplete, not-yet, almost-there but not quite. Am I right? We can spend years, decades striving for saintliness – building our merits in prayer and good works, going to Mass, avoiding sin – and still barely limp toward the next step. Just barely making it. And then the whole thing starts all over. The frustration is maddening. What's missing in all this struggle? Maybe, just maybe, we let it slip our mind that we are already children of God. We are already graced with everything we need to become saints. We are already well-equipped to live with Not Yet and Almost There. John says it plainly, “...what we shall be has not yet been revealed.” If what we shall be has not yet been revealed, then why are we fighting so hard to figure it out? We know what we are now: children of God. Can't that be enough right now? Can't just being the best children of God we can be be enough until what we will be is revealed?

John goes on to say, “We do know that when [what we shall be] is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” So, we do know something about what we will be. We will be like God b/c we will see Him as he is. What is it “to be like God”? The Catechism of Trent gives us a partial answer: “...beatitude consists of two things: that we shall behold God such as he is in his own nature and substance; and that we ourselves shall become, as it were, gods. For those who enjoy God while they retain their own nature, assume a certain admirable and almost divine form, so as to seem gods rather than men” (I, 13, 7). For us to be like God then is to be fully human and almost divine. That is, for us to be like God is to be saints – first, children of God; then, Christs. Christ plural. To be Christ imperfectly now and perfectly then. To embody the beatitudes right when and where we are. Jesus says again and again that to be among the blessed is to be poor in all the ways that the world thinks is rich. To be among the blessed is never about the work we ourselves put into becoming blessed. We can do nothing w/o Christ. Whatever work we put into becoming saints is first the work of Christ done through us. To believe otherwise is to believe that we can make ourselves into saints. That error is known as Pride. And nothing motivated by Pride can enter the Kingdom of God.

How do we become saints and enter the Kingdom? It is both insanely simple and devilishly complex. Simple b/c all we have to do is receive sainthood from God. Receive His perfection into our imperfect nature. Receive Him and then simply be His son and daughters. But it's complex b/c we have trouble shaking the idea that anything free is valuable. Anything worth having is worth working for. Anything worth anything at all should be difficult to obtain. So, we fight temptation. We struggle against sin. We wrestle with our demons. We bargain with God to get what He has already given us for free. What the Saints know now – being in the presence of God – is that nothing they did on earth was done w/o Christ doing it first. Their prayer, their fasting, their devotion, their miracles, all of it was Christ himself working in them. And they understood their role: get out of his way and let him work! Let him work in you and through you. I'll leave you with a weird image. You're washing your car. Which gets wet first? The car or the hose? Right. To become a saint, you gotta be a hose for God's abundant love!

      

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The Idol of Ingratitude

28^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

The benefits of gratitude are obvious: a deep humility and a graced clarity in seeing God's blessings. When we give God thanks and praise for His abundant goodness, we reinforce the central truth of our being: we are made from dirt and divine breath. As dirt, we are not worthy of His notice. As divine breath, we are made worthy to participate in the life of the Trinity. Humility is the good habit of living as dirt made worthy of divinity. And gratitude keeps us honest. If the benefits of gratitude are obvious, can we say that the perils of ingratitude are obvious as well? They should be. But there's something about us that tempts us to believe that all that we are and all that we have is ours by right, or ours by hard work, or ours by clever invention. This idol is praised everyday in the market, the office, our school and universities, our sports arenas. It seems as though we begin with the idea that we are blessed or cursed to the degree that we are busy getting more, having more, accumulating more. And what's worse, we seem to think that all that More makes us better – wiser, holier, stronger, just. . .better overall. I think of Flannery O'Connor's Ruby Turpin* who says, “You have to have things to know things.”

To break this idolatrous spell, we turn to our Gospel scene. Jesus is met by ten lepers in a village. They beg him for pity. He heals all ten. Only one returns to give God – Jesus – thanks. He asks the fateful question: “I healed ten. Where are the other nine?” Apparently, the other nine think their renewed health is an entitlement, a miracle they received as a right. Jesus tells the lone, grateful former-leper that his faith has saved him. The other nine? Not so much. NB. the connection Jesus makes between gratitude and salvation. The act of returning to Jesus to say a simple Thank You is enough to bring this man into the Holy Family of the Father. Everything he is right now and everything he has right now is a freely offered gift from God. He received it all as a gift with praise and thanksgiving. He was not owed healing. He didn't earn healing. He didn't borrow it or steal it. He humbly took it from the hands of Christ, went to the priests as commanded, and then returned, “glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.” Maybe Mrs. Turpin is right. You have to have things to know things. But having things must teach us humility and gratitude.

The idol of ingratitude seems to thrive on the idea that if I don't think of my things as mine first, I will lose them. Or if I don't think of myself as mine first, I might end up a slave to someone else. The problem here is that – as a follower of Christ – nothing is truly mine. Not my stuff, not even me. This truth is expressed for religious in our vows of poverty and obedience. What about all of you “just normal Catholics”? Well, you aren't immune to the effects of ingratitude. And you reap the benefits of giving God thanks and praise! You can find humility in living your marriage vows. Your spouse is given to you as a help in gaining heaven. You can find humility in raising your children in the faith by example. They are given to you as a help in growing in patience and strength. Children, you can grow in humility by being a help to your parents and siblings. Do you say “thank you” to mom, dad, brother, sister? You depend on them, so be grateful! Whatever your state in life, there is someone or something there to goad you toward humility. A co-worker? A classmate? A professor or teacher? A student? That middle-aged guy in the red Miata that cuts you off every morning on the commute to work? If you look, you will find abundant reasons to give God thanks and praise. If you cannot see these reasons, ask God to heal your blindness.

Mrs. Turpin is a haughty, middle-class white Southern woman, living in the late 1950's. She's an unrepentant racist, a snob, a gossip, and, according to a college girl at her doctor's office, “a warthog from hell.” That college girl hits Ruby in the face with a textbook. She deserves it. But that textbook and her new status as a warthog push her to contemplate her pride. While hosing down her hogs on the farm, Ruby has a revelation. A vision. She sees everyone – even those she thinks unworthy – rising to heaven on a bridge of light. And she knows – it is all a gift. It has nothing to do with race or property or cleanliness or good manners or being law-abiding or having or knowing. It's all about taking in what God gives and giving Him thanks and praise. Ms. Ruby, her story ends in shocked gratitude.

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They need to believe in Someone

27^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

If you pay no attention to social media you may not have heard – there's an unprecedented boom going on in the Church. Specifically, a surprising increase in the number of 18 – 24yo's being baptized and confirmed worldwide. For example, btw 2023 – 2025, the number of young people entering the Church in France has doubled. And then doubled again. Campus ministries in the US are also noticing a huge increase in Mass attendance. So are regular parishes. This boom isn't restricted to the Catholic Church. Protestant and EO ministries are also reporting similar revivals. What's going on? Secular media are pointing to CK's assassination and attributing the booms to reactionary forces taking advantage of populist sentiments to rile up the rabble. There may be some of that going on. But the vast majority of these young people seem to be drawn to the Church by everything but politics. Their motivations vary but the common thread seems to be: they are tired of the incessant drone of nihilism and the performative morality of their peers. IOW, they are tired of the emptiness preached by the spirits of the world and fake utopias of godless ideology. They want to believe in something. They need to believe in Someone. They are seeking faith.

(Forgive me for Going Professorial. But it's always a danger with Dominican preachers). We've been calling the last eight decades of turmoil in the West a “culture war.” And it is that – at some level. All sorts of ism's get thrown around: capitalism, modernism, nihilism, progressivism, fascism, etc. It's a near-blinding flurry of warring ideologies and philosophies, each trying to define the Real and insisting that only its solutions can truly bring about utopia. What all these ism's have in common is their disdain for faith in a transcendent referent, something to point to beyond the material world that gives meaning. If your only way of making meaning in the world is the world itself and the world itself is constantly changing, then who and what you are is always changing. These young people are living with the war-torn leftovers of their cultures' failed revolutions, most especially the horrific failures of the sexual revolution. I don't need to list all the failures but here's a few: abortion-on-demand, the collapse of marriage, the destruction of the family, and transgender ideology. From this moral and social chaos, these young people are looking for – needing! – a way to give their lives meaning.

Thus, the culture wars. But these wars aren't just being fought in the world. They are being fought in the Spirit. I don't mean some sort of cosmic battle btw the equally matched forces of Good and Evil. That's heresy. Christ has won. He won from the Cross and the cosmic war is always, already won. The spiritual wars I mean are being fought within the hearts and minds of each man and woman. They fight to choose Christ. These men and women were born and raised in de facto Christian cultures. And they have in them the seed of God's Word (however deeply buried!). Paul writes, “...God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control.” It is this spirit who is stirring and finding its voice in the tumultuous lives of these young people. I see it everyday in my UD students, the seminarians I direct and teach; and in our own novices. What I hear them saying is that they are exhausted by defeat in a worldly war that can have no winners. They are tired of the stupidity of politics and the pablum of therapeutic religion. Where is the Spirit of power, love, and self-control? Where are the witnesses who will testify to the saving power of God?

The Sexual Revolution has failed. Paraphrasing Cardinal George from 2007, the progressive revolution in the Church has failed. One Utopian revolution after another has failed. Now it's time for a Spiritual Revolution and – as usual – our young people will lead the way. What can we older brothers and sisters do to help them choose Christ? Again, Paul writes, “...do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord...but bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.” Show them your scars. Tell them about your battles and how Christ rescued you. Let them see you fight yourself and win with God's grace. Don't be ashamed of your battleground. With Christ, it's where you won. This is not a fight where you must maintain your polite, middle-class American facade to save face. Your fight may be private but the war is public. Share your hardship. But most importantly, share your victory in Christ Jesus. They are looking for witnesses. You've been there. Tell them what you know. Tell them what to expect. And then show them nothing but mercy and the love Christ died for sinners. For you and for me. 

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Spiritual Direction: Diagnostic Mode

You work from home. Your laptop is a necessity. It's your only source of income. One day, right in the middle of a major project, your laptop crashes. You panic. Once you've calmed down, you call your company's IT department for help.

The tech arrives and spends about two hours fixing your laptop. As he's leaving, he says, “You can prevent this from happening again if you run the included diagnostic software. It will warn you about problems and suggest fixes.”

Relieved that your laptop is working again, you get back on-task with that project. An hour in, you recall your earlier panic and decide to run the diagnostic software. Just to be safe. It only takes about ten minutes. You get a big green thumbs-up on the screen. Great! Back to work.

Another hour in and you start feel like your machine is teetering on the edge of breaking down. There's no objective reason for feeling this way. It's working just fine. But there's something comforting about knowing for sure that all is well. You run diagnostic mode again. Again, big green thumb. Whew.

Each time you use diagnostic mode, you lose about ten minutes of productivity. Add to that number the cost of disrupting your focus.

This pattern of running diagnostic mode several times a day continues through the month. Everything is fine. But you can't shake the feeling that something is wrong. Then it hits you: what if the diagnostic mode is malfunctioning? What if the software designed to tell you what's broken is itself broken?

You call the IT department. The tech checks out your machine and assures you that all is well. Though you are relieved, doubts linger. What if the tech is wrong? Maybe he missed something. Maybe his diagnostic software is faulty. . .

And the cycle of relief, anxiety, doubt continues rolling along until you're fired b/c you're spending half your working day diagnosing your laptop.

If you allow it, this is what the Devil does to your spiritual life. Rather than spending your time growing in holiness through prayer, fasting, etc. you obsess over what's wrong, what could be wrong, what will be wrong in the future. You spend your time looking for fixes to problems that don't exist and will probably never exist. The really insidious part of this cycle is that you come to believe that Diagnostic Mode is what your spiritual life is supposed to look like.

There's nothing inherently wrong with the occasional diagnostic scan of your spiritual life. But being in a constant state of diagnosis is damaging.

Pray, fast, give alms, read spiritually beneficial literature; build good friendships; celebrate the sacraments, and stop wasting your time and energy on endless diagnostic scans.  

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Are your feet beautiful?

Simple Profession 2025

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

Church of the Incarnation, TX

Novices brothers, please stand and face the congregation. Folks, I want you to look at these young men very closely. Take a second to really SEE them. Now, here's my question: do these novices have beautiful feet? It's difficult to tell with their shoes on, right? In yesterday's reading for the feast of St. Dominic, we heard read the words of Isaiah: “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news.” We can't see the novices' feet at the moment. They may be beautiful already. Or they may need some work. We don't know. What we do know is these men are here this morning to announce to this congregation, to the Order of Preachers, and to all the People of God that they are ready to take next step in a life-long transfiguration, growing from novice preachers into men walking on the most beautiful feet! One year down, brothers. Seventy years or eighty with good health to go. What must they do to become the great preachers God has called them to be? What must they give to Christ to be bearers of his Word?

The RYM asks Jesus a similar question. “Teacher, what must I do to gain eternal life?” We can imagine the RYM preparing himself for all sorts of answers. Climb that mountain and sit in silence for a year. Wash in the river everyday while singing the Psalms. Cross the desert w/o food or water. Instead, Jesus says, “If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” We can almost see the RYM's relief. Whew! I'm doing that already. But just to be sure, he asks, “Which ones?” Jesus quotes the first few commandments. The RYM, maybe growing anxious again, says, “I'm doing all that. What do I still lack?” What do I still lack? This tells us that the RYM isn't happy. He's not fulfilled. Following the commandments isn't enough to attain eternal life. What's fueling his lack, his sense of not having what he knows he needs? Jesus answers, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” You can see the RYM's face drop. Not the answer he is looking for. Why? Because he has many possessions. We goes away sad. He goes away with that lack still gnawing at his heart. IOW, he is unwilling to do what it takes to follow Christ, to become a witness to Christ's Word in the world.

These novice brothers asked Christ to teach them the way to eternal life. He taught them to detach from the world and follow him. They've answered his call to work out their salvation in fear and trembling as Dominican friars. They've chosen to cooperate with God's grace in the perfection of their nature by taking simple vows and striving to live those vows as faithfully as they are able. Their gifts will be turned toward bringing divine love and mercy into the lives of everyone they meet and in turn that love will be perfected in them. What “rough edges” they have will be smoothed out over time. Community life will see to that! Whatever deficiencies each may have will be made up for by the gifts of their brothers. And together with their brothers and sisters in the Order, they will contribute to a more perfect witness to the Father's mercy wherever they go. They know that Dominican life is both the hardest and the easiest life they can live. Hard b/c we expect great things from them. And easy b/c they will receive in abundance the mercy they need to flourish. I've lived with these five for the past year. I can bear witness that they are good men motivated by a love of God, a longing for holiness, and a readiness to learn what they must learn. Their vows bind them to us and at the same time free them to be what God has made and remade them to be. Where do they go from here?

Literally, they go to St Louis to begin six years of study. Spiritually, they begin what will be a life-long formation in charity under the vow of obedience. To modern American ears, “vow of obedience” sounds ominous, almost draconian. Images of identical little robots marching in step come to mind. Not even remotely close. If you know Dominicans, you know we may look alike from a distance but up close we're a grab bag of everything from Martin de Porres to Garrigou-Lagrange, from Rose of Lima to Catherine de Ricci. Our variety is marshaled and freed in obedience – the vow to listen to one another; to submit our preferences to the good of the community; and to wholeheartedly follow those elected to lead us. These brothers know that life of a Dominican friar is never lived in its Platonic Form. We are men not angels. They know we fall. They know we sin. They know we sometimes want to quit. And this is why we take vows. We say Yes to the mission of the Order once for all our lives. We should never need to say Yes again. We've said it. And once is enough. But when we do start to feel the urge to backslide, we have the brothers to strengthen us. And they will, if we let them.

Brothers, I've been your Prior and Professor this year. I can't resist one more priorial lesson: surrender. You've heard my wild stories of my novitiate and studium years. I was the RYM who refused to surrender his possessions to follow Christ. My possessions weren't the stuff of wealth and privilege. What I refused to surrender – at first – was my Pride. It kept me in trouble. So, I admonish you: do not be like me! It's not worth the anguish. Instead, go to STL with an open heart and critical mind ready to learn what you need to learn to be great preachers. You're going to be challenged. You're going to balk on occasion. And you will likely find yourself wondering, “What have I done?” Persevere. The studium is not the province; the province is not the Order; and the Order is not the Church. Stay the course. Be obedient. Contribute your gifts. And you will flourish. Detach from whatever it is that keeps you bound to this temporary world of things and strive for all the treasure in heaven. Brothers, we are proud of who you've become this year, and we give God thanks for your vocation and your Yes. God has amazing things in store you and through you for us. May your feet become as beautiful as they were made to be.

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You have no power here

16^th Week OT (W)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Parables usually have a villain – a character or character-type who exemplifies an obstacle for or foil to the hero. Our villains this morning are the birds, rocky ground, and thorns. Individually and all together these villains thwart the good fruit the sown seeds are sown to produce. They prevent the seeds from taking root, or from germinating, or from blossoming. If we understand the seeds to be the Word of God sown into the world, then we can take to the villains to be the enemies of the Word. If we were to give contemporary names to these villains, what would they be? Perhaps the birds would be the people in our lives who come along and devour our hope with their cynicism. Or maybe those who peck away at our faith with their anxiety. The rocky ground could be how we were raised, or our current living conditions. Faith can take root in the most hostile soil, but it's a fight to see it flourish. The thorns would be temptations – pricking skin, drawing blood, causing infection. We all know these thorns too well. They grow even in the best soil. If these are our contemporary villains, how do we combat them? We don't. We surrender to Christ's victory on the Cross and allow the ground where we are planted to be made fruitful.

The idea of not fighting a villain is almost outrageous. Goes against everything we've ever heard about “fighting temptation.” But the truth of the matter is that you and I have already won the fight. Or rather, we haven't won, Christ has won, and we are hidden in him. We win with him. Whatever power the villains have, they have b/c we give it to them by fighting them. They are already defeated. Why fight the loser? Doing so clearly proclaims that the loser isn't really the loser and that Christ has failed to win his victory on the Cross. When one of these villains threatens to damage your good harvest, to choke the seed of the Word given you by God, remember – at that moment – to surrender to Christ's big win and say – aloud if you have to – “You have nothing I want. You have no power over me.” And then give thanks and praise to God for making your soil rich and fertile. You have ears to hear. You understand already. There is nothing and no one to fight. Nothing and no one to lose to. Stay hidden in Christ and produce much good fruit.     

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You are The Much More

6^th Week of Easter (W)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

How much more is there to say? What else is there to reveal? Jesus admits, “I have much more to tell you. . .” And then he adds this ominous line: “. . .but you cannot bear it now.” He's already revealed his fate and the fate of those who faithfully follow him – persecution, arrest, torture, and death! He thinks we can bear that but not the “much more” he has to tell us? Maybe we don't want to know much more. Maybe we know enough. Just enough to get by and get to heaven. The “much more” left unspoken could tempt us to think that there's a trove of secret knowledge out there just waiting to be discovered. Some cryptic manuscripts of forbidden lore that will explode everything we think we know about the faith. The early Church battled several Gnostic sects that claimed to possess occult knowledge about how we are saved. Dan Brown and his anti-Catholic fantasies are just the most recent manifestations of this ever-present shadow fiction. Since the serpent whispered to Eve, we've been tempted with feeling special b/c we know something others don't. Well, here's the secret: you and I are the “much more” that Jesus has to reveal. You and I are “much more” b/c the HS is with us.

You and I are the Body of Christ. His Body is animated by the HS. Just like the human person is body + soul, so the Church is a body and a soul. One Body, one Spirit. The “much more” to be revealed isn't a new truth or a treasure of secret knowledge. It's me and you and the whole Church living minute-by-minute in the world, for the world, revealing to the world all that Christ has left us to reveal. The disciples couldn't bear the “much more” b/c they couldn't live past their own witness to Christ in the first century AD. Imagine the HS showing Peter, Paul, and James the horror of the Holocaust and the Church's faithful response. They couldn't bear it. Each century needs its own witnesses. Each era needs its own saints. The HS raises voices to speak the Word where the Word is needed most. Right here, right now, you and I are needed right here, right now. We are the “much more” that Jesus has to say. Living confidently, zealously right where we are, we bear the HS, standing for the truth of the Gospel. To the world, we are a plague. For the world, we are a revelation.     

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Productively pruned

5^th Week of Easter (W)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

It's the summer of 1991. I sit on a five-gallon pickle bucket all day everyday pruning tomato vines. The hothouses line up like barracks, baking in the Mississippi heat. Each of the twelve houses, covered in thick plastic, flutter as a huge fan pulls the air through, cooling the plants. I start at the first house nearest the road and work slowly each week from the first house to the twelfth house, pruning the suckers that grow in the between the branches and the vine. They look exactly like every other branch of the plant. But cutting them away is a necessary step in the growth of the plant. Suckers drain moisture and nutrients from the vines. Cutting the branch that bears no fruit makes the whole plant healthier. At the end of the day, I sweep up the drying suckers and burn them at the edge of the field. Had I been Catholic at the time, I might've thought about baptism or confession, clearing up and cleaning out the trash that stunts good fruit from ripening. Had I been Catholic, I might've remembered the parable of the branch and the vine.

Jesus reveals to his disciples that he is the true vine and that his Father is the vine grower. His Father cuts away branches that do not bear fruit and prunes the ones that do. Then Jesus says to the disciples: “You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.” Because I have revealed the Father to you; because I have taught you the way of salvation in mercy; because I have given you to one another as a Body; because I am the Word speaking the Word to you; because you have died with me and will suffer for me; because you will rise again with me and see the Father face-to-face; and because I am the way, the truth, and the life – because I have taught you, given you, shown you, led you, and because I love you, you are pruned, productively wounded and more than ready to bear the fruit of the Spirit that marks you as mine. The difference btw tomato suckers and the followers of Christ is that the suckers have no choice in their cutting. Or their burning. You and I do. You and I can confess what needs to be pruned. Is it the lie that I need to earn God's love and mercy? It is the lie that I can bargain for His grace? Or that I am right to pass judgment on sinners? Maybe it's the Original Lie that I can be a god w/o God? Or maybe it's the Great Deception of the Modern Age – I can love w/o truth? Christ is the true vine – the Way, the Truth, and the Life. And there is no love that can save w/o him. Whatever suckers there are stealing your spiritual nutrients, ask the Lord to cut them off. Ask him to be productively wounded. The sweeping up at the end of the day is fast approaching.  

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We gonna need a bigger boat!

3^rd Sunday of Easter

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Judas sells Christ to his enemies for thirty pieces of silver. Peter, the Rock, denies belonging to Christ three times that same night. In the ensuing chaos after Christ dies on the Cross, Judas commits suicide. Tellingly, he hangs himself on a tree. The disciples flee to the Upper Room in despair. Everything they'd hoped for, planned for, dreamt about is in ruins and nothing makes sense. Then, Jesus starts appearing to them in the flesh, his resurrected flesh. He proves who he is with his wounds. He eats with them. He teaches them. Even Doubting Thomas is convinced! Now, they are together in Galilee where Jesus promised to meet them. Peter decides to go fishing, but the fish are too busy to be caught. Jesus appears to the disciples with some helpful advice. And they land a net full of fish. Finally! All the chaos, despair, grief, and fear begin to fade and a mission starts to take shape. With one question, Jesus sets this band of sorry students on their apostolic path, “Peter,” he asks, “do you love me more than these?” Peter, you denied me in the Garden as I said you would. But now, do you love me? This is also Christ's daily, hourly question to you and to me.

Why does Jesus need to hear the answer to this question? Surely, he knows Peter's heart. Surely, he knows that Peter denied him in the Garden out of panic and fear. Of course, Jesus knows this. But does Peter? Does Peter know why he denied Christ? It would appear that he doesn't. Just look at his luck with the fish. Twice we read that Peter goes fishing and catches nothing; that is, not until Christ appears and re-teaches him how to fish. Peter fails to provide...twice. Peter fails to see the Lord for who he is...twice. And twice Peter is confused by the Lord's instructions, nearly drowning himself in a panic. This time he is distressed b/c the Lord keeps asking him, “Peter, do you love me?” He answers, “Yes, Lord, I love you.” Three times he hears the question and three times he answers yes. And each time he answers, Jesus, orders him to feed his sheep. To feed the Lord's sheep, Peter must love the Lord. Fear, panic, despair, crippling doubt, anxiety, distress...none of these put fish in the boat. None of these put sustenance on the table. Peter the Rock, the foundation of the Church, must himself be grounded on the bedrock of loving Christ. Love me first, Jesus says, then feed my sheep.

When Jesus is finished teaching Peter that loving him is the bedrock of feeding his sheep, he turns to you and me and asks, “Do you love me?” We might wonder why Jesus needs us to love him. He sounds like a too-needy friend who pesters us for constant attention. Or maybe a spouse who doesn't trust the weekly “I love you” and needs more. Of course, Jesus isn't asking us this question for his benefit. He knows the answer already. The question is for our benefit. Hearing the question and answering it requires us to pause and survey our thoughts, words, and deeds. We have to take stock, a quick inventory of how we actually feel about the Lord. Do I love him? Or do I love the idea of him? Do I love my image of him? Maybe I love my version of him, my personalized concept of who and what he is to me. Maybe I love the Good Shepherd and the Teacher but not the angry guy flipping tables in the temple yard, the one talking about unrepentant sinners going to hell. Maybe I love the Just Judge who rigorously enforces the moral standards I approve of but not the one who forgives with the Father's mercy. You'll notice that Jesus doesn't ask Peter, “Do you love your version of me?” You'll notice that he doesn't ask you or me if we love what we like about him.

The Lord asks, “Do you love me?” Does all of you love all of me? Do you love the Good Shepherd, the Just Judge, the one who feeds the five thousand; who whipped the money changers; who shamed the ones who accused the adulterous woman; who threatens divine torture for those who refuse to forgive; who called the little child to him and taught us that we must love him and hate mother, father, son, and daughter? Do you love Him? Jesus the Social Worker and Jesus the Great High Priest? Jesus the 1^st century rabbi and Jesus the Incarnate Son of God? Peter fails as a fisherman b/c he loved his fear, his panic, and his doubt more than he loved his Savior. When Peter obeys the Lord, his net is full and so is his love. And out of this love, Peter will feed the Lord's sheep. When the Lord's sheep are fed in love, they mature in love and love in turn. The net gets bigger. The catch grows. More and more are fed. More and more come to love the Lord. And we welcome more and more fishermen. Jesus looks down from heaven, smiling, and says, “I think we're gonna need a bigger boat!”

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Satan's teeth never dull

Wednesday of Holy Week

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Dante the Pilgrim and Virgil the Guide stand in awe of Satan frozen in hell. He has three faces. One “fiery red” and the other two – “weirdly wonderful” – a sickly yellow and a pale bronze. “In every mouth [Satan] worked a broken sinner/between his rake-like teeth. Thus he kept three/in eternal pain at his eternal dinner.” Brutus, Cassius, and “[t]hat soul that suffers most” – Judas Iscariot – “he who kicks his legs/on the fiery chin and has his head inside.” Why is Judas eternally chewed in Satan's fiery mouth? Because he asked the Chief Priest, “What are you willing to give me if I hand [Jesus] over to you?” He accepted 30 silver pieces – the price of a murdered slave – to betray his friend and teacher. No doubt we would say that Judas had it coming. No doubt we would say that his betrayal deserves to be immortalized in verse by Italy's greatest poet. And no doubt we would say, if suspicion fell on us, “Surely, not me, Lord!” Before we wag our finger at Judas and his traitorous nature, we should think long and hard about what it takes to betray Christ. Or rather, what we'd take to betray him.

Judas' betrayal is a straight up snitch operation. Coin in exchange for information. Dirty, yes, but also a tidy quid pro quo. And don't forget that he regrets his crime, repents, returns the coin, and, finally, offs himself. The tidy treason turned messy in the end. Can we claim that we would never, have never betrayed Christ? If not, can we say that our betrayals have been so commercial, so obviously mercenary? I doubt it. Judas had three years with Christ. We've had our whole lives. Judas had vague promises of a future kingdom. We've had centuries of a kingdom growing and flourishing. Judas had his instincts, his heritage, and a shallow understanding of sacrificial love. We've had two millennia of Church teaching, philosophy and theology, biblical scholarship, mystical and ascetical experience, and the lives of the saints. Not to mention our own encounters with the Christ in the sacraments. None of this excuses Judas. But it does implicate us. It makes our betrayals – even if infrequent – all the more damning. Judas may have known better. But we know best. He is an anti-example for our lives in holiness. One we can point to and say, “Not me, Lord!” Listen carefully and you'll hear Jesus respond, “If you say so.” Go into this Holy Week with your heart and mind wide open to the ways you've betrayed Christ. Not in fear. Not in shame. But with an eagerness to repent and return the coin you've taken. God's mercy is eternal. And Satan's teeth never dull. 

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Trust needs no evidence

5^th Week of Lent (F)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Ghosts are real. UFO's are actually demons. Bigfoot walks the hills of Montana. All living things are embodied souls. God exists. We can label all of these as statements of belief. And we can assent to each with varying degrees of certainty. What these statements have in common is difficult to see. “Bigfoot exists” and “God exists” seem to be radically different sorts of beliefs! Nonetheless, we name both “beliefs.” Philosophers distinguish “to believe” and “to know.” Knowledge is necessarily true given the available evidence. Belief takes authoritative testimony as evidence. Now, we have a distinction btw evidence and authority. Do I believe Bigfoot is real b/c the available evidence requires I do so? Or do I believe b/c Youtube is packed with videos of people witnessing to an encounter with him? OR, is testimony just a form of evidence? All this is just the beginning of the problem of teasing out the question of what it is to believe that something is true or false. The Gospel tells us that many begin to believe in the Christ b/c they come to believe that what John the Baptist said about him is true. Before they believed in Christ, they believed in John.

If asked, could you explain your own belief in Christ? If so, how would you do it? You could take the route of popular apologetics and demonstrate the truth of your belief using history, archaeology, science, and good ole logic. The problem here is that you concede the standards of evidence to your opponent and open your belief to being treated as a scientific claim. IOW, your belief that Christ rose from the grave becomes equivalent to your knowledge about the atomic structure of hydrogen. Another popular route is to claim that religious belief is immune to rational explanation and simply assert the truth of your beliefs w/o the need for evidence. This approach turns your beliefs into opinions and leaves them easily refuted with opposing opinions. The better way is found in the Gospel. Over time, John's testimony about the Christ is proven true. Bit by bit, everything he says about Jesus is laid bare and found worthy of belief. Testimony is not scientific knowledge, but its weight can tilt the scale toward trust. And it soon becomes apparent that trust needs no evidence. In fact, trust based on evidence is no trust at all. Where does this leave us as believers?

As followers of Christ – as believers in his mission and ministry – we are not charged with demonstrating the scientific truth of our faith. We are charged with bearing witness, with giving testimony. We have moved from being unrepentant sinners to forgiven heirs. How did this move occur? What was it like? How are we different now that we've hidden ourselves in Christ? We point to God's mercy and lay claim to His promise of salvation. What does this look like day-to-day? If I remain the same miserable person I was before Christ, then what difference has Christ made for me? If my joy is dead, where is Christ? If I refuse to love, forgive, rejoice – why bother with Christ? If nonbelievers watch me go through my day and I come across as sour, defeated, morose, and angry – then what will they think belief will do for them? Think about it this way: you need to convince a jury you are not a dangerous criminal. Who do you want to be a witness on your behalf? Someone who lives his/her life with you as though you are innocent? Or someone who says you're innocent but refuses to live with you? The best evidence that Christ is Lord is a Christian who speaks and acts like Christ is Lord. Trust needs no evidence. But faith needs a witness. 

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