Standing with Truth

St. John Vianney
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Please bear with me. I want to take a shot at explaining why those who proclaim God's truth often end up decorating silver platters with their heads; or, to be a little more up-to-date, find themselves the target of protests, hate mail, death threats, and demonization by the media. Back in John the Baptist's day the evolution from prophet to corpse is a bit easier to explain. It shouldn't surprise you that you land in jail after you tell the king—you know, the guy who commands an army—that it's illegal for him to marry his brother's wife. Add to the mix a party, a beautiful dancing girl, a spiteful mother, and a foolish vow, and you get a how-to manual on getting a prophet's head on a platter. Explaining how truth-tellers in our own day find themselves drowning in manufactured outrage and media scrutiny is more difficult. The circumstances are certainly different now—we have 24 hr news, blogs, twitter, Youtube. We also live a democratic culture where political speech is free of gov't interference. What's not so different is that those who seek to punish truth-tellers (then and now) do so for the same reason: those with darkened hearts lust after power and the light of truth can enlighten even the darkest heart. Hearts given to Christ know that worldly power is trap. 

By the early 20th c. it was clear to Antonio Gramsci that his beloved Marxism was an economic and political failure. No industrialized nation had undergone the workers' revolution that Marx had predicted. What went wrong? He concluded that orthodox Marxism fails to address the basic human need for cultural and spiritual expression. He admired the Church for her success in achieving cultural dominance in Europe through art, music, and literature. But this dominance was unacceptable b/c it kept the capitalist middle-class in power. The workers needed their own culture, a secular culture. To achieve this, Gramsci argued that force and coercion had failed to bring about the workers' paradise, so the machines of culture—the press, educational institutions—needed to be revolutionized to serve the working-class. The principle target for this revolution was language. Traditionally, language is used to describe reality. Words match things in the real world. Gramsci argued that this theory made it impossible for the working class to overthrow the capitalists b/c the capitalists attached their moral and political values to reality. Institutions such as marriage, family, the Church all worked against the working-class. How to undermine their influence? Detach language from reality and make language the creator of reality. 

I know this sounds crazy, but this is exactly what has happened in our pop-culture—the media, the academy, even some churches. Two generations of Americans have been trained in the art of constructing their own realities by manipulating language. For these folks, words no long describe a reality independent of the mind. If I want the word “marriage” to refer to a relationship btw two people of the same-sex and you say that this is an impossibility, I can accuse you of oppressing me with your hatred. Reality is nothing more than what I choose it to be, so how dare you deprive me of my right to choose my reality! Off with your head! When we stand up to proclaim the truth of the Gospel and all that it entails for our culture, we make ourselves a target for those who have darkened their hearts. For them, this is a battle about power, about who gets to control the construction of reality. For us, this is a mission to tell the truth about God's creation and how His creatures can be freed from darkness and brought to His light. There is nothing new about this mission, nothing at all novel about this battle. The ancient Enemy thrives in lies and chaos. Our task, our prophetic duty is to stand with Christ and shine with the Spirit's fire, proclaiming over and over again: the truth will set you free! 

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Shame the Devil

17th Week OT (F)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Jesus' neighbors openly question his credentials as a prophet b/c he's a local boy. If we focus on this part of the story, we risk overlooking a truly puzzling step in their reaction. We have to smash together two sentences to see this puzzle clearly. Here they are: “Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds?. . .And they took offense at him.” Do you see the puzzle? Jesus' neighbors confess that he is teaching wisdom and doing mighty deeds. And this offends them! Rather than be grateful for his imparted wisdom and his healing miracles, they choose to be offended that a local boy would come home and. . .do what? Show them up as rubes? Flash his divine power around? Demonstrate how much he's learned? What are they upset about? On what grounds are they offended? It would seem that they are unconvinced that Jesus is who he says he is. It would seem that they are put off by what they see as his boasting. But there's more here than that. What if they are offended b/c they know he's the Real Deal and having the Son of God as a long-lost neighbor and a current visitor is deeply, deeply unsettling? 

Sometimes it's easier to find a natural explanation for a miracle. Sometimes it's just simpler to write off a bit of uttered wisdom b/c the one uttering it is probably crazy. Sometimes it is more comforting to look for hidden motives or psychological explanations to dismiss a friend's conversion or a relative's experience of the divine. Familiarity, they say, breeds contempt. Knowing someone well often tempts us into quickly discounting a real change in that person. Oh, he's just having a streak of bad luck, so prayer is the only thing he's got left. She's a Jesus freak now b/c her husband left her, and Jesus is the only one who'll have her. He just wants to be a priest b/c he doesn't want to work for a living. Could it be, just possibly, that a streak of bad luck has served to show this guy how necessary it is to stay in touch with God? Could it be that this poor woman is giving her grief to Christ as a sacrifice? Could it be that that young man is truly called to serve the Church as a priest? Of course, it is! But if we allow familiarity to breed and nurture contempt, we risk rejecting two very real possibilities: 1). that God can and will move us to repentance and contrition; and 2). we can find ourselves so moved, and radically changed. Do we really want to gamble against God and His will that we be converted? 

What happens when contempt prevents us from trusting in God and His promises? Matthew tell us, “[Jesus] did not work many mighty deeds [in Nazareth] because of their lack of faith.” No faith, no mighty deeds. So, not only does contempt for God and His works demean those upon whom He chooses to work His mighty deeds, it also prevents the rest of us from receiving the inevitable graces of those deeds. Will contempt and scorn feed us, heal us, or free us? Doubtful. In fact, we can just about count on hearing this day's prophet proclaim, “I will. . .make this the city to which all the nations of the earth shall refer when cursing another.” When we strain ourselves looking for the answer that allows us to dismiss God's work, or confirms us in our current rebellion, we are straining against the tide of God's will for us; we're rowing against the flow of His desire to see us reconciled in Christ. If you witness a mighty deed of the Lord, or hear His gracious wisdom uttered, stop and give Him thanks. Look for no other explanation than the only one that matters to your eternal goals. And even if you were right to show contempt for a fraud, you will have shamed the Devil with an act of love. 

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Fav Southernism???

Headed home for a two week vacation in Mississippi on Monday.

Yes. . .reading with the squirrels!

Going home always provokes in me memories of my fav "Southernism's."

Once, in the studium at table with a few of the student brothers and our student master, I commented on the epidemic of friar's coming to Office with astonishingly foul breath.  

Our student master, Fr. Michael Mascari, said, "Philip! Basta!"  

I finished with: "OK. But their breath could scare a buzzard off a carcass. . ."  

The milk Father was drinking shot out of his nose.

What's your fav Southernism?

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Weed or flower, sheep or goat?

[NB. An edited repost from 2009.]

17th Week OT (Th)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St Dominic Church, NOLA

Generally speaking, Dominicans prefer to teach folks into heaven rather than scaring them away from Hell. We would rather persuade than cajole, influence rather than frighten. It is better to touch a rational soul with the Light of Christ than it is to scare the snot out of a sinner with visions of Hell. But sometimes the rational soul of a sinner might need to be shown a scene or two of eternal life without God. Doesn't a soul twisted in folly, unable to choose the Good and come to God deserve the mercy of wisdom's most immediate remedy? Jesus, the Master Philosopher, knows that even a mind deeply dedicated to right reason but steeped in sin may need a hot-shock, a whack upside the head in order to see through foolish to wisdom. The “fiery furnace” he refers to so often in Matthew's gospel is just that jolt of reality we sometimes need. It's not pretty, but it sure is helpful. 

As helpful as images of Hell may be, we tend to shy away from preaching about eternal damnation these days. Too 1950's fundamentalist. Very “pre-Vatican Two.” But if we are going to preach the gospel, there is simply no way to avoid the subject given the lectionary readings! These last two weeks alone Jesus has separated the goats from the sheep; pulled the weeds from among the flowers; culled the good fish from the bad; and his angels have set the midden-heap of pruned branches ablaze. So, let's not mince words; let's study the truth as Jesus presents it to us: make a choice—goat or sheep, flower or weed, good fish or bad, fertile soil or barren dirt. All you need to do is make the right choice. The consequences of making the wrong choice are—shall we say—extremely unpleasant! Our choices and their consequences really are just this stark. Few of us, however, experience the choices in such stark terms. 

So why is Jesus presenting the choices in such glaring black and white terms? Why the threat of eternal punishment in the fiery furnace for making the wrong choice? Jesus is a Master Philosopher and a Master Psychologist. Think about how Jesus preaches and teaches. He uses parables, scriptural allusions, conversation, examples, even miracles. Sometimes he interrogates and cajoles. Rarely does he argue like a Greek philosopher or a Pharisee. The people in the crowds respond to him b/c he sparks to life their intuitions about what is true and good and beautiful about being well-loved creatures. He knows that his very presence jump-starts that nagging desire for God that we are born with and strive to satisfy in this life. And he knows that without God's help we will consistently fail to reach high enough when reaching for our happiness. Settling for imitation happiness, faux-joy but it takes the real-deal to enter the kingdom. And if Jesus has to scare the snot out of us to get us to pay attention to our eternal choices, then get the hankie ready—here comes the scare! 

If you were frightened into the faith, you might not be particularly proud of the fact. It would be more embarrassing, however, to remain faithful out of fear, to remain a believer because the fiery furnace looms large in the imagination. The threat of the furnace is meant to scald a foolish soul into seeing the light of reason, to awake a sleepy desire for God. Clearly, Hell is a very real option for anyone who chooses to live without God for eternity. But Hell is not the be-all and end-all of the gospel. Once the furnace-option has been rejected and we have joined the flowers, the sheep, the good fish, and the fertile soil, Hell might linger as a whiff of smoke to remind us of our wise choice, but the daily life of a Christian is not dominated by the fear of an already and always defeated enemy. We chose to receive the extravagant graces poured out from the cross and the empty tomb. Though the heat of the furnace may have turned us from its punishing flames, setting us on the right course, we stay the course for Christ b/c nothing else, no one else can bring us home. For us, no one else is home.

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Chick-fil-A & the PC Police

 Hmmmmm. . .b/c the P.C. Police, their professional whiner-goons, and everybody else in the world knew that B.O. was lying about opposing same sex "marriage"?

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Prophets whining to God

St Alphonsus Liguori
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

WANTED: One prophet to serve as Mouthpiece for the Lord. Adventurous individual who is not afraid of causing trouble; willing to speak up against wickedness, injustice; eager to call out sinners in My Name; must be repentant, humble, obedient, not easily dissuaded by ridicule or mob violence; persuasive public speaker; able/willing to relocate at the Lord's command. Sackcloth/ashes provided. Salary: one pearl of great price. No self-starters, please. You won't find this want-ad in The Times-Picayune. And you probably can't imagine many jumping at the chance to be a Mouthpiece for the Lord. If Jeremiah is typical, it's easy enough to see why being a prophet is not exactly a growth industry. Even in an economy as bad as this one, a job that requires you to wander around the city yelling at sinners to repent seems less than attractive. But the salary sounds good: one pearl of great price. And then again, Jeremiah reports in his first HR review: “Woe to me, mother, that you gave me birth! I'm a man of strife and contention to all the land!” Is being a prophet worth the trouble?

Before we answer that question, we need to be reminded of a potentially inconvenient truth: whether we know it or not, whether we like it or not, we are all prophets. What? You don't remember sending the Lord your resume? You didn't apply for the job? When did that I become a prophet, you ask? We were all made prophets the moment we were baptized. Becoming a member of the Body of Christ entails being made a prophet. You can't be a Christian and not be a prophet as well. So, let's dispense with the idea that the job of prophet is found only in the Old Testament; that it's a job given to someone else. It's our job. And it's time to punch the clock! 

 Now that we're on the clock, what are we supposed to be doing? If Jeremiah is our guide, we're supposed to be sitting alone with our indignation; bent over by the curses of our neighbors; and in continuous pain from our many wounds. Is being a prophet worth the trouble? Sure doesn't sound like it. One minute we're living our sinful lives and the next we're telling God that His words are our joy and our happiness. Then He calls us to be His prophets and we obey. Our sinful lives are suddenly set against His Word and all that we've been seems small, mean, incredibly trivial. Set against His Word, our own words and deeds are made to seem futile, selfish; they are whispers lost in His whirlwind, gestures unnoticed in His glory. And we would be right to shrink away from the prophet's mission if we went out without His blessing. What does the Lord say to Jeremiah in his despair? “If you repent, so that I restore you, in my presence you shall stand. . .I am with you, to deliver and rescue you.” Well, that's good to know, but what have we done as prophets that requires God to rescue us? First, no prophet can do his/her job as an unrepentant sinner. If we despair as prophets, it's b/c we preach repentance but do not ourselves repent. Second, who enjoys hearing that they are sinners? It's not an announcement that many are going to welcome. But repentance brings us the Kingdom, that pearl of great price. 

By word and deed, by what we say and do, we prophesy for Christ; we announce his Good News to the world and attract those who most need his mercy. Prophets are magnets, drawing in all those who feel the emptiness of sin and long to be filled with the freedom God's mercy bestows. Whether we know it or not, whether we like it or not, by our words and deeds, we attract/repel those whom God sends to us. Prophets always prophesy to themselves first. 

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Coffee Cup Browsing

WHAT!?  Holder's DOJ lied to someone?!

The Olympics. . .yawn.

More outrageous outrage-hypocrisy on the whole Chick-fil-A nonsense.

Teachers' union helps to protect child molesters.  Imagine the headlines if this were about the Church!

So much for that "gutsy call" to assassinate Bin Laden.  

Episcopal bishop spends a lot of pixels trying to justify her job.  The Zeitgeist is an adulterous harlot and there is no future in wedding her.

Speaking of wedding the Zeitgeist to one's detriment. . .

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Even the smallest seed. . .

17th Week OT (M)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Poor Jeremiah! Because the people of Judah are a “wicked people who refuse to obey [God's] words,” poor Jeremiah is ordered by God to buy a loincloth, travel to Parath, bury the garment under a rock, and then travel back to Parath to fetch the loincloth, which, by this time, is rotted, and good for nothing! All this to make a point: God's people have become an adulterous mob, a people “who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts, and follow strange gods to serve and adore them. . .” Poor Jeremiah! He is given the task of going to God's people and telling them what they already know—that they are no longer an obedient nation; they are no longer thriving with the grace of their God. They are rotten and good for nothing. In their disobedience—their refusal to listen to the Word of God—they have grown stubborn and idolatrous. How will they be punished for their disobedience? God will simply allow their preferred condition to follow its natural course. Their pride, their integrity as a nation will be allowed to rot. The Lord will not rescue a people who refuse to be rescued. He will not cut away the rot from an uncooperative patient. However, even the smallest seed of faith can leaven a nation. 

What have the covenanted nations of Judah and Israel lost in their disobedience? God says to Jeremiah, “. . .as close as the loincloth clings to a man's loins, so had I made [them] cling to me; to be my people, my renown, my praise, my beauty.” And now they wallow in stubbornness and the worship of alien gods. How does the rot begin? It begins in disobedience—the failure, the refusal to listen to God's Word. At the root of this failure is yet another failure: to trust that God pours out His goodness and truth for the long-term benefit of the nation. We could call this “spiritual short-sightedness,” but it could just as easily be called “self-destructive pride.” It's the moment that we as individuals, as a nation, or a Church decide that God's promises, His Word to us, is no longer sufficient for our daily thriving, no longer necessary for our struggle to become perfectly human. It's the moment we decide to give our allegiance, our worship to a more pliable god, a less demanding god. When we choose to walk in the stubbornness of our hearts by giving thanks and praise to this permissive deity, the rot begins. But to rot we must first be dead. 

What kills us as a nation, as a people? If disobedience, stubbornness, and idolatry are the rot that comes after death, what kills us? The loincloth is the sign of Judah's covenant with God, the sign of His people's faith in Him. God tells Jeremiah not to wash it, then to bury it, to put it out of sight. Under the rock, the filthy linen rots. When we fail to keep the faith clean, when we fail to keep our trust in God pure, and then bury the evidence of our faithlessness, we die. And the rot begins. Our faith in God is not a spectacle to be observed, a theatrical display. Neither is our trust in God a shameful habit to be buried under polite indifference or hidden away as an embarrassing cultural leftover for ages past. Only a living seed can grow into a thriving plant; only living yeast can leaven flour into bread. Our faith, our love, and our hope must be living, breathing habits of the heart and mind put into action, taken into the world so that God's glory in our lives might draw in all those we seek His mercy. There are more pliable gods—science, politics, business—but none of these will say to us, “Come! Be my people, my renown, my praise, my beauty!” None of these can save us from ourselves. And all of them would watch us rot. 

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Thanks

A kind and generous soul sent me a volume of poetry from the Wish List!

There was no packing slip, so I can't thank you by name. . .

Thanks & God Bless, Fr. Philip
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Coffee Cup Browsing

Someone is threatening The WalMart.  Prolly an Occutard.

Tolerance?  I don't think you know what the word means?

How draconian are the gun laws in Chicago?

Couldn't care less about the Olympics if I tried.  The opening ceremony was a Leftist propaganda-fest?  Well, I guess I actually can care less about the Olympics.

Atheist poet finds Christ in the Church!

Nothing those Jesuits do surprises me anymore. . .well, OK, this did.

Stuff Catholic Guys Say. . .

Queen Michelle Antoinette Obama says, "Let them wear off the rack!"  Yes, $6,800 for a jacket.

An unexpected--though welcomed!--post from Crdl. Roger Mahony on Chick-fil-A hatred.

"Diversity is our greatest strength," so let's ban/demonize/boycott all those who disagree with us!
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