17 November 2017

Watching for Vultures

St Elizabeth of Hungary
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St Dominic, NOLA

On the day the Son of Man is revealed we will be doing what we always do – shopping, eating, texting, cleaning house. If we are watching rather than just seeing and listening rather than merely hearing, we can watch his coming and listen to his revelation. In fact, if while we are shopping and eating and texting and cleaning house, if while we are doing the things we always do we also attend to the Lord, pay attention to his Word and his presence, we won't miss his coming again. Those left behind are the ones who make their lives about the things they do and only about the things they do. We were not created to shop, eat, text, and clean house. We were created to love God and to serve Him. We were born again in water and Spirit to grow in holiness and arrive at our perfection in Christ. The disciples ask Jesus where this revelation of the Son of Man will occur. He replies, “Where the body is, there also the vultures will gather.” IOW, where there is smoke, there is fire. If you attend to the Lord's presence and his Word, you will witness his coming again. Watch and listen.

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14 November 2017

We serve b/c we are servants

32nd Week OT (T)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic, NOLA

Our Lord is sounding a bit. . .irritated. . .with the disciples. They've asked him how many times must they forgive their brother. Jesus tells them. Seventy times seven. Taken aback by his response, the disciples say, “Lord, increase our faith!” Apparently, Jesus hears this plea as a request for a reward, a prize for doing nothing more than what the disciples are duty-bound to do. He answers their prayer – in no uncertain terms – with a biting analogy. The sharp point of his analogy is this: servants serve b/c they are servants. They do not serve b/c they expect a reward. Jesus asks, “Is [the Master] grateful to that servant because [the servant] did what was commanded?” Think long and hard about your own service to God – in worship, in works of charity, in prayer, in giving alms. Do you expect a reward for doing what you have been commanded by God to do? All that God commands us to do is commanded for our benefit. Nothing we do – not worship, not ministry, not alms-giving – nothing we do or say benefits God. Our obedience to His commands is our reward, our benefit. Waiting for God to thank us for our service is folly. Doing what He commands is wisdom. “Those who trust in him shall understand truth, and the faithful shall abide with him in love. . .”
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12 November 2017

There are no fools in heaven

32nd Sunday OT
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
OLR, NOLA

Are you wise? Or, are you foolish? What's the difference? According to Jesus, the wise live their lives prepared to enter the Kingdom at a moment's notice. The foolish live moment to moment gambling that the next moment isn't the moment they will be called to judgment. We could interpret Jesus' parable of the wise and foolish virgins as a scare tactic, one designed to frighten us into a constant state of paranoid readiness. You've probably seen the billboards: “If Jesus returns right now, where will you spend eternity?” There's certainly an element of “you had better get ready and stay ready” in the parable, a kind of “Jesus is going to jump out of the clouds and catch you by surprise.” However, if we can go to the foundation of the parable, we find a slightly less paranoia-inducing truth: every decision we make, every word we utter, every thought we think, everything we do prepares us or does not prepare us to enter the Kingdom of God. The wise know this and live accordingly. The foolish choose evil and call it good. And as our Lord makes clear, there are no fools in heaven.

Say you wanted to try being a fool. How would you go about becoming foolish? It's really very simple. St. Thomas Aquinas tells us a foolish man acquires his folly by “. . .plunging his sense into earthly things, [by which] his sense is rendered incapable of perceiving Divine things” (ST II-II.46.2). Preoccupied with the things and thoughts and actions of the world, an otherwise wise man can become foolish by making worldly things, thoughts, and actions his principal occupation. IOW, when he forgets that his primary goal in this life is to serve God and prepare for the Kingdom, he chooses evil and calls it good. The vice of mistaking evil for good twists the conscience over time and drops the fool into deeper folly. In sophisticated theological circles we refer to this process with the phrase: “Stultus facit peccatum.” “Sin makes you stupid.” Sin must make us stupid b/c sin results from a deformed intellect informing the will that an evil act is in fact a good act. The foolish virgins, knowing that the Bridegroom could return at any moment, chose not to prepare properly for his arrival. This is no accident. They didn't “forget.” The didn't “fail to anticipate.” They chose not to be ready. When they plead with the groom, “Lord, Lord, open the door for us!” He replies, “Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.”

There are no fools in heaven b/c the Lord knows no fools. Avoiding folly in order to grow in wisdom is fairly straightforward. With every word, every deed, every thought ask yourself: does this word, this deed, this thought prepare me to live in the Kingdom of God? Ask yourself: does this word, this deed, this thought bind me more tightly to the world or to Christ the Bridegroom? Keep foremost in your heart and mind your deepest desire to find your perfection in the One Who created you and saved you. Keep front and center your longing for peace, your hope for resurrection, and your need to see the Father face-to-face. Do not grieve like those who have no hope, believing their beloved dead are dead forever. We will all die. But we cannot be dead in Christ. Only a fool chooses to live his or her life as if these few years on earth are all there is to living. Only a fool chooses to attaches himself to the passing things of this world and call himself content. We are made for eternal life. And while we live in the world, we live in wisdom, knowing that Christ the Bridegroom loves his Bride and will never abandon her. Choose wisely. Live wisely. There are no fools in heaven.



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