Becoming Sons of God

Nativity of the Lord (Day)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

A virgin gives birth to a son. That son, her son, is also the Son of God. He is 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. On the Cross, he becomes sin and death, and now sin and death are dead, no longer masters of the Father's human children. We belong to Him and Him alone. We can say that Christ became man and died to save us. To rescue us. To heal us. We can say He ransomed us from the Enemy. We can even say that He adopted us as sons and daughters, as heirs. All true. All good and beautiful. But one of the more ancient ways of talking about what Christ did for us at his birth comes from St. Athanasius ca. 318AD, “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God” (CCC 460). TA says this means that, “[t]he only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods” (CCC 460). Every year, on the Nativity of the Lord, we celebrate the birth of the God-Man, Jesus. We also celebrate the moment, the historical instant, that God graced us with the gift of the possibility of becoming Christs. Each one of us becoming Christ. Our salvation is our entry into the divine life of the Blessed Trinity.

Yes, on this festive occasion – with the decorated trees and presents and table-bending platters of food and Jingle Bells playing in the background and Santa Claus – we have to talk about God becoming Man so that Man might become god. You came to a Dominican priory for a Christmas Mass! So, you asked for this. All the traditional Christmas stuff is decoration for why we are here. Twinkly camouflage that decorates an ancient and venerable take on what it means to be saved in Christ. The birth of the Christ Child in Bethlehem is our birth into the divine life, into the possibility of being wholly united with God after our time here is done. As far back as St. Peter writing to the churches in Asia Minor before the end of the first century, we hear that our salvation is a matter of participating in the life of God: “...he has bestowed on us the precious and very great promises, so that through them you may come to share in the divine nature...” Our sharing in this life right now is what life in Christ is all about. Sharing in His life for eternity is what it is to be deified. To be made gods by God Himself.

Now, we could spend weeks unpacking what deification means for us, and the novices will be doing just that when I get back from visiting my dad in January. But the Cliff Notes version is this: God became Man so that Man might become God. That's what we are celebrating this morning. Our entry into the divine life through the birth of the Christ Child to the BVM in Bethlehem. As I noted earlier, there are simpler ways of thinking about your salvation – as a rescue, as a healing, as a ransom. All of these have their place in the story of the Church. But each one also leads us to think and speak about our daily lives in Christ in a particular way. If your salvation is a rescue, e.g., then you need to ask yourself: why am I constantly needing to be rescued? Why do I keep getting lost or putting myself in danger? If your salvation is a healing, then you need to ask: am I healed just once for all time? If so, why do I keep getting sick with sin and need to be healed again? What happens to your daily life in Christ when you think and speak about your salvation as “sharing in the divine life” of God Himself? What happens when you begin to take seriously the truth of the Son's Incarnation and understand that you yourself can become Christ?

Here's what could happen: you stop thinking and speaking about your life in Christ as if it were nothing more than a legalistic scheme of moral purity. You stop thinking and speaking about your life in Christ as if it were little more than conforming yourself to middle-class American values and expectations. You stop thinking and speaking about your life in Christ as it were limited to robotically repeating the words of a favorite devotion, or being satisfied with doing the absolute bare minimum under Church law. IOW, what happens when you begin to take seriously the truth of the Son's Incarnation and understand that you yourself can become Christ, you stop thinking and speaking about your life in Christ as if you are the source and summit of your salvation and solely responsible for getting yourself into heaven! As partakers in the divine life of God Himself, you and I are imperfect Christs being made perfect by grace. As such, our daily job is to receive with praise and thanksgiving the graces God pours out on us and put those graces to work for His greater glory. Sin is our willful failure to participate fully in the divine life. We have been given a great Christmas gift – Christ Jesus. And our year-round task is to become more and more like him just like he became like us – fully human in all ways except sin.

And so, on “The 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, Jesus Christ, 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. Yes, 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.

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Emmanuel!

4^th Sunday of Advent

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

During my time at the studium [Dominican seminary], it was customary to start the academic year with a prayer service. Friars, lay students, sisters, professors, everyone associated with the school got together to pray. One year, we addressed our communal prayers to Peace, Justice, Mercy, and Love. Not God the Father or Jesus Christ or the Lord. But to Peace, to Justice, etc. That struck me as incredibly odd. Why are we praying to concepts? Why are we asking abstract nouns to hear us and help us? Ours is an embodied faith. Flesh, bone, blood, fire, water, bread, wine. I didn't understand why Christians were addressing Platonic Forms, generalized Ideas. As was my habit, I asked why. And I was told to “let it go.” When I pressed harder, as was also my habit, I was told more firmly, “let it go.” Apparently, there were political forces at work here that a mere student brother best avoids! So that we do not make the mistake of worshiping concepts, Isaiah prophesies, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel.” The BVM is pregnant with a child. Not an Idea. She gives birth to a baby boy. Not a concept. God-is-with-us. Not above or beyond us. But with us. Among us. And we live and move and have our being in Him.

This vice of describing God with abstract nouns is an old one. It's been around since the beginning. The very first heresies in the Church taught that Christ was an illusion, not really there, not really flesh and blood at all. Some objected to the idea that God could take on human form. Others objected to the idea that He would take on a male human form. A few argued that Christ was only human, a creature like the rest of us, just really, really advanced spiritually. All of these are heresies b/c they take a piece of The Truth and make that piece into the whole Truth. So, yes, Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is Peace, Justice, Love, and Mercy. All abstract nouns. But he is also Jesus – a divine person with both a human nature and a divine nature. Blood, bone, and flesh. Son of God, Son of Man. St. Matthew couldn't make the point any clearer, so he just quotes the prophet, Isaiah, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel.”

Emmanuel. God is with us. Here with us. Right here among us. As a man. Like us in every way except sin. Concepts do not weep. Ideas do not eat flame-broiled fish. Abstract nouns do not die covered in blood on a cross. Emmanuel, God-is-with-us, was flesh and blood and bone so that we might have a saving friendship with a man, a real person. So that our eternal lives will not be left in the ever-shifting definitions of ideology or popular opinion or corrupted power. We eat real bread and drink real wine. We light real candles with real fire. We come together shoulder to shoulder and speak real words in prayer. Our worship is real, concrete, and makes use of the ordinary things of the ordinary world. And by the invocation of the Holy Spirit all of these, all of us are taken up and made into a holy sacrifice for the salvation of the world. This is the Father's love and mercy made manifest. Born from flesh in the flesh and risen in the flesh and set to return again in the flesh. We wait for him during Advent b/c flesh and bone needs time to come together. To gestate. To grow and take full form. So, we wait. We anticipate. And we prepare.

If Christ were merely a concept, an idea, then there would be no need for us to wait or prepare. Ideas are easy to conjure up. We could all stay at home, synchronize our clocks for 9.00am, and just think about Jesus for an hour or so. We could think about Peace and Joy and Happiness. No need to get dressed and fight traffic. But our Father wants real communion with us in real time. This is why we celebrate His son's birth into the world. To reset our faith in Him. To remember our hope from Him. And to reinforce our love for Him. Joseph welcomes the pregnant Mary into his home b/c he knows that she carries the living Word of the Father. We too carry the living Word into the world. We're not always welcomed by the world. But we have said and still say Yes to the Spirit. And there is nothing else for us to do but to show the world God's mercy and love. In thought, word, and deed. . .to be the body and blood of Christ in sacrifice for the whole world. If you want to see Christ in the flesh, look around you. This chapel is filled with imperfect Christs, growing in holiness, being perfected into the Christ who died and rose again to save us all. While we wait on the birth of the Christ Child and the coming of the Just Judge, we also wait on the perfection of our bodies and souls. Christ is gestating. So are we. Are you prepared to be born again as Christ for the salvation of the world?

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Love, forgive, serve, bear witness, and rejoice!

3^rd Sunday of Advent

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Isaiah is sounding like a football coach in the locker room at halftime during a tied game. “Strengthen the hands that are feeble, make firm the knees that are weak, say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not!” Well, we could all use the encouragement, right? As the world swirls the bowl – as it always does – those of us who follow Christ need the occasional pep-talk to keep us on our toes. Fidgeting with all the little things of getting along in the world takes a lot of time and energy. And our focus can become blurred. We need that random smack to snap us back to the Real and point us again in the right direction. Seasons of the year like Lent and Advent slow things down a bit and challenge us to pay attention to Who matters in the long run. Advent is particularly good at urging us to wait, to anticipate, to set aside the need for immediate results and savor our yet unfulfilled desire for the coming again of Christ. This Sunday of Advent is for rejoicing. For giving God thanks and praise. For allowing ourselves to be carried away with the joy of knowing that the Christ Child is coming and so is the Just Judge. To prepare today, we rejoice!

Experiencing any degree of joy these days is a chore, I know. I watch the evening news with the friars sometimes and wonder why any of us get out of bed in the morning. New viruses spreading. War in E. Europe. COVID riots in China. Coups in S. America. Record crime rates here at home. Inflation. Political corruption and fraud. Schism in the Church. Institutional decay across the board – banks, universities, schools, churches, media – all rotting. And all that was just last week! It seems as though we are arriving at a tipping point and it's all going to just to collapse. Where's the joy in that? How do we dare rejoice when the world is burning all around us? We should Do Something! We should. We should rejoice. Not that the world is burning, of course. We should rejoice b/c we are not of this world. This world is not our home, not our anchor. We are not defined by or limited to or in any way attachable to this passing world. All the horrible stuff happening now has happened before. And it will all happen again. And again. And again. Until the Lord returns. Will he find us exhausting ourselves trying to prevent the relentless cycles of human foolishness, or will he find us loving, forgiving, serving, and bearing witness to his mercy?

More importantly, will he find us rejoicing? Will he find us finding joy in the ruins? You see, joy is an effect of love. Love causes joy. Remember: we aren't talking about joy and love here the way the world does. For the world, joy and love are just sentiments, emotions. Sensations caused by brain chemicals. For us, joy and love are two additional names for one person, Christ Jesus. He is joy and love. And we too are joy and love when we live and breathe and have our being in him. This means that joy and love are not merely subjective feelings that we invoke at our convenience. Joy and love have objective content – a purpose, a substance; a knowable and unchangeable nature. That knowable and unchangeable nature imparts to us its purpose and goal. We do not simply love and then feel joy; we become love and joy, and we then say and do and think as love and joy commands. If, when he returns, Jesus finds you rejoicing, then he finds himself b/c you have become Christ. Will he find you rejoicing, or will he find you cramped and angry, twisted with anxiety and making your sick with worry over people and events you cannot control?

Love, forgive, serve, bear witness, and rejoice. Whatever viruses or wars or corrupt politicians or riots or schisms come: love, forgive, serve, bear witness, and rejoice. That's our To Do List until he comes again.   

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Prophets are annoying

2^nd Week of Advent (S)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

It would seem that “die violently” is just part of the prophet's job description. There are a few exceptions. Elijah is one of those. During his first go-round in the OT, Elijah is “taken aloft in a whirlwind of fire, in a chariot with fiery horses.” Setting aside the far-fetched notion that he was abducted by aliens, it seems that Elijah was assumed into heaven. He appears again on Mt. Tabor for the Transfiguration, and now he's the topic of conversation for Jesus and the disciples who went up that mountain with him. Jesus confirms the prophecy from Sirach that Elijah will “come to put an end to wrath before the day of the LORD...” In fact, he implies that Elijah has already come as the man John the Baptist. But no one recognized him and that he suffered the fate of most prophets – death. To make matters worse, Jesus prophesies that he too will suffer the fate of God's prophets. Why is it that God's prophets almost always end up dying violent deaths? From a merely natural standpoint, we can say, they are annoying. They pester, harangue, argue, and tell us things we don't want to hear. They are often disreputable, disheveled, and, if not actually diseased, dirty. They are not created by a Madison Ave PR firm to communicate a slick, compact message that's easily digested by the masses. God sends them to tell us the Truth and that more often than not means we have to change how we live. Ugh. So, death. Kill the messenger; kill the message. Of course, the truth doesn't die just b/c its bearer is killed. But what happens when we kill The Truth, the Way, and the Life? What happens when the prophet we kill is the Son of Man, the Son of God? His death is not just a death; it's a sacrifice. JB's death did not fulfill the covenant. His blood covered no one's sin. No other prophet – however powerful – could claim to be the Messiah, God Himself. All those other prophets preached the Truth. Christ is the Truth they preached. They showed us the Way. He is the Way. They urged us to choose Life. Christ is the Life we have chosen. Now, you and I are the prophets sent by God to bear witness – in our words and our deeds – to the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. What difference does that (crucifix) make in your life? How will his violent death change you today? Even better, how will his coming again as a Child and as the Just Judge make you a better prophet, one sent to die to bear His truth to the world?      

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Her fiat is ours

Solemnity of the I.C.

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Why are we reading about the Baby Jesus' conception on the S.I.C.? And why aren't we reading about the BVM's I.C.? And what does it have to do with the forgiveness of sin and the salvation of souls? And how does the I.C. help the poor and oppressed? How does it help me grow in holiness??? I'm glad you asked! While the Church has always believed that the BVM was immaculately conceived, it wasn't until 1854 when Pope Pius IX infallibly defined the dogma that we could clearly lay out the full implications of Gabriel's prophetic visit to young Mary. Besides clarifying several important theological issues, the pope's definition allows us to begin thinking of ourselves as “bearers of the Word.” It took nearly a century for this idea to fully mature in the Church, but we can see how every baptized man, woman, and child can model their spiritual life on the motherhood of the BVM. Mary is “full of grace.” God is already with her when Gabriel appears. When charged with bearing and birthing the Word into the world, Mary says, “Let it be done to me according to your word.” How can she so easily submit her will to the will of the Father? B/c the Father is with her; she is filled with His grace. This profusion of God's presence expands to fill past, present, and future, and at every point in creation's history, the BVM is the Mother of God, the Bearer of the Word. Her fiat to Gabriel is my fiat and yours at our baptism; our confirmation, every time we confess our sins; every time we receive the Lord in the Eucharist. We say “amen” but “amen” means fiat – let it be done. If the BVM is capable of surrendering herself entirely to the Father's will b/c she is filled with His grace, then you and I are capable of doing the same. We were not conceived without sin, true; but we were re-conceived immaculately in the waters of baptism. And through our baptism, we are tasked with being “bearers of the Word” to the world. To be living tabernacles of his presence wherever we are and in whatever we do. Like the BVM we are – with His grace – capable of remaining sinless, free from the slavery of death. The BVM is the model of the Church, the Body of Christ, and our personal model for daily holiness. Her I.C. shows us how we too can surrender to God in His grace; conceive His word in our persons; and bear that Word into the world for its salvation. So, when you hear Gabriel speak to Mary, hear him speaking to you as well: “Do not be afraid, for you have found favor with God...The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” and you will bring Christ the Word to the world. 

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Are you lost?

2^nd Week of Advent (T)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Back in 2014, I went to the March for Life in DC. I was the chaperone for 36 Catholic high school students. Anytime we got back on the bus after an event, I counted my chickens. 36. Imagine if we returned to NOLA with only 35 students, and when confronted with the fact that one student was missing, I responded, “Hey! I got 35 of them back. What's one lost student out of 36?! 35 and 1 is a great record.” Well, you can just imagine the uproar. I'm using this analogy to explain Jesus' parable b/c it's likely we're thinking what the Pharisees and scribes were thinking: the 99 sheep are more important than one lost sheep. For the scribes and Pharisees, uncleanliness is infectious; cleanliness is not. IOW, the one lost sheep is lost b/c he is unclean, and it's better that he remain outside the flock. Rabbis like Jesus shouldn't be associating with the unclean. They will get dirty. Jesus is teaching his opponents that their beliefs about cleanliness and uncleanliness are exactly backwards. Sin is not infectious; grace is. Merely sitting in the presence of a prostitute doesn't make one a prostitute. However, when a person living in grace sits with a prostitute, the shepherd is finding his one lost sheep. The Enemy tempts us to think that associating with sinners is a sign of faithlessness, a sign that we are considering participating in their sin. This is a brilliant move on the Enemy's part b/c it keeps us away from those who most need to be found. We might get dirty. Well, finding and rescuing lost sheep is dirty work. It's hard work too b/c the Enemy also tempts us to rescue sinners by telling them that their sin isn't really a sin. We may think we're being loving here, but all we are really doing is enabling their sin and throwing ourselves into uncleanliness. Thus the shepherd needs to grasp two unshakable truths to do the his job in faith: 1). the lost sheep is priceless and worthy of rescue; and 2). the lost sheep is lost b/c he has chosen to get lost. If I can't or won't admit that I am lost and in trouble, then I cannot be found and rescued. If the shepherd is telling me that I'm not lost nor am I in trouble, then why is he bothering me about rejoining the flock? When we are shepherds, we love the sinner and admonish the sin. When we are lost, we confess that we are lost and desperately in need of rescue. And we always remember – whether we are the shepherd or the sinner – grace is infectious; sin is not.  

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Are you glorifying God?

2^nd Week of Advent (M)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Does the paralyzed man want to be healed? We don't know. Does he believe that Jesus is the Messiah? We don't know that either. In most of the healing stories from the NT, the person healed wants to be healed, or believes in Jesus, or both. But the paralyzed man is silent. We do know that his friends want him to be healed and that they believe Jesus can heal him. But they too are silent. For Jesus, that's enough. Their determination, ingenuity, and hard work are enough. Before and during his healing, the paralyzed man remains silent. But he receives his healing as a gift, and that's enough. After his healing, the words flow. Luke tells us, “...[he] picked up what he had been lying on, and went home, glorifying God.” We are rational animals, body and soul. What hurts the body, hurts the soul and vice-versa. Jesus makes this clear when he says to the ever-vigilant Pharisees, “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?” IOW, to forgive sin is to heal the whole person, body and soul. And the healed man's response to his healing is gratitude, giving the glory to God so that others may come to know the power of God to forgive and heal. Jesus doesn't just return a man's physical mobility and spiritual purity, he creates an apostle, one sent out out to bear witness to God's power. Imagine: the soul you are is loaded down with failures, flaws, and sin, and the body you are is exhausted from carrying all that weight. You're tired, can't sleep, angry, depressed, anxious. You go to the Lord in confession for healing. You hand all that damaging weight to Christ through his priest, and the priest – acting in the person of Christ – says to you, “I absolve you...” You are healed. The burden is gone. You are no longer paralyzed. You can walk, run, dance, and you can give the glory to God. Here's the question: do you? Do you give God the glory? Do you tell others about your healing?In healing you, Christ makes an apostle, one sent out to proclaim the power of God so that others may come to know His mercy. You perfect your healing by bearing witness to the miracle of forgiveness. Are you astonished? Do your friends and family see you and say, “We have seen incredible things today.” No? Well, they can't see what you don't show them.

 

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Hark, the Heralds Angel sing: Repent!

2^nd Sunday of Advent

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Here we are on the second Sunday of Advent, talking about deserts, locusts, wild honey, camel's hair, and vagrant prophet named John. We're only 21 days from Christmas. Shouldn't we be talking about Santa Claus and reindeer and elves and presents under the tree? We're hearing hymns like the “Dies Iræ,” – “Days of Wrath” – and “Go Labor On.” When we should be listening to “Jingle Bells” and “Frosty the Snowman.” The Gospel is all broods of vipers and repentance from sin and divine anger and winnowing chafe and unquenchable fire! We could be forgiven for thinking that the Church is being a Grinch or a Scrooge for throwing cold water on our Christmas Spirit. AND. . .we'd be right for thinking so if we were in the Christmas season. But we're not. We're in the season of waiting for Christmas, waiting for the birth of Christ and his second coming at the end of the age. The locusts and vipers and deserts and days of wrath are here to prod us into being ready for the Just Judge and the trial we all face after death. So, John the Baptist, crying out in the wilderness, preaches: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

Just yesterday, a UD student asked me what “repentance” means. I said, “It means to turn around, to return to God.” The Greek word in the NT is metanoia, meaning “to change one's mind,” to alter one's plans or purpose. When we put ourselves on a path, believing we are taking the best route to our goal, and it becomes clear that that path is taking us into darkness, we are urged to metanoia, to turn around, to repent. There's a time limit on our ability to repent. We call that limit “my life time.” Each one of us has exactly as long as we will live to turn around. At death, an eternally binding decision is made: to live with God, or without Him. He will honor our decision either way. Of course, He wills that we return to Him in love. However, love requires that we return to Him freely. John the Baptist is sent to sound the alarm: time is running out; the Kingdom is at hand; repent! Leave the path toward darkness and death and return to the Father. That's what Advent is all about – getting ourselves ready for the coming of the Just Judge, the One who will listen to our eternal choice and honor it. Santa Claus, reindeer, elves, and Christmas trees are wonderful signs for the proper season. Right now, however, we are in a season of repentance and anticipation.

Thus, the violet vestments and alarming hymns. And I know it all sounds so old-fashioned – repentance and judgment and days of wrath. But “old-fashioned” cannot be applied to the Gospel. The Word is eternal, so it is true now, back then, and tomorrow. It has always been true and will always be true. Pretending that we're too mature or sophisticated or modern to worry about sin and salvation is Pride writ large. Calling our sins “mistakes” or “struggles” doesn't dilute their affect on our immortal souls. Our moment before the Just Judge will not a “check in” with our Cosmic Therapist. He's not there to affirm our OK-ness, or hand us a salvation participation trophy. He'll be there to hear our choice. What do you choose? Eternal life or eternal death? And we need to be clear here: we don't make this choice after death; we make it everyday, every hour, every minute. Any time we think, speak, or act, we are making that eternal choice. We are saying to God: I want to be with You, or I can get along w/o You. Spend these next 21 days examining your choices. Spend them pondering how you have loved; how you have shown mercy; how you have been generous with everything God has given you. And if you start to think you're a hopeless sinner. . .well, repent! God always, always welcomes a sinner.

And if all this contemplation of your sin depresses your Christmas Spirit. . .good. It should. It's not Christmas yet. It will be. But not yet. Paul calls us to a life of hope, a life of endurance and encouragement. We've been given a spirit of courage not cowardice. So, we are more than able to be honest with both our sin and God's mercy. And we don't have to wear animal skins or eat bugs in the desert to find our peace. All we have to do is bring ourselves to God in confession and ask Him to show us our sins. In the presence of His perfect love, the marks of our disobedience, the times we have chosen not to love, will glow like fire. And all we have to do is take responsibility for our failures. We will receive His eternally-given forgiveness and turn again toward our perfecting end. Then we go back out with the words of John the Baptist ringing in our ears, “Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.” Now, we start again as imperfect Christs showing the world what the mercy of God can do with sinners like us. 

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Just say the Word

1^st Week of Advent (M)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

The Centurion's faith amazes Jesus. No one in Israel has such faith. No one? Not the priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, the Lord's own disciples? This Roman occupier of the Holy City, this worshiper of false gods has faith in an itinerant preacher who claims to be the Son of God? Apparently so. But just what is this faith? What does this Gentile trust in exactly? In refusing Jesus' offer to go to his house and heal his servant, the Centurion says, “...only say the word and my servant will be healed.” He trusts in the power and authority of Christ's word. Just say the word. He doesn't genuflect or light a candle or sacrifice a goat or rattle off a long, convoluted prayer. Just say the word, Lord. Say the word, and he will be healed. He analogizes the power and authority of his own word as a Roman officer to Jesus' power and authority as the Son of God. His orders are carried out. His word is obeyed. And so it is with Christ. The Centurion is acknowledging that Jesus is the author of creation and so has authority over creation's order. Where there is something broken, he can fix it. Where there is disease, he can cure. Where there is sin, he can forgive. Christ has the authority to make right every relationship gone wrong. Father to daughter. Mother to son. Husband to wife. Master to servant. God to Man. In his divine person – out of who he is – Christ can redeem all of creation to its original godly order. The Centurion's trust in his word amazes Jesus. He says, “...in no one in Israel have I found such faith.” If Jesus were to visit Irving, this priory, this 8.00am Mass, could he say the same of you and me? If not, we have 27 days to prepare ourselves to answer the question. We have 27 days to exercise our trust muscles, to prepare for the heavy lifting of his coming again. Will he come again at the end of Advent? We don't know. But we do know that we have this time to work out – to trust, to hope, to love, and to call on his holy name for the right ordering of our lives. If the pagan invader of the Holy City can trust God to heal his servant with a word, then surely you and I can surrender to His will and pray, “Just say the word, Lord. Just say the Word.”  

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Advent: Your Clock is Ticking

1^st Sunday of Advent

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

I am an Advent Nazi. The friars did not know this when they elected me prior. But there it is. No Christmas carols before Dec 24^th. No Christmas trees. No red, green, and white decorations. No little Santa Clauses pushing Advent back towards Thanksgiving. Advent is its own season, one deserving of our respect and attention! So, we wait. We prepare. And we anticipate. Christ is coming, but he's not here yet. What do we need to do while we wait? Isaiah says we are to walk in the light of the Lord. Paul says we must wake from sleep and throw off the works of darkness. And Jesus says we are to stay awake and prepare for his coming again. IOW, Advent is set to test us, to prove our readiness for the Final Judgment. Yes, we are looking forward to Christmas and the birth of the Christ Child. But we are also looking forward to The End, the last day, and our final test before the Just Judge. Are you ready to stand before him, account for your life, and hear his judgment? If not, you have four weeks, just 28 days, to get ready. Make the most of the time you have. Everyone's clock is ticking.

Brothers, sisters: I do not wait well. It is one of my many failings. At Kroger yesterday with Br. Bede, I got frustrated b/c they had one register open. There were four people with stuffed carts in front of us. I moved us over to the self-checkout and got even more frustrated b/c the wretched machine kept booping nonsense at us, requiring a cashier to correct it. After the third time the poor woman had to exorcise the demon-possessed computer, I said, “Y'all can't be making much money with these things.” She smiled nervously, giggled a little, and said nothing. I think she's probably used to impatient customers. So, I do not wait well. And if my ego were bigger or more deranged, I might come to believe that God invented Advent just to provoke me. But my ego isn't that big or deranged, so I'll have to make do with the Church's idea that Advent is a time to contemplate The Last Four Things and prepare for the coming again of Christ. To wit: if you didn't know already, you are going to die. So am I. We are in the world but not of it, just passing through, and we need to be ready to exit. As followers of Christ, our exit is nothing to fear. . .if we are ready. How do we get ready? By observing the 28 days of Advent and then treating the other 337 days of the year as off-season Advents.

We do this by walking in the light of the Lord. By waking from sleep and throwing off the works of darkness. By staying awake and preparing for his coming again. We wait in the light. Keeping ourselves fully exposed in the direct light of our Lord's glory. We shake ourselves away from the lies, the manipulations, the scheming of the Enemy and refuse to do his dirty work. We give no room in our hearts and minds to envy, pride, wrath, or greed. We do not allow ourselves to be seduced by compromise or vanity or selfishness. We treat everything we have and everything we are as God's eternal possessions and only ours for short time. We treat ourselves and one another as embodied instances of divine love, men and women who reveal the truth, goodness, and beauty of the Father just by living and breathing. We remain stubbornly, aggressively faithful to the Gospel handed down to us, and we wear ourselves out bearing witness to His mercy. And when we fail in our preparations, we turn again to Christ and receive his absolution. Yes, we are getting ready for the birth of Christ. Of course, we are! But we are also getting ready for our death. Jesus says, “...had [the master of the house] known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake.” But he didn't. And his house was broken.

Stay awake! Vigilance is exhausting. Always being on guard against the Enemy is exhausting. We need rest and refreshment. That's prayer. Prayer is the time God floods us with everything we need to remain alert. Prayer is the time we open ourselves to receive everything God has to give us. Prayer is our chance to praise Him and give Him thanks for His gifts. Shopping, cooking, decorating, entertaining – all exhausting. By the time Christmas arrives, we just want it over. So, don't start Christmas until Christmas. Take this season of preparation and prepare. Fortify, stock up, repair, and rest. You have 12 days after the 25^th to celebrate Christ's birth. And you have 28 days – more than twice as long – to get right with God and prepare for your birth into eternal life. What I'm say here is this: become an Advent Nazi! Wait joyfully, wait peacefully for the coming of Christ. Then – when the time comes – go rejoicing to the House of the Lord! 

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Become perfect Love

St. Ignatius Delgado OP & Companions

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St Albert the Great, Irving

God owes you nothing. He owes me nothing. He created us and then re-created us in Christ Jesus. Though He owes us nothing, He gives us everything. We were freely made and freely re-made. Everything we have and everything we are is a gift. From the brute fact of our existence as male and female to the complexities of our personalities, we are wholly gratuitous creatures solely dependent on the Father's “plan of sheer goodness”(CCC 1). Understanding and receiving this foundational truth about the nature of reality is called humility. We are dust and divine love given flesh and bone. How we choose in our freedom to respond to this truth, this humility determines how we will live minute to minute until we die. If we choose to live as though we can save ourselves, making idols of ourselves, loving ourselves w/o God, then we will become what we love – merely temporary, passing things that endure in eternal bitterness and regret. If, however, we choose to live in a permanent state of praise and thanksgiving to God, loving ourselves and others b/c He loved us first, then we will become what we love – immortal men and women, abiding in perfect unity with Love Himself. We will become Love perfectly.

The Grateful Samaritan is healed. Along with nine Jews, his body is made well again. The GS returns to give Christ thanks and praise for his healing. Now, his soul is healed as well, his whole person is made new again. The nine Jews do not return to thank Christ. Why? We don't know. Maybe they took their healing as payment for a perceived debt. Maybe they thought they were entitled to the gift. Could be that they were too overwhelmed with joy to consider giving thanks. Whatever the reason, they did not choose to submit themselves in humility before their Healer and give him thanks. Jesus says us nothing about their fate. To the GS he says, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.” Your trust in God has saved you, healed you, brought you back into the household of the Father. Ask yourself: am I the GS, or am I among the ungrateful nine? God doesn't need our gratitude. He doesn't need our praise. We need to give Him thanks and praise simply b/c doing so is our confession of what's Real: we are gratuitous creatures growing in holiness, beings being perfected in the sacrificial love of Christ. 

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The only answer that matters

St. Clement of Rome

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Who do we say that the Son of Man is? Looking around the Church these days, it would appear that we say he's a bureaucrat working for a religiousy social work organization; or a fiery Traddie sporting a bow tie and fedora; or an addict living under a bridge; or a soccer mom running for the school board; or a careerist bishop looking for applause from the media. We say he is a lot of things. Most of which is false. The Enemy tempts us daily, hourly to make Jesus into our own image and deny who he really is. This is a smart strategy. If the Enemy can prod us into re-making Christ into a reflection of our sinful selves, then we can be OK with who we are in our sin. We can say, “Look! We are following Christ. He looks just like us.” Of course, the truth is we've just put Christ on a leash and made him follow us. To help you and me remember that we are his creatures and not his creator, Jesus asks, “Who do you say that I am?” The only correct answer is: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This confession of faith is the only way to salvation. There is no other name, no other job title, no other process or procedure through which we can be saved from sin and death. We can eagerly attach ourselves to political platforms or reform movements or synodal processes or intellectual projects or social justice activities and sincerely believe that we are saving ourselves and the Church with the good works of good intentions. But if we re-create Christ and make him into an idol of our efforts, then he becomes just another mascot, a pet to distract us when our important work gets boring. How do you name and dismiss the Enemy's temptation to re-create Christ? Remind yourself daily that your good works are not your god. That your good intentions are not your god. That your opinions, your politics, your niche ecclesial obsessions, your devotional eccentricities – none of it is your god. Who do you say, who do you think, who do you feel, who do you know the Son of Man to be? “Christ, the Son of the living God” is the only answer that can save you. 

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Do you love God?

St. Margaret of Scotland

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

I've been a priest, confessor, and spiritual director for 17 yrs. I've served as a seminary/university professor and priest-formator for 13 of those yrs. Without hesitation, from my experience, I can tell you that the single most difficult truth for Christians to accept is that God's love is unconditionally, absolutely free. That is, there is literally nothing you and I can do to beg, borrow, steal, or earn God's love. And there is literally nothing we can do to make God cease loving us. Here's why: God is love. He is love by nature. Who He is is Love. God isn't someone above and beyond love Who loves. He isn't a super powerful human-like being Who loves this but not that. To be God is what it is to be love. We cannot beg, borrow, steal, or earn God's love b/c we cannot beg, borrow, steal, or earn God Himself. If God were to cease loving me, I would cease to exist. In fact, all of reality would cease to exist b/c God would cease to be love in failing to love me. So, how do you know – with absolute certainty – that God loves you? Easy. Do you exist? If you say, Yes, then God loves you. Freely, absolutely, unconditionally.

Now that that question is settled, we can move on to the more complicated question: do you love God? God loves b/c He is love. You and I are not love. We participate in His love (b/c we exist), but we are not love itself. IOW, we can sin. We can fail to love as we ought. This is where our problems start. One way of experiencing my sin is to feel or sense that God has stopped loving me. In the presence of Perfect Love, my imperfect love feels like abandonment. It feels like God has set me aside. Then, in my desolation, I start trying to earn back God's love with penances and prayers and weeping and gnashing of teeth. The Enemy cheers on our efforts to win God back b/c all our efforts keep hidden from us the one truth we find hard to accept: God's love for us is absolute, free, and unconditional. Nothing can keep God from us. But we are more than expert at keeping us from God. Our love for Him is almost always relative, bound, and conditional. So, Jesus says, “I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete.” What did he tell us? God is love. He – Christ – is in God's love. And we remain in His love by following His commandments. What is his command? “Love one another as I have loved you.” Freely, sacrificially.

Where's the noise?

33^rd Week OT (M)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Jesus' healing of Bartimaeus – the blind man – isn't a big, dramatic scene. The actual, physical healing of the man's blindness, that is. Jesus doesn't demand allegiance, or question the man's faith, or slap him on the forehead, or anything fun like that. Jesus just says, “What do you want?” Bartimaeus says, “I want to see.” Jesus says, “You can see. Your faith has saved you.” BOOM! He can see! Except there is no boom. No angels' choir. No flock of glowing white doves. No one has to catch Bartimaeus as he is slain in the Spirit. No one has to rush forward to fan his sweating face. The whole miraculous healing is accomplished in 21 words. No gestures. No spit. No mud. Jesus doesn't even touch him. So, where's the action in this scene? Where's the noise? The noise comes before and after the healing. The crowd is noisy, proclaiming Jesus' presence. Bartimaeus is noisy: “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!” The crowd starts yelling at Bartimaeus to be quiet. But he keeps on yelling. Finally, Jesus calls him over. [Insert anticlimactic healing here]. And Bartimaeus starts giving God the glory and the crowd starts praising God. The point of this scene is to show us that persistence is key in calling on the Lord for help. Not b/c we can change his mind with nagging but b/c persistence builds endurance and strengthens our faith. Perhaps a lesser point is that there will be some in our lives who want to shut us up b/c our faith is embarrassing. Our persistence is annoying. It draws attention and disrupts the expected. If you can't see the Lord, but you know he's near, and you want to see him, then you will be noisy, even embarrassing. You'll ignore the shushers and carry on until you meet Christ and receive your sight. This is good for you and the shushers. You get to give God the glory for your healing, and they get to see that persistent faith brings salvation. They also get to grow in holiness by giving God praise. The Lord says to the Church in Ephesus: “I know your works, your labor, and your endurance...you have endurance and have suffered for my name, and you have not grown weary.” When the shushers try to shush your faith; when they try to keep you from the Lord – persist, endure, and never grow weary. Your faith will save you. And when it does, do not fail to him thanks and praise. Give God the glory.  

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Predicting The End

33rd Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

I was introduced to the Bible when I was nine years old. An older friend told me about the Great Tribulation found in the Book of Revelation. I was particularly struck one image he mentioned from chapter 14: “. . .the angel swung his sickle over the earth and cut the earth’s vintage...blood poured out...to the height of a horse’s bridle for two hundred miles.” Being an imaginative kid, I had no trouble seeing in my mind's eye the angel, the sickle, the wine press, and the great ocean of blood. I rushed home to read the rest of Revelation and found myself hooked on the fantastic images and language of the End Times. For the next decade, I worried about the apocalypse and my place in it. Are the signs showing us the end? When will the Lord return? Will I be among those raptured into heaven? These were the years when Evangelical Protestantism dominated religious programming on TV: Jimmy Swaggart, Jim and Tammy Faye Baker, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell. Their best fundraising pitches always revolved around matching current events to the signs and symbols from the prophet Daniel and the BoR. Their biblical numerology was mesmerizing. Still, I wanted to know: when, Lord? When will you come again? I wanted to be ready! But the signs were unclear. Unfortunately, Jesus gave me no answers.

He does prophesy the destruction of the Jerusalem temple. His listeners want to know when this will happen. Of course, he doesn't give them a date, a day and time. Tues., March 3^rd at 4:15pm seven years from now. That's the answer we want. That way we can be ready! Or more likely, so we know exactly how long we have to party before the end. What he gives them instead is a string of cryptic “signs” that could apply to any day of the week or week of the year. Wars, rebellions, plagues, earthquakes, famines, “awesome sights and mighty signs [coming] from the sky.” Had I been among his listeners, I might have yelled out: “But those happen all the time!” And Jesus would have pointed at me and said, “Exactly! So, be ready!” The Nine Year Old Me and the televangelists wanted the signs and wonders of the BoR to match up neatly with current events so we could calculate the exact timing of Christ's return. We didn't consider the possibility that Christ could come again at any moment. That we ought to be always ready. Some forty years after Jesus' prophecy, in 70AD, the Romans destroyed the temple. I wonder if any of those who heard his prediction were there to see the temple pulled down and remembered. . .

We can be frustrated with Jesus' answer. And we can continue to run after apparitions and biblical numerology and seers and visions in a quest to understand the day and time of his return. Or, we can take him at his word and simply listen. What he is describing is the past and future history of the Church living in the world. Creation is fallen. Earthquakes, floods, plagues, and wars are everyday events in a fallen world. In a fallen world, men will claim to be the Messiah. I found a list of about 40 claimants btw 1830 and 2022. In a fallen world, teachers will teach false doctrine. Some of those teachers are ordained. Some have PhD's and others wear miters. In a fallen world, the world will persecute the Church. 360 million Christians live in parts of the world where following Christ will get them killed. Our persecutors can be religious – mostly extremist forms of Islam. Or atheistic – mostly forms of left-wing political ideology, e.g., Chinese communism and woke progressivism. In a fallen world, those who follow Christ serve as an irritant to the comfort of those who serve the world. Our allegiance belongs to Christ not the princes, politicians, and prophets of this Age. Our citizenship is in His Kingdom. We're just passing through.

Jesus assures us: “You will be hated by all because of my name...” OK. So, where's our hope? Where do we find our strength? He continues: “...but not a hair on your head will be destroyed.” Alright. Good to know. But what do we do in the meantime? “By your perseverance you will secure your lives.” By persevering we will be victorious. Persevering in what, exactly? Persevering in trust. Persevering in hope. Persevering in loving one another. Persevering with the Body of Christ in the Body of Christ to live wholly and only for Christ until he comes again. How do we persevere? Obedience to the Spirit. Not just compliance but truly listening to the Spirit as He speaks to the Church and by consecrating ourselves – setting ourselves aside – in His service. The Spirit has spoken, is speaking, and will continue to speak. And He has said, is saying, and will continue to say just one word: Christ. He says nothing new. Nothing contrary. And nothing contradictory. False Messiahs, teachers, and prophets will tell us that the Spirit is doing something or saying something new, something completely novel. No. The Spirit is the love between the Father and the Son. That love is eternal. And there is nothing new in eternity. Our NO to the novelty of the Age puts us in conflict with the world. And this conflict is what Jesus is describing to us this morning. Our persistent, persevering NO to the world is also a persistent, persevering YES to Christ. The temple was destroyed as he prophesied. When will he return? Any minute now. Any day now. My job, your job is to be ready.  

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Nagging God into submission

St. Josaphat

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

So, according to Jesus, the key to getting God to give us what we want is constant Nagging? He politely calls it “praying without ceasing,” but the parable he tells clearly indicates that God will relent to our demands only if we nag Him into submission. This sounds absurd – and it is – but it's the lesson too many take from the story of the Persistent Widow. So, why is this reading of the parable absurd? It presupposes that we can change God's mind. It presupposes that anything we can do or say has some effect on God's will. If I pray enough, fast enough, give enough money to the Church, God will say, “Fine! Have it your way!” and alter His plan for the universe. Now, we may not think about prayer in these exact terms, but I'm will to bet that many of us live as though prayer works exactly this way. We pray as though we do not have all that we need to flourish and pester God relentlessly to give us what we think we need. But here's the problem with that practice: we don't know what we need b/c we don't know what God has in store for us. Sure, we know generally that He has only good things planned for us, but are we capable of seeing those good things as good things? If not, then we can spend a lot of time asking for things that go against His will for us. Rather than ask for particular gifts, we should follow the Widow's example and persistently ask instead for the strength and courage to see God's will at work. Rather than ask for specific gifts, we should persistently pray to receive whatever it is that God has willed for us from all eternity. Rather than foolishly assume that we fully understand the arc of the divine will in history, we should cooperate with the Father's will and make ourselves into finely tuned receivers for all He sends our way. Jesus tells us not to pray like the pagans do. How did they pray? They treated their gods like super powerful humans who needed persuading with bribes of sacrifice and gold; promises of service; and magical rites. They made deals with the gods for favors. They tried to force the gods into doing their will. Our pray to the Father is nothing like this. Our pray is: Lord, I receive your will so that I may do your will. You have no need of my thanks, but You give me the desire to give you thanks and praise so that I may draw closer to You. Perfect in me what is imperfect. Finely tune the gifts I have received from You. Make me persistent.     

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Say it and be free

32^nd Week OT (M)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Why is it so difficult to forgive someone who's sinned against me? Jesus plainly says that I should forgive. Even seven times in one day! That's a lot to ask. What if forgiving the sinner leads him to believe that his sin is really not a sin? Or that the sin didn't hurt me? What if he sees my forgiveness as a sign of weakness and decides to take advantage of me? Or he's encouraged to sin against someone else in the same way? I've forgiven him, but I don't feel like I've forgiven him. What if I'm still angry about the sin? What if I can't move on? What if. . .what if. . .what if. All day long. . .what if. Jesus says, “If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.” He says nothing about how we ought to feel about forgiving the sinner. He sins. You rebuke. He repents. You forgive. End of scene. Jesus says nothing about about how forgiveness might prevent future sins. Or how forgiveness might change the nature of sin. He says, “If he sins seven times in one day and repents seven times, then you should forgive him seven times.” All of the what if's change nothing about sin or forgiveness. For the sake of your peace and his, it must be done.

Now, the what if's don't go away simply b/c you've followed Jesus' orders. They hang around and needle you with worry. Of course they do! The Enemy isn't happy about all this forgiveness flying around willy-nilly. So, there's the temptation to brood over the sin; to wallow in the hurt the sin caused; to nurse the anger and a need for revenge; to question motives and suspect plots. Before you know it, you've sinned; the cycle starts all over. And the Enemy smiles. Here's how to wipe that smile off his face. You control nothing beyond how you choose to react to someone sinning against you. You cannot control how the sinner receives your forgiveness. You cannot control whether or not he sins again. The only thing you can do is determine how you will react to the sinner. Forgiveness frees you both. Why would you want to cling to his offense? Why would you choose to fall into disobedience along side him? The what if's and whatabout's are irrelevant. How you feel about forgiving him is irrelevant. How much the sin cost you is irrelevant. The most freeing sentence in the English language is: “I forgive you.” Say it and enjoy your freedom. 

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You CANNOT serve two Masters. . .

31^st Week OT (S)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

We cannot serve two Masters. Jesus doesn't say, “You may not serve two Masters.” He says, “You cannot serve two Masters.” Serving a Master is an exclusive gig. You serve, or you don't. If you are serving Jack and Jill, then you are actually serving neither. Jesus' point here is that you are serving God or you aren't. There is no in-between. Loyalty divided is no loyalty at all. This absolutist choice is imposed by the nature of the Enemy. Evil is the absence of the Good. Evil is nothing. And nothing is absolute. It's no-thing. As such, no compromise is tolerated. No accommodation with God is possible. The best we can say about evil is that when – in moments of weakness – we choose to serve evil, we're telling ourselves that we are doing Good. We're doing something that we think is Good. In that moment, we cannot serve God. So, we make a choice from the start, to serve God and Him alone. This means that we put on the mind of Christ, follow him, and stick as close as we can to one another in the Church. When we inevitably fall, we return as fast as possible to God's service, admitting our sin and receiving His mercy. What we don't do is assume that our mistaken view of the Good is the truly Good and demand that the other members of the Body accept our foolishness as true. At that point, we are serving the Enemy. If we consistently choose to see Evil as Good, we become servants of Folly. We become fools. For the sake of our eternal lives, it is far better to become fools for Christ and serve the Father as the Son served us. 

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Why be generous?

31^st Week OT (M)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Why are we called to be generous to those who cannot or will not return our generosity? Why – for example – go out of your way to help a neighbor who's lost everything in a house fire? Or help a family in another state who's never had much of anything to begin with? Right at the very bottom of the virtue of generosity is a simple truth that is too easily ignored: nothing belongs to you, nothing belongs to me. WE BELONG TO CHRIST! If you and I have taken on the mind of Christ; died and rose again in his death and resurrection; and now we lay claim to our inheritance to the Kingdom, then everything we are and everything we have belongs to God. Everything we have and are is for our use, sure. But it all belongs to God first. He gives it all to us, and we receive it all as a gift. This includes material stuff, talents, challenges, and even life itself. Christian generosity then, properly understood, is best practiced as a radical detachment from the things we use. In religious life, we call this poverty. And poverty, like generosity, is a spiritual exercise that develops our awareness of how deeply and permanently we are dependent on God. So, why are we called to be generous to those who cannot or will not return our generosity? Because doing so is evidence that we know and understand that we are who we are and that we have what we have only b/c God has chosen to love us into existence and to bring us back to Him when this pilgrimage is done.   

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Details matter: so repent!

31^st Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

I spent most of my early adult years teaching literature to college students. When it came to teaching them how to read poetry, esp. modern and contemporary poetry, I usually failed miserably. Eliot, Stevens, Lowell, and Levertov are acquired tastes, admittedly. But teaching short stories was always a hit. Plot, characters, action, dialogue. These the students understood and loved. A good story does a lot of work. And when read in full, so does the reader. But when the reader reads a story with a lesson already in mind, or reads the story in order to prove a point . . .well, then the story is no longer doing its work. This is why I told my students back in the day: details matter. Pay attention to the details not just the broad strokes of the narrative. Case in point, the Story of Zacchaeus. The broad stroke here is that Jesus invites himself to stay at the house of a wealthy tax collector, a traitorous sinner. The finger-wagging moralists in the crowd condemn Jesus for staying with a sinner. The moral of the story is: Jesus ate with a sinner, therefore, the sinner's sin is not really a sin and moralists are horrible people for noting that sin is sin. Not quite. Remember: details matter. And the missing detail here is that Zacchaeus repents and does penance.

Not only does Zacchaeus repent and do penance, he actively, eagerly seeks the Lord out, going so far as to climb a tree to see him. (More on that tree later. Details matter.). Jesus sees Zacchaeus in the tree. What causes the Lord to notice him? The story doesn't say. Zacchaeus doesn't shout or wave. Luke write, “When he reached the place, Jesus looked up. . .” Maybe Jesus felt Zacchaeus' eagerness to see him. Maybe he just spotted a grown man sitting in a tree and thought, “I need to meet that guy.” But notice – details matter – Jesus calls him by name. Jesus already knows who and what Zacchaeus is. And calls him down from the tree by name. Knowing himself that he's a sinner and knowing now that Jesus knows he's a sinner, we might expect Zacchaeus to reluctantly climb down and slink over to Jesus dejectedly. Instead, “[Zacchaeus] came down quickly and received [Jesus] with joy.” Why is Zacchaeus joyful? Does he think Jesus is going to affirm him in his sin, giving him a thumbs-up b/c he steals from his own people? Tell him to keep on stealing b/c stealing is a legitimate lifestyle choice? No. Zacchaeus is joyful b/c joy is an effect of love. And Christ is the embodiment of divine love.

This is the detail the finger-wagging moralists in the crowd misses. They are scandalized b/c they see a rabbi polluting himself by visiting with a sinner. What they don't yet get is that Jesus is no ordinary rabbi. He cannot be made unclean by associating with sinners. In fact, he makes the unclean clean again. All he needs is for the unclean to want to be clean. And Zacchaeus radiates the desire to be made clean again. His desire to be made clean is so intense that he pledges to donate half his wealth to the poor and repay any extorted taxes four-times over! How does Jesus respond to this act of contrition? Details matter! He says, “Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham.” IOW, Z. has shown himself to be a true son of the Covenant through repentance and sacrifice. Jesus continues, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.” Jesus seeks out the lost and saves those who want to be saved. If no one is lost, then no one needs to be found. Zacchaeus is lost in his sin; he seeks out the Lord; the Lord sees a sinner and calls him to himself. Zacchaeus repents and now he is saved.

Details matter. So, we need to talk about that tree. This is perhaps the only gospel story where a plant aids in the salvation of a sinner. Zacchaeus climbs the sycamore to escape the crushing crowd and watch Jesus pass by. But this is no ordinary tree. The sycamore is a species of fig. It has heart-shaped leaves; grows only in rich soil; and produces fruit year-round. The ancient Egyptians called it the “Tree of Life” and used its timber for royal coffins. It was a measure of wealth and prestige. Ancient readers of this gospel story would know all this, so they would smile and nod knowingly at the symbolism. Zacchaeus climbs the Tree of Life to seek out the Son of God. The sycamore points us to the tree in the Garden of Eden; the building of the ark; the wood of the Cross; and the timber to be used in the making our own coffins. Zacchaeus wants to live in Christ, to be redeemed in the Covenant, so he takes refuge in the Tree of Life, and is found there by his Savior. Details matter. First, he saw Jesus. Then Jesus saw him and called to him. Then came joy from love, repentance of sin, and recompense for sin. The details of characters, setting, etc. might change, but the plot of our salvation story never changes.   

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Competing for glory

30^th Week OT (S)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Competing for the highest seat of honor at the table is evidence that you may be entertaining the sin of vainglory. Now, contemporary American dining etiquette doesn't recognize “seats of honor” at the table. So, we might think about this parable in terms of competing for unmerited attention in class, or showing off in an attempt to make our co-workers look bad. Closer to home, we might think about it in terms of the temptation to “out religious” our brothers and sisters at Church – kneeling longer, genuflecting more deeply, perfecting our Pious Face; the sort of religious theatrics that not only lead others to think of us as holy but also ward off any close scrutiny of our sinfulness. How many of us have taken communion in a state of mortal sin b/c we didn't want our friends to think we were. . .in a state of mortal sin!? We'd rather commit an additional mortal sin than be seen as anything but saintly. That's vainglory. The problem with vainglory is that it is a lie; that is, it's seeking glory for oneself based on a falsehood. The falsehood that lies at the bottom of vainglory is that my gifts, my talents, everything that makes me special is My Doing. My achievement. All of my successes – academic, athletic, romantic, economic, spiritual – are solely due to my intelligence, my diligence, and my physical prowess. This is a lie. And this lie, Aquinas tells us, leads to a host of other sins – “disobedience, boastfulness, hypocrisy, contention, obstinacy, discord, and love of novelties” (ST.II.II.132.5). Jesus teaches us to combat vainglory with humility. Seek the lowest seat. He's not saying pretend that you aren't gifted, or don't use your gifts publicly. He's saying don't take credit for creating your gifts. Don't seek praise for yourself b/c of your gifts. Instead, give glory to the One Who gave you your gifts. God alone assigns seats at the Wedding Feast. So, competing for the best seat is not only pointless, but it also causes chaos in your spiritual life. In effect, loving praise and seeking it out is a form of idolatry, a form of self-worship: I deserve this praise. Not God. I'm entitled to this attention. Not God. That is a surefire way of rejecting your invitation to the Wedding Feast, a guaranteed way of getting many opportunities to practice gnashing your teeth and rending your garments. Seek the glory of God. Give glory to God. And Him alone.

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"Meh. I've got work to do."

30^th Week OT (Th)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Jesus is busy healing, casting out demons, and preaching the coming of his Father's Kingdom. IOW, he's doing what he was sent to do. His words and his works draw the attention of this world's powers, and he's warned that those powers are both curious and threatened. Nothing new here. He's freeing those trapped in spiritual poverty from the bonds of sin and death. So, of course, the worldly powers see him as a dangerous man. They would have us forever dependent on merely human wisdom and works for our survival, always helpless and easily controlled. But Jesus' mission and ministry is to show us that we can be sons and daughters of the Most High, heirs to His Kingdom, and free from the misery of an imperfectible Law. The consummation of his mission and ministry must take place in Jerusalem – the unrepentant city where God's prophets go to die. Thus, when warned that Herod wants to kill him, Jesus says, in essence, “Meh. I've got work to do.” Today, tomorrow, the next day, he has work to do. So do we. Unsurprisingly, it's the same work that Christ did – showing those enslaved in spiritual poverty that they do not have to live on the scraps tossed to them by their “Betters.” They are invited to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. But before they can attend the feast, they will need new garments; a new heart and mind; a renewed spirit of courage. They will need to be recreated in the image and likeness of him who is fully human and fully divine – Christ Jesus. They will also need to know and understand that becoming Christ has its consequences. There is the peace of his constant presence. And the constant presence of opposition and trial. There is always A Herod out there wanting to kill them. Or to put them back into slavery. Or to silence them for good. But none of that matters ultimately b/c they will be free. What matters ultimately is that they are free. Free to rejoice, to preach, to love, to forgive, to bless. Free to thrive in the Spirit and grow in holiness. Free to shout, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” And free to mourn at the foot of the Cross on Calvary. No longer mired in the spiritual poverty of the world, we are free to be who and what we were recreated to be – ministers and missionaries of the one sent to set us free.

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Wide Sin, Narrow Gate

30^th Week OT (W)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

I've fallen off the ship into the icy sea. The crew throws me a life jacket. I say, “No, thank you.” And drown. You're diagnosed with an easily treatable form of cancer. Your doctor offers you a cure. You say, “No, thank you.” And die. We are sinners. As such, we are destined to an eternal death after death. God throws us a life jacket in the form of His Son. He offers us a guaranteed cure for our disease. But we say, “No, thank you.” The wailing and the gnashing of teeth begins. Who killed me, you, us? The sailors, the doctors, God? No. I did. You did. We did. Jesus is asked, how many will be saved? Only a few? A great multitude? Will everyone be saved? The answer is: as many as choose to be saved. Yes, the gate is narrow. And we need to be strong to pass through. But think of it this way: the size of the gate is inversely proportional to the size of our accumulated sin. The wider our sin, the narrower the gate. Souls who have chosen pride, anger, injustice, violence, and disobedience will find a paper-thin opening. Souls who have chosen freedom in Christ, freedom from sin and death will find a gate as wide as the Father's love for His children. He wills that we all be saved. He also wills that we choose – freely choose – to be saved. Choosing to be saved entails a conversion of heart and mind, choosing to turn back to God, and living lives bearing witness in word and deed to the mercy and love we've been given. When the sailors haul me back on deck, I say, “Thank you.” When the doctors save your life from cancer, you say, “Thank you.” When we find ourselves at the Wedding Feast, having chosen Christ, sitting beside the angels and saints, we say, “Thank you.” Our rescue, our cure, our salvation is not an entitlement nor is it a contest. It's a gift. Freely given, freely received.    

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Fungus & Seed

30^th Week OT (T)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

The Kingdom of God is like a seed and a fungus. A seed sprouts and grows. A fungus multiplies and spreads. The tiny mustard seed can grow into a 9ft plant. Just a pinch of yeast can leaven a lot of flour. Both do their natural work unseen. They do their best work when nurtured and cultivated. Like the seed and the fungus, the Kingdom is unseen, powerful, and diffusive. So our preaching of the Kingdom is best done in a similar way. If we think of our preaching as a way of conforming the Word to the World, then we become agents of the World not the Word. That's not our charge. If we think of our preaching as a way of confronting the World, as a way of disputing with the spirits of the World, we end up in a bloody fight. We are not a militia or a political party. How much better would it be to think of our preaching as a kind of sowing, sowing the Word like mustard seeds and watching the plants flourish where they land. Or dosing the flat, unsalted flour of the World with the yeast of the Word and letting it all come to life. If our preaching is a kind of sowing, then we aren't all that worried about neat rows, straight lines, or orderly patches. We reach in, grab a handful, and fling! Where the seeds and yeast land may be random or perfectly patterned. What matters is the soil. And that the soil is seeded. As preachers of the Word, our job is to give every kind of soil the chance to produce good fruit, to give every bit of flour the opportunity to rise. We do this by shedding the Word as naturally as seeds grow and yeast leavens. By diligently – and maybe even wildly – flinging the Word wherever we walk.

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Know yourself to be a sinner

30^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Sirach and Paul assure us that our God is faithful to those who live their days in humility, in humble service to the proclamation of the Word. He hears and answers the prayers of the lowly and rescues those who serve His will. How do we become lowly? How do we bind ourselves to His will and live out our days in His service? Jesus offers a parable. Two men go to the temple to pray. One is a Pharisee; the other a tax collector. The Pharisee believes himself to be righteous by his deeds. The tax collector knows himself to be a sinner and cries out for God's mercy. Which one leaves the temple justified, made just by God?

The question here is not: which one is a righteous? The Pharisee is self-righteous; the tax collector is made-righteous. The question is: which one leaves the temple justified; that is, which one is made just before God by God? My question gives away the answer. We already know that the Pharisee's prayer in the temple is useless. First, to whom does he pray? Jesus says, “The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself. . .” He praises and thanks himself. He is his own god. Second, how does he pray? He praises himself for not being a sinner; he gives himself thanks for “not being like the rest of humanity—greedy, dishonest, adulterous.” And lastly, how does he think he made himself righteous? “I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.” Works. He believes that pious works – w/o mercy, humility, or love – make him righteous. Now, we know that the tax collector leaves the temple justified. Instead of praising himself for not being like other men, the tax collector does the only thing a truly self-aware sinner can do: he throws himself into the hands of God and cries out, “Have mercy on me, Lord, a sinner!” Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

So why would any sane Christian fail to cultivate humility? We know the vice that opposes the virtue of humility is pride. What is pride? Pride isn't about taking pleasure on one's achievements, or claiming that one's nation, state, or team is particularly wonderful. Being proud of your children for academic and athletic awards isn't the sort of pride that thwarts humility. True Pride – the sort our ancestors put in first place on the list of Deadly Sins – is the erroneous belief that we do not need God; that we do not require His help b/c we are perfectly capable of saving ourselves from sin and death; that we are not only capable of saving ourselves but that we prefer to save ourselves. Pride leads us to believe that working for social justice and equality will save us; that holding the right beliefs and attitudes will save us; that saying the right prayers in the right order the right number of times will save us; that giving money to the Church, to charity will save us. Pride insists that we are each self-sufficient, independent, and absolutely alone. And that with these superlative qualities, we can become god w/o God. The serpent says to Eve, “when you eat [the forbidden fruit] your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods. . .” That serpent's name is Hubris.

Pride leads us away from God, so how do we overcome it? Like the tax collector at prayer in the temple, there's only one way to triumph over the self-righteousness that pride instills in us: throw yourself on God's mercy! Why is this the only way? B/c only God Himself can make you righteous; only God Himself can bring you out of sin and death and restore you to your rightful place in His Holy Family. He gives us His only Son, Christ Jesus, as the only means, the only Way, back to Him. And with the Holy Spirit pushing us toward perfection, pouring out for us and into us gift after gift after gift, we accomplish all that God commands us to accomplish for His greater glory. The Pharisee's good works are just that: his good works. Yes, tithing and fasting and praying are all perfectly wonderful spiritual exercises. But before a spiritual exercise can be efficacious, there must be a relationship of love established btw the human heart and Love Himself. Fortunately for us, God Himself initiated this relationship at the instant of creation, installing into every human heart and mind the gnawing need to seek Him out and live with Him forever. To think that I can satisfy this need for myself is Pride distilled into the darkest, deadliest poison.

Luke tells us that Jesus addresses his parable to a very specific audience: “. . .to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else.” We can't help but make the connection btw self-righteousness and hatred. Self-righteousness – born, bred, and nurtured in pride – rejects the necessity of loving others; it leads us to deny the need for mercy, forgiveness, trust in others. If I can make myself righteous, why do I need you? Or God? Or the Church? If my social justice causes and good works and charitable donations are enough, why bother with humility? Why bother with all that “love your neighbor” nonsense? Why bother? Sirach answers: “The one who serves God willingly is heard. . .The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds.” Paul answers: “I am already being poured out like a libation. . .I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.” How do we answer? We throw ourselves on the mercy of God, confessing our sins, knowing that the Lord hears the cries of the poor – the poor in spirit, the truly humble, those most in need of His care, and those most willing to take into the world His re-creating love.

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