Exist for the praise of His glory

28^th Week OT (F)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Paul taught us yesterday that were are created, chosen, and blessed in Christ so that we might return to our Father holy and w/o blemish. Today he teaches us that we are also chosen in accord with His purpose: to exist for the praise of His glory. Aristotle and Aquinas teach us that to know the nature of a thing is to know its purpose, its telos. And knowing a thing's purpose tells everything we need to know about how that thing is properly ordered in the world while fulfilling its purpose. If we exist to praise God's glory, – that is, our purpose is to praise God – then how do we properly order our thoughts, words, and deeds towards reaching our telos? First, you must know and understand who you are in Christ Jesus. Before you were created, you were chosen and blessed. Chosen to be a son, a daughter of the Most High. Chosen to be His child and heir to His kingdom. You are Christ – imperfect right now – but being made perfect with the freedom won for you on the Cross. Second, you must know and understand that you are free. Free from sin. Free from death. Blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavens to live and thrive as one who is becoming Christ. Third, you must freely give all that you have received. You have received mercy. Be merciful. You have received love. Be loving. You have received faith. Be faithful. You are a gift, so freely give. Lastly, and most importantly, in thought, word, and deed, you must give God thanks and praise for the gift of His Holy Spirit – the first installment of your inheritance. Who is this HS? He is the Love with which the Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father. We participate in their love as a gift, becoming sharers in the divine nature. To the degree that we love as He loves us, we become more and more like Love Himself. Aquinas tells us that love causes joy. Joy is an effect of love. So, ask yourself: am I joyful? Do I exude divine love in such a way that others see Christ through me? Do my words and deeds give God thanks and praise for my inheritance? If someone were to observe me at prayer, would they see joy, or anguish? Would they want to join me in prayer, or avoid me? If you are not joyful at being made Christ, remember this: you exist to praise God's glory. He created you. Chose you. And blessed you so that you can come to Him holy and unblemished. You are gift from Him, made to be given back to Him.

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Created, chosen, blessed

28^th Week OT (Th)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Do you understand who you are in Christ? Paul teaches us: [God] chose us before the foundation of the world and blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing to be holy and without blemish before him. So, before the creation of the world, we were chosen to be returned – holy and w/o blemish – to the Father through Christ. To accomplish this return, the Father blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Before we were created, we were chosen and blessed. Chosen to be sons and daughters of the Most High. Chosen to be His children and heirs to His kingdom. We were blessed, consecrated, set apart to live and thrive in an intimate relationship with Him. Blessed with everything we need to flourish in the world while remaining wholly and only His. It is by the Father's will that we were created, chosen, and blessed. It is His will that we return to Him when our time here is done. It is also His will that we return to Him freely. That you and I return to Him as a Self-Gift. That we make of ourselves a Gift to Him. But we cannot make ourselves a gift to Him w/o Him. So, He became one of us so that we might become like Him. It is through Christ and with Christ that you and I become acceptable gifts, holy and perfect sacrifices offered to the Father. In effect, we were created, chosen, and blessed in Christ to become Christ and to follow him freely to the Cross, to the Tomb, and on to the Wedding Feast in heaven. Do you understand who you are in Christ? You are Christ – an imperfect gift right now – but being made perfect with the freedom won for you on the Cross. So, go home, go to the office, go to the class, to the gym, wherever you go when you leave here this morning and be and speak and act and think and feel like the “being made perfect gift” that you are. You are free to be wholly and only His.

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Hang on to Gratitude

28^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

I grew up in rural Mississippi with more or less tradition-minded Baptist parents. My younger brother and I learned from Day One to say “yessir/no sir,” “please,” “thank you,” “excuse me.” Failure to express proper respect or gratitude earned a swift and terrible rebuke. I still use “Mr.” and “Ms” when addressing adults, and I cringe a little when people call me by my first name w/o asking, or shorten it to “Phil.” It's all very old-fashioned, I know, but there's something about the habits of good manners that makes life easier. In the case of the healed leper, his deeply felt sense of gratitude actually saves him! He discovers – probably to his great surprise – that giving God thanks for his healing is not only the polite thing to do but a way to salvation as well. For us, the baptized, giving God thanks for His blessings is way to persevere, a way to remain in Christ and thus end our earthly pilgrimage reigning with him in the Kingdom. Is it possible that the good manners many of us were taught as children is what remains of this spiritual insight? Saying “thank you,” especially to God, is a path to healing and salvation.

We hear Paul say to Timothy: “If we have died with him we shall also live with him; if we persevere we shall also reign with him.” That persevering part is what most of us find difficult. Dying with him in the waters of baptism was easy. Living with him has its challenges, but we manage it with the sacraments. Persevering with him however is on another level entirely. Persevering here means staying close to Christ. Hanging on to him through the best and the worst. Living with him whether we “feel” his presence or not. Perseverance is the good habit of being tenacious in faith when every fiber of your being is screaming at you: “Compromise! Just fit in! Surrender! This is too hard!” Have you seen that video of a bull dog swinging himself around a tree, teeth clamped on the end of a rope? The rope will break, or the tree will fall before that dog lets go. That's tenacity. That's perseverance. Now, I wouldn't trust my teeth to hang on like a bull dog's. But I do trust that gratitude is the key to staying close to Christ. The leper proves this. Christ teaches this. And I can bear personal witness that giving God thanks for His blessings is essential in our long trek to holiness.

As a priest in an academic ministry, I've never had my own parish to run, so I've spent a lot of time going out to parishes to hear confessions, give missions or talks, and basically just visiting with people. Every time I go out, I hear a lot of anxiety about the Church. I get confused questions about the faith. Angry comments about the news coming out of Rome. Questions and doubts about the future. Just generally an overwhelming sense that things aren't well with the Body of Christ. Something is wrong, something is upsetting the peace we've come to expect from following Christ. In response, I have to sharply suppress my professorial instincts and avoid giving a lecture on the history of the Church. No one wants to hear how good we have it compared to, say, the Church during the French Revolution. Then I have to swallow the need to remind folks that the “peace of Christ” comes with a promise of persecution. What I usually end up saying is that difficult times require a bull dog's tenacity. It might be too much to say that we're being tested. But – we're being tested. Not tested in the sense that God is deliberately trying to scare us or trip us up. But tested in the sense that steel is tested under pressure to measure its purity and strength. Our test is measuring the purity and strength of our gratitude. If you will to endure with Christ, you will be grateful to God for His blessings.

You might ask here: why does God need our gratitude? The answer is: He doesn't. Giving God thanks does nothing for God b/c He needs nothing from us. Our desire to give Him thanks is itself a gift that benefits us alone. In other words, we are doing ourselves a favor by returning thanks for all that God gives us. Failing to give thanks breeds narcissism and entitlement – I am owed. And entitlement is the rich soil of pride. If we nurture pride by failing in gratitude, we end up denying Christ – the ultimate gift from God. We end up being among the nine lepers who were healed but not saved. Ungrateful wretches living lives of resentment and anger b/c we believe that God owes us a debt. As followers of Christ, our best means of staying close to Christ is to be a tenacious Christian bull dog, refusing to let go of gratitude.

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