The Dominican Option

6^th Sunday of Easter

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

Mt. Carmel/OLR, NOLA

The world cannot accept the Spirit of Truth b/c the world does not see or know the Father. The world does not see or know the Father b/c the world rejected His Christ – the only Way of seeing and knowing the Father. The world, those in the world, are orphans – bereft of mother and father, left without a family, a home, a place to be at peace. They call the world their home, but the world is home to no one. It lives and moves to serve its own perverse purposes, and eats alive anyone who makes it their god. You see, the world isn't a person or a place; it's a spirit, the living principle of rebellion and disease, the anti-Christ – the opposite of Christ. For us, Christ lived and died in love so that we might be made heirs to the Father's kingdom in the Spirit, so that we might dwell in the Spirit of Truth and find eternal life. The world offers false promises, dead-end deals, and baits us with the temptation of becoming gods without God. Christ frees us from sin and death, making us orphans of the world but not orphans in the world. When we abide in the Spirit of Truth, dwelling fully in the love of the Father and Son for one another, we come to know the freedom of the children of God. That freedom compels us – in word and deed – to bear witness to Christ and his works.

Now, we might be tempted to rest on our redeemed laurels and just wait out the end of the world. We might be tempted to sit pretty atop our pillar of righteousness and watch the world burn. We could say to the world, “We got ours. If you want yours. . .come to us.” This attitude is a recipe for whipping up a big bowl of arrogant pride. Christ did not command us to find our salvation in him and then sit back and wait for others to make their way to us hat-in-hand. His command – “Go out to all the world” – is unambiguous and final. There is no rest for us if we will be obedient to our Lord and remain in his love. Divine Love is diffusive by nature; that is, what Love is spreads around to all as a matter of Who Love Is. Our salvation through Christ is not a secret. It's not a treasure to be hoarded. It's not a priceless commodity to be dribbled out only to the truly deserving. We are left in this world as children of the Father so that we might be the living lights of His boundless mercy and love. We are not here to survive. We're here to thrive – to thrive as vocal, active, unrelenting witnesses to the power of the Father's offer of forgiveness to all sinners. Anyone who hears should hear. Anyone who sees should see. Our job is make sure that those who are of this world see and hear – from us – all that they need to come to the Christ. 

 

There's been a lot in the Catholic news lately about how we should prepare ourselves to become a cultural minority in the U.S. One option – called The Benedict Option from the founder of monasticism, St. Benedict – suggests that we should remove ourselves to culturally and religiously pure enclaves and ride out the secular storm. In this model, our task would be to preserve Christian culture as a sort of seed-plot, a remnant of true-believers who will emerge into a devastated world to begin again. Our communities will be something like the Benedictine monasteries of 9^th and 10^th century Europe – bastions of learning, culture, and religious practice. I understand the impulse behind his idea. We're losing battle after battle in the world, and our once stalwart Catholic institutions – universities, religious orders, hospitals – have surrendered to the Spirit of the Age. Renewal and reform from the ground up is beyond necessary at this point – we're teetering on the edge of cultural irrelevance and outright persecution. In some parts of the world, being a Christian is enough to have your head put on a spike. Retreating and regrouping is not only attractive but it might our only option in the years to come.

However, as you might guess, I'm inclined toward another option. Let's call it The Dominican Option. The Order of Preachers was found in 1216 by St. Dominic de Guzman to preach the Good News and care for souls. He founded the Dominicans as a hybrid order – part monastic, part diocesan – so that the friars might live in community like monks but serve in the world like diocesan priests. The Dominican option is faithful to Christ's command that we “go out to all the world” and at the same time allows us to maintain the boundaries of our Catholic identity without compromise. In effect, we come to see ourselves as Christ's Viruses, inflecting the world body with the Good News of the Father's grace and mercy. Viruses are adaptable when attacked. They evolve with the environment without ceasing to be what they are. Viruses are even capable of altering their environment when they reach a critical mass. What we bring to the world as Christ's Viruses is a 2,000 year old intellectual, spiritual, pastoral, and humane tradition of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. The Church is not charged with preserving our tradition for the sake of tradition; we're charged with using our tradition for the sake of preaching of the Good News and the care of souls.

The Dominican Option for the Church takes Peter's admonition seriously, “Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope. . .” It's not clear to me how we can give an explanation for our hope from behind a wall. The Christian's explanation for his/her hope must be given in the public square – at work, the mall, the bank, in the schools, at home, wherever a Christian happens to be, there the explanation must be given. If you abide in the love of Christ, your explanation will be the words and deeds of your daily life. The Spirit of Truth will abide with you and see that you are not troubled.

NB. I want to be absolutely clear here that I am in no way denigrating the monastic life. Dominic founded the nuns before he founded the friars b/c he knew that the friars would need some powerful spiritual support in their ministry. The options being discussed in the media are suggesting various ways that the whole Church might be reconfigured for reform. Turning the whole Church into a monastery is my target here.

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Among Yet Set Apart

5^th Sunday of Easter

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

OLR, NOLA

During their last supper together, Jesus tells his disciples that one of them will betray him to the authorities. Peter balks, swearing up and down that he would never betray his Master. Jesus says Peter, “Will you lay down your life for me? Amen, amen, I say to you, the cock will not crow before you deny me three times.” Here's where our gospel scene this evening picks up, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.” Christ's three-year ministry among God's people is unraveling. The Romans are paying way too much attention to them. The High Priest is definitely looking for a way to crush them. Jesus himself just told them a member of their little family is going to sell him out. And now, Jesus reveals that Peter – the Rock! – is going to deny even knowing Christ. And what's Jesus' advice? “Do not let your hearts be troubled”! If there were ever a time for the disciples to let their hearts be troubled, it's now! They're plucked chickens about to be thrown to the gators. The feeding frenzy of Roman justice and Jewish revenge they're facing is going to be brutal. And all Jesus can say is: “You have faith in God; have faith also in me.”

Had I been there with the disciples, listening to Jesus' words with my own ears, I would've been tempted to blurt out: “How is faith alone gonna protect us from our enemies?!” And I imagine Jesus would've said something like, “When did I promise you that having faith in me would keep you safe from the world?” Hearing this, my mind would rewind back over the three years of sermons and lectures, looking for a loophole. Alas! No such promise – I'd have to confess – was ever made. In fact, Jesus promised that believing in him would make us enemies of the world, targets for the Enemy's deviltry. So why then does Jesus attempt to calm his disciples by exhorting them to greater faith if faith isn't going to protect them from the world? Simply put: faith in Christ isn't about protection from hurt, loss, the world, or evil; it's about receiving that which is necessary for growing in holiness. From God Himself we receive the desire and ability to trust Him, the desire and ability to live our lives rooted in the reality of His promises. Faith doesn't make the bad things go away. Faith makes it possible for us to live with the bad things and come out the other side holier for having done so.

 

So, how does living with the bad things in faith make us holier? First, we have to understand holiness as “being set apart for a purpose.” The BVM is holy b/c is she was set apart to be the Mother of God. An altar is holy b/c it is set apart for the celebration of the Eucharist. A Bible is holy b/c it is set apart as a means of delivering the Word of God. We are made holy at baptism – set apart from the world in order to serve as living, breathing witnesses to the Good News. Next, we have to understand that the things of this world – the powers, the principalities, the temptations, sin and death – are ever-present, all-consuming, and always ready to make us slaves again. We must live among these things to live in the world, but we do not have to be subject to them. Remember: we are set apart. We belong to Christ. Then, lastly, knowing that we belong to Christ, and that we have a mission to bear witness to his Good News, we live among yet set apart from the things of this world. Not above nor beyond. (That's a temptation to pride and arrogance). But among yet set apart. When we live as Christ teaches us to live – with faith, hope, love, mercy – we grow in holiness; we grow more and more Among Yet Set Apart. And this growth settles our troubled hearts.

You see, as priests, prophets, and kings in Christ we have no reason to be troubled. There is – literally – nothing in or on this world that can trouble us b/c we know that our lives belong to him. Of course – we get sick. We die. We suffer. We lose our jobs, our family members. We have strange accidents that sometimes cripple us. All the horrible things that can happen to non-believers can and do happen to us. Faith in Christ is not a magical amulet that prevents these things from happening. Faith in Christ is a fortitude, a bulwark that allows us to see the holy work of God, His plan for us, and to understand our everyday joys and miseries as opportunities to be Christ for others. We turn to the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. We turn to our Blessed Mother and beg her intercession. We turn to Christ in the Holy Sacrament. We turn to one another in the Church so that the face of Christ might be closer and clearer. We do not entertain despair, revenge, anger, injustice, nor do we hold ourselves above the ordinary mourning of those left behind. When our hearts are troubled – and they will be – we turn to the only source of consolation that can truly bring us life. We turn to Christ.

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Thanks!

Many thanks to M.R. for the blue paint. . .and to E.M. for the acrylic ink! E.M., I hope all is well with your vocation plans. . .

___________________________

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Truly Awe-some Mercy

2^nd Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

OLR, NOLA

Luke tells us in Acts that when the disciples devoted themselves to the apostolic teachings and gave themselves to a communal life in Christ, that when they broke bread together in prayer, “Awe came upon everyone.” Awe came upon everyone. Awe is a powerful passion. It's an overwhelming feeling of reverence, of worship, and sometimes dreadful fear. The disciples – while living as Christ taught them – experience the sublime presence of God. They experience His presence as Mercy. The apostle Thomas could tell them a thing or two about mercy. Without the divine mercy he would've been left with his refusal to believe in the Risen Lord. He would've abandoned by his need for material proof, bereft of the Spirit that binds us all to Christ. In his mercy, Christ invites Thomas to test his doubt. And Thomas comes to believe b/c Christ is merciful. What is divine mercy? What does it do for us? To us? And most importantly, what can divine mercy achieve with our cooperation?

To answer these questions, you will have to show me a bit of mercy of your own, and allow me to put on my professor's hat. We cannot understand divine mercy if we do not understand who and what God is. The classical Catholic tradition teaches us that God is simple and eternal; that is, God is not composed of parts, and He is outside time. Human persons are composed of a body and a soul. Each part has several parts. Each of these parts has a specific purpose and function. My intellect and will can be at odds b/c they are different parts. I know the Good but I do not always do the Good. Sound familiar? God is simple. And eternal. No parts. No conflicts. God's intellect and will are one. God's love is His truth and His truth is His goodness. These are not separated parts, struggling to work together but one and the same God Who is Love. Because we are limited creatures (composed), we experience God as having parts. So, we talk about God's will as if it were somehow different than God's love. However, God cannot will what is unloving. He cannot will what is untrue. His nature is Love; He is Love. So, when the disciples in Acts and Thomas in the gospel experience the presence of God, they experience Him as the limited, composed creatures that they are. They experience God as Mercy. For them, and for us, God's overwhelming and eternal love for us feels and behaves like mercy – unearned, abundant, never-ending forgiveness. In light of this reality, “awe” seems like a pitiful reaction. But awe is what we need to receive His mercy.

Now, why spend so much time on the philosophy of God? Simply put: b/c God is simple (not composed of parts like we are) and eternal (outside time) every truth He has ever willed, is willing, or will in the future will has already been willed from all eternity. He has willed, is willing, and will continue to will that we be forgiven our sins. In other words, every sin you and I have ever committed, are committing, and will ever commit has always, already been forgiven. Christ death on the cross and his resurrection from the tomb are two historical events with eternal consequences. Because Christ died and rose, human nature is healed. We've done nothing to earn this healing. God didn't owe us this healing. A healed human nature is God's gift to us from all eternity. This is what we mean by Divine Mercy – the always, already present forgiveness of our sins. Sin is part and parcel of our damaged human nature. When that nature is healed, we are freed from sin and death. All that is left for us to do is to receive or to reject His mercy. 

 

Luke tells us that the disciples are in awe of God b/c they were living as Christ taught them. Thomas is in awe of Christ b/c Christ forgives his rejection and allows him to satisfy his doubt. These are both examples of receiving and living out the Divine Mercy we have given from all eternity. How do we receive His mercy now? First, we must stop thinking that God loves us more or less based on our behavior. God is Love. He cannot not Love us. Our good behavior makes it possible for us to better receive His mercy, and our bad behavior makes it more likely that we will not receive His mercy. Second, we must stop thinking of His mercy as something we earn through prayer or devotions or the sacraments. Mercy is a gift. It's free. It's not a wage or a reward or a debt that God pays us. All we need to do is receive it. Third, and most importantly, we must show mercy to others. We cannot give what we do not have. Receive God's mercy and show mercy to those who have wronged you – friends, relatives, neighbors, strangers, enemies. Showing mercy to those closest to you – family – is vital to your relationship with God. Husbands, wives, children, in-law's need your mercy most. And lastly, show yourself mercy. Holding yourself to a high moral standard is praiseworthy and right. Right and wrong don't change just b/c we find it difficult to be morally good. However, Christ died on the cross and rose from the tomb so that you and I might live in this world free from sin and death. When you fail – and you will – receive the mercy that Christ died to give you.

In the Church, our ordinary means of receiving mercy is through the sacrament of confession. We confess our sins, resolve to sin no more, and the priest absolves us. That absolution is our guarantee that we have received God's mercy. Because we all need His mercy to function as powerful witnesses to the Good News, I urge you to go to confession. Beyond your once a year obligation to go to confession, I urge you to make frequent use of the sacrament. Once a month, once a week. The more often you receive the Divine Mercy, the likely you are to show mercy to others; thus, growing more and more in holiness. The disciples are in awe of Christ's life among them. Thomas is in awe of Christ's presence among the apostles after the crucifixion. What could be more awesome for us in 2017 than to be instruments of the Divine Mercy in our families, among our friends, and for the whole world?!

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Are you firmly in his grasp?

Easter Morning 2017

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Priory, NOLA

Mary of Magdala sees that the stone has been moved, and she is confused. Peter and the other disciples race to the tomb to see for themselves. They do not understand either. The tomb is empty. Nothing is left behind but his burial cloths. One believes but the others remain perplexed. Despite having spent three years with Jesus as his disciples, most of them do not yet understand the bare reality of Christ's resurrection, much less do they comprehend the radical transformation of human history that his resurrection initiates. Mary and the other disciples are standing on the ground, the very spot where Divine Love and human nature meet – in person – to heal the ancient rift btw God and Man. It all starts in a manger and comes to its climax some thirty years later in a grave. Though the salvation of all creation is not yet complete, everything necessary is firmly in place. When we do our small part, when we come to “understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead,” we arrive at that very spot and begin our own participation in what's to come. What's coming? Paul says, “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.” 

 

Christ's resurrection from the tomb and his eventual ascension is the promised sign to us that we too will be given new life after death. Pope Benedict gives us a clue how this will happen, “. . .[his] Resurrection has reached us and seized us. We grasp hold of it, we grasp hold of the risen Lord, and we know that he holds us firmly even when our hands grow weak.” The whole purpose of the resurrection is to bring all of creation back to the Father. What does that mean for us now? BXVI says, “We grasp hold of his hand, and thus we also hold on to one another’s hands, and we become one single subject. . .” All that grasping and hand-holding, all the following along and behind, the “one single subject” is the Church, the Body of Christ – here on Earth now but heading toward resurrection and ascension. Our minute-by-minute task is to stay resolutely within the Body of Christ, doing, saying, thinking with the Church so that we do not let go of his hand. If you will be raised with Christ, then seek always what is above. Live now with Christ. He has you firmly in his grasp!

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There's an empty tomb waiting for us all

The Easter Vigil 2017

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St Dominic Priory, NOLA

In a homily for Holy Saturday, St. John Chrysostom asks the catechumens, “How can I lay open before you the mystery of the Lord's resurrection, the saving grace of his cross and of his three days' death?” Explaining a mystery is a fool's errand. What makes such an explanation foolish isn't the inevitable failure of intelligence or will, rather explaining a mystery – especially one foundational to the apostolic faith – requires an understanding of salvation history that God alone possesses. We get bits and pieces throughout the liturgical year, and tonight we got much larger bits – but it was bits nonetheless. The mysteries of our faith must be lived 'til death and even then our understanding is limited to the perfectly human. How we react to these mysteries and what we do with what we do understand sets our course toward (or away from) holiness. Is one reaction better than another? When Mary of Magdala arrives at the empty tomb, the angel says to her, “Do not be afraid! I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified.” Seeking the crucified Christ after his resurrection requires courage; it requires a willingness to tell the truth about the empty tomb, and what that empty tomb means.

The truth is: there's an empty tomb waiting for us all. True, it's empty right now b/c we're not dead yet, but it is also empty b/c the finality of death itself is dead. The Resurrection brings us back to the ever-living God Who is life eternal. So, do not be afraid. Do not be afraid of dying, of getting old, of becoming infirmed; do not be afraid of losing your dignity, your intellectual prowess, your creative gifts. Do not be afraid of anything that could threaten your faith in the reality of the Resurrection, the promise of God the Father to you back to Him in glory. The empty tomb of Easter morning is the enduring witness of this promise, the Lord's testimony to His faithfulness and love. 

 

When the risen Christ meets his disciples on the road, he says to them, “Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” Whatever anxiety, whatever apprehension the disciples must feel at their teacher's death, it all melts away when they see him again. They approach, embrace his feet, and do him homage. That's the courage of holiness.

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Small mercies and large

Good Friday 2017

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St Dominic Priory, NOLA

Brothers, recall for a moment all the small mercies you have enjoyed through the years. I don't mean the really big stuff like sacramental absolution from mortal sin, or a last-minute reprieve from a serious accident or a deadly disease. I mean the truly smallish mercies; the everyday mercies of living and working with our fellow sinners – here at the priory, in the parish, at your ministry site, or just strolling around WalMart! What sort of lives would we lead if we couldn't give and receive mercy, especially the little mercies we need just to be up and moving around w/o constantly finding ourselves in furious arguments or fist-fights? 

 

What I'm calling small mercies flow unimpeded from the one Big Mercy we celebrate this afternoon – the death of Christ on the cross. Over the centuries, the Church has preached a consistent message about the consequences of his crucifixion – we are freed from sin and death and made heirs to His Kingdom. But there's one other element that doesn't get as much attention. Without Christ's death on the cross, mercy would have no eternal weight, no transcendental worth. Without his final proof of divine love at Golgotha, mercy would be mere courtesy, and our struggle would be with civility not holiness. But b/c he took on sin and healed our human nature, we are able to see well-beyond the limits of the here and now and look forward to a time and place where being merciful is no longer necessary b/c being sinful is no longer an option.

This Friday is a Good Friday b/c Christ's death on the cross elevates our human virtues, giving them immeasurable weight and worth. Because his suffering and death on the cross makes our return to the Father not only possible but all the more desirable. And because – left to ourselves – patience, forgiveness, even love would be impossible to empty of self-regard and self-preservation. Thanks to be God, that Christ's self-sacrifice on the cross is the still running-engine of mercy that gives life to the possibility of our conversion and the reality of our hope in the resurrection. While we commemorate the bloody cross this afternoon, we keep our hearts and minds clearly and fiercely focused on a divine horizon – the empty tomb and the promise of Easter morning.

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What Holy Thursday teaches us. . .

Mass of the Last Supper

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St Dominic Priory, NOLA

Holy Thursday teaches us how an execution becomes a sacrifice and how that sacrifice becomes a on-going feast for giving thanks. When Jesus and his disciples gather in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, they are doing more than honoring an ancient Jewish custom. For three years now, Jesus has reminded his disciples—in word and deed—that everything he says and does is moving them all toward a single goal: the fulfillment of the Covenant btw Abraham and God the Father. Every sermon, every hostile exchange with the Pharisees, every healing miracle, everything he has said and done fulfills scriptural prophecy and points to his birth as the coming of the Kingdom. This last celebration of Passover in Jerusalem is no different. It's a prophetic sign of who and what he is for us. 

 

When Jesus and his friends recline at table to begin the feast, they know that what they are remembering is God's rescue of His people from centuries of Egyptian slavery. Bread for the feast is unleavened b/c there is no time to wait for it to rise. The wine is watered b/c they need to be clear-headed for their escape. They are girded for travel and lightly packed. Jesus lifts the bread and says, “This is my Body.” He lifts the cup of wine, “This is my Blood.” At that moment, what were the disciples thinking? Knowing full well what the Passover means—freedom from slavery—did they understand that the Lord was telling them that their ancestral meal of remembrance was now a feast of freedom? That eating his Body and Blood would free them from sin and death? Later, after Jesus' execution, did they make the connection btw ritually sacrificing a lamb in the temple with his sacrifice on the cross?

Holy Thursday teaches us that the Roman execution of Jesus is a Jewish sacrifice, a sacrifice that the Risen Christ transforms into a feast of thanksgiving – a New Covenant Passover celebration that celebrates our rescue from slavery to sin. How does a Roman execution become a Christian feast? When the one executed is the Son of God and Son of Man. When the one whose body and blood we eat and drink is presented to God as a sacrifice, a sin-offering made once for all. And when we are commanded to remember this sacrifice, to participate in it by taking into our own bodies the Body and Blood of the one sacrificed for us.

 

Holy Thursday teaches us that Jesus the Christ has fulfilled the promises and obligations of the Covenant made btw Abraham and God the Father, establishing for us a New Covenant of grace, of freely offered forgiveness for all of our offenses. Knowing this, “. . .let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and favor and to find help in time of need.”

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Knowing he will die. . .

Palm Sunday (A)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

OLR, NOLA

Between today and next Sunday we will hear again and again how Christ emptied himself out for our sake. How he took on the form of a slave for us. How he “humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Palm Sunday remembers the day he entered Jerusalem in triumph, hailed as a conquering king. What a difference one week can make. From King to Criminal, from Conqueror to Crook. He will be celebrated and honored, betrayed and falsely accused, wrongly convicted and executed. . .all this week. . .and for no other reason than to free you and me from the bonds from sin and death. He goes to Jerusalem – knowing he will die – he goes to Jerusalem b/c it is in Jerusalem that every righteous sacrifice must be made. He dies in this one place so that every place from then on will be made right for offering the Father worthy praise and thanksgiving. Spend this week before his death giving God thanks and praise for making His mercy freely available. For making His Son the means of your freedom from the darkness of sin and death. For making us His children again.

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Survey on Preaching the Homily

St. Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis have all called the Church to engage the New Evangelization at the beginning of this new millennium. 

One of the areas most often cited for improvement is preaching. 

Tell me:

1). What does "effective preaching" look and sound like?

2). What have you heard and seen from the pulpit that didn't work, or actually made it more difficult for you to participate in the Mass?

3). If you could sit down with a class of third year seminarians and transitional deacons, what would you tell them about preaching? 

____________________
 
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Untie him. . .let him go!

5^th Sunday of Lent (A)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

Our Lady of the Rosary, NOLA

John twice tells us that Jesus is “angry within himself.” Once when Mary falls at Jesus' feet crying. And again after the Jews wonder why he couldn't save Lazarus' life. So, why is Jesus angry? What's more, why start a homily on the last Sunday of Lent by pointing out Jesus' anger? All of the Lenten Sunday readings build to this Sunday. Jesus is tempted in the desert for 40 days. He is transfigured on Mt. Tabor. He meets the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. Then he heals the Man Born Blind. The 5^th Sunday Lenten readings reveal the theme: Jesus' humanity – his consistent, undeniable humanity. And the interaction between his humanity and the physical world he inhabits. As we rapidly approach the solemn celebration of his resurrection from the dead, the gospel writers want to point us back again and again to Christ's human nature, back to his body and bones and blood. Lest we forget that Christ's resurrection was a physical, historical event, we are reminded – by his anger – that is he one of us, like us in all ways but sin. And like him, we too will be resurrected.

Now, it's a bit odd to think of Jesus as an angry man. It is even odder to think that he allows Lazarus to die in order to raise him to live again. But it appears that this is exactly what happened. Jesus waits two days after hearing about Lazarus' deadly illness before he leaves for Bethany. That two day delay plus two days of travel and our Lord arrives four days after his friend has died. When Jesus arrives, Martha says to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Her words may sound confrontational, so she quickly adds, “But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” Imagine Martha's emotional state. Grieving her brother's death. Angry with Jesus for not arriving sooner. Relieved that he is there. And believing that he will be able to do something miraculous. Riding this roller-coaster of pain and barely suppressed joy, Martha believes. And Jesus chooses this moment to reveal a mystery. To the mourning sister he says, “Your brother will rise.” This is why our Lord waited to attend Lazarus: to uncover the mystery of faith, to reveal an eternal consequence of believing that he is the Christ – new life out of death.

Jesus lays it out: “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” Then he turns to Martha and asks the fundamental question of faith, “Do you believe this?” Martha's answer is exemplary. Is ours? I mean, do you believe that Jesus Christ is the resurrection and life? Do you believe in him? Do you believe that by believing in him you will rise again to new life? And let's not piddle with spiritualized metaphors or psychological interpretations here. Jesus means exactly what he says. Do you believe that you – body and soul – will be given an eternal life after you physically die? The whole point of waiting for Lazarus' death is to reveal the mystery of life after death. The whole point of showing Jesus at the tomb with a four-day old corpse is to reveal the mystery of life after death. Martha warns Jesus when he orders the tomb opened, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.” Spiritualized or psychologized metaphors do not emit a stench, much less a stench that deserves a warning! We're talking about a corpse. A dead human body. No embalming. No refrigeration. Martha's warning about the smell is not just a courtesy to Jesus. She deadly serious.

And so is Jesus when he answers her warning, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” He did tell her that. Martha believes. So, she sees the glory of God. Lazarus walks out of the tomb when Jesus calls his name. Lazarus risen from a four-day old death is the glory of God that Jesus promises. That's the same promise he makes to us: believe and be raised. And not just on the last day either. But raised again and again from the little deaths that sin inflicts on us daily. Yes, there will be one, final resurrection – some into eternal life and some into an eternal death – but there is also an ongoing, daily resurrection that we experience along the way to perfection. As our joy is being completed along the Way, we experience everything that Martha and Mary experience after Lazarus' dies – joy, anger, disappointment, wonder, grief. And with Christ among us we experience each one of these passions as a whole human person, a complete creation made complete by Christ's miraculous resurrection from his tomb. But our perfection in him must wait until the last day and our job 'til then is to do as Martha does – to believe that Christ, the Son of God, “the one who is coming into the world.”

Our Sunday readings in the season of Lent draw us toward Lazarus' emergence from his tomb in order to prepare us for Christ's resurrection on Easter morning. Each Sunday reading pounds on the theme of Christ's humanity so that the glory of his miraculous resurrection doesn't outshine the truth that he is one of us in all but sin. He cries. He bleeds. He feels and expresses anger. He mourns and believes. And he loves. Just like we do. And if we place our trust in him, believing in his Lordship and acting on that belief in our lives, we will rise as he rose. With just one week of Lent left before we begin the Easter season, you ask yourself all day everyday: do I believe? Do I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, risen – body and soul – from the dead on the third day? If you say yes to this question, our Lord will say, “Untie him, untie her and let them go.”

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Hello, Darkness. . .

Hello, Darkness (18x24, acrylic, canvas board)

This is an experiment with chromatic black. The foundation layer is composed of Mars Black, Primary Blue, Burnt Siena, and Phyto Green. The "colored" portions are (top to bottom) green, black, blue.

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Healing thru Obedience

4^th Sunday of Lent (A)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

OLR, NOLA

How does a little bit of dirt and spit smeared on the eyes heal blindness? It doesn't. The Man Born Blind isn't healed by Jesus' rather unsanitary ad hoc remedy. He isn't healed by the magical waters of the Pool of Siloam either. Nor is he healed through his faith in Christ. So, what heals him? The man's disability is healed by his obedience to Christ's Word, by his willingness to listen to and comply with Jesus' order: “Go wash in the Pool of Siloam,” Jesus tells him. The result? “So he went and washed, and came back able to see.” Notice that there's no declaration of belief or faith by the man, no proclamation or confession, nothing that would indicate that he even knows who Jesus is before he is healed. As far as we can know from John's account, the man doesn't speak until after the miracle occurs. Jesus heals the man as a gift, out of abundant generosity and as a sign of his Sonship. The man's subsequent testimony to the religious authorities bears out Christ's wisdom in choosing this man as a witness to his power. Later Jesus catches up to the man and asks him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” The man says, “I do believe, Lord.” 

 

Belief comes easy; obedience, not so much. We can believe all sorts of things – sensible and nonsensical – without much effort, without worrying too much that we may be proven wrong. We've come to accept that one's beliefs are an intensely personal/private matter that no one can justly dispute or deny. If I were to tell you that I believe that the Earth is flat, you would probably think I'm just being eccentric and ignore me. Well, it's his right to believe that nonsense if he wants! So long as my beliefs don't hurt anyone – what's the big deal? Like I said, belief is easy. Obedience is an entirely different matter. Obedience is about listening to and complying with something someone else says. Obedience necessarily involves another person. Belief is personal and private. Obedience is communal and public. For me to obey my religious superiors means listening to them and complying with their requests. I'm told to move back to Rome, or given job within my province, or asked to take another ministry site. I don't want to do any of these things, but obedience requires me to listen and comply. That's hard. Being obedient can change my job, my living arrangements, my personal comfort; it can challenge my gifts, and require me to be open to all sorts of potentially unpleasant outcomes. Believing is easy; obeying is not.

And maybe this is why the story of the Man Born Blind is told the way it is. Jesus healed some according to their belief. He healed others b/c of the faith of family and friends. But the Man Born Blind is the only person to be healed according to his obedience. And this is good news for us! Belief and faith can often seem difficult to conjure. All sorts of sins can interfere with our natural desire to come closer to God. When we focus too much on the emotional effects of believing, we sometimes come away empty. We expect that believing will necessarily erupt in us like a whirlwind. Taking us to heights of spiritual ecstasy and mystical union with God. When we don't feel those effects, we imagine that our faith is lacking. That our belief is somehow weak. But if we can be healed – like the Man Born Blind – by obedience, by listening to and complying with Christ's Word, then there is another way to seeing his light in our life. There's another way for us to come closer to God that can get us through those times when faith and belief seem distant and sore. We can be children of the light through obedience. 

 

Paul writes to the Ephesians, “Brothers and sisters. . .try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the fruitless works of darkness; rather expose them. . .” Paul describes the work of Lent. Learn to please God. Do nothing to assist the work of darkness. Expose the shameful works of evil. We learn to please the Lord by hearing, listening to, and complying with His Word, Jesus Christ. We do this not for His sake but our own. God doesn't need our obedience; we do. We are obedient for our healing, so that we might come out of the blindness of sin and into the light of our salvation. We avoid participating in the fruitless works of darkness by knowing always doing, saying, and thinking only what is good for the Gospel. As long as we put the Gospel before our thoughts, words, and deeds and act only through the Gospel, we can avoid helping those who preach the sin and death. And the only way to expose the works of darkness is to always and everywhere live, breath, eat, sleep, and work in the Truth of Christ who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We have two weeks left in this Lent. It's time to work harder at our God-given mission of being Christ's light to the darkening world. “You are light in the Lord. Live as children of light”!

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Making good on our deal

3^rd Week of Lent (W)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
NDS, NOLA

Back in the Dark Ages, music-lovers could join the Columbia House Record Club. Join up to buy just one cassette tape for $9.99 and you would receive ten free cassettes of your choosing! Sounds like a great deal. . .until you realize that ninety percent of their stock consisted of third-rate 70's disco bands and glam hair bands from the 80's. Of course, I signed up. Many, many times. Each month – for years – I'd receive a catalog in the mail with a reminder that I had to buy just one more cassette to fulfill my obligation. Just one more. On occasion I'd break down and buy something. Hoobastanks' They Sure Don't Make Basketball Shorts Like They Used To, or Twisted Sisters' Love is for Suckers. Anything to stop the catalogs. Anything to get out from under the obligation. I discovered, however, that once you're member of the Columbia House Record Club, you are always a member. The catalogs don't stop. The pre-paid return envelopes don't stop. The glitter-glam bad hair guitar bands haunt your dreams. Forever. You make a deal under legal obligation, and there's no one to save you. 

 

The Jews made a deal with some legal obligations – though none of these involved monthly catalogs. As time moved away from the Original Deal, the terms of the contract began to grow, layer upon layer; the obligations piled up and the procedures for meeting one's obligations became more intricate. Underneath the desiccated barnacles of interpretation, application, amendment, and nuance the heart of the Original Deal still beat. Love God. Love self. Love neighbor. In order to expose the still beating heart of the Original Deal, God sent His only Son to become one of us, to assume – as his own – our inability to carry out of our end of the bargain, and to teach us how to live freely as children of the Original Deal Maker. In other words, Christ came to fulfill the terms of our deal, to meet all of our obligations under the Law. He did not accomplish this feat of mercy by sweeping away the Original Deal. He did it by bringing together in one divine person the perfection of God and the imperfections of man; by dying so that our imperfections might be made perfect; and by rising back to the Father, carrying with him everything that makes us prone to the sickness of sin and the permanency of death. The Law he fulfilled remains. 

 

The Original Deal still stands. Love God. Love self. Love neighbor. And do so knowing that your failures have already been forgiven.

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Confession Advice

NB. A repost by request. . .

1).  Confession is all about receiving the forgiveness we have all already been given.   We cannot earn forgiveness by works, attitude, or even confession itself; if we could, it would be a wage not a grace (i.e. a gift).

2).  Penance is not a punishment for sin.  Completing the penance you've been given is a sign that you have received God's forgiveness and resolved not to sin again.  This is why I always assign sin-appropriate psalms as penance.

3).  Priests rarely remember the sins of individual penitents.  Some believe that this is a grace from God given so that the confessor is spared the difficulty of carrying around the memories of sin.  Sounds good to me.  Frankly, I think the explanation is more mundane: priests have heard it all and sin is boring.

4). Explaining your sins in the confessional is unnecessary and time-consuming.  Just say what you did and leave it at that.  If more info is needed, your confessor will ask.  Explanations generally come across as attempts to excuse the sin.

5).  Ask for counsel if you need it.  Most experienced confessors will know when counsel is needed, but it never hurts to ask.  Just keep in mind that there are others waiting to confess!

6).  This is your confession, so stick to your sins.  You cannot confess for your kids, your spouse, your neighbors, etc.  And please avoid using your confession time to complain about your kids, your spouse, your neighbors, etc.

7).  Faithfully assisting at Mass (actually participating) absolves venial sins.  Why else would we recite the Confiteor and the celebrant pray for our absolution?

8).  If you are unsure about whether or not X is a sin, ask.  Remember:  mortal sins are acts of disobedience that "kill charity" in your heart.  You cannot sin mortally through accident or ignorance. Don't turn a venial sin into a mortal "just in case."  

9).  Keep your eye on the clock and the line.  Make a thorough confession but balance your thoroughness with economy.  Others are waiting.  One way to do this (if there's a long line) is to stick to your mortal sins and save the venial sins for Mass.

10).  Tell your confessor that you will pray for him. . .and then go out there and pray for him! 

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