Will you stay or walk away?

3rd Week of Easter (S) 

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Church, NOLA 

Had I been a disciple of Christ 2,000 years ago and had he been foolish enough to ask me for advice on how to arrange for the salvation of his Father's human creatures and had he been doubly foolish and followed my advice, our means of salvation would be very, very different today. Let's just say that there would be no crosses, no nails, no suffering; far fewer demands for sacrifice and obedience; and our Masses would involve pecan pie, ice cream, and the swapping of funny stories about our (grand)kids. My point here is not to be irreverent. The Way we've been given by Christ is narrow but straight, difficult but doable. However, if given the chance to avoid the difficult stretches of the Way, or radically alter the course entirely and still make it to heaven, most of us would jump at that chance! Unfortunately, there's just the One Way to the heavenly feast and all the wishing in the universe cannot change this hard fact. Jesus says to the quarreling Jews, “. . .my Flesh is true food, and my Blood is true drink. . .whoever eats this bread [and drinks this blood] will live forever. . .Does this shock you?” 

Evidently, it shocked some of those who heard him, “As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer walked with him.” The disciples who walked away from this hard teaching probably did so b/c they did not understand what Jesus was teaching. How can we eat his flesh and drink his blood? That's cannibalism! Maybe some walked away b/c they understood that eating his flesh and drinking his blood meant sacrificing their lives to live in the radical love of God and others and this they could not do. Whatever their reasons for walking away, they were shocked and choose not to follow the Christ. Jesus' teaching on the means of our salvation is no less shocking for some today but for very different reasons. Those in the Church who are shocked/offended by Christ's teaching today find fault with what they see as his blindness to the diversity of human religious experience. They are disgusted with what appears to be a narrow intolerance of the different means of reaching for and grasping the Divine. They would ask Jesus, “Isn't it more loving to be open to and accepting of the variety of ways that people experience God and choose to worship? Why must you so exclusive, so disrespectful to different ways that people express their personal encounter with the Divine? Surely, we don't need to exclude those who take a different view of how we can achieve holiness?” 

Jesus answers, “The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe. . .For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father.” As much as we might like for the way to heaven to be paved with pecan pies, pick and choose beliefs, “free lifestyle choices,” and mix and match gods and goddesses, the hard truth is that Christ has given us A Way, The Way to eternal life and that Way begins and ends by following him. After some of his students walk away, Jesus turns to the Twelve and asks, “Do you also want to leave?” Peter the Rock answers for them, “You have the words of eternal life. . .We have come to believe . . .that you are the Holy One of God.” We are under no obligation to remain on the Way of Christ. But if we remain, there is just one path to follow, the holy means to our holiest end. If this truth is shocking, any of us can walk away and return to our former lives. However, if we choose to stay, we follow the Spirit who gives us the Word of Life! 

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Thanks!

Thanks to  Peter J. K. for the Kindle Books!  Already started on one of them. . .good stuff.

Fr. Philip, OP
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Coffee Cup Browsing

Today's seminarians/vocations turning toward traditionalism?  No, it's more turning toward orthodoxy, i.e. "thinking with the Church."  Woe to dioceses and religious orders who refuse to see it.

25 Catholic blogs you may not be reading!

George Zimmerman's great-grandfather was black.  Makes no difference to me or any other rational person.  But the MSM/B.O. have a story about White on Black violence to tell.

Even the "Wise Latina" was skeptical of the Fed's case against AZ's anti-illegal immigration law.

The jealous god of academy tolerance:  universities fight to rid themselves of Christian student groups.

B.O.'s Labor Dept proposes outlawing kids doing their chores on the farm.  At 13, I would've welcomed my new Benevolent Federal Overlords. . .anything to get out of mowing the yard!

CNN's Don Lemon wanders off the Leftist Plantation and gets smacked by viewers.  Tells us all we need to know about CNN, Lemon, and the Left.

More goofy "new cosmology" in the L.A. archdiocese. . .and folks thoughts that Archbishop Gomez was gonna initiate The Great Crackdown after the Dark Mahony Years.

Just in case you thought same-sex "marriage" was about equality:  churches will be forced to host SMM under proposed city ordinance. 

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That All-Important "But"

St. Mark
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

 In one of his many post-resurrecction appearances, Jesus gives his cringing disciples their mission statement, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.” Short, sweet, nothing fancy. Get out there and teach everybody everything I've taught you. Mark's gospel doesn't record the disciples' reaction to these orders. Given that the disciples are scared witless of being executed; grieving Jesus' death; worrying about his missing body; and freaking out that their very dead Master is popping in and out of locked rooms, we can surmise that they are puzzled by his orders, probably ready to run for the hills and never look back. And then, once he delivers his orders, just to make things a tiny bit more stressful for the panicked disciples, Jesus disappears into heaven! Mark tells us exactly how the disciples react to this. . .and he uses just one word: “but.” “Then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven. . .But they went forth and preached everywhere. . .” Heh. Maybe they weren't such pathetic cringers after all. Do we go forth and preach despite the obstacles, despite our fears? 

Let's examine this “but” a little more closely. Jesus goes “up” but the disciples go “out.” Jesus goes to the Father but the disciples go into the world. Jesus is “taken up” but the disciples “went forth.” Jesus “took his seat” at the Father's right hand but the disciples “preached everywhere.” That “but” tells us that the disciples didn't do what Jesus was doing at that moment. Jesus didn't take his students with him. None of them, at that moment, were taken up to heaven to sit at the Father's side. Something quite different happens. Once the disciples receive their mission, they go out to complete it. And Jesus joins them! Mark notes that while they were preaching “the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.” Perhaps the reason the disciples aren't overly concerned about their mission is b/c they remembered Jesus' promise to be with them always. Or, perhaps they had forgotten that bit, found some courage, went out to do their jobs despite their fears, and Jesus came along as he had promised. Either way, they hear and obey Christ's admonition, and he is with them as they complete their task. Can we do the same? Can we find our courage and go into the world, teaching and preaching the Good News, believing that we do so with Christ at our side? 

We can if we remember the all-important “but” of Mark's gospel. Jennifer is a first year resident at an inner-city hospital and specializes in OB-GYN. She is asked to perform an abortion. BUT she preaches the Good News with Christ at her side. Robert is a new teacher at a public school. His students ask him uncomfortable political questions about sex and marriage. BUT he preaches the Good News with Christ at his side. Susan is an physics grad student at a Catholic university. Her major professor is an atheist. BUT she preaches the Good News with Christ at her side. Jeff's children have rejected their faith and refuse to raise the grandchildren in the Church. BUT he preaches the Good News with Christ at his side. Preaching the Good News with Christ at our side is almost always something we do despite our fears, despite any apparent obstacles. Peter says, “Clothe yourselves with humility. . . Cast all your worries upon him because he cares for you. Be sober and vigilant. . .The God of all grace. . .will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” He will be with you always. You have no reason to fear. Go then into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature. 

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8 Themes of the LCWR Worldview

[NB.  Given recent developments on the CDF/LCWR front, I thought I'd repost about a piece from April of 2009 on some of the presidential addresses delivered at the LCWR annual assemblies.  2012 editions are bracketed in red.]

Again, waiting for my bowl of coffee to kick in, I did a little browsing on the website of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR). They have posted information about their annual assemblies, including the texts of the presidential addresses and keynote speeches.

I read through several of the keynote speeches, and I noticed a couple of themes (that's what we Old Lit Teachers do--look for themes). Here's just a few in no particular order:

1. "Mission": all of the addresses I read (four of them) exhort the sisters to mission. But never the mission of the Church that we would recognize as evangelization, that is, the preaching and teaching of the gospel that Christ gave to the apostles. The mission the sisters are exhorted to take up is always, always some form of left-liberal social engineering disguised as caring for Earth or insuring access to adequate health [care] for women.  ["Adequate health care for women" is usually U.N. code for "abortion/contraception," but the addresses do not speak to the issue directly.  The 2012 CDF document lauds the good work the LCWR does in promoting certain social justice issues but notes their total silence on the issue of abortion.]

2). Insularity: despite the exhortations to "mission," all of the addresses I read include broad descriptions of the history of women religious as a way of "situating" the experience of these women within their own "mission," in other words, they spend a lot of page space on talking to one another about one another's grand innovations after the VC2 and how these innovations are radically different from anything that's come before [Novelty for the sake of novelty is a mark of modernity in literature, art, architecture, etc.  Ezra Pound, "Make it new!"]. There's quite a bit of self-congratulation here, along with laundry lists of excuses why their missions have failed to produce global results. The villain in their failures, by the way, is always the hierarchy. Big surprise.

3). "Prophetic": as a corollary to their mission and insularity, the addresses harp on how "prophetic" women religious are in these innovations. As far as I can tell, "prophetic" means whatever they want it to mean. It clearly does not mean what the Church means by the term. If the examples used are typical, "prophetic" means something like "doing what we please and then accusing the Church of being too traditional, oppressive, and isolated from the world for not following our lead." Beware self-anointed prophets!  [The 2012 CDF document notes that public statements by the LCWR use "prophetic" in a way that "justifies dissent by positing the possibility of divergence between the Church’s magisterium and a “legitimate” theological intuition of some of the faithful."]

4). "We missed out": probably the most interesting theme is what I will call the We Missed Out theme. This theme arises in several discussions of the scientific and technological revolutions of the 20th century. Apparently, this theme is meant to demonstrate the superiority of a modernist worldview over and against a wholly Christian worldview. But what arises is a kind of lament that these women have somehow missed out on the revolutions and long to stir one of their own so as to feel somehow prophetic. I've found a similar theme in recent court opinions allowing same-sex "marriage"--judges too young to have participated in the heady days of near absolute judicial power during the civil rights era of the 60's invent a place for themselves in legal history by making what laws they can from the bench. We want to shine. . .but a light we ourselves generate.

5). Futility: without exception the addresses I read painted depressing portraits of women religious as a tiny rebel band fighting the Sheriff of Rome. As part of the insularity painted by these addresses is a tragic sense of loss and the futility of their "mission" in the face of overwhelming authoritarian oppression by men. Apparently, we are to believe that women religious in the U.S. are guerrilla-fighters engaged in a war of attrition against the Church. Unfortunately for them, the attrition is all on their side. Rhetorically, these portraits serve an important purpose: by painting themselves as righteous rebels fighting a losing battle against the Man, the sisters are able to both continue their rebellion and justify their material failures all the while claiming moral victory. Neat, uh?

6). Jesus ain't the Way: also without exception the addresses forthrightly deny Jesus' own claim that he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. As a way of undermining the Church's legitimate mission of evangelization, Jesus becomes just another good guy with a really cool message of pacificism, egalitarian communal life, and a feminist concern for eco-politics. In one address, delivered by Joan Chittister, the arrival of mosques in historically Christian lands is celebrated as a great advance for liberty and the pursuit of religious diversity. She argues that worrying about the decline in numbers of women religious is a "capitalist question" and holds that the the decimation of covents and monasteries after VC2 is a good sign for the Church! Apparently, the complete loss of a discernible Christian identity among some women religious is to be celebrated as a movement of the Holy Spirit and a great advance in human-spiritual evolution.  [From the 2012 CDF document:  ". . .a prevalence of certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith in some of the programs and presentations sponsored by the LCWR, including theological interpretations that risk distorting faith in Jesus and his loving Father who sent his Son for the salvation of the world. Moreover, some commentaries on “patriarchy” distort the way in which Jesus has structured sacramental life in the Church; others even undermine the revealed doctrines of the Holy Trinity, the divinity of Christ, and the inspiration of Sacred Scripture."]

7). Monotonality: the addresses are uniformly written and delivered by women religious who tell the gathered sisters only what they wanted to hear. There were no addresses that seriously challenged any of the preconceived notions held dear by these women. Without exception. the meme's of "We Are the Future and Our Agenda is of God" is heard in terms of ecclesial revolution and theological dissent. Not one address challenged the sisters to rethink their assumptions along orthodox lines. Not one address asserted a theme, idea, theology, or political notion that would upset or stir the secular feminist pot these women are stewing in. Despite the constant harping on the need for a variety of voices to be heard in the Church and the desperate need for new ideas among God's people, these addresses repeated in predictable loops one stale feminist cliche after another. Ironically, the obstinate refusal to listen to different voices is routinely described as a failing characteristic of the male-dominated Church hierarchy! [Though I hope and pray the bishops appointed to help the LCWR meet with cooperation, I suspect that the lack of intellectual diversity among the sisters running the show will produce a lot of obstruction.]

8). New Stories: as a result of the We Missed Out theme, the addresses pull on recent developments in cosmology to construct "new stories" about creation, space-time, human evolution, and the role of consciousness in our pursuit of holiness. Of course, none of these new stories read like anything found in scripture, tradition, science, or Church teaching. In fact, the purpose of the new stories is to lay a narrative foundation for a particularly gnostic-feminist view of the human person that "frees" us from the confines of patriarchal thinking by re-situating the human race as just another evolved species living and dying in a vast cosmos. Routinely, the addresses privilege "new cosmologies" over and against our biblical narratives of creation and the end of space-time, and undermine God's Self-revelation in scripture. Rhetorically, the new cosmologies give the sisters a means of defying our Judeo-Christian tradition with the authority of modernist science. Unfortunately, their grasp of the scientific details of cosmology is woefully inadequate, leaving them to play with a pathetic parody of actual cosmological theories. [Thus, the invitation made to New Age guru and junk theologians like Barbara Marx Hubbard and her "conscious evolution."]

Let me point out here that the LCWR is a leadership conference. By no means am I attributing these themes or attitudes to all women religious in the congregations that participate in the LCWR. [From the 2012 CDF document:  "The Holy See acknowledges with gratitude the great contribution of women Religious to the Church in the United States as seen particularly in the many schools, hospitals, and institutions of support for the poor which have been founded and staffed by Religious over the years. . .While recognizing that this doctrinal Assessment concerns a particular conference of major superiors and therefore does not intend to offer judgment on the faith and life of Women Religious in the member Congregations which belong to that conference, nevertheless the Assessment reveals serious doctrinal problems which affect many in Consecrated Life."  So, the Evil Vatican Stomps on Poor Nuns meme and the All U.S. Sisters are Whack Jobs meme are both wrong.] I know sisters in LCWR congregations who fret about the feminist turn of their communities and lament the loss of their Christian identity to trendy New Age gnosticism. Younger women religious aren't buy this anti-Church junk food, choosing instead to nourish themselves on the vast variety of legit Catholic traditions well within the generous range of orthodoxy. My fisking here is directed at the addresses themselves and what they tell us about what the LCWR is hearing and/or wants to hear. As anyone who's a member of a large organization knows: leadership is often way, way out in front of those they lead. . .sometimes too far out. I think this is certainly the case with the LCWR.

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An Unjust Law is No Law At All

Our First, Most Cherished Liberty, USCCB:

We are Catholics. We are Americans. We are proud to be both, grateful for the gift of faith which is ours as Christian disciples, and grateful for the gift of liberty which is ours as American citizens. To be Catholic and American should mean not having to choose one over the other. Our allegiances are distinct, but they need not be contradictory, and should instead be complementary. That is the teaching of our Catholic faith, which obliges us to work together with fellow citizens for the common good of all who live in this land. That is the vision of our founding and our Constitution, which guarantees citizens of all religious faiths the right to contribute to our common life together.

Freedom is not only for Americans, but we think of it as something of our special inheritance, fought for at a great price, and a heritage to be guarded now. We are stewards of this gift, not only for ourselves but for all nations and peoples who yearn to be free. Catholics in America have discharged this duty of guarding freedom admirably for many generations.

[. . .]

We need, therefore, to speak frankly with each other when our freedoms are threatened. Now is such a time. As Catholic bishops and American citizens, we address an urgent summons to our fellow Catholics and fellow Americans to be on guard, for religious liberty is under attack, both at home and abroad.

[. . .]

Religious liberty is not only about our ability to go to Mass on Sunday or pray the Rosary at home. It is about whether we can make our contribution to the common good of all Americans. Can we do the good works our faith calls us to do, without having to compromise that very same faith? Without religious liberty properly understood, all Americans suffer, deprived of the essential contribution in education, health care, feeding the hungry, civil rights, and social services that religious Americans make every day, both here at home and overseas.

What is at stake is whether America will continue to have a free, creative, and robust civil society—or whether the state alone will determine who gets to contribute to the common good, and how they get to do it. Religious believers are part of American civil society, which includes neighbors helping each other, community associations, fraternal service clubs, sports leagues, and youth groups. All these Americans make their contribution to our common life, and they do not need the permission of the government to do so. Restrictions on religious liberty are an attack on civil society and the American genius for voluntary associations.

[. . .]

It is a sobering thing to contemplate our government enacting an unjust law. An unjust law cannot be obeyed. In the face of an unjust law, an accommodation is not to be sought, especially by resorting to equivocal words and deceptive practices. If we face today the prospect of unjust laws, then Catholics in America, in solidarity with our fellow citizens, must have the courage not to obey them. No American desires this. No Catholic welcomes it. But if it should fall upon us, we must discharge it as a duty of citizenship and an obligation of faith.

[. . .]

An unjust law is "no law at all." It cannot be obeyed, and therefore one does not seek relief from it, but rather its repeal.

Read the whole thing. . .very enlightening.
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First, believe. . .then work!

3rd Week of Easter (M)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Catholics love to do stuff. We love activity. Dinners, parish meetings, service projects, prayer groups, pilgrimages, collections, anything and everything that might bring about some Good in the world. We are repeatedly urge on by our bishops and priests to engage the world with acts of charity so that the work of God might be a witness to His freely given mercy. During Lent, we're exhorted from the pulpit to find a little quiet time, settle down from all our busyness, and spend some time alone with the Lord. Such exhortations wouldn't be necessary if we were a lazy lot given to lounging about. Doing good stuff is encoded in our Catholic genes. And with good reason: for us to be perfected in Christ, we must be fully committed to God's work—intellect and will; body, mind, heart, soul; all of our strength, all of our energy. So, when the people chasing Jesus and the disciples around the countryside find them and ask, "What can we do to accomplish the works of God?," Catholics sit up and pay attention. Jesus' answer, however, seems somewhat incomplete: "This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent." Our work is to believe?

 In the early fourth century, an insidious tendency slipped into the Church's spirituality from our Greek philosophical ancestry. Crudely put, the dominant wisdom in Greek culture urged folks to set aside their physical needs and focus on pursuing higher, purely intellectual goals. The body's demands on our time and energy were seen as not only unfortunate distractions but potentially deadly traps as well. The truly enlightened will transcend the physical world and dwell wholly in the realm of Ideas. When this bit of Greek wisdom entered the Church, it was given the name “Quietism” and its defenders taught that only by passively surrendering the self to the divine could we be saved. Like most heresies, Quietism contains a grain of truth. Surrendering one's will to God in the pursuit of holiness is an excellent first step. But it is just the first step. When Jesus tells the crowd that believing in him is what they must do to accomplish the work of God, he's teaching them the first step to take in the life-long task of working with God's love to bring about both individual and communal holiness. Believing in the Christ goes hand-in-hand with accomplishing Christ's work. 

Jesus always seems to bob and weave around straightforward questions and then answers the unasked yet more fundamental question. Today is no exception. The people in the crowd want to know what it is they must do in order to do God's work. They are wanting Jesus to say something like, “Feed the hungry, give alms, fast and pray, and go on pilgrimages.” But Jesus knows that if he gives them a Holy To-Do List, they will run off, do those jobs, and wait for holiness to find them. The more fundamental (and unasked) question he eventually answers is: who must I become in order to accomplish God's work? His answer: you must become a believer in the One sent by God to atone for your sins. In other words, before you begin the work of God, you must belong to God, otherwise your work will be in vain. So, yes, our first job is to believe in the Christ; then, once we have given ourselves wholly to the Father, our work in His Name will both nurture us in holiness and spread the Good News of His abundant mercy. Believing and sitting quietly is at best preparation for tackling God's To-Do List. But tackling that list without surrendering to God is work too easily frustrated by all-too-human vanity. To do God's work, we must first be God's people!

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Do not be troubled. . .

3rd Sunday of Easter (2012)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Let's set the scene: the Eleven are huddled together with some of the other disciples discussing Peter's encounter with the Risen Christ. In the middle of this excited discussion in walks the two disciples who had been on the way to Emmaus. They tell their astonishing story of meeting Christ on the road and how he revealed himself in the breaking of bread. So, we have a large group of people who knew Jesus, loved him, followed him all over the country, and were very much aware of what happened to him in Jerusalem. They knew of his death and that his tomb had been found empty. The reported sightings of Jesus after his death were not only exciting but terrifying as well. Could he really still be alive? And what if he were still alive? What do we do? Search for him? If he's still alive, the temple guards and Roman soldiers will be looking for him. Do we wait around 'til he shows? If the authorities find us with him, we'll be executed as rebels! Their excitement is poisoned by terror. Their love for Christ is tainted by confusion. Do they embrace excitement and love? Or terror and confusion? They believe but they are disbelieving. Why are they (we) troubled? 

The disciples are in a panic. At the peak of their confusion, Jesus appears in their midst and says, “Peace be with you. . .Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts?” The disciples are “startled and terrified.” That's one way to put it. No doubt there is some screaming, some fainting, a few explosive cusses, maybe even a run the door! There they are, discussing Jesus appearances after his death. . .and he just shows up! The disciples believe they are seeing a ghost. Jesus offers no mystical explanations; no theological or philosophical argument for how and why he's there; instead, he casually tells them to examine him, “Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see. . .” John reports that the disciples were “incredulous for joy and were amazed.” Incredulous for joy. Disbelieving in their delight. Skeptical in their happiness to see and touch their Lord. They are amazed, astonished, surprised, a little shocked. Jesus does nothing to calm their surprise but he does offer them a remedy for their disbelief. He eats a piece of fish to show them that he is no ghost, to show them that he is indeed with them—body and soul. 

Why are the disciples troubled? They are criminals among their own people, running and hiding from the law. They are known to be followers of a heretic and rebel. Their Master has been convicted of sedition and blasphemy, tortured, and executed. The authorities know that his body is not in its tomb, and they've broadcast a story implicating his followers in stealing it. They sat at Jesus' feet for three years, listening to him teach, and they've heard him say that he intends to destroy the temple and raise it again in three days. Though they said that they believed he was the Messiah, events have unsettled this belief, leaving them with profound doubts and deep regrets. They are troubled b/c they have staked their lives and reputations on the word of an executed criminal who's dead body has disappeared from its grave. Yeah, they're troubled alright! And just to add to their trouble, this executed criminal starts appearing to them off and on. What are they supposed to believe? What are they supposed to do with all this trouble? If they go public, they end up on a cross. If they keep quiet, they risk disobeying the Christ and betraying him once again. In the midst of all this turmoil and spiritual violence, does the Master offer them any comfort at all? He does. Peace be with you. You are witnesses. 

After the disciples see and touch his risen body, Jesus says to them, “. . .everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled. . .These [were] my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you.” In other words, the disciples shouldn't be shocked at seeing and touching his risen body. Why? B/c he told them that he would die and rise again. Everything that has happened to him since they first met him was predicted and explained in the scriptures. They are surprised, disbelieving b/c they did not understand his teaching. Now that they have seen and touched him, “he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” To understand the Scriptures—what we call the Old Testament—is to understand Christ. Jesus says to them, “Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.” In Acts, we read, “God has thus brought to fulfillment what he had announced beforehand through the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer. . .God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses.” What the prophets foretold, the disciples witness. The Christ would suffer and die. He did. The Christ would be raised from his tomb. He was. Christ Jesus is the fulfillment of God's promise to send His people a Savior. We are witnesses. 

So, why are we troubled? We are troubled b/c—like the disciples—we believe and at the same time we are disbelieving! What's the difference between belief and believing? Belief is rigid, static, unmoving. Belief is saying Yes to a statement, “Yes, I believe that the Lord rose from the dead.” Belief can be captured in a word or a gesture. It can be automatic, easy, cheap. Anyone can assent to a belief and move on. Believing is something else entirely. Seeing and touching the truth of Christ goes beyond just reading about it or discussing it or being worried about it. Believing is what happens when we combine belief with witness. Believing is what happens when we do more than say Yes to a statement; it's what happens when that statement of belief becomes an act, a behavior, a habit. “Yes, I believe that the Lord rose from the dead. . .and here's why I believe it and how his resurrection has radically changed my life!” Believing is what happens when we embody Christ himself, become the living Word day-to-day; when we not only speak the truth and live it but also when we become essentially identified with it—unshakably attached to Christ that to separate ourselves from him is to die lost and alone. If we are troubled, it is b/c we believe Christ but we are not believing; we assent to his teachings out of convenience or old habits or b/c everyone else does but we do not live and breath as believing witnesses. 

Luke reminds his brothers and sister that they are witnesses to Christ's fulfillment of the prophets. They were there to see and hear and touch the Christ as he gave flesh and bone to the ancient words of God's prophets. We weren't there. Our witness as believing men and women is different. We live with the Holy Spirit of God burning within us and among us, consuming the fuel of our lives and spreading the good news of the Father's mercy everywhere we go. Our witness to Christ is laid bare in how we think, act, speak; how we move among family and friends; how we treat those who have sinned against us. We are vowed to both believe and to be believing. To both assenting to the truth and to giving that truth our hearts, minds, and bodies. The Lord is risen! And he is risen in each of us. Peace be with you. Touch and see the Lord among us and do not be troubled. The Lord is risen indeed!

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LCWR: this is just embarrassing. . .

Just in case anyone out there is unclear about the reasons for the CDF's assessment of the LCWR's theological sanity, here's an excerpt from their 2012 assembly keynote speaker:

Although we may never know what really happened, we do know that the story told in the Gospels is that Jesus’ resurrection was a first demonstration of what I call the post-human universal person. We are told that he did not die. He made his transition, released his animal body, and reappeared in a new body at the next level of physicality to tell all of us that we would do what he did. The new person that he became had continuity of consciousness with his life as Jesus of Nazareth, an earthly life in which he had become fully human and fully divine. Jesus’ life stands as a model of the transition from Homo sapiens to Homo universalis.

Now, here's some commentary and questions:

Although we may never know what really happened [So, "what really happened" is not recorded in the Gospels?], we do know that the story told in the Gospels is that Jesus’ resurrection was a first demonstration of what I call the post-human universal person [And how do we know this?  Because you say so?  We should trust you but not the Gospels?]. We are told that he did not die [False.  2,000 years of Christian teaching is crystal clear:  the man Jesus died on the Cross.  No Christian church/denomination denies this fact]. He made his transition [died?], released his animal body [died?], and reappeared in a new body at the next level of physicality [There are "levels of physicality"?  Has anyone told Dawkins?  What does this mean?] to tell all of us that we would do what he did [Didn't he mention something about following his Way while he was still living; or, was all that just a dream? How did he tell us this?  Through the apparently unreliable Gospels?]. The new person that he became [Person?  But he "released his animal body," so what does "person" mean?"] had continuity of consciousness with his life as Jesus of Nazareth, an earthly life in which he had become fully human and fully divine [Wait.  Has he released his animal body at this point?  I'm confused about the chronology of the releasing of the animal body!  Is the Jesus of the Animal Body a product of the continuity of consciousness, or does that stuff come later?]. Jesus’ life [Which Jesus?  Pre or post-release of the animal body?] stands as a model of the transition from Homo sapiens to Homo universalis [Saying stupid stuff in Latin doesn't make it smart].

I think that Thomas McDonald is being too kind when he describes Ms Hubbard's explanation of "conscious evolution" as ". . .a combination of X-Men comics, techno-fetishizing, narcissism, New Age nonsense, paganism, trite bromides, bad grammar, Gnosticism, and good old heresy."  I would add a few descriptive words myself, but I might die in my sleep unabsolved of serious sin. 

That Catholic religious sisters are even considering paying this charlatan money is truly beyond embarrassing.  I've read a number of self-respecting dissident Catholic theologians and even they would be ashamed to be associated with this sort of bad sci-fi TV writing.  I can imagine a number of Unitarian Universalist pagans who would blush upon reading this junk.

To the Good Sisters who will be tarnished by this silliness, I am sorry.  Speak up!  Let the cadre who pretend to speak for you know that you are serious women, serious Christians, and that you want to be perfected in the Risen Lord and not "continued in consciousness" to become Homo universalis!

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Our God does not ration!

2nd Week of Easter (F)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Here we have the scriptural basis for that great Southern Baptist tradition of Sunday Dinner on the Grounds—well, except there's fish instead of fried chicken. To put it in Catholic terms, we have the first Knights of Columbus Pancake Breakfast. All this eating in a religious setting sets us up to start thinking about the heavenly banquet, that celestial picnic where we will feast and party in the presence of God Himself. Of course, it also draws our attention back to the Eucharist where we eat the Bread of Life and drink from the Chalice of Salvation. The miracle of the feeding of the five thousand with just two fish and five loaves begs us to notice God's loving-care for us and the abundance with which He loves us. But there is something else going on in this story, something a little more subtle. Jesus asks Philip, “'Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?'” John then adds, “He said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do.” So, Jesus is testing his student, and like most good test questions, this one isn't asking what it appears to be asking. What does Jesus really want to know? 

I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but my namesake, Philip, doesn't answer the question correctly. Rather than pass the test, he opts for the literal answer, “Two hundred days' wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little.” John doesn't mention it, but I'm sure Jesus rolled his eyes at that answer. Peter's brother, Andrew, at least offers a practical, if inadequate suggestion, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?” Better but he still fails the test. What is that Philip and Andrew are missing? They aren't answering the question that Jesus is really asking. Just yesterday, Jesus told the disciples that the Father does not ration the gift of His Spirit. Rationing is our response to scarcity. When food, fuel, or medicine become scarce, we restrict their availability in order to stretch supplies. But God does not ration His Spirit, or His blessings, or His grace. Rationing goes against the Divine Nature b/c there can be no scarcity of His love. He is Love. God cannot be deficient or meager by His very nature. Jesus wants to know if his students have learned this lesson. 

And since we too are students of the Lord, let's take the disciples' test: when confronted with an apparently impossible task—say, feeding five thousand people with two fish and five loaves—what do you do? You don't count what you don't have—money, enough food. And you don't whine about what you do have—a few fish and some bread. You do what Jesus did. You take what you have, bless it, give God thanks for His gifts, and wait for the multiplication to begin! Of all the many options open to Jesus in this potentially disastrous situation—run, cry, throw a fit, laugh out laugh, shrug and walk off, beg for donations—he chooses instead to fall back freely and recklessly on the bounty and providence of his Father. This sounds a bit irresponsible to us good, upstanding, middle-class Americans. Where's the planning? How will he finance this project? Is his ministry to feed these people legal? Does he have the necessary permits? All of these questions are designed to sink us in the mire of scarcity; to plunge us into the deepest pit of worry. The answer to just about every question a disciple can be asked is: take what you have; bless it; give God thanks for it; and share with friends, family, neighbors, and strangers alike. Our God does not ration! 

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LCWR: getting to the truth of the matter

Reactions to the CDF's assessment of the LCWR are flooding the Catholic blogosphere.  

So far, 99% of these reactions have been predictably supportive of either the Left's narrative of Hierarchical Males Oppress the Alternative Spiritualities of Women or the Right's narrative of Holy Mother Church Finally Punishes Naughty Daughters.

There have been a few reactions that hit closer to the truth of the matter.

Tom McDonald makes a point that needs to be repeated like the "Hail Mary":

The LCWR is a toxic organization that has slowly poisoned the church since the 1970s. . .They do not represent the 60,000+ women’s religious of America, but rather a small, elite cadre of left-leaning leaders who openly break with the church. Many orders belong to the LCWR merely out of habit (so to speak), but feel as though they have no voice in the organization. They largely ignore them as a noisy embarrassment.

My own experiences with sisters/nuns in the last 12 yrs. bear this out.  Frequently, I've been told by religious women that the LCWR-types run roughshod over their member congregations and cause  problems with the clergy and donors.  Many lament the decline of their congregations and point directly to the radical feminist agenda of the national leadership as the primary cause.  My sense of things is that most sisters just ignore the nonsense and get on with their ministries. 

The Always Worthy Anchoress runs her horse outside the track:

People wondering what “side” I am on should know that I distrust any story that runs on the cheap and inefficient fuel of emotionalism; they generally become all about sound, fury and heat and once that happens, the realities become victims to the distortions of agenda. My thoughts are not in tune with either “side". . .I know many “sisters in pantsuits with bad haircuts” who have lived out their lives of faith and service, and their vows, like a poured out libation; their gentleness and generosity of spirit would shame some of their most vociferous critics, should they actually meet up. Often they are besmirched, dismissed and ridiculed as “hippie nuns” (and worse) by people for whom the only good nun is a habited nun.

Again, this lines up perfectly with my own experiences as a religious.  Most of the sisters I know are not in habit and most are fiercely dedicated to the Church.  We have a saying in the Order, "The habit does not make the friar."  There's nothing magical about the habit.  Yes, it is a good thing to wear the habit.  I wear mine most of the time.  On the flip side, the uncritical rejection of the habit by some sisters and their nearly demonic revulsion of those who wear one is scandalous. We cannot assume that the presence/absence of a religious habit tells us much of anything about the person.  How many lay people wear crosses and never give a thought to what it represents?  

Just to be clear about all this:  the LCWR needed to be investigated and it needs to be radically reformed if not outright disbanded.  The poison of the LCWR is pervasive and potentially deadly for some in the Church.  They have led many astray and need to face the Church's judgment.  However, none of us can or should assume that all sisters whose congregations belong to the LCWR have been tainted with their New Agey nonsense.  The self-anointed prophetesses of the LCWR are outliers, powerful outliers but nonetheless unrepresentative of the average American religious sister.

Pray for the sisters who labor under the LCWR-types and do NOT add to their burden by loading them up with scorn. 

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Grumblegrumblegrumble. . .

Posting has been a little light lately b/c Blogger has changed its administrator interface.   Being somewhat tech-stupid, it's taken me a day or two to get used to the new-fangled controls.  

You kids don't know blogging!  Back in My Day we had to enter HTML code by hand and draw the pics with a mouse.

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Thanks. . .

Thanks to Chloe for the Gilson book. . .and an anonymous soul who sent me a Kindle Book!

Many blessings upon you both. . .Fr. Philip Neri, OP
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Naming my Master?

At the behest of a Fellow Fat Traveler, I've named my bath scales Scylla and Charybdis.
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God loves, so He gives. . .

2nd Week of Easter (W)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Let's engage a little creative editing this evening, “God so loves the world that he gives his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” Did you catch the changes? Loved becomes loves and gave becomes gives. God loves the world, so He gives us His only Son. Granted, it's a subtle change but one that make a big difference in how we understand exactly what it is that God did for us, is doing for us, and will do for us in Christ. Using the past tense of love and give might tempt us into believing that Christ's sacrifice for us on the Cross is a done deal. That happened 2,000 years ago. It's like the barbarians sacking Rome or WWI or the War of Northern Aggression. And in one sense we can say that Christ's death has happened, did happen long, long ago. But in another sense it is wrong to think of his death and resurrection as simply an historical event, a one time deal that we memorialize but never witness. Would we say, “God loved the world back then, so He gave those people back then His only Son?” No. What about the world in the last 2,000 years? God loves the world; therefore, He gives us His only Son so that we can have eternal life.

One of the beauties of the Catholic faith is the honor we give to God's creation. As a product of His goodness and wisdom, the world and its creatures share intimately in the divine goodness and wisdom that created us all. The Catechism teaches us that “. . .God does not abandon his creatures to themselves. He not only gives them being and existence, but also, and at every moment, upholds and sustains them in being, enables them to act and brings them to their final purpose” (no. 301). So, God makes us, sustains us, enables us to act, and brings us to our final goal: the Beatific Vision. When John writes that “God so loved the world,” he doesn't simply mean that God created the world and then loved it. He means that because God is Love, the world was created; and because God is Love, the world is sustained; and because God is Love, we are able to act; and because God is Love, we are brought to our perfection as creatures intimately loved. The embodiment, the flesh and bone body of God's love is the divine person of Jesus Christ—the one He gave to us, gives to us, and will keep on giving to us for our perfection.

If everything I've just said is true, then why did we need, why do we need the Cross at all? Why isn't God's creating and sustaining love enough to bring us to the Beatific Vision? The easy answer is: the Fall. With the Fall, humanity stepped away from God's creating and sustaining love; in a misguided exercise of freedom, humanity walked away and set itself against God's love, and ultimately, against its own final purpose. Violating the Law and ignoring the Prophets, we came to believe that obedience to the Word and the natural law enslaved us to a foreign power, an alien will. And so, for the love He had and has and will always have for us, God gave the Word flesh and bone and sent him among us to live and die as one of us so that we might return to Love and live perfectly as partakers in the divine nature. John writes, “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” When we believe in His Word and do His will, we are transformed into flesh and bone tabernacles, mobile temples of His presence in the world. And it is our duty—as carriers of the Body and Blood—to see to it that God's love for His world is given a human face, a human voice. God gives us His Son so that we too might become His sons and daughters, His divine Word given human flesh.

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CDF to LCWR: "serious doctrinal problems" (Updated)

The doctrinal assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious has produced some interesting fruit. . .

Frankly, I'm a little shocked that the report was made public and even more shocked that the CDF is actually Doing Something about the LCWR.  I figured the whole thing would end up being the curial equivalent of a severe finger-wagging.

But. . .the assessment and recommendations actually have some teeth. 

I can't imagine that this document is being well-received among the LCWR glitterati.  Expect much gnashing of teeth, rending of garments, and throwing of ashes.

UPDATE:  Meet the keynote speaker at this year's LCWR assembly.   If you can stomach it, check out "conscious evolution."  Yes, this is the stuff the leaders of our women religious are learning. 

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Wednesday Fat Report: "Ponderis me, Domine!"

The new scales have been properly installed. . .blessed, sprinkled, incensed, and decorated with flowers.

Stepping up and waiting the appropriate amount of time, I read:  320lbs.  Good enough.

And so. . .it begins. . .again.

A Prayer Before Weighing Oneself (Ponderis me, Domine!)

Weigh me, O Lord;
in your kindness,
burn away my excessive fat;
blot out all my cellulite,
and bring me to my perfect waist size.

Amen.

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Shots fired! Shots fired! (from the pulpit)

Buckle your seatbelts, brothers and sisters. . .I give you, Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria, IL. . .speaking God's truth to the powers of this world:

[. . .]

You know, it has never been easy to be a Christian and it’s not supposed to be easy! The world, the flesh, and the devil will always love their own, and will always hate us. As Jesus once predicted, they hated me, they will certainly hate you.  [Hey, nobody ever promised you a rose garden. . .a Gethsemane Garden, yes.]

But our Faith, when it is fully lived, is a fighting faith and a fearless faith. Grounded in the power of the resurrection, there is nothing in this world, and nothing in hell, that can ultimately defeat God’s one, true, holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.  [Preach it, Bishop!]

For 2,000 years the enemies of Christ have certainly tried their best. But think about it. The Church survived and even flourished during centuries of terrible persecution, during the days of the Roman Empire. [And we have not only survived the imperial Romans but have taken over their capital city as well!]

The Church survived barbarian invasions. The Church survived wave after wave of Jihads. The Church survived the age of revolution. The Church survived Nazism and Communism. [And she will survive whatever idiocy the DemoRepubiTeaPartyBlackPanthers foists on the nation in the coming years]

And in the power of the resurrection, the Church will survive the hatred of Hollywood, the malice of the media, and the mendacious wickedness of the abortion industry. [And the self-loathing, suicidal screechers on the Catholic Left. . .and the self-righteous, triumphalists on the Catholic Right. . .and the parochial embezzlers and the pervert clergy and the hippie-dippy bishops and . . .]

[. . .]

May God have mercy on the souls of those politicians who pretend to be Catholic in church, but in their public lives, rather like Judas Iscariot, betray Jesus Christ by how they vote and how they willingly cooperate with intrinsic evil. [B.O.O.M.!!!]

As Christians we must love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, but as Christians we must also stand up for what we believe and always be ready to fight for the Faith. The days in which we live now require heroic Catholicism, not casual Catholicism. We can no longer be Catholics by accident, but instead be Catholics by conviction. 

[. . .]

Hitler and Stalin, at their better moments, would just barely tolerate some churches remaining open, but would not tolerate any competition with the state in education, social services, and health care.

In clear violation of our First Amendment rights, Barack Obama – with his radical, pro abortion and extreme secularist agenda, now seems intent on following a similar path.

Read the whole thing. . .wow, just wow.

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Gratitude. . .

My thanks to Wendee for the Kindle Book!  

And more thanks to the anonymous benefactor who sent me the Ratzinger and Bouyer books!

I've already started the Holy Father's book on dogma and preaching. . .a forbidden topic among Dominican preachers.

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Monday Fat Report (Not)

Weighed four times this morning. . .and got four different numbers, ranging from 339 to 320.

I've decided that my scale is possessed.  Time for a new one and time to start over.

See ya Wednesday with another Fat Report.
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Christ’s peace is our security. . .

NB.  Preached this adapted homily from 2007 and it worked much better than yesterday's.

2nd Sunday of Easter (2012)
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St Dominic Church, NOLA

Our safety comes first! Lock the doors b/c we are afraid! Install a new security system. We need four or five guns. Guard dogs. Threatening yard signs. A panic room with enough food and water for a month. Cameras covering every inch of the property. A couple of bodyguards. Yes, we’re afraid. So afraid, in fact, that we are now prisoners in our own home and hostages to our obsessive need for security and control. Why? B/c our safety comes first! And Jesus comes and stands in our midst and says to us, “Peace be with you.” The locks fall away. The guns melt. The security system starts playing “Ave Maria.” The guard dogs morph into kittens. The yard signs now read “WELCOME!” The bodyguards serve Hurricanes by the pool. We are no longer afraid. Christ, our Lord Jesus, commanded that we be at peace. And so we are. If you aren’t, I wonder why?

Let’s imagine that that tightly wound and locked down house is your soul. Or maybe your heart and mind. As a Christian you have nothing to fear from anything or anyone. But how many of us here will clamp down on our spirit like a nervous dictator during a riot when someone threatens the security of our trust in God? Or challenges the truth of our faith in the public square? Where is that apostolic spirit that Christ breathed on us? 

Let’s back up. The disciples are locked up tight in a room for fear of the Jews, meaning they were hiding from the partisan Jews who arranged for Jesus’ phony trial and illegal execution. The disciples, despite their cowardly betrayal of Jesus in the garden, were probably right to worry that they were being hunted. The partisan Jews and Romans know that they must capture all of the traitors. Jesus’ followers are a threat to the power of the temple and the empire. And so, they locked the doors for fear of their persecutors. Very understandable.

But is this what Thomas the Twin does when he denies that Jesus visited his brother disciples after his death? Does Thomas lock up the doors of his spirit b/c he fears persecution for his belief? No. Obviously not. He doesn’t believe, so how would installing security protect his faith? He has no faith to protect. Thomas’ denial of Christ in the face of the apostolic witness of his brothers is scandalous. Note: he doesn’t doubt. He denies: “I WILL not believe…” And then he demands evidence. Thomas is not threaten by persecution for his faith. Thomas is threatened by the faithful witness of those who have seen Christ in the flesh. And what exactly is it of Thomas’ that is threatened by this faithful witness? Let’s pause here and turn the question back to us.

When you, when we detect some alleged threat to our faith and slam the security doors of our soul and call the Church police, demanding absolute safety for our faith, what is it of ours that is threatened? Please don’t say, “My faith is threatened”! How exactly could faith ever need or use the safety that anyone on Earth could provide? Our faith in God, the trust God has given us as His children, cannot be seriously threatened by anyone or anything outside our own intellect and will. Let me suggest that it is our Spiritual Comfort that's threatened. Our comfortable, settled ways of “being spiritual,” that's what gets threatened by our worldly persecutors. And it is the Devil who convinces us that when our Spiritual Comfort is threatened it is actually our Faith in God that is threatened. Nonsense. Utter nonsense.

The disciples go around with Jesus listening to him teach and preach, watching him argue and heal, sweating with him to serve the poor, the wrecks, the abandoned. They see him day in and day out, hear him every time he speaks. And yet! At crunch time, at the hour of his crucible, they run like weasels set on fire, denying him as they run. Would we have done any better? I dunno. Maybe. But my point is this: while with Christ their faith is comforted and defended and they are not afraid. Without him they flee their persecutors behind locked doors. The Risen Christ comes to them to console their anxieties. And Thomas, who is absent for Christ’s visit, denies that any such thing had happened. His comfortable ways of being spiritual are threatened by the disciples’ outrageous testimony, and he slams the security doors of his soul and calls the police. He decides that the best way to defend his comfortable way of understanding Christ is to demand from Christ irrefutable empirical evidence: “Unless I see the mark of the nails of his hands…I will not believe.” 

Now back to us. When our comfortable ways of being spiritual, our settled means of knowing Christ are threatened, what do we do? Don’t we become Denying Thomases? That is, we deny the power of God’s gift of faith and cast around for empirical evidence that we are right to trust God. Think about that phrase: “evidence that we are right to trust God”! What kind of faith needs evidence? We look to weeping statues, Blessed Mother tortillas, bleeding Hosts, a dancing Sun, and on and on. All of which could be miraculous. But none which are necessary for us to be truly faithful! You may say to me: “But Father! The faith has enemies everywhere! Radical Muslims. Secularist humanists. Dissident theologians, religious, and clergy. Scandal in the seminaries, in the chanceries, in the universities. Rebellious lay groups like the Women’s Ordination Conference and Catholics for Choice! There's error and dissent everywhere! And the Holy Father isn’t doing anything about it! Nothing!” And Jesus stands in our midst and says to us, “Peace be with you.” And his servant, John Paul II, stands next to him and says, “Be not afraid.” 

For us, Christ’s peace is our security. We are secure in his presence. Secure in his love for us. Secure in the knowledge that he has won the last battle against darkness and despair. Secure in the church and her invincible yet always open gates. Thomas sticks in fingers in Christ’s wounds and says, “My Lord and my God!” And Jesus tells him that he has come to believe b/c he has seen. The truly blessed, however, are those who have not seen and yet still believe. 

“Our safety comes first” is the motto of the damned. There’s nothing safe or easy or comfortable about following Christ. There is only your life lived in absolute trust. Therefore, unlock your doors. Welcome the strange and the stranger. Stand firm in the Word. Celebrate Christ's joy in the Sacraments. And there will be nothing comfortable in your faith to threaten. Nothing easy to complicate by a challenge from the powers of this world. Make trusting Christ the most outrageous thing you do, the most thrilling adventure of this life. And there will be nothing out there or in here to stand up and demand that you betray the Lord. We must believe that he has won this war. There is nothing for us to fear from our enemies. Receive the Holy Spirit and freely live life as a Child of the Risen Lord, the life our Lord died on the cross to give you! And he appears among us to say, “Peace be with you.”
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The New Evangelization will be blogged!

Fr. Z. calls on the U.S. bishops to sponsor a national Catholic Bloggers Conference. . .

I second/third/fourth that call!

My own Order has been urging the friars since the early 2000's to put social media and other internet resources to work for the Gospel, so such a conference would be welcomed.

The New Evangelization will be blogged!

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Therefore, peace be with you. . .

NB.  Yes, this is an adapted homily from 2006. . .for reasons too complicated and embarrassing to get into, I had to recycle something from the archive.  If it doesn't work at the vigil Mass this afternoon, I'll have time in the morning to compose something new. 

P.S.  This one didn't go over so well. . .I felt a stirring amongst the crowd that didn't bode well.

2nd Sunday of Easter (2012)
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St Dominic Church, NOLA

Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? The victory that conquers the world is our faith. And so, peace be with you in the mercy of Christ!

You might think that Jesus would take it easy after his passion, his death, his descent into Hell, and his resurrection! What better time, what better excuse would any of us have to take a break—“I was betrayed by my friends, beaten by the police, nailed hands and feet to a cross, left to die, stabbed by a spear, buried in a tomb, spent three days in Hell, and then my Father raised me from the dead. Yea, I think I’m gonna take the week off, relax, catch up on my reading, do the spa thing…” That would be me anyway. Jesus, on the other hand, has a much better work ethic than I do and seems particularly energized by his trial and tribulations; he’s revved up to continue his ministry, appearing to Mary Magdalene and the woefully hard-hearted and doubting disciples several times over the last week.

The disciples are wallowing in anxiety, self-pity, disappointment, and maybe even a little shame at their failure to better defend their teacher and friend against the self-serving powers of the Temple and the Empire. Are they reluctant to believe that he is truly risen b/c they are embarrassed to confront him? Maybe. They don’t seem all that ashamed when they finally come around and see Jesus for who he is. Maybe they are reluctant b/c they do not look like victors over the world; they do not look like those who have believed and conquered the world in faith. They are despondent, worried about many things, depressed, crowding together to comfort one another in their waiting, in their despairing anticipation.

What are they waiting for? What has paralyzed them so? Frozen their spirits and slowed their hearts? Why aren’t they out there in the world claiming victory in faith? Why aren’t they out there proclaiming that the conquering Word has risen from the dead and living among them? Why can’t they see? Why can’t they hear? Why won’t they believe? 

Faith releases us from the need to control. Faith conquers the need to entertain all possible options. Faith recognizes the powerful singularity of Truth, the breathtaking beauty of raw reality, the Very Good of all creation. Faith reorders priorities, reschedules plans, reorganizes futures. Faith is the seed of a covenant of love, a promise of boundless mercy and unconditional favor. Faith places you in the conquering good will of the Father—His will that you love, that you be loved, and His will that we keep his commandments. Faith comes first. Trust is primary. Faith then plans. Faith then philosophies. Faith then theologies. Faith then sciences. Faith then politics. 

The disciples will not believe absent the presence of Christ among them for the same reasons that you and I are not likely to believe. We like control. We need nearly infinite options, unfettered choices. We love the idea of relative truth—My truth, your truth, or no truth at all! We value human justice above divine mercy and cannot let go of vengeance. We have plans, expectations, back-up plans, important worries, dire anxieties, vitally important worries, extremely dire anxieties; we have schedules, deadlines, due dates, things to do, places to be, people to meet! And I don’t have what I need! And I don’t need what I have! I have sins; I have BIG sins. I’m a big sinner! A huge sinner! Lock the doors! Be afraid…!! Hell is rushing up to meet me and I’m running as fast as I can to meet the Devil. . .faster and faster and faster. . .

And Jesus stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” He showed them his hands and his side, his passionate wounds. As the disciples rejoiced, Jesus said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” He breathed on them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” And he gave them the power to forgive sin through his mercy and in his name.

Thomas the Twin wasn’t with them when Jesus appeared and did not believe the apostolic witness when it was given. Thomas was not a doubter; he was a denier. Thomas did not say to his fellow disciples, “I’m having difficulties working through the implications of the Lord’s death and Resurrection.” He didn’t say: “The possibility that Jesus has been dead for three days and has risen from the tomb is troubling, and I’m struggling with it.” Thomas said: “I will not believe until I see it for myself.” That’s not doubt; that’s denial. He is placing his willful need for understanding above his trust in Christ and requiring that God be worthy of his trust.

The Lord lets Thomas feel his wounds and then lets him know in no uncertain terms that his denial is a failure of trust: “Have you come to believe b/c you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” Jesus is not calling for “blind faith.” He is calling on Thomas, the disciples, and us to believe the witness of the Church, to trust the evidence of those who have lived their lives in faith before us. Jesus is not asking us to deny our intellect, to deny our good sense, or to leave our expensive educations at the door of the Church. Nothing about the Catholic faith requires us to assent to foolishness in order to be good Catholics. Nothing about the faith requires us to adopt willful ignorance, or stupidity. Nor are we required to stop asking questions or surrender a healthy curiosity. 

Doubt as such is no obstacle to the faith so long as we are ready to doubt Doubt, that is, so long as we do not invest a great deal of trust in our doubts. When you invest in your doubts, when you make uncertainty primary, you are actually trusting in your own judgment, trusting that you have the better answer. St Thomas Aquinas teaches us that even believing resembles doubt sometimes in that both have “no finished vision of the truth.” Have your doubts. Struggle with the Church’s witness. Ask questions and seek faithful answers. But understand that doubt itself is a form of certainty in one's own judgment, and it cannot grant us a license to dissent; having doubts, asking questions does not constitute a God-given right to deny. We are victors over the world in faith, in trust, not in suspicious denial and rebellion.

Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? The victory that conquers the world is our faith. And so, peace be with you! Receive the Holy Spirit. Be unstuck, become unglued; be opened, enlivened, renewed; be born again in faith and victory; conquer this world by the power of your trust, your bone-deep, blood-rushing witness to the truth of our Catholic faith: the living faith of the faithful dead, unbroken and unchanged, for us and with us the same teachings of Jesus, the same preaching of the apostles, the power of the sacraments, the magisterial authority of the Church, the very Presence of Christ among us!

He is risen from the dead. And that victory conquers the world. Therefore, peace be with you. Receive the Holy Spirit; believe, and be at peace in Christ's divine mercy.

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Book Recs for Teen Boys

Wendee wrote to ask about any book recommendations I might have for her 14 y.o. son who loves history.  

A search on Amazon turned up some likely candidates, so I thought I'd post the link here for any other parents or kids who might be looking for something good to read. . .

Turn of the Century Boys' Adventure Books (it's not likely that these will have any offensive or age-inappropriate scenes in them)

C.S. Lewis' Space Triology

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Surprise. . .

A box of books from the Wish List arrived yesterday. . .WooHoo!!

There was no shipping invoice, so my Kind and Generous Benefactor will remain anonymous. . .to me, at least. 

Nonetheless, my prayers on your behalf will be properly credited to you in Heaven!

Also, a Thank You to Jason S. for the Kindle Book. . .I started reading it last night. . .good stuff!  You'd really be amazed at how many novels about ancient Rome there are.

God bless, Fr. Philip Neri, OP

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Staying with us in the breaking of the bread

Wednesday of the Octave of Easter
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Have you ever had one of those moments when you suddenly, unexpectedly understand something that has eluded you for years? Try as you might, you just can't quite see the whole problem clearly, or grasp the solution firmly. Others try to help. You consult experts; read books; search the internet, but the pattern of events or the connections among the various elements of the problem just won't congeal into a coherent picture. Finally, one day, while you're mowing the yard or driving to work—BAM!—it hits you! All the pieces, all the connections, all the definitions and angles fall gracefully into place and you understand. Zen Buddhists call this satori. In the West, we call it a Eureka moment—the moment that our minds pierce the fog of confusion and we achieve a peaceful clarity; it is the moment our eyes are opened and we see, truly see. While walking toward the town of Emmaus, two of Jesus' disciples have their eyes opened to Christ's presence. Why couldn't they see him at first? The disciples were “looking downcast,” depressed with grief. Rather than seeking the Lord himself, they were looking for consolation. How was their sight returned to them? In the blessing and breaking of the bread.

Cleopas and his fellow disciple are despondent about the death of Jesus and the disappearance of his body from the tomb. Their grief and confusion prevents them from recognizing Jesus when he meets them on the road. They recount the dramatic events of the past few days. In response, Jesus, exclaims, “Oh, how foolish you are!” What causes their folly? Their hearts are slow to believe all that the prophets had revealed about the Christ. Jesus asks, “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Had the disciples listened and believed all that Jesus had taught them, they would know that there is no reason to grieve, no reason to be downcast. Being a patient teacher, Jesus walks them through the scriptures, beginning with Moses, and shows them step by step how he has fulfilled the Law and the Prophets. When they all arrive in Emmaus, the disciples make a simple yet profound request of the stranger who's walked with them, “Stay with us.” He does. And their eyes are opened to see the Lord when he blesses and breaks bread for them. He stays with us in the breaking of the bread.

Like these disciples who spend their limited time grieving the death of the Lord instead of seeking his wisdom, we too cause ourselves useless confusion and anxiety by refusing to trust in a fundamental truth: God is always with us, always among us, and providing for our care. How often do we cry out for God's help and fail to see the help He has sent b/c we are too busy looking for the help we want? How often do we bargain with God and fail to see the gifts He has freely given us b/c we are too busy bargaining for the things we want? In the scriptures and the teaching ministry of the Church, we have everything we need to understand that Jesus is the Christ. In the sacraments of the Church and our own charitable works, we have everything we need to grow in holiness. What the scriptures, the magisterium, the sacraments, and our good works cannot do for us is prise open our eyes to see God working among us and for us. For that, we must say, each of us must say, “Stay with us, Lord!” And he remains—plain to see and hear—in the Word of his prophets and in the breaking of the bread.

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Updates

I've updated the Kindle Wish List with some novels set in ancient Rome. . .my favorites!

And I updated the Books & Things Wish List with some Must Have texts from the neo-Thomistic tradition of Garrigou-Lagrange--JPII's dissertation director at the Angelicum.

Some kind and generous soul recently purchased several books from the Wish List. . .when they arrive, I will send a Thank You note ASAP!

Click on St. Martin and donate to the Dominicans! ------>