Faith, Authority, Redemption

1st Week Advent (M): Isa 2.1-5 and Matthew 8.5-11
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St. Albert the Great Priory, Irving, TX


Let’s get a clear picture in our minds of what’s happening here…Jesus gets to Capernaum and a Roman officer approaches him b/c the officer’s servant is in need of healing. The officer asks for Jesus’ help but acknowledges that as a Jew Jesus is not permitted to enter a Gentile’s home. This is what the officer means by “I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof.” The officer goes on to say to Jesus, “…only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me.” The officer is using an analogy to explain to Jesus why he believes that Jesus’ word alone is enough to heal his servant. He is saying: in the same way that I am subject to military authority and those under my command are subject to my authority, the diseases and injuries of this world are subject to your authority as the Son of God. Your authority, your rule can be exercised anytime, anywhere without the limits of time and space. What happens next is the joy of Advent!

Matthew reports that Jesus is amazed at the officer’s faith in his authority. Turning to those following him, Jesus says, “I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven.” How do we understand this puzzling statement? The Council Fathers of Vatican Two write in Gaudium et spes that the Christian will die and rise again with Christ and that this promise of resurrection gives hope to those who suffer trials and tribulations for Christ’s name. They continue: “All this holds true not only for Christians, but for all men of good will in whose hearts grace works in an unseen way. For, since Christ died for all men, and since the ultimate vocation of man is in fact one, and divine, we ought to believe that the Holy Spirit in a manner known only to God offers to every man the possibility of being associated with this paschal mystery”(n 22). Christ died once for all! The joy of Advent, therefore, is the coming of the Lord to the whole world!

The proper understanding of Christ’s authority as the Son of God will mitigate against what appears to be an argument favoring the heresy of universalism. Notice two essential elements of the exchange between Jesus and the centurion: 1) the centurion acknowledges Jesus’ authority by requesting his help, and 2) he submits to Jesus’ authority by trusting him to do what is right. It is the centurion’s acceptance of Christ as the Son of God and his trust in Christ’s authority that moves Jesus in amazement to say, “…in no one in Israel have I found such faith.” And then he makes the statement that gives us such joy in Advent: “many will come from the east and the west” and take part in the King’s banquet.

Many will come. Not all. Many will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Not all. Many will acknowledge his authority as the Son of God. Not all. Many will submit to his authority and ask for his healing touch. Not all. What is universal here is the invitation. Christ died once for all. And many will come. The centurion’s faith in Christ’s authority is evidence that anyone may be moved by mercy to seek out the Lord and say, “I am not worthy, Lord, to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and I will be healed!”

Rejoice! Your salvation is at hand.

Advent is scary!

1st Sunday of Advent: Jer 33.14-16; 1 Thes 3.12-4.2; Luke 21.25-28, 34-36
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St Paul Hospital and Church of the Incarnation


Be vigilant at all times and pray! Stay awake and pray! Look alive and pray! Be prepared and pray. The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill my promises, when I will give to my people the king they long for, the Son they need. Be vigilant against sloth, stand guard against vanity, beware of deception, easy compromise, weakened trust, diluted teachings, unjust law, and comfortable prophets preaching comfortable prophecy to comfortably bloated ears. If Advent doesn’t scare you, you ain’t paying attention!

Pay attention: “The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill my promise…” Over the horizon, yet to arrive, are those days ahead of us when the Lord will make good on His promises to bring us back to Him, to rescue us from darkness and make us into children of the Light. He sent his prophets and His Law. We killed the first and violated the last. And grew no holier for our trouble. And the Lord grew no more patient. He promised Abraham children as crowded as the stars and He promised those children that He would never abandon them, never exile them, never punish them, never again start from scratch, hoping to replace them. Instead, He promised them a King and a Savior, a Lamb and a High Priest. He promised them a Son of Man and a Son of God, a single rescuer for all creation. One for us who is like us and who will make us like him, one with him, one like him, a single heart and mind, a single path, one goal, one road, two feet, and a promise from the mouth of God Himself: the days are coming when I will fulfill the promise I made.

Jesus says to his disciples: “There will be signs […] and on earth nations will be in dismay, perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world…” What is coming upon the world? What, exactly, are we waiting for? If we wait for the Lord to fulfill His promise to the house of David to send the nations a savior, then we want for the arrival of the Messiah at the nativity feast. We wait for the coming of the Anointed One. If we wait for the Lord to give us a few more clues on the time and location of the Apocalyspe, then we wait in vain. In fact, we wait only anxiously—unbelieving and fretful—doubting the Lord’s promises and growing increasingly hostile and weak. The acid of impatience eats away at vigilance and loosens the ties that bind us together in love. Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy! Be vigilant at all times and pray. The trials and obstacles wait for us. But so does the Lord. He is what is coming upon this earth, He is what we await.

Just getting through a day w/o adding one more anxiety, one more problem, one more distraction—how difficult! Does it seem to you that you collect worries and stress like couches collect dust bunnies? One more thing to burden you, one more thing to blow into your life and gather tension. You scramble, dodge, work fretfully, but one task done usually leads to two more that cause even more hassles! No doubt, “doing stuff” makes us feel productive. Being busy seems to add value to our lives, to give us a powerful feeling of accomplishment. In fact, and I hate to say it, I get more done when I am busy. But I’m all that much less peaceful. Not all that closer to God b/c of my scurrying around. Perhaps we should begin each task with this question: how will doing this job and finishing this job get me closer to God?

What does “be vigilant” mean in Irving, TX in the year 2006? At the very least it means handing over to God everything you have to worry about, everything you have to do, everyone who demands your time and attention, everyone who needs you now and tomorrow. It means consecrating your life to the service of the little ones—the poor, the abandoned, the neglected, the forgotten. It means watch the signs of the times and hope in Christ’s return. This is not about guessing games and biblical numerology—trying to figure out the date of Christ return. It is about paying attention to world events and watching for the providential hand of God in the events of the world.

If you were asked to note the Devil’s work in the world, could you identify it? Could you point to God’s work and tell us all how he has gifted you to contribute to the work of this Body, the Church? How much easier it is to read the papers and point out Satan’s victories—abortion, the destruction of marriage, terrorism, inter-religious competition and hatred, oppressive anti-Christian governments! Too much, too much. And, then again, not too much. Behold, I am coming soon!

We have one job in the Church: to be Christ for one another and for the world. We all do that job differently. Some as students, some as religious, some as priests, some as teachers, mothers, fathers, etc. Being Christ for one another and the Church is simply the practice of charity in all things, the activity of love and fertile joy. Not judgment or cruelty or moral nitpicking or gossiping or envying another’s gifts. Charity in all things—not always an easy job, right? Absolutely right! But vigilance in prayer and perseverance in faith will keep us awake and waiting for the coming of the Lord!

Paul writes to the Thessolonians: “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all…” Here’s what’s scary about Advent: yes, the Lord is working to fulfill His promises, but the promise He made is the promise of change, of purification; He promises to love us regardless and we are radically transformed by Love focused in our souls. The advent of transforming Love is frightening…we will not be the same. Ever. And if we will come to Christ as children ready to be transformed, we will strengthen our hearts against the seductions of pop-culture, popular opinion, celebrity, the temptations of material excess, and the temptations of spiritual impoverishment. Our movies, our newspapers, our stars, our stuff, and the lightweight, spiritual-ly junk that we carry around will seduce us, reel us in and leave us disheveled, broke, embarrassed, and dirty. Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy! The day of the Lord will surprise you like a trap.

Here’s how you can prepare for the coming of the Lord—ask yourself as you begin and complete each task of your day: how will doing this job and finishing this job get me closer to God? How will keeping to this hectic schedule get me closer to God? How will eight meetings, three appointments, two errands, and a flat tire get me closer to God? How will saying YES to every request for help, every demand for my time, every plea for collaboration get me closer to God?

Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to endure until the coming of the Lord. And when he does: stand up and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand!

Excellent Spiritual Reading

I picked up a copy of The Best American Spiritual Writing 2006 a few days ago and it is great! I was surprised by the number of essays from First Things and Christianity Today, and the number of excellent poems, including my new favorite poet, Franz Wright. Over the last few years this series has tended to select pieces more appealing to the Sleep In on Sunday Morning Read the Times and Listen to NPR crowd than your more consciously religious reader. I think the 2006 edition, though certainly not a Catholic apologetic, will appeal to religious folks who want a little more out of their faith than a cultural tag and who generally look for that More in literary sources.

Pools of Fire lapping at unrepentant souls

Last Week OT (F): Revelation 20.1-4, 11-21.2 and Luke 21.29-33
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St. Albert the Great Priory and Church of the Incarnation


What are we to do with readings like this one from the Apocalypse? What are 21st century Catholics supposed to do with visions of Satan in chains, throngs of bloodied martyrs crowding the throne of God, a scary Book of Life, pools of fire into which damned souls are thrown and a new heaven and a new earth? Take it seriously? Literally? Literarily? With a big grain of salt and a weak apologetic grin? Take it historically or prophetically or humorously, but take it; take it all and read it as a maternal text, a paternal narrative that conceives and gives birth to an incredible faith-history out of which we rise as children set to inherit a kingdom. I mean, these vivid apocalyptic images and dire warnings about the consequences of betrayal and the need for fidelity do more than inform our theology, they haunt our imaginations; they are vigorous spirits populating our Catholic vocabularies—our language and art and worship and our dreams about who we are and who we will be forever. Never think that God leaves our imaginations bare. He persuades in Surroundsound and High Definition Technicolor. And…he awaits our repentance.

Being very much a Jew and a teacher, Jesus grabs hold of the End Times speculative mind of his listeners and gives them a hard warning: decisions about fidelity to the Lord cannot be deferred indefinitely; time ticks away toward an end and the End is nearer than skin: “…this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.” This is not a rhetorical scare tactic or Jesus fear-mongering. He is simple telling the truth about the human person—our completion as creatures of a loving God will take place. We will not left to rot in the ground or float randomly in voided ether. There is an end and an End—a stopping point and a resolution with purpose.

Jesus says, “…the Kingdom of God is near.” Be glad, tremble, cry, laugh, leap around like an idiot, do whatever, but, keeping all those fantastic images from the Apocalypse firmly in heart and mind, choose: health or disease, love or indifference, mercy or judgment, freedom or slavery, life or death. Be subject to the King of kings, the Lord of lords, or take residence in the former heaven and the former earth and pass away with the sea.

The kingdom of God is near, Jesus says; pay attention to your life, your choices, your graces, your service, and your faith. Pay attention to this moment, your history, your future; pay attention as if you will be called upon to account for each word and deed done and not done in Christ’s name. Does your prosperity witness to the generosity of God? Does your poverty give glory to God’s abundance? Do you speak the language of conclusion, of divine purpose: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth…I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of the heaven from God…” Do you believe that Christ’s word will never pass away? If so, have you chosen to make his Word your word?

What are we to do with crazy readings like this one from Revelation? Believe it. The Devil is defeated. But still loose to tempt us against one another. Faithful witness of the gospel may get you beheaded, especially when we refuse in Christ name to submit to an idolatrous culture. Our God reigns and all is well. Death does not relieve us of our responsibility to serve those who need us most. Refusing Christ burns. And everything and everyone we know now and everywhere we have ever been—all of it and all of us—will be changed. Made new. Completed.

We will, in the End, be loved into eternity.

Sign up and die!

Last Week OT (W): Revelation 15.1-4 and Luke 21.12-19
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St. Albert the Great Priory


I’m afraid that Jesus would not last long in the advertising business. Look at his recruitment strategy in Luke: Join me and all those who oppose me will round you up, beat you, spit on you, put you on trial for treason and blasphemy, and then put you to death. Oh, and by the way, some of those who do these things will be your mom and dad and your little sister and the guy next door with the yappy dog. Can you imagine this recruitment campaign bringing in the crowds in 21st century America?

It is not immediately obvious to me why those who choose to follow Christ will be persecuted. What is specific or special about following Christ that enrages those who would persecute us? Jesus tells the disciples that they will be persecuted “because of my name.” Christ’s teaching on the fulfillment of the Law in Love seems to shock, but does it cause persecution? His willingness to violate pharisaical interpretations of the Sabbath rules for the sake of a lesson in mercy draws establishment ire but not systematic violence. He speaks to unclean enemies of the state and women! but it is not immediately evident that he is tried, convicted, and executed for this. Perhaps all together these transgressive acts against law and tradition add up to a criminal nature worthy of righteous anger. But notice: Jesus lists none of these as the reason for institutional and familial violence against his brothers and sisters on the Way.

Because of his name we will be persecuted. Have been persecuted. Are being persecuted. Christ name is who he is most fundamentally, most basically. His name draws out and highlights the most intimate relationship possible, the most intensely personal—person to person—joy possible, the most loving parent-child bond. His name is Anointed One, Messiah and his name is a brand, a sign, a sacrament, a rule, and a throne.

Christ is the friendship that lays the foundation of all other human bonds. Before husband-wife or brother-sister or mother-child there is Father-Son-Holy Spirit. Before state-citizen, before king-subject, before teacher-student there is Father-Son-Holy Spirit. And this is why we have been, are being, and will be persecuted: his name is the name above all other names and by proclaiming his name to be our own, we put him first and last and lay claim to an inheritance that not only shapes reality—social and otherwise—but also gives that reality a purpose, a point. His name and our claim to it testify to the kingship of Christ. And those usurped by his ascendancy in our lives have not been, are not now, and will never be happy about being demoted. Beware: you will be hated because of his name.

We have this: a promise of endurance in his name, a promise of perseverance—to hang on even in the face of the worst trials is testimony, faithful witness, and a guarantee of our eternal lives. We need not worry about a defense. He is there already. We need not worry about our stunted wisdom. He is there already. He has been there from the beginning and will be there in the end.

Listen again to the choir singing before the heavenly throne: “You alone are holy, Lord. All nations will come and worship before you…” All nations. Even those that, for now, curse his name. Baptize in his name, pray in his name, minister in his name and in so doing, ensure that his name is first and last in everything we do. If we are not his by his name, whose are we and by what name will be known—forever?

NO flash photography at a wedding???

I was told once by a parish priest of many years service that there are three guaranteed things a pastor can say to a congregation to get them really, really angry:

1). "Folks, Mass starts at 11am. Could you get here on time, please. Arriving during the homily is just rude."

2). "Folks, this is the Lord's House...and that's not the name of a strip club. Could you make sure your teenagers dress for Mass and not for MTV's Spring Break Bikini Special?"

3). "Folks, of course we all want to make a joyful noise to the Lord, but your child has been screaming non-stop for fifty minutes. As amusing as you might think we think that is...we don't. There's a Cry Room for a reason. Use it."

OK. I added the dashes of sarcasm, but you get the picture: asking people to arrive on time for Mass, dress appropriately, and to take their crying babies out of the Church proper are all ways for the Pastor to lose ground in the polls.

I've found another one. Before a wedding or a Baptism, say this to the photographer: "No flash pictures of any kind once Mass begins. None. Never. Not even one." And then make sure that the people in the congregation know it as well. Otherwise, the entire Mass becomes a media event complete with flashing paparatzi and whirring camera lenses!

I'm curious about what other presiders out there do about flash photography at weddings, confirmations, baptisms, etc.

Fr. Philip, OP

Who is the King of your heart?

Christ the King: Daniel 7.13-14; Revelation 1.5-8; John 18.33b-37
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
Church of the Incarnation and St. Paul’s Hospital


Who or what sits on the throne of your heart? Who or what rules your mind, your body, your soul? Who are you as a subject of the Lord’s kingdom? Who are we together in his royal service?

The Solemnity of Christ the King celebrates the arrival and the coming of the Lord—his coming and going in disgrace in the beginning and his coming and staying in glory in the end. He has been given an everlasting dominion, eternal glory, and kingship in heaven and on earth. He is firstborn of the dead, ruler of the kings of earth, and he is the faithful witness to his Father’s accomplished promise: to us who love him, he has freed us from our sin by his blood, and made us into a kingdom, priests for his God and Father! He is prophet, priest, and king and we share in his prophetic ministry, his priestly duty, and his kingly rule. But we do not share these offices by right or reward; we share them by inheritance. In baptism we took on the mantle of the Anointed One and gave our lives to the work of giving the Living Word our hands and feet, our strong backs and big mouths, our determination and patience, and we gave all of our foreign allegiances to the sanctifying fire of Pentecost—no alien rulers, no sacrifices to false gods, no prayers to the elemental powers, no princes before The Prince, no king in our hearts but the King of kings, the Lord or lords.

His dominion must skate through your veins, flex your muscles, and draw your breath. His rule will accomplish in you the perfection of every gift, polishing every talent and treasure, and he will bring your will to bear on the need for renunciation and sacrifice, the need for surrender to the commands of love, the righteous orders of mercy and faith. The rule of Christ the King in your heart opens your ears: “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” That voice, his voice will not ask you, will not lead you to the worship of the idols of the market.

Who or what sits on the throne of your heart? Who or what rules your mind, your body, your soul? If you are not ruled from your heart by the Word Made Flesh, then you are ruled by some alien power, some foreign god. Let me name some them: there are spirits who would rule us—spirits of disobedience and arrogance; of narcissism and selfishness; of deceit and false witness; of judgment and self-righteousness; of confusion and syncreticism; of rage and violence. There are disordered passions that would rule us: lust posing as love; greed posing as desire; pride posing as self-esteem; envy posing as competition; gluttony posing as the entitlement; sloth posing as leisure; and anger posing as righteous indignation. There are fallen angels, counterfeit messengers, who would rule us with false information and corrupted wisdom: ancient seers, ascended masters, make-believe prophets, self-anointed messiahs, cults of personality, cults of scientism, cults of success w/no money down, churches of the Barbie Waistline and the Ken Pecs and Abs, and the demonic choirs of celebrities singing their own praises!

Who or what sits on the throne of your heart? Who or what rules your mind, your body, your soul?

Pilate asks Jesus, “Are you King of the Jews?” Jesus answers with a question, “Did you figure this out or did someone tell you?” Pilate says, “I’m not a Jew. Your own people gave me to you. What have you done?” Jesus responses to Pilate, but he doesn’t answer Pilate’s question. Instead he tells Pilate that he is a King, but not a king in this world or a king in the way the world thinks of kings. Jesus says, “My kingdom does not belong to this world[…]my kingdom is not here.” Frustrated, Pilate says, “So, you are a king then?!” Jesus simply says, “I was born and came into this world to testify to the truth.” And this is what he did from his debut at the Wedding at Cana up to and including this exchange with Pilate—Jesus has taught the truth of the faith, holding fast against expectation and convenience and popularity and betrayal and expediency; holding the truth of the Word so that that Word might be purely spread, pristinely heralded and heard.

There is no compromise here. No genteel dialogue btw individuals with competing but probably compatible interests. No exchange of heart-felt wishes and warm salutations. Jesus speaks the Word of Truth to Pilate. And says, “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” What do those who belong to the truth hear? They hear: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the one who is and who was and who is to come, the almighty.” They hear a proclamation of Christ’s rule, a declaration of his reign and sovereignty. Son of Man and Son of God. Faithful witness. Firstborn of the dead. Ruler of the kings of the earth. No election. No voting. No audience participation. No American Idol final four. Lord of lords, King of kings. Mighty God. That’s all! And that’s everything!

Who or what sits on the throne of your heart? Who or what rules your mind, your body, your soul?

The implication of these questions is naked: answer them honestly and know immediately the state of your spiritual life. I don’t mean to say here that you will get some sense of whether or not you are fulfilled or happy or content. Or that you will come to feel better about yourself or less stressed out or better able to cope. Jesus promised his disciples and us—all of his preachers and apostles—persecution, trial, betrayal, and death. He never promised us contentment or self-esteem in this life. This doesn’t mean that we won’t be happy here and now or that we can’t find some measure of peace. All it means is that being stressed out or unhappy or anxious or doubtful is not evidence that you are a bad Christian. All of those nagging spirits and draining demons are, however, a pretty good sign that something or someone else sits on the throne of your heart; something or someone else rules you—body, mind, spirit, all of you. What you feel is dis-ease, instability, the uneasiness that we all feel when we invite a foreign ruler, some alien king into our lives.

But know that these spirits are temporary gods, paper doll deities folded together with Elmer’s and plastic glitter. They are houses of leaves, Styrofoam rocks and magic marker paint, a fleet of cardboard ships in icy water sinking. They are the Sons of Noise and the Daughters of Wisps, passing through, clouds and rank breezes; loud, dangerous, yes; but powerless before a true king.

Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to his voice. Everyone who belongs to goodness sees his work. Everyone who belongs to beauty touches his face. Everyone who belongs to the Father welcomes his rule in their hearts. Everyone who belongs to the Son gives thanks for his sacrifice. Everyone who belongs to the Spirit rejoices in his gifts. And everyone, everyone who belongs to the kingdom serves One Faith, One Baptism, One Lord!

Is he lord of your heart? If not, who sits the throne and rules your life? He is the Faithful witness, the Firstborn of the dead, King of kings, Jesus Christ!

Second Wedding Homily (11/25/06)

Sacrament of Matrimony
Tobit 8.4-8; Hebrews 13.1-6; Matthew 22.35-40
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
Church of the Incarnation, University of Dallas


If marriage is about love then we have from Hebrews a sampling of what marriage means for Christians. Love is mutual, hospitable, empathetic, honorable, pure, contenting, a promise of care, and a cure for fear. And so is marriage. If marriage is not about love then it must be about selfishness, inhospitality, callousness, dishonor, impurity, agitation, a promise broken, and an infection of anxiety. Marriage without love is no sacrament at all but vain gesture and puffed up words, an agreement merely to tolerate someone else in your life. Much like a disagreeable rental contract or a necessary but mostly annoying roommate. Christian marriage is always about love. It must be. Because being a Christian is all about love.

To say that being a Christian is all about love is not to say that being a Christian is all about being mushy, weak-kneed, starry-eyed, and panting. Love is not just about passion; it is primarily about the Good; that is, love is essentially Who God Is for us so that we might come to Him and be with Him forever. Created to be completed in love, we seek out and sometimes find a love here and now that though no match for divine love nonetheless works to make that Love feel possible, works to make the Love we were created to be more probable.

In his first encyclical, Deus caritas est, Pope Benedict XVI writes about the various meanings of the word “love.” He points out the word’s patriotic, familial, romantic, and neighborly meanings. He concludes, however, “Amid this multiplicity of meanings […] one in particular stands out: love between man and woman, where body and soul are inseparably joined and human beings glimpse an apparently irresistible promise of happiness”(n. 2b). Marriage, then, is the Christian sacrament of God’s revelation of Himself to us through the committed love of a man and woman and they become together a living witness to the promises of grace given to us at baptism.

Christian marriage cannot be about passion alone or convenience or desperation; it must be sacramental, that is, revealing of God’s presence and His work in the world. Inasmuch as an ordained priest should be a living sign to the world of Christ the Head of the Body, so the married couple ought to be a living sign of the Father’s love for His bride, the Church. God does not love as we do; God is love. Love is Who He is to us and for us.

We use the word “agape” to describe Christian love. Benedict writes in DCE, “…this word expresses the experience of a love which involves a real discovery of the other, moving beyond the selfish character […] Love now becomes concern and care for the other. No longer is it self-seeking, a sinking in the intoxication of happiness; instead [agape] seeks the good of the beloved: it becomes renunciation and it is ready, and even willing, for sacrifice”(n. 6). What Christian marriage will thrive unless the man and the woman find the courage of renunciation and the will to sacrifice, that is, the motivation to sanctify their lives together by setting aside selfishness—petty wants, superficial hurts, suspicions of neglect.

Jesus says, “You shall love the Lord [and] you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” And he says that you shall do so “with all your heart, all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is not only a description of the Messianic fulfillment of the Mosaic Law, it is a command. You shall. Not “think about it” or “you’d be better off if you did” or “you could if you wanted to” but “you shall.” And not only “you shall” but “you shall” with every muscle, bone, and inch of flesh; with every thought, word, memory, and deed. You shall love! First God and then neighbor as self.

This is a command rather than a suggestion b/c we are weak, unfocused, fallen, and vain. Not constitutionally, mind you; but willfully…willfully weak, unfocused, and vain. And Jesus knows this. Thus the command to love. Our love for one another is too important to our holiness to be left to chance and will. Of course, we can refuse and spend eternity without Love, without God. But, knowing our inclination to habit, Jesus orders us to love and hopes the habit of loving sticks. And it does, it does often enough and powerfully enough that we see in the world bright examples of charity and mercy, living examples of mighty generosity and graced service. Christian marriage should lead us in love!

To family and friends: a warning—your participation here today requires you to not only follow the excellent example of love given to us by Larry and Christie, but it also requires you to reflect back to them the love that they shine out. In other words, you all must be ready to celebrate with them and mourn with them and support them when necessary—in the smooth times and the rough. And be ready to show them day-to-day what their ministry of marriage means to you; what their witness to God’s love for His Bride, the Church, means for us all. It is not enough to dress up, show up, stand up, sit down, and eat the buffet! There’s the “amen” here and the “amen” means “Yes, it is” and “Yes, I do.” Say “amen” with conviction and promise. B/c that is how God hears it.

Larry and Christie, Tobit and Sara prayed to the Lord on their wedding night for mercy and deliverance. They blessed the Lord and praised His name. They recounted their creation as man and woman and the need each has for the other in order to be complete. They are married for a noble purpose and ask to live together to “a happy old age.” With all that in mind, allow me to exhort you: make your love mutual—giving and returning in kind; be hospitable to one another—generous and affectionate; show empathy for each other and for others—b/c you are one body; honor each other—be faithful in thought, word, deed; let nothing and no one enslave your love—not money, not career, not things, not ideas; be ready to say without shame or hesitation: “I will never forsake you or abandon you;” and live together in holiness w/o fear, w/o rancor, w/o pining for options, w/o glancing over the fence. And love as Christ loves us.

With the Lord as our helper we have nothing to fear!

Our own den of thieves?

33rd Week OT: Revelation 10.8-11 and Luke 19.45-48
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St. Albert the Great Priory


The temple has become a den of thieves! What was given to the people for the worship of the Lord has been made into the resting place for those who would plunder the wealth of others. Rather than offer the proper sacrifices and pray lovingly from the heart, these thieves loot the wages of the poor, stealing what little the little-ones have to offer. Though surely stealing from the poor is crime enough, these thieves compound their crime by stealing the sacrifices that were to be made to the Lord! They are robbing the poor and robbing the Lord. No wonder Jesus lets loose a storm front of righteous anger. He pronounces his judgment against the thieves by driving them out of the temple area and then he rectifies their crime. Luke writes, “And every day he was teaching in the temple area.”

How does Jesus’ teaching rectify the criminal abuse of the temple? Not only were the temple bureaucrats stealing the monetary offerings of the poor, they were also stealing their inheritance in the Law; that is, Jesus is principally upset about the fact that the sacrificial system of the temple had become mechanical, rote, easy-cheesy grace, if you will, and the core of the Law, its righteousness in love, had been stolen by professionalized legalism and religious commercialism. The thieves, in other words, steal not only money but tradition and orthodoxy as well.

Of course, what they are doing in the temple area looks perfectly traditional and orthodox b/c “it’s always been done that way.” But it is clear that the Spirit is with Jesus as he teaches the fulfillment of the Law and not just its letter, the completion of the covenant in his ministry and not just the jots and tittles of ritual. The people “hang on his words;” they are brought to attention, given the Word of life, and sent to speak that Word to others, spreading the First Commandment that accomplishes all ten of the others in a single life of love. No doubt simple expediency, daily practicalities, and common sense slowly lead the temple administration to the set the system Jesus objects to so strongly. But it is precisely the destruction of the Law’s ideal under the creeping, erosive compromises of “getting along” and “adapting to the times” that make the temple into a den of thieves.

We have to wonder how the Church compromises with the present age and makes the temple into a resting place for thieves. Have those in charge robbed us of our inheritance and given us instead airy delusions of permanent theological and litrugical revolution? Have those in charge stolen our tradition and replaced it with process, compromise, guidelines, and procedure? We can say perhaps that the Spirit of the Law was once swallowed in prissy ritualism and then freed in active participation. But now liturgical busyness and didactic wordiness drown the transcendent in gyration and syllable. We need Jesus teaching in the temple all day, everyday.

Thankfully, we have you. All of you. Living, breathing, walking tabernacles of the Lord, spreading out to witness, to teach and preach, to bring Christ as Teacher and Lord to the world. But our first witness must be to the Church. Where do you see a den of thieves? Where do you see robbery? Trespass? Fraud? Where do you see our heritage being stolen, our inheritance being spent on fashionable twaddle and private curiosity? Where is the faith’s virtue being diminished in favor of the culture’s vice? Where are you being encouraged to silence, complacency, and intimidated to compliance with the requirements of our culture of death?

We celebrate the Vietnamese martyrs today. Like the crowds in the temple area they hung on Jesus every word. However, as martyrs, they literally found themselves “hanging on his words.” Speaking the Word to a hostile culture, they died. Their lives in death continue to seed the church.

Do not let their blood water a den of thieves.

Being who we ought to be while doing what we ought to do

St. Cecilia: Rev 4.1-11; Lk 19.11-28
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
Church of the Incarnation

(NB. Fr. J.D. is losing his voice. He asked me about an hour ago to take the noon Mass. So, this homily is a little more rushed than usual. Please pray for Fr. J.D.!)

I imagine the kingdom of God will look very much like a Chinese buffet that stretches into infinity…along the way, say, every third pan of moo goo gai pan or so there will be a Border’s store that offers deep discounts to dead but risen Dominicans. My other vision of the kingdom of God involves ice cream, fried chicken, and blow ‘em up alien movies, but the Mass must go on. My point here is pretty simple: though the kingdom of God is now for God and will be for us eventually a reign of enduring praise and thanksgiving, right now, we can let our imaginations run wild! Perhaps children imagine boundless playgrounds. Mothers imagine uninterrupted peace and quiet. Fathers see golf courses and big screen TV’s. Jesus’ disciples envisioned booting the Romans out of Judea at the point of a sword and they thought Jesus was their man to lead them. Jesus uses the parable in the gospel today “because he was near Jerusalem and they thought that the Kingdom of God would appear there immediately.”

So, b/c they were approaching Jerusalem and b/c they thought Jesus was some sort of divine George Washington and b/c they had visions of stomping the Romans with the Son of God throwing fireballs and calling down avenging angels, b/c of all these, Jesus tells them a parable about how to wait for one’s master profitably. In other words, the kingdom is coming, yes! But we have some prep work to do in the meantime. How are you going to spend that “meantime”?

This gospel should sound familiar not only as another version of the talents parable in Matthew but also as a reinforcement of this last Sunday’s gospel. The basic idea is the same: the end is not going to look like you think it’s going to look and it’s not going to come when you think it’s going to come! Given these hard truths, we now have two questions that need to be answered together: what sort of persons ought we be and how ought we to spend the meantime btw now and the consummation of the Kingdom?

We ought to be people who are willing to cry out without fear of hypocrisy, without shame, without hesitation: “Worthy are you, Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things; because of your will they came to be and were created.” We ought to be people who look on all that God has created for His glory and honor and spend our meantime lifting up one another as creatures who reveal—imperfectly, incompletely—as children who reveal the Father so that each of us and all of us may come to know Him more and better. We ought to be people who diffuse our heavenly gifts, who hone our graces, sharpen our talents and use them for the good of others so that God’s love might be perfected in us. We ought to be people who spend this meantime straining against spiritual isolation, prideful scruples, picayune legalism, rushed judgment and self-satisfying condemnation. We are a people to whom much has been given. We ought to be people from whom much is required.

Our Father and our Lord requires us to put the gifts he has given us to work for those around us. It is death to hide God’s gifts. It is hell on earth to refuse to live in this meantime as a man or woman for others to God’s glory. The kingdom of God will not match our wildest imaginings. Will you stand up and match up to the wildest gifts of the Spirits given for our good?

Will we say with the angels and the saints: “Worthy are you, Lord our God,to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things!”

Go to Hell (or not)

Little Gidding, IV

The dove descending breaks the air
With flame of incandescent terror
Of which the tongues declare
The one discharge from sin and error.
The only hope, or else despair
Lies in the choice of pyre of pyre—
To be redeemed from fire by fire.
Who then devised the torment? Love.

Love is the unfamiliar Name
Behind the hands that wove
The intolerable shirt of flame
Which human power cannot remove.
We only live, only suspire
Consumed by either fire or fire.

--T.S. Eliot

Hell and damnation have popped up a couple of times in my homilies lately. Some have wondered why.

Is it b/c I am secretly still a Baptist and trying to subvert Vatican Two universalism?

NO. (though subverting an alleged VC2 universalism is on the agenda)

Is it b/c that deep in my heart I’m hoping all my enemies go to hell?

NO.

Is it b/c I just like a little drama in the pulpit and preaching about hell is always an easy way to get attention from the congregation?

NO.

It is b/c the gospel readings recently deal with hell?

(dingdingdingding) YES!

I try as best as I can to preach the gospel in front of me. If Jesus starts talking about throwing goats into hell b/c they didn’t feed the hungry and visit the imprisoned, then I’m going to be preaching about spiritually stingy goats roasting in hell. I’ve never made hell the point of a homily b/c Jesus never makes any of his teachings solely about hell. Hell always seems to be the conclusion of a much larger, more complicated instruction on how we should be treating his little ones among us.

The Catechism teaches us in n. 1033: “We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves[…] Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren. To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called ‘hell.’”

Notes on Hell:

1. Union with God (i.e. “heaven”) is the result of freely loving God.
2. Grave sin is a sign that we do not love God freely.
3. We separate ourselves from God when we refuse to minister to Christ’s “little ones.” (cf. Matt 25.34ff).
4. When we die in mortal sin we reject God’s love forever and live forever without Him.
5. Hell is the “definitive self-exclusion” from heaven. You excluded yourself from heaven.

Don’t wanna go to hell? Then don’t.

Jesus is Coming! Look busy!

33rd Sunday OT: Daniel 12.1-3; Hebrews 10.11-14, 18; Mark 13.24-32
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St. Paul’s Hospital and Church of the Incarnation


If the God’s people were surprised at the first coming of the Messiah, we will be downright shocked when he comes again. His arrival marked the beginning of an age, a time set aside for us to hear the Good News preached and taught and a time for us to make a decision about our intentions either to grow in holiness with God’s help or to rot in sin without it. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit swept over the assembled apostles and their families and friends and opened the age of Christ by anointing those gathered with the fire of His spirit. They were lifted up, shaken, enlightened, and set ablaze with the sight of a mission so simple and grand that their tongues were loosed in a manic rush to say everything sayable about God, using every word known to every man and woman and child in creation. That polyphony of voices, that cloud of uttered spirit infected larger and wider crowds, bigger and longer histories and came into those human tabernacles as the rain of Miracle Grow necessary to give the Gospel of Jesus Christ a Body, the Body of Christ, the Church! From this fecund garden of the Holy Spirit sprouted more than 2,000 years of preaching, teaching, forgiving, uniting, celebrating, living, dying, and rising again. And yes, 2,000 years of what appear to be regularly scheduled and tremendously colossal boo-boo’s, assorted bone-headed decisions, and crackpot family members embarrassing us in the paper. And even so, we get up, brush off, and continue to brightly shine.

We fall and get up because we believe that the coming of the Messiah was the just the beginning of this sanctifying roadtrip. Without being perfect right now, we are convinced that we are capable of being perfected by a God who made us for perfection and gives us everything and everyone we need to work with His gifts for the completion of our holiness. We are made to be holy. And we can be if we will but use God’s gift of His Son as our template, our exemplar.

Perfectly human and perfectly divine, Jesus Christ is one man and one god—one person, wholly and entire the only Son of the Father and our brother in the Spirit. He offered for us on the cross one sacrifice for our sins and now sits forever at the right hand of the Father. The Letter to the Hebrews reads, “For by one offering [—not the many and necessarily repetitive offerings of the temple priests—] he has made perfect forever those who are being consecrated.” There is no additional sacrifice necessary for our salvation. Nothing more we need do or can do to improve on or add to the redemptive work of the Cross and the Empty Tomb. We preach and teach and wait for the hour, the day, the month of his coming again—the birth of great power and great glory.

The advent of Christ’s first coming marked a period of preparation—the Law, the Prophets, his herald, John the Baptist, and finally, Mary’s fiat. The advent of Christ’s second coming, his return, is also marked as a period of preparation—the birth of the Church at Pentecost, the missionary work of the apostles, the universal establishment of his Church in the world (our triumphs, embarrassments, failures, and our holiest successes), the merciful work of the saints, and the development and defense of sound doctrine for teaching.

His first coming and his second mean that we are at once done and still working. Finished and still carrying on. The first coming of Christ saved us. His second coming will complete us. His first coming made our holiness possible. His second coming will perfect our holiness or see us dead forever. That’s hard to hear, I know. It’s harder to say, but this truth is gospel truth and its veracity testifies to God’s unfailing love for us. He loves us as Love Himself and love never dominates or forces; love never controls or condemns. If we choose to ignore this period of preparation, simply refuse to grow in holiness by failing to use our gifts for the good of others, then our Father will honor that decision. And we will live forever without Him.

The advent of the second coming of Christ—the period of preparation before his coming again—is the long, historical temptation of our souls to leap out to Love, abandon selfish will for charity, release an enslaved intellect to freedom in truth, surrender vice to virtue, and yield darkening despair to hope. Do these with God’s grace, his promised assistance, and listen again to the prophet Daniel: “[…] the wise will shine brightly like the splendor of the firmament, and those who lead the many to justice will be like the stars forever.” Those who lead many to justice. Those who bring many into a right relationship with God. Those who by their example of excellent holiness attract many to walk a path of service to others for God’s greater glory. These saints will shine brilliantly and hang in the heavens like the stars forever.

I started by saying: if God’s people were surprised at the first coming of the Messiah, we will be downright shocked when he comes again. Why? We will be shocked b/c we do not know when he will come again. We do not know how he will come again. We do not know what any of this second coming will look like. Jesus’ own description is so vague as to be useless: dark sun, darkened moon, comets, and “the powers in the heavens will be shaken.” He will come in the clouds with angels. He does tell us though to learn from the fig tree. We know that summer is near when the fig tree becomes tender and sprouts leaves. The lesson? Watch for the signs Jesus has given us and know that he is near. Is this helpful? Not really. Unless we say that the signs are constantly with us and so our vigil for his coming again must be constant as well.

Peter writes: “Since all [of creation is] thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God[…]? Excellent question and one far more important than playing decoder games with biblical texts and the weather. Given the advent of the second coming, what sort of person ought you to be? And this is surely the point. You might wonder: what’s Jesus waiting for? Surely the world cannot be a bigger mess; surely we cannot become more self-destructive, angrier, greedier, more hostile to peace and the poor! He’s waiting on you. Me. All of us. He waiting for us and our repentance. Peter writes: “The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

Add these to your to do list for next few months: hear and see the Word in the world; preach and teach the Good News of repentance and forgiveness; do good works for the glory of God; grow and grow in holiness not just by avoiding sin but by embracing grace; let your every word, your every move shout joy to the world; and repent, offer contrition, seek forgiveness, do penance, and for Christ’s sake—literally, for the sake of our Lord—live like a redeemed child of our loving Father!

A Wedding Homily

Sacrament of Matrimony: Marci Strauss & Joseph Lee
Genesis 2.18-24; Ps 145.8-9; 1 Cor 12.31-13.8; John 2.1-11
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
Church of the Incarnation, University of Dallas


Love is patient. Love is kind. And it is not jealous or rude or pompous. Love is gentle and giving. And it is messy. Sometimes horribly messy. Love is often difficult and strange. Almost always it is impractical, risky, and hazardous to one’s health. Love makes us generous, forgiving, and blind. It makes us stupid, a little nuts, and it makes almost perfectly human. We love because God made us in His image and likeness. And God is Love. For this reason—Deus caritas est—Love never fails.

If love is messy and dangerous and often makes one stupid, why bother with it at all? We have no choice. We can no more fail to love than we can fail to breathe and live. We might fail to love this person or that one, but if we live and move and have our being in God, we love. Passionately. Distantly. Eagerly. Reluctantly. Or even grudgingly. But we love. And in loving we become more and more like God Who is Love. This perfection, this growing more fully into the image and likeness of God is our salvation; it is how God says to us: “You are healed; you are saved; you are loved. Now, become love for one another!” Hazardous, wasteful, and downright dumb, yes; but loving one another is worth the price of insuring against a long life of short passions and a too early grave so late in living.

Without love we are dead in the heart—just waiting to be buried. Paul writes to the Corinthians: Present your spiritual gifts for inspection! Speak in tongues, prophesy, explain the mysteries and teach all knowledge, trust and move mountains, sell everything and walk the world stripped naked in poverty. Do it all! But if you do not love…you are noise, discordant racket. You are nothing. Thankfully, we have been given a more excellent way: love bears every burden, trusts every promise, hopes for every gift, and endures and endures and endures. Love rejoices in the truth and never fails…even when, no, especially when we fail to love one another.

So there he is in Cana. Mingling. Chatting. Sipping a decent wine. His disciples are there too. Mixing and drinking. Having a good time at this wedding. Then disaster strikes! The wine is almost gone. Mary finds Jesus in a circle of friends telling stories about playing hide and seek in the temple and scaring his parents to death. Mary pulls Jesus away from his fun and says to him, “They have no wine.” Jesus replies, “Woman, what does this have to do with me?” You can almost see Mary getting That Mom Face—relaxed but stubborn, sure of getting her way but patient about it. Then Jesus says something completely unexpected: “My hour has not yet come.” Mary knows what this means. It is not yet time for him to reveal himself as the Messiah. So, like any good mother dealing with a stubborn son, Mary ignores him completely and tells the servants: “Do whatever he tells you.”

Jesus changes the stone jars of water into stone jars of wine and the wedding party goes on! Why now? I mean, why did Jesus choose a wedding to reveal his divine Sonship? Why did he pick a marriage rite to say publicly, “I am the promised messiah; I am the Anointed One”? By performing this miracle, the gospel says, Jesus “revealed his glory” and that “his disciples began to believe in him.” Simply put: Jesus picked this time and place and event to reveal his divine mandate to preach a good news to the children of Israel because it is at a wedding that we celebrate the coming together of two people in one flesh. Jesus announces that he is here to heal the breach between his Father and his Father’s nation. They would be “one flesh” in him—human and divine, a healed injury, a forgotten anger, and a revelation of God’s love. That’s what a marriage is: the completion, the perfection of a man and a woman in one flesh so that God’s love may be revealed to the world and in the world, more fully proclaimed and better understood.

We are not here this afternoon to participate in a wedding. This is not a wedding feast. The liturgical books say that we are participating in the “Rite of Marriage within the Mass.” The lectionary says that this liturgy is the “Conferral of the Sacrament of Matrimony.” Sacrament. We are here to witness Joseph and Marci confect a sacrament. They are enacting God’s grace, our Father’s invitation to live with Him now and forever. When they say “I do” they become one flesh, one body and their lives together become one witness to God’s love for us, His children, His church. And this is why the Church teaches the indissolubility of marriage: Love never fails, God never fails. What God has brought together, let no one destroy.

As witnesses to this sacrament, this public sign of God’s grace, we are all charged with saying “Amen.” Do not say “amen” lightly. It requires a commitment. It is not enough for us to show up, take our places, and sip the good wine afterwards. By being here and by our “amen” we are committing ourselves to what at first might seem like an easy task—supporting Joseph and Marci in a long, happy marriage. The sacrament is not done when the wedding is over. We have been preparing them for a marriage not a wedding; for a sacrament not a ceremony. The sacrament of marriage is not a magical ritual that wipes away all faults, all warts; gets rid of every complaint, every hardness of heart and all anxiety. The sacrament confers the grace necessary for Joseph and Marci to live as one flesh in the world as a sign of God’s love for the world. But it does not confer moral perfection, angelic virtue, or heroic endurance. That’s our job—those here who say “amen”—that’s our job: to be a perfecting influence, a virtuous refuge, an encouragement to endurance through the jagged days. With all of our own faults, our own problems, we are called by this sacrament to stand with these two today and celebrate their love for one another. And we are called to stand with them when they need us in less celebratory times.

Joseph and Marci: listen for the “amens” today. Hear them all. There are people here who love you and who are standing with you today, tomorrow, and on into whenever. You are a sensible pair. Well-prepared to meet the rough spots. You both laugh easily. You both give generously and take gratefully. You are practical and creative. Meticulous and free. You are smart, passionate, and your love for one another is plain to see.

I will end with this exhortation: be patient with one another and kind; do not be jealous or arrogant, puffed up or mean-spirited; take care of one another when things are good and not so good; seek the other’s happiness and will the best; bear together, trust together, hope together, and endure, endure, endure.

Remember: Love never fails.

Unnatural, impractical, and downright dangerous

St. Elizabeth of Hungary: 1 John 3.14-18 and Luke 6.27-38
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
Serra Club Mass and Church of the Incarnation


The naivety of what Jesus is asking of us here is almost laughable. Truly absurd. The degree of holiness required to accomplish this level of humility is staggering. Love those who hate us. Lend without expecting or pursuing repayment. Stop making judgments. Doing just these three would mean opening ourselves to national destruction, the collapse of our economy, and the collapse of our judicial system. It would seem that the sensible people in Jesus’ homily are the sinners! They love those who love them and defend themselves against their enemies. They expect debts to be repaid and they repay their debts. They work at making sure justice is served as a deterrent to future crime. Frankly, I would rather live in a society run by the sinners—it will be ordered and predictable. What Jesus is asking of us here seems to me to be beyond the limits of human possibility; what he is asking is unnatural, impractical, and probably dangerous.

If what he is asking is even a little unnatural, impractical, or probably dangerous, why does he think we can measure up to his standard? Why would it occur to him to say out loud that we should—as a matter of our holiness—take on flipping the moral and legal expectations of our day? Some might say he’s asking us to flip human nature and go against our primitive evolutionary imperatives of survival! He wants us to fight our genetic heritage. There is only one way for us to follow Christ on this one given what he is asking of us. And he knows that one way: we must die and become new men and women in him.

John writes, “We know that we have passed from death to life b/c we love our brothers.” We love our brothers—our sisters and brothers in Christ—and therefore we know that we have passed from death to life. The love we have for one another is sufficient evidence for concluding that we died and yet live, that we went from life to death to life again. And how did we come to love one another given all these survival of the fittest genetic issues we carry around in our DNA? John again, “The way we came to know love was that he laid down his life for us.” We came to know the love required to rewrite our genetic code, to rearrange our DNA, if you will, through the heroic sacrifice of Calvary, the once for all bleeding of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection from the dead.

It is Easter morning! The empty tomb is the laboratory of our Christian genome project—we are edited, revised, undone and redone, rewired, and now we walk out of that tomb not just refurbished and mark 50% off, we walk out LOVED by Love Himself and there is nothing for us to do but love right back by loving those He Himself loves. What was impossible for us is natural for Him and what is natural for Him is now supernatural for us b/c He loved us first. We are to love our enemies, our debtors and our creditors, those who judge us and those we judge, those who strike us and those we want to strike, we are to do all these not simply b/c Jesus asks us to but b/c we are becoming Christ in the Father’s love. We have much to endure and much to gain.

Want to know how to live these absurd requirements? Let’s pretend: here we are at the end of the age, standing before the Judge of all creation. On his right the white fire of the heavenly staircase taking saints to the banquet. On his left a scorched hole, stench of seared flesh, and the naying of goats forever lost. Time for you to pick the scale with which he will measure your immortal soul. Will you pick the Measure of Justice or the Measure of Mercy? Choose carefully: “For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”

Wisdom, foolishness, and fried fish

St. Albert the Great: Sirach 15.1-6 and Matthew 13.47-52
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St. Albert the Great Priory, Irving, TX


Jesus tells the crowds a simple, familiar parable. The Kingdom of heaven is like a big net thrown into the sea. The fishermen collect every sort of fish in their net. When the net is full they haul in the bounty and celebrate the wondrous diversity of God’s creation, the wondrous multiplicity of shapes, sizes, colors, beliefs and worldviews…and…theological perspectives. Wait. Let me read this again...“When the net is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. Thus it will be at the end of the age.” What?! No celebration of diversity?! No affirmation of difference or spiraling hymns to a harvest of tolerance?! Nope. “The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace.” Darn. I was hoping to sing a new church into being. You know, one without dogma or creed.

OK. Enough fun. Jesus tells the crowds this familiar parable and asks them, “Do you understand?” They say, “Yes.” Why does he ask this question? The parable is simple enough. Everyone is invited to the Kingdom. Christ’s sacrifice was made once for all. Some will see and hear the Word preached and come to the Kingdom as guests. Others will see and hear and choose to live forever as they lived in life—without God. So, why the question? Jesus is checking for wisdom. Not just “knowledge of” or “information about” but wisdom—an abiding awareness of the presence of God in the world, an awe before His glory. Sirach tells us that like a mother wisdom nourishes, embraces, cherishes, and teaches. Wisdom inspires, enjoys, makes glad. She exalts the wise and bequeaths an everlasting reputation.

Do you understand? It is not enough to know of God or have a lot of info about God; it is necessary to fear Him, to hold Him in awe, to be nourished by Him, to be embraced, to be cherished, and to be taught. When we are in a proper friendship with God—humility—His wisdom breathes life into us, fills us with joy, and makes us glad to be His children. Then we are ready to learn, ready to thrive in understanding, ready always to move into the world with our faith in front of us—measuring, weighing, accessing, and asking every time: “Is this choice, this decision, this action—is it righteous? Does it help me grow holier, grow closer to God and my brothers and sisters in the kingdom?”

We are wisest when we pray, “Lord, teach me your wisdom.” We are at our most foolish when we pray, “Lord, here’s what you need to understand about your historical context, your cultural and gender biases, your religious limitations, ad nauseum…” We are wisest when we pray, “Lord, open my mouth and fill me with your wisdom and understanding so that I may preach your Word.” We are foolish when we pray, “Lord, I’m opening my mouth, don’t bother filling it with anything, it’s already full of my own opinions and I’ve figured out what’s best for me in my current circumstances. I’ll be preaching those words instead.”

Like a mother God’s wisdom gives the wise food, drink, comfort, and understanding. The foolish get a fiery furnace where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

Do you understand all these things?