Martyrs and Fools Attend!

St. Agatha: 1 Cor 1.26-31 and Luke 9.23-26
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St. Albert the Great Priory, Irving, TX

PODCAST!

How wise is it to be killed for a belief? Most would say that no belief is worth one’s life. How could something as fickle and fragile as a proposition about what I think about a given issue equal my life? And even if I found an issue so deeply important to me that my belief about it was worth defending with my life, who would ask me to do such a thing? I mean, who would challenge my belief so aggressively, so violently that I would find myself having to decide whether or not to die to defend it? We know that our soldiers frequently cite “freedom” and “democracy” as the abstract reasons for willingly fighting in foreign wars. These concepts carry enough juice still to motivate the young to pick arms and kill the enemy. But war-time is extraordinary.

Let me ask you: what would you die for? An idea? A cause? And let’s say there was a who you would die for…let’s say you answered: “Christ. I would die for Christ.” What does that mean? Christ has died for you! What does it mean for you to die for him? How will you carry out your baptismal vows if you’re dead? You could argue that by dying for Christ rather than renouncing him or denying him is a radical form of witness and that it satisfies your vows at baptism to preach the gospel. Possibly. But then I would have to go back to my original question: who’s going to put you in a situation that requires your life for your belief? Seriously now, who here is threatened with martyrdom? No one! Bloody martyrdom is as far from Irving, TX as the moon is for glowworms.

So why do we celebrate these martyrs? They are supposed to be examples, but examples of what? Stubbornness? Foolishness? Extremism? Wouldn’t they and we be better served by examples of productive compromise and accommodation? Wouldn’t everyone just get along better if we weren’t so insistent on phrasing our beliefs so aggressively, you know, talking about the truth of the faith so plainly, so convincingly? It might serve us best to tone down the fervor a little, cut the joy and praising with a little prudent grumpiness. All this red draws unwelcomed attention to the fact that some few objected to the faith of Agatha and killed her for that faith. Really now, who could be offended if we thanked Agatha for her life and witness and turned today into an Interfaith Celebration of Spiritual Tolerance and Diversity? Agatha would understand.

Well, all of that might be wise by human standards but it is foolishness in the sight of God. God chose us to become His fools. We are not the fools of the world, but Holy Fools who do foolish things like die for our beliefs. We are not ashamed of Christ. We do our best to follow Christ by denying ourselves—prayer, fasting, penance, service. We do this b/c we hope to gain an everlasting life. This means being weak in order to be strong, being lowly in order to be lifted up, to be counted nothing in the world so that we might be counted worthy before God.

Consider your calling, brothers and sisters, if you want to follow Christ—an extraordinarily foolish thing to want to do!—then you must do what he did: preach, teach the truth of the faith; serve the poor, the sick, the forgotten, the put-out; heal, heal, heal; pray fervently, sacrifice often, be with the church; suffer for the rest of us; and die friendless on a cross. And if we aren’t too busy tolerating our diversity down here, we might remember to remember you once in a while.

If you wish to follow Christ you will lose your lives. Take up his cross daily then and follow him. Foolishness awaits!

Fish as if the Church depended on it!

5^th Sunday OT: Isa 6.1-8; 1 Cor 15.1-11; Luke 5.1-11
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St. Paul Hospital and Church of the Incarnation

PODCAST!

How easy it is for Jesus to show his disciples-to-be how to fish. All you need is Christ’s presence! Lower the nets. Reel in the fish. Where Christ abides, there is abundance. All you need do is be prepared to collect what his presence draws near. To be prepared you will need a partner or several partners to share the work, deep water, strong nets, sturdy boats, and a real sense of humility before the generosity of the Lord! Manage all this and you have an all-you-can-eat fried fish buffet with hushpuppies, fries, and cornbread before you know it! And really now, what more do you need to recruit strong fishermen than hot hushpuppies and Jesus?

I hear the question all the time: “Father, what can we do to get more priests? Is it allowing priests to marry? Ordaining women? What do we do?” Yesterday, I spent the whole day with the UD Serra Club on retreat. We read sections of JPII’s Pastores dabo vobis, his document on priestly formation. Our Holy Father accurately diagnosed the vocations crisis as both a cultural disease and an ecclesial malaise. In the culture, we are more apt to hear the gospels of corporate marketing, faux individualism, narcissistic prattle, relativist and subjectivist gibberish, hyper-sexed panting, the near-fundamentalist gospel of scientism and rationalism, and the always destructive and fear-mongering extremes of feminism. Each of these, just as dark spirits always do, specialize in digging under the faith of those called to serve and weakening the foundations of trust and the desire to sacrifice.

Corporate marketing begs us to worship mass produced objects by convincing us that each of us is a unique consumer, all the while shaping us into a corporate eater, a corporate buyer—just like millions of others. Narcissistic individualism preaches the power of ME, the source and summit for MY universe, a universe where I select my sounds, my tastes, my textures, my flavors, my images and a universe where I am ME and you are (if you in fact exist) you are here to mirror me to me. Relativism and subjectivism are routine postures for those who know that the truth of the matter doesn’t report what they want to hear. There is no argument here, only a sly redefinition what “truth” is and the casual dismissal of anything so medieval. Rationalism, and its religion scientism, work to kill the supernatural so that the bond btw Creator and creature is broken. And feminism in its extreme forms adopts most of these other “ism’s” and undermines the natural, created order of sexual differences. To even utter such a sentence is blasphemy in most churches and universities these days!

These are the dark spirits that are tearing our vocation nets; these are the demons of the age that turn our young men’s heads and whisper fear and loathing in their ears. How do you say yes to sacrificial service to the people of God when on a daily basis for 18, 22, 28 years you have heard that you, as you are, you are the center of the universe; powerful as a purchaser, truly unique as a consumer; virile as a man only to the degree that you are sexual; educated only to the degree that you are committed to scientific-rational inquiry; and deeply afraid of saying anything remotely critical of the feminist dogma that “to be equal” is “to be the same.” With all of that riding on your back, you’d strain the vocations net too!

In his document, PDV, our Holy Father, JPII, offers the cure to the vocations crisis offered by Paul in his letter to the Corinthians: hold to the faith in sacrificial obedience! You have heard the gospel! Hold to it. You stand in the gospel: lift it up. It is through the gospel that we are saved. So why sell our salvation to our Jack and the Beanstalk culture of death, fashion, promiscuity, disease, infidelity, superficial spirituality, and cults of ME. For priestly vocations to flourish, that is, for us to establish an atmosphere, a culture of service, in which young men might hear and see and taste the call to serve and answer “YES!” we must begin the arduous task of reclaiming the historic faith of the church for the church and placing at the center of our lives the gospel imperatives of love, trust, and hope.

And I don’t mean to rattle these three words off like a Bingo caller. There’s nothing shy or retiring or pretty about love, trust, and hope. Each is terrifying in its way, each is an awesome delight lightly flavored with dread. How so? What do you think love, trust, and hope require of you? A mumbled amen? The occasional dollar in the plate? An hour on Sunday morning? Hardly. All three require your soul; signed over, freely given. You’ve been baptized! Dead, buried, and risen again with Christ. Neatly, cleanly, conveniently, no doubt. But you’re signed now. Claimed for Christ and his forever. To love him, to trust him, and to hope in him is what you do now. Everything must start there. No “ism,” no theory—but with him who died for you.

With him here in the boat, the catch is full and those nets do not tear. There’s help—other fishermen, other boats, other hands to do the work, but the job in front of you is yours. Let me ask you two very difficult questions: 1) would your life in Christ lead a young man to say “yes” to the priesthood? and 2) would your life in Christ send a young man yelling and into the arms of our culture of death? I wish I could tell you that it’s not your job to stir up vocations. But young men called to priesthood are often demoralized by the national sex scandals, status seeking parents, oversexed friends, spirits of rebellion and entitlement, and priests, bishops, DRE’s, sisters who allow junk to pollute the faith if not kill it outright. The witness of the lay faithful is needed now more than ever! If the faith is to center our vocation efforts, then we need daily witnesses, daily teachers, and the everyday faithful. That’s you, folks! Ask one young man this week to consider the priesthood. Just one. Tell him he is needed. With Christ on board, put your nets into deep water and pull for all you’re worth. And do not be afraid! They are waiting to hear your word of encouragement, your invitation. Trust me! They are waiting to be caught. Fish long and hard and fish faithfully. But whatever you do: FISH!

"Master, according to your word..."

The Presentation of the Lord: Mal 3.1-4; Heb 2.14-18; Luke 2.22-32
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
Serra Club and Church of the Incarnation

PODCAST!

How surprised the prophet Malachi would have been on the day of our Christ’s presentation to hear a child greeted as the Messiah! The voice of the Lord warns Malachi that the one he seeks will suddenly appear in the temple. This one is the messenger to prepare the way! This one is the messenger of the covenant! And the Lord asks, “…who will endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears?” He will be refiner’s fire to purify and a fuller’s lye to strip clean. He will refine the sons of Levi so that their sacrifice will please the Lord. How very strange then to see This One, the One, this child, greeted by Simeon in the temple as “Master.” The Word Made Flesh among us is presented by his mother and father to his Father in Heaven as Jewish custom requires. Then and there he is titled “light for revelation to the Gentiles” and “glory for your people Israel.”

It is no mistake that Jesus is recognized as the Messiah while obeying the traditions of his people. His very life is the culmination of prophecy and vision. It is precisely as a faithful Jew that he is recognized and proclaimed. He is one who lives now the longest story of his people; one who stands here with the history and power of his family at his back and all of the future of his people before him. Is God tweaking our expectations by presenting the Messiah to us as a child? Of course! Is He showing us how He can surprise and delight us with the oddest twists of history? Of course! But these are not the point of showing us the Messiah at his Presentation in the Temple. The point is: the Messiah is a faithful Jew and those who recognize him will do so because 1) they have trusted in the words of the prophets like Malachi and 2) they have been disposed by the Spirit to recognize their salvation in Christ. They are prepared, in other words, to be refined like gold and stripped clean.

Simeon greets the Lord as his salvation and begs for death, knowing that there is nothing to fear in death but everything to celebrate. Christ came to share our lives with us as one of us so that he might destroy death by dying and thus granting freedom to those whose fear of dying chain them to sin as slaves. What fear remains then in taking the hand of the Lord and saying, “I have seen my salvation!” What fear remains in subjecting ourselves to the refiner’s fire, the fuller’s lye? Our Lord is a merciful and faithful High Priest before God—he is our priest, our sacrifice, and our God, expiating our sins with his own body and blood. How then can we not understand mercy? How can we not reach out to touch the Christ Child as Simeon did and say, “…my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples.”

We are gold ready for refinement, silver ready for purification. We are the finest clothe ready for cleaning and the richest dyes. We are made fresh, empty, all-again new, and we are handed our freedom. If that freedom will flourish, our daily prayer will be: “Master, according to your word, let your servant go in peace and in peace serve you with sacrifice and praise and thanksgiving.” Who is this king of glory? He is Christ Jesus our Lord!

Prayer to Mary, Mother of Priests

Prayer to Mary, Mother of Priests, Pastores dabo vobis, JPII, 1992

O Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ and Mother of priests, accept this title which we bestow on you to celebrate your motherhood and to contemplate with you the Priesthood of your Son and of your sons, O Holy Mother of God.

O Mother of Christ, to the Messiah-Priest you gave a body of flesh through the anointing of the Holy Spirit for the salvation of the poor and the contrite of heart; guard priests in your heart and in the Church, O Mother of the Saviour.

O Mother of Faith, you accompanied to the Temple the Son of Man, the fulfillment of the promises given to the fathers; give to the Father for his glory the priests of your Son, O Ark of the Covenant. O Mother of the Church, in the midst of the disciples in the Upper Room you prayed to the Spirit for the new People and their Shepherds; obtain for the Order of Presbyters a full measure of gifts, O Queen of the Apostles.

O Mother of Jesus Christ, you were with him at the beginning of his life and mission, you sought the Master among the crowd, you stood beside him when he was lifted up from the earth consumed as the one eternal sacrifice and you had John, your son, near at hand; accept from the beginning those who have been called, protect their growth, in their life ministry accompany your sons, O Mother of Priests. Amen.

Death of an Old School Master

I recently heard that Fr. Jordan Aumann, OP of the Central Dominican Province died this last Tuesday (1/23). I never had the pleasure of meeting fra. Jordan, but I am very familiar with his work. Two of his most important books are on-line: Christian Spirituality in the Catholic Tradition and Spiritual Theology. Both of these books are excellent examples of Christian spirituality done well. So much of what passes for "spirituality" these days is New Age junk--Ennegram (astrology with numbers instead of stars), reiki (massaging your "energy points" with a "spirit guide"), yoga, labyrinths, psychobabble, mini-Zen gardens, aromatherapy, blahblahblah...If you want to see how Catholic spirituality is done Old School Baby, take a look at fra. Jordan's books. You won't be disappointed.

Love is cruel, possessive, & easily angered

4^th Sunday OT: Jer 1.4-5, 17-19; 1 Cor 12.31-13.13; and Luke 4.21-30
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St. Paul Hospital and Church of the Incarnation

PODCAST!

A Reading from the Unholy Gospel of St. Narcissus…

Praise be to me and me alone!

My wretched Slaves and convenient Tools, you have heard that love is patient and kind, forgiving and humble; that those who love seek the good for the Other and rejoice in the truth. You have heard many things about the world that will not serve you well. And among these is the foolish sentiment that love is anything but Selfishness writ large across the Ego—a passion that will not be saddled and ridden like a domesticated tiger but loosely bridled and allowed its furious run. Love is impatient for love in return. Love is cruel because it must end. Love cannot be generous or polite. It is a passion, obsessive, possessive, and rude. Love is a grandiose tale, a violent power, a torrent of abusive lies aimed at your tender heart. Love has a temper and most certainly nurses hurt. Love will bear nothing, believe nothing, hope nothing, and endure even less. Love fails. My face in a gilded mirror tells the truth of love: distrust, despair, delusion. Love is vengeance on the weak for being vulnerable to need. Need nothing, want nothing. Be strong! And heal yourself. Enlighten yourself. Give yourself peace. Save yourself. Build idols to your silenced need and keep control. Finally, Slaves and Tools, remember and act: love is a desperate ruse, a way to see you bowed. If you must love, love my god…love Me.

This is the Gospel of St. Narcissus!

If I wanted to preach an unholy homily on the vices of love, I couldn’t do much better than to proclaim this gospel of St Narcissus and point out to you that, though we would deny the truth of this passage if pressed, most of us have experienced love as our impious saint has described it. Hurt. Loss. Aggravation. Passion given but not returned in kind. There is often a disordered feel to the way we love, a shaky balance to the way we will the good for the other. And why? When we love, why do we sometimes sense the presence of our unholy evangelist and his nasty gospel of ego-bloated cynicism? Paul is clear: love is the greatest spiritual gift. Love is a gift. A passion with which we are graced. Think of a green tea bag releasing its brew into a cup of hot water. God diffuses His love through us, infusing us with the best routine, the most excellent exercise of doing the good for everyone around us—the virtue of charity.

In an act of astonishing charity, Jesus stands in the synagogue, reads the messianic prophecy from Isaiah, and tells those listening that he is the Messiah of Isaiah’s prophet vision. They are amazed at his graciousness, at his generosity in revealing who he is. But they quickly turn skeptical when they realize that Jesus is a local-boy-made-prophet. His credibility teeters on the edge of the crowd’s fickle attention as Jesus attacks before he can be attacked. Essentially, he says, “Now I bet you’re gonna want me to do some miracle for you to prove who I am. Prophets are never accepted in their own hometowns.” He cites Elijah in Sidon and Elisha in Israel as prophets who were sent to lands and peoples other than their own to perform miraculous healings. Prophets wander, yes; but they wander at God’s command, His initiative—not their own! In effect, Jesus is refusing to prove to them through miracles that he is who he says he is. He is, therefore, a blasphemer and a rebel. The crowd pushes him to cliff to send him to his death. But Jesus safely passes through them and leaves Nazareth never to return.

Consistent with Jesus’ reluctance to prove anything with supernatural performances, he instead calls on those who hear his words to listen carefully to that spot, that space, that empty room in their souls where he would dwell, to listen carefully to their God-gifted desire for a divine life, to their God-gifted longing for healing, to their God-gifted need for rescue…to listen to his word, and let his Word call them to him. It is Love Himself to calls to their (and to our!) emptiness, our desolation, our grief, and frustration. No miracle can prove the satisfaction one feels at having been made clean, washed pure. No miracle will confirm or deny the electric truth of having been touched by the creating and re-creating Word of the Father—to see and hear and feel and smell the undiluted passion of our God for His creation, to taste His body and blood and know that Love became one of us, died as one of us, rose from his grave for us; and now, with wholly perfected charity, he sits in judgment on our obedience and on our yet to be quenched thirst for eternal joy.

Love judges you…so, be found at the time of judgment loving, rejoicing, believing, hoping, enduring. Love never fails us and we cannot fail in Love.

But we do fail without Love. Paul says that we are just noisy gongs without love, meaningless racket. That without love we gain nothing from our poverty and willing surrender. And the scariest of all—even with faith enough to shift mountains, we ARE nothing without love. Gifts of tongues, wisdom, knowledge, prophecy, all these gifts will cease; they are incomplete, partial-- “when the perfect comes the partial will pass away.” Like a racing wind, what we do and say and build and write without love will pass into the heated desert and evaporate. Faith, hope, and love will remain “but the greatest of these is love.”

Do you hear the gospel of Christ or the gospel of St. Narcissus? Which do you follow? Is your life in the faith joyful? Does being a follower of Jesus make you happy? Do you feel compelled to serve others? Can you release fear and anxiety and throw yourself on the promises of God? Are you angry, afraid, impatient, cruel, rude? Do you take your spiritual lessons from day-time TV and practice the saccharine self-help arts? Are you a spiritual athlete running to holiness under your own power, bypassing the weaker brethren and waving with self-sufficient pride as you pass? Do you believe that you invent your truth? Your right and wrong? Do you gamble against hope? Look for evidence to believe? Endure b/c failure is socially embarrassing? When your priest preaches on love, do you think he’s weak or liberal or mushy theologically? Do you think he ought to spend more time telling those sinners over there to Stop It! But Father, there are politicians, bishops, theologians, Catholic professors who need to be called out for the scandals they’re causing! No doubt. Can they look to you for a good example of how to love themselves back toward holiness and truth? Or will they learn from you, from me how to be quick-tempered, brooding, rude, and unloving?

If you know everything there is to know; if you ooze wisdom from your skin; if you prophesy in the Holy Spirit with 100% accuracy; if you sell everything, give the money to the poor, and surrender completely to God, running around butt-naked and broke; if you do all this and you do not love—you have gained nothing b/c you are nothing.

To be loved by God is life; to love b/c He loved us first is living. And so, preach this gospel: our God never fails—bear all things with Him, believe all things in Him, hope for all things from Him, and…endure, endure, endure. God never fails. God is Love. Love never fails.

Bold Lambs Among the Wolves

Ss. Timothy and Titus: 2 Tim 1.1-8 and Luke 10.1-9
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St. Albert the Great Priory and Church of the Incarnation

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Good morning, Lambs! And if there are any wolves here dressed in lamb’s wool, good morning to you as well! Our Lord has sent us, the Lambs, to bring to those who need him his freedom and care. He has sent us out to bawl and bark the Word of the Father’s mercy to us—to frighten the spirits of illness and turmoil, to unnerve and expose the agents of spiritual slavery and vice. Our Lord has sent us out as teachers of a powerful Way, and charged us with not only talking about him and his Good News to others but he has also charged us with being him and his Good News for others. It is not enough to whisper the stories of his healing miracles or sing the stories of his travels with his merry band of brothers. Our Lord did not send us among the wolves to teach them history or biography; he did not send us among the unbelieving to entertain them with scripts and skits. We are sent out, cast away like ripening seed, to spread like kudzu and crab grass, a sincere faith, a confident trust in the truth of the Father’s gift of mercy.

And it is for this reason, Lambs, that I remind you to stir into flame the gifts of God that you have received through your baptism, the graces of the Spirit that came to you in your dying and rising again in Christ. Paul teaches Timothy that God did not give the Apostles a spirit of cowardice but one of power and love and temperance. Through the imposition of his hands on Timothy, Paul laid on him a spirit, a trust, a commission, a witness; he laid on Timothy’s heart and mind a new way of being Timothy in the world, a more perfect Way of being Christ for others and all. And there is no room in the Christ-crowded heart for cowardice or guile, for ignorance or deceit, for flinching from hardship in His service or running from surrender to His will.

Therefore, do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord! Go on your way and proclaim the marvelous works of our God to all the wolves, all the unclean spirits, all the sick, injured, lost, beaten, imprisoned, and cast-out; to all the beautiful, the rich, the wise, the well-connected; all the overeducated, the comfortable, those captive to their stunted religious imaginations and those deluded by error and dissent. Take nothing with you but the Spirit given you b/c there is nothing you can take along that matters more than Christ himself. What you need is given as you need it, provided out of the abundance and generosity of those to whom you bring the Word. Bring your witness to them and listen to their witness to you. What you might need most at that moment is a Word of power spoken to your fainting heart…

For this reason, I remind you to stir into flame the gifts of God that you have received through your baptism! Timothy and Titus, made bishops by the laying on of hands, received the gift of ecclesial leadership—teaching, preaching, governing—and they spread the seeds of Christ’s Good News everywhere their beautiful feet took them! Not all of us are called to be bishops. Most of us are called to do something far more difficult: to be Christ where we find ourselves; to be powerful witnesses to the transformative power of love and mercy; to be lambs speaking the truth among wolves who demand that we lie in order to live peacefully among them. Praise God that you have been made clean, washed spotless and bright in the waters of baptism. Praise God that you have not been given a spirit of cowardice but rather a spirit of power and love and temperance. Praise God for His banquet table, His altar of thanksgiving, where we eat and drink all that we need to do what He has asked to do and to be who He has made us to be.

Do not be ashamed of your testimony among the wolves! Shout out what Christ has done for you and dare the wolves to bare a single fang in defiance of that truth. We owe the wolves nothing but truth, b/c in the end, it’s all we have to give them.

Day of Penance for Roe v. Wade

Day of Penance for Violations Against Human Dignity Caused by Abortion (GIRM 373)
Philippians 4.6-9 and Matthew 5.1-12
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St. Albert the Great Priory, Irving, TX

PODCAST!

Is there anyone here this morning who wants to be among the damned? Anyone? Anyone here who wants to wallow in cynicism, grievance, betrayal, or viciousness? Anyone? OK. Anyone here this morning who wants to celebrate falsehood, injustice, ugliness, or disease? Anyone? No? OK. Anyone here this morning who wants to be among the blessed? Anyone here who wants to revel in hopefulness, forgiveness, friendship, and virtuousness? Anyone where this morning who wants to celebrate truth-telling, justice-making, beauty, and health? Anyone? Good! Because today we observe a Day of Penance for those violations of human dignity caused by abortion. And we must start by repenting from any inclination to understand the human person as a means; any inclination to treat one another as merely objects for use any inclination to live together in cynicism, malice, or irrational prejudice. To be blessed, we must be a blessing and do what is honorable, just, pure, and gracious…and always in the name of God for His greater glory. Turn from the disobeying our Father’s command that we love one another as He loves us, as He loved us first, and make your life about the excellence of self-emptying service!

You might ask: Father, why are you yelling at us about repenting from abortion? We’re solid pro-lifer’s! I don’t doubt this. So, let me answer your question with a question: why are we, the pro-life Church, observing a Day of Penance in reparation for the devastation of abortion? The answer: if we don’t, who will? Who will stand up to repair this gaping wound in our social body? Who, if not the Church, will offer sacrifice for the healing of this horrific disease?

You raised your hands when I asked who here wants to celebrate beauty, justice, and health. How do you celebrate God’s beauty in creation? His justice in our social order? His health in your spiritual life? Irrelevant questions to the repentance at hand? NO! If you, a faithful Catholic, one who deeply desires the peace of Christ, cannot honor the fullness of human dignity— the sacredness of all life, the intrinsic value of human labor, our right to be free from violence and intimidation (personal and political)—if we cannot honor the fullness of human dignity, then we cannot celebrate God’s beauty, His justice, nor can we expect His health. And what’s more, we cannot hold others to a standard we’re unwilling to meet.

Abortion sits at the center of our cynical culture as a devastating failure to love, an idol to convenience, expediency, and self-indulgence. To the degree that we as Catholics have contributed to this failure to love, especially in our failure to love the women who have chosen abortions, we must repent. There is nothing gracious, lovely, pure, or true about cynically judging women who have chosen abortions. And there is nothing blessed about dismissing the killing of a child with an appeal to privacy rights or religious tolerance. Love requires us to speak the truth. And when we fail to speak the truth, we must repent. The truth is: abortion is the direct killing of innocent life. We may never call this violation of human dignity good. The truth is: the Way to forgiveness and peace is always open, always free, and we, as self-identified Christs-for-Others, we must serve as eager ushers on the Way. We cannot at once hope to be blessed and refuse to be a blessing.

You are to be hungry for justice. Clean of heart. At peace. Kind. And you must be ready, always ready to speak a word comfort in truth. You have been shown mercy, therefore, show mercy in thanksgiving. And be blessed.

Can you say, "I am Christ"?

3^rd Sunday OT: Neh 8.2-6, 8-10; 1 Cor 12.12-14, 27; Luke 1.1-4; 4.14-21
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St. Paul’s Hospital, Dallas, TX

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If I were to ask you this morning: who are you? How would you answer? Most of you would give me a name. Bob. Sue. Gladys. Some of you would add a job or career description: George, an accountant. Barbara, a nurse. Some of you might even throw in a relationship descriptor. Linda, clerk and mother of three boys. Harold, postal worker and grandfather. What else could you add? Your hometown; your parish; a bit of family history; maybe a quick medical run-down. All of these descriptors—name, job, relationships, history—all of those pick us out of the herd, I mean, they identify you as you. These are differences about us that distinguish us from them, you from me, me from them and so on. Oh, and you would likely throw in there somewhere that you are a Christian. So, let me ask: who are you as a Christian? How does this descriptor pick you out, make you different?

The reading from Nehemiah tells us something about what it means to be a faithful member of a faith-filled group. Ezra, a priest, brings out the book of the law and reads aloud. The assembly—men, women, children—listen to the law being read. We read twice in the space of four lines that the assembly is made up of men, women, and children old enough to understand. This group is picked out not by sex or age but by its attentiveness to Ezra’s reading of the book of law. They hear and listen. And then Ezra shows them the book, opening the scroll “so that all the people might see it.” They stand. And with one voice—as a people—they raise their hands, shouting “Amen, amen!” They bow. They prostrate. They fall to the ground on their faces. They weep. And then they receive instruction from Nehemiah himself. He tells them not to weep for today is holy; instead go feast because rejoicing in the Lord is their strength.

Pay careful attention! Those faithful people—men, women, children—gather; listen to the Word read aloud; receive instruction; accept an invitation to a great feast; and together they hear: to give glory and praise to the Lord, to offer Him rejoicing and thanksgiving must be their strength! Let me break that down for you: rejoicing in the Lord is how we must endure; giving God thanks and praise is how we must persevere. This is not muddling through til we die. This is not just one step after another until we drop. Today is holy to our Lord! Rejoice, give thanks, praise His name and continue on: persist, stick with it, keep going. Weep, rage, laugh, cuss, pitch a fit, flop around on the ground screaming if you must—but it is in rejoicing that you will find the strength to endure.

Those who survive while praising the Lord stand out. Those who succeed while praising the Lord distinguish themselves. But what does this have to do with being Christian? Paul writes to the Corinthians that the church is one body with many parts; one body made up of Jews, Greeks, slaves, and freed men who are no longer Jews, Greek, slaves, or freed men. Because they have all been baptized into one body and because all have drunk of one Spirit, what they were before is no more. Now—together—they are Christ’s body, working at Christ’s work, praising his Word, healing his people, feeding the hunger, finding the lost, enlightening the ignorant, together being the hands and feet of Christ. These former Jews, Greeks, slaves, and freed men survive and succeed b/c they stand out as living, breathing, fleshy machines of mercy and service, blood and bone engines of charity and freedom. They drink from one Holy Spirit, give body and soul to the only Son, and offer filial obedience to one Father. They know Christ and they know his will and they do his will to become Christ.

If I were to ask you this morning: who are you? How would you answer? Would answer, “I am Christ”? Can those words fall from your lips w/o blushing, w/o qualification? For you, for me, for any of us to admit—“I am Christ”—we must first know who Christ is. We must answer the question: who does Christ say that he is?

Luke’s gospel this morning teaches us that Jesus is the anointed one; the one upon whom the Spirit rests; the one chosen to bring joy to the poor, liberty to slaves, sight to the blind, and to set free those oppressed. We know this b/c Luke reports that Jesus goes to his hometown synagogue on the Sabbath and reads aloud from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah a description of the Messiah. When he has finished reading the passage, he sits down. All in the synagogue are watching him. He says to those gathered, “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” He says to them (in effect), “I am the Christ, the Anointed One from the Lord.” Can you imagine the surprise? The anger? The shock and awe? The relief? What did those who heard this proclamation think? Here is a hometown boy who reads from Isaiah’s prophecy a description of the Messiah and then claims that in hearing the description read aloud that the prophecy is fulfilled! This man is the one promised by the prophets? Can you listen and not believe?

And notice that it is in hearing Jesus read the prophecy that the prophecy is fulfilled. Open ears. Open eyes. Listen, see. Remember the people gathered before Ezra to hear the law read, to see the book opened. They hear, listen, see, and rejoice, finding their strength in praise: Your words, O Lord, are spirit and life! They find their strength and we find ours.

Who are you? Will you say, “I am the Christ”? Does this identify you as a Christian? Does this proclamation pick you out as someone wholly given to God? Does it make you queasy to admit such a thing? It’s a big job being a Messiah. Huge job. But your part is one part in the Body of Christ. Your part is the one part you are alone are gifted to complete. You, like the rest of us, will shine out the face of Christ to all who will listen and see. You will do it uniquely. And in so doing, God’s love will be perfected in you. Will you get it wrong sometimes? Yes. Fail? Yes. Refuse to be Christ for others? Of course. And so will we. We will ignore the poor, teach falsehood, fail to free captives, leave the blind blind, the lame lame. We will embarrass the Church, dissent in order to commit our favorite sins, blow off our tradition and history, ridicule legitimate authority. We will sin. And when we do, we then become the blind in need of sight, the lame in need of healing, the captives in need of freedom, the oppressed in need of liberation. In sin, we become those for whom the Christ came.

There is one Body, many parts. One Christ, many christs. Who are you? Who will you free today? Who will you heal? Who will you feed, clothe, comfort, visit? The Spirit of the Lord is upon you because He has anointed you to do His work. Find your strength in praising the Lord. Stand out as men and women given wholly to God. And serve the broken, the lost, and the fallen. Be a Christian. Better yet: be Christ!

The Work is Bigger...

2^nd Week OT (F): Hebrews 8.6-13 and Mark 3.13-19
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
Serra Club, Church of the Incarnation

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Jesus summons those whom he wants and they come to him. So simple. Jesus calls; we answer. He asks; we reply. He orders; we obey. We have from him direction, purpose, limits, and identity. We have from him a mission, a ministry, authority, and truth. His Spirit is among us, together with us, here now to hold us up, to bring us to fruition and harvest and to see us work at his work—imperfectly, incompletely, yes!—but to see us work at his work together despite our shortfalls, despite our mistakes, and despite our sometimes Belly-Button views of the world. You correct my errors. They pick up our slack. We get done what she can’t. She manages what he refuses to do. And I handle the stuff no one else will. And all of us together get it done; we complete the work Jesus has given us to do. None of us alone can do what Christ has asked all of us to do together.

Jesus knew this, so he called twelve of his disciples and appointed them apostles. He turned students into teachers with a call and gave them the authority—the legitimacy, the power, the clout—they needed to get out there and preach, to get out there and bring not just a word of healing but actual healing, not just a word of reconciliation with God but actual reconciliation. They were not empowered to deliver a message about Christ; they were empowered to deliver Christ himself. We hear their names listed so that we know that twelve men were called, twelve actual persons were summoned to the mountain. Not mythic figures. Not heroes from misty history. Not personified virtues or angels. But men. Meat and bone men with fathers and mothers and siblings and nationalities and careers. Men with stories, with pasts and with present problems. Jesus wanted these twelve to walk his Word around the world. And they did. Together.

The reading from Hebrews this morning makes it perfectly clear that the new covenant, though a declaration of the obsolesce of the old covenant, is still a covenant with a people not a person, with a nation not a citizen: “I will put my laws in their minds and I will write them upon their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” One God, many people. One God, many priests, many prophets, many kings. All those priests, prophets and kings—all of us!—will accomplish the Lord’s work in the world working together. One Body in Christ. Christ’s most excellent ministry, as mediator for us before the Father, is a ministry to us as his body and for us as his brothers and sisters. He mediates a better covenant with better promises but still a covenant with the nation, the race, the Church.

The work we have been given to do here—the promotion of vocations to the priesthood and religious life—is precisely the work Christ accomplished in calling the apostles. Christ summons those whom he wants. We help those summoned come to him. This is not work for one man, one woman, one priest. It is not even work for a small group of talented men and women. What WE take on here is the work of the Spirit in drawing out the vocation, the call, and strengthening the hearts of those called to climb that mountain to Christ for their mission. This work of ours is bigger than me. It’s bigger than the UD Serra Club. It’s bigger than any one bishop or any single pope. This work of strengthening the called to answer Yes to God is the work of the Church—all the priests, prophets, and kings; all the baptized and all those with open eyes and open ears. None of us alone can do what Christ has asked all of us to do together.

Whatever it is that distracts you from your holy work, put it on this altar. Sacrifice it. Give it up to God. And get back to work!

Would you shout for Jesus?

2^nd Week OT: Hebrews 7.25-8.6 and Mark 3.7-12
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
Church of the Incarnation, University of Dallas

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Would you be one of those pressing Jesus on the lakeshore? Would you be one of those clamoring to touch him, to have him glance at you, speak to you? Could you throw yourself into the mob and ride the rushing bodies to Christ? I think most of us would say that we wouldn’t be part of an adoring herd chasing Jesus all over creation. We wouldn’t toss our dignity and decorum into the wind so easily and become squealing groupies! But then again, we have 21^st century medical science—surgeries, MRI’s, CAT scans, medicines, bone replacements, organ transplants—we have the advances of technology and social psychology to comfort our herd-fears, our pack anxieties. However, we still fear death. We still grow unsteady and weak in the face of debilitating disease and injury. The human need for care and healing is as fundamental to our nature as speech or touch or passion—perhaps this need, this desire for wholeness and health is basic enough, powerful enough to rush Christ and risk crushing him; desperate for comfort or cure, we find that dignity and decorum are luxuries for the healthy, the well-cared-for and that leaping and pushing and crying aloud are the necessities for the diseased and the neglected.

What do the diseased and neglected recognize in Jesus? They see what the unclean spirits see: the Son of God come among them. Inhabiting the ill and malformed bodies of the sick, the unclean spirits know who Jesus is and announce his coming. But the time is not right and the Christ cannot be heralded by demons, so Jesus warns them to silence about his identity. Regardless, they recognize that he is the wholeness and health that comes to destroy their broken and ailing lives. That he has done this repeatedly during his ministry only lends credibility to their demonic fear and it should lend strength to our faith, our trust in God’s promise of Final Healing.

Who can bring about this Final Healing other than the one High Priest, Jesus Christ? Who can intercede for us more faithfully before the throne? Who can offer a more efficacious sacrifice for our sins than Christ Jesus? No one. Hebrews reads, “He has no need to offer sacrifice day after day[…]he did that once for all when he offered himself.” We have a high priest who is at once Priest and sacrifice, priest and altar. He is the one who sacrifices and the one sacrificed—“a death he freely accepted.” He is the mediator of a better covenant put into practice with better promises. And knowing this, yes, we would chase him to the lake’s edge and jump for his attention.

We were not made for death but life and the fear of death is the best sign we have that life, abundant life, is our greediest desire, our most aching want. And at the same time we know that disease and injury and anxiety mark us as mortal, temporary—for now—temporary creatures of frail stature and limited ability. Leaping and shouting for Christ is what any us would do when faced with the chaos of illness or the devastation of injury. We would cry to our High Priest for mercy, for help and healing. And why not? Christ is always able to save those who approach the Father through him. He lives forever to make intercession for us. So, leap, shout, shove, press in, reach out, clamor away for the Lord, calling to him in your need, “You are the Son of God!”

Bottomline Holiness

St Anthony, abbot: Ephesians 6.10-13, 18; Matthew 19.16-26
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St. Albert the Great Priory, Irving, TX

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We’ve all heard the story about the bored student sitting in class, wanting nothing more than to get out in the sunshine and run. The teacher drones on and on and on and finally the bored student—in total exasperation—asks the bottom-line question that clears through all the distraction and clutter of learning. In Adultese the question is: Is this going to be on the test? Translated into Teenagerese the question is: I'd rather stick a hot poker in my eye and spend eternity screaming into the abyss than sit here for another second listening to you drone on about stupid stuff I don't need to know anyway so just tell me what's going to be on the test so I write it down and memorize it and please stop torturing me with what if's could be's maybe's and you really have to think about that's and just give me the facts so I can give them back to you on the stupid test and for pity's sake get to the point and let us go! Now, I don’t know about you, but I never said such a thing in class. I was and am a school geek. But we all know the sentiment: get to the point, tell us what we need to know, and move on.

The RYM in Matthew’s gospel is in a hurry. He asks Jesus, “What good must I do to gain eternal life?” Jesus answers with what seems like an annoying rhetorical question about who is good and then gives the guy his bottom-line answer. Jesus says, “If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” The RYM asks the teenager question: “Which ones?” Whadda mean, “Which ones?!” Translated into Teenagerese this question is something like: Ok stop with the philosophical muttering and weird religious speculation and just give me the formula, the prayer, the sacrifice, or the whatever it is that gets me into heaven because I'm a bottomline kinda guy and your cryptic zen puzzles are annoying me and making me think and I just wanna know how not to go to hell so please Jesus tell me what's going to be on the Test at the End so I can spit it back up and get my eternal A+. Jesus, being a good teacher, tells him which of the commandments he must observe and the RYM says (in effect), “Been there, done those. What else?” Jesus, ever the one for surprise and difficult demands says, (in effect), “Sell all of your stuff, give the money to the poor, then come, follow me. This is just how you start on your perfection.”

Not a good answer for the RYM b/c, well, he’s rich and young after all. So he goes away sad. And then Jesus tells his disciples that it is hard for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. Why? Probably b/c riches incline one to cling to them, making it difficult to follow Christ in a life of poverty. It’s not the having that’s the problem; it’s the clinging. Remember: you become what you worship. Cling to temporary things and you become a temporary thing. Easily bought and sold, easily lost. Cling to Christ and his work and you become Christ to do his work.

The temptation, of course, is the path of least resistance. Just tell me, Father, what I need to do! Bottom-line it for me, padre! The truth is: holiness is work, hard work and there are no shortcuts. I could tell you to throw on scapular or pray a novena or sing a litany to St. Jude and all of those would be fruitful. But none of them will substitute for following Christ in his work—healing, feeding, clothing, visiting those in need, those who need our help and want our company. There’s no magic spell to holiness, no Instant Win scratch-off card that guarantees you heaven. If you want to be perfect, unclench your heart, move your feet on Christ’s way, lift your hands in prayer, attach yourself to nothing temporary, rather, give yourself to eternity. And listen again to Jesus: “Give what you have to poor, come, follow me.”

Water to wine, Life to living

2^nd Sunday OT: Isa 62.1-5; 1 Cor 12.4-11; John 2.1-11
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St. Paul’s Hospital, Dallas, TX

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To each of us is given a manifestation, an expression of the Spirit—given to each so that each might be of service to all. Different gifts, same Spirit. Different graces, same Spirit. Different workings for God’s glory, same Spirit in the work. The Spirit diffuses His gifts among us like a rich perfume carries through the air, touching one soul and moving to the next, settling into the life and work of this one, unsettling the comfort and security of that one; the Spirit shakes the firm, calms the anxious, bolsters the weak, tests the strong, brings peace to the violated and justice to unjust. Each of us and all of us are given a way to manifest the Spirit of the Lord; all of us and each of us is given a gift that expresses the love of the Father for the Son and the Son for the Father, a gift that expresses their love to you, to us so that we can then show those we love, those we work with and play with and live with, so that we can show them that they too can, if they will, they too can be gifted by God, graced in the Spirit, and that they can make their lives a benefit to others for God’s greater glory.

Have you forgotten your gift? Maybe I should ask first: what is your gift? How has God graced you? How are you an expression of the Spirit’s wisdom? If you can’t answer this, allow St. Paul to help. Have you been given trust in the Lord? A faith in His promises and power? An ability to heal the sick, the anxious, the lost? Have you been given the will to do great works in His name? Wealth to fund charity? Health to spend your life telling those who have not hear the Good News the Good News? Can you see and hear the signs of the times, know where we have gone wrong, and teach us the Way of the Lamb? Do you have the courage—the strength of your redeemed heart—to stand up and say, “This is the Way!” Can you see and hear the movement of the Spirit? Can you distinguish between what the Lord has calls us to do and the Devil tempts us to do? Are you graced with the ability to discern that which will kill our souls and that which will nourish us? Can you speak to us so that we understand, witness to us so that the wisdom of the Spirit makes sense to us, is useful to us, and gives us what we need to be better children of the Father? Who are you in Christ? What do you know that we need to know? What can you do that the rest of us can’t? Your gift from God is your gift to us.

Think! What is your gift? How has God graced you? How are you an expression of the Spirit’s wisdom? Have you forgotten your gift? Do you ignore or reject what God has given you to share? How can we proclaim the marvelous deeds of God; praise Him for His abundance; rejoice in His treasure if you hide, if you shrink from your inheritance? Think! What do you need from us? What gifts do we have, what graces have we received that you need? You see, none of this—this biblical journey, this history of healing in Christ, this struggle towards holiness—none of this makes any sense at all if we don’t do it together, if we don’t do it for another. One faith, one baptism, one Lord. But countless gifts! Infinite graces. Like stars in a desert sky. Like drops of wine at a wedding.

Mary says to Jesus at Cana, “They have no wine.” They do not have what they need to celebrate God’s blessing at this wedding. They do not have what they need to make this religious ritual into a righteous party! Jesus answers to his mother, “My hour has not yet come.” It is not yet time for me to reveal myself as the one sent to unlock the treasury of God’s grace. It is not yet time for me to preach the Good News, to teach the truth of the Way. You can almost see Mary pausing to consider this, waiting for just a moment before she says to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Jesus decides that this IS the hour to reveal his ministry and mission and he tells the servants to bring him six jars of water. The water becomes wine. That which gives us life becomes that which makes life a celebration. That which brings us into the Body of Christ at baptism becomes that which will feed us as his blood after he leaves us.

Jesus reveals his glory in this miracle and in so doing reveals the beginning and the end of his public ministry. He graces the wedding guests with the gift of fine wine as he graces us with the gift of his saving blood. We are washed clean and welcomed in with water. And we are kept clean by his blood and well-fed with the food of his heavenly banquet. The disciples begin to believe not b/c Jesus has shown them some magic trick, some sort of Houdini illusion that wows the great unwashed. They begin to believe him b/c they see what he intended them to see: his Father’s generosity, his Father’s abundance, and the wisdom of the Spirit that reveals to them the course of their calling—to follow Christ, to teach and preach what he teaches and preaches, to follow him to the cross and their deaths as faithful witnesses to his gospel. Magic tricks cannot move us to martyrdom. Illusions cannot feed us through trial and suffering. The disciples believed and we believe b/c Jesus revealed his glory—showed them and us the majesty and power and bright-mercy of his Father. His gift to them and to us is eternal life and every gift we need between now and his coming again, every gift we need to perfect—to sharpen, hone, to polish—those graces the Spirit blesses us with right now.

Have you forgotten your gift? What is the Spirit’s grace for you? What lies or stands or crawls between you and your inheritance? Do you will not to hear the Good News? Do you refuse his love out of fear, hatred, panic, desperation? Willful ignorance is disobedience—simply saying NO to the Word, refusing to listen. If you will not be the Spirit’s tool, God’s instrument of mercy and love, then what will you be? Will you serve Self and worship the mirror? Will you feed hatred and bile and grow bloated on vengeance and anger? You become the idols you worship. Blind, deaf, mute, lame, leprous, gushing blood, demon possessed, dead…forever.

With Christ, we are no longer called Forsaken or Desolate. We are no longer counted among the lost, those shadows of souls that haunt the graves of their lives. We are no longer without names, without crowns, without a nation or tribe. We are Children of the Most High, crowned a royal priesthood for the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving; and we are nation of gifted prophets, graced apostles and witnesses to the transforming power of the Body and Blood of Christ. His gift to you is eternal life. Your life now belongs to Christ. Live it as Jesus lived his among us; live it as a daily offering, a hourly oblation to God. We are espoused to the Bridegroom and our God rejoices in us. Let Him turn Mere Living into a jubilant celebration. You are His Delight! Delight Him in return by being His gift to others. Announce his saving works among all peoples and proclaim his marvelous deeds!

To be healed is to be obedient

1^st Week OT(F): Hebrews 4.1-5, 11 and Mark 2.1-12
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St. Albert the Great Priory, Irving, TX

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The source of our sickness is disobedience. What ails us, what dis-eases us, what stirs our peace and hacks at our trusting foundation is our failure to listen, to attend to the Word, to receive and collect in the Good News—all of the Good News not just the safe, cheery bits—all of the teachings of Christ, to bring them in, tend to them, and harvest their powerful fruit for our holiness, our witness, and our mission. Without the food of the Word made flesh, the truth of the faith, we are left to starve on a junk food diet of wishful thinking, emotive fantasy, destructive curiosity, and, finally, religious disobedience—an adolescent tantrum of the heart and mind that rebels against truth b/c knowing the truth is a step toward being freed from the slavery of sin, a step toward being made a slave to Christ. To be healed is to hear the Word spoken to your disobedience—to hear him and listen!

From Hebrews we read: “…we have received the Good News just as our ancestors did.” We have heard the same message, heard the same covenant, received the same law as did those who came before us in faith, “but the word that they heard did not profit them, for they were not united in faith with those who listened.” To be “united in faith with those who listened” is precisely what we mean when we use the word Tradition to point to some teaching that defines us as Catholics. We are able to stand here in Irving, TX in 2007 and reach back 100, 500, 1,000, 2,000 years and lay our hands on an ancient wisdom—not just information or knowledge, not just data and figures—but true wisdom, faithfully lived, sometimes messy, sometimes difficult, but always humane, always a record of honest struggle, a record of hard won holiness in spite of mistakes, in spite of error and sin and the heart’s failure. Our Tradition—Christ’s teachings—held in his Body, the Church, our Tradition is the record of our faith-family’s obedience. Everything we are and everything we have as Catholics is what they heard and it is what we are hearing even now.

We are united in faith with those who listened.

Yesterday our preacher was a leper. Today he is a man paralyzed. Lowered through the roof of the house where Jesus is teaching, the man is healed b/c he listens to the Word spoken to him. Not just hears but listens—takes in, welcomes in the Word. Hears and obeys. And notice too that Jesus saw the faith of those who brought the man to him. The man is brought to Christ by a crowd of saints, a crowd of those who listened. And it is their faith, the trust of the communion that moves Jesus to speak his healing Word.

Jesus, demonstrating to the scribes his authority as Lord, begins this healing miracle by saying to the paralytic, “I say to you…” You. Just you. Attend to my voice, hear my words, and obey. Listen. “I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home.” He hears and obeys—healed by a compelling Word of mercy, the Word who forgives his sins and brings him to faith, making him one of those who listened.

In your dis-ease, your paralysis, to whom do you listen? What word do your obey? You have (freely given) God’s revelation of Himself in scripture, in the magisterial interpretation of the tradition, in creation, and finally and uniquely in Jesus Christ. Who God is to us and for us is right there. What you need loosed can be loosed. What you need bound can be bound. Just listen: Child, your sins are forgiven!

Stony face = Stony heart?

1^st Week OT (Th): Hebrews 3.7-14 and Mark 1.40-45
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St. Albert the Great Priory, Irving, TX

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The hardened, unfaithful heart forsakes the living God. What does this mean? What is a hard heart? What is an unfaithful heart? Unlike leprosy, the hard, unfaithful heart is not a medical disease, not a physical condition; it is a spiritual malady, an injury to the covenant between child and the Father, a wreck made of one’s most loving kinship, one’s most desirous bond. An hardened heart cannot beat; a stone pumps no blood. Lifeless, rock-dead, a rigorous heart resists the pliant Spirit, repels the ointments of mercy and love, and fossilizes, grows moss and becomes the cold, moist home of worms and chittering beetles. In less colorful language, brothers and sisters, a hardened heart is deaf to God’s Word, mute to His witness, blind to His wondrous deeds, and numb to the fire of His love.

A stony heart can be made flesh again. How? “A leper came to him and kneeling down begged him and said, ‘If you wish, you can make me clean.’” Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out his hand to the man and said, “I do will it. Be made clean.” Jesus wills that we be made clean. He wills that we be perfected, that we have bold, fleshy hearts pumping blood and Spirit, surging his Father’s love through the Body, pounding into the skeleton and tissue and sinew of his Church the truth of His power, the life of His Way, the health and wealth of His law seared into the muscle of our lively hearts. Be made clean.

And leap and laugh, rejoice and praise God and please, please, please: Look and sound healed! What does your scowl witness to? What does your gritted and grim frown say about the power of God to heal? How do we know that your heart is free when your face is trapped in a penitential grimace? When your words are sour and fuming? When your deeds are selfish and disobedient? The refusal of the Christian to be joyful at his/her redemption is a sacrilege, a willful failure to make one’s life a living sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. The Holy Spirit says, “Harden not your hearts in rebellion against my ways.” There is no rest for us there. There is no solace in resistance to the purifying fire of love. And there is no gain for the child of God in refusing to shine out His love, in failing to make one’s every breath, every move, every thought an act of thanksgiving for His mercy. I’m not saying you have to be a grinning idiot to be a good Christian. I am saying that your face, your countenance, your demeanor is a powerful witness to others. What are you saying about God’s presence in your life when you stand perfectly still, perfectly silent? Does a hardened, unfaithful face give voice to a hardened, unfaithful heart?

The healed leper is our saint to imitate! Without shame or hesitation, he begs Jesus’ mercy. He asks to be healed. He is made clean by Christ’s compassion. And what? He mopes around frowning? No! He “immediately publicizes the matter,” spreading abroad his healing at Jesus’ hand. In fact, his witness is so powerful that our poor Savior is forced to flee into the deserted places b/c “people kept coming to him from everywhere.” Driving Jesus into the desert! Now that’s good preaching!

Do not rebel against God’s joy. Do not resist His purifying love. Do not thank Him for His mercy with a penitential grimace. Instead: rejoice! be glad! welcome His passion for us! receive His love, and thank Him by looking like you’ve been redeemed, by acting like you’ve been saved from the fiery pit. Can people point at you and say, “He/she is a friend of Christ”? If not, harden not your hearts and beg for Christ’s cleansing touch.