On purpose, with a purpose

7th Sunday OT: Is 43:18-25; 2 Cor 1:18-22; Mark 2:1-12
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
Convento SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

[NB. This homily is an example of "Praedicator primum sibi praedicet" if there ever was one!*]

The Lord says to Isaiah, “…see, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” This astonishing exclamation by the Lord raises three questions: 1) what is this new thing that the Lord is doing?; 2) what does He mean by “now” when He says that this new thing is springing forth now?; and 3) do we perceive this new thing as it springs forth? As always, scripture is best read as both a history of the faithful response our ancestors to God’s grace and as a script for our own response to the identical grace. Given this, what are we to make of this revelation of immediate newness? On the eve of our Lenten trek, we think first of sin and repentance, the old and the new. Fair enough. Reading the story of the healing of the paralytic in light of Isaiah, let’s think as well on disease and healing, also, the old and the new. But let’s put all four of these themes (sin, repentance, disease, and healing) into a larger theme: as divinely-given purpose as creatures. Who and what are we as creatures—made things—of an all-loving Creator given a purpose beyond our creation? It is not enough to say that we are forgiven our sins upon repentance. It is not enough to say that we are healed of our diseases when we believe. The Lord is doing something new. And He is doing it now.

No doubt this sounds familiar: “You burdened me with your sins, and wearied me with your crimes.” How often do we hear God’s prophets tell us that our Lord is wearied by our disobedience, that He is fed up with our sin? And almost every time we hear the Lord’s lament, we hear something like, “It is I, I, who wipe out, for my own sake, your offenses; your sins I remember no more.” We sin. The Lord tires of it. He forgives us. And remembers our sin no more. Thanks be to God! Surely we are deeply grateful, but we must wonder why we are forgiven. Why do we find ourselves able to stand in the presence of the Lord washed clean of our willful disobedience? The Lord tells Isaiah: “The people I formed for myself, that they might announce my praise.” We cannot praise God while wallowing in our sin. Nor can we forgive our own disobedience, so God Himself, for His own sake, must forgive us our trespasses so that we might accomplish our purpose as His creatures: to praise Him, to bless Him, and to preach His Good News!

Think for a moment about what it means to be redeemed as a fallen creature. We can see this is a rescue from Hell. We can see this as establishing again our original relationship with God. We can also see our redemption as a kind of perfected health. What does the healing of the paralytic in Mark’s gospel tell us? Notice a few things about the story. Since the man is paralyzed, he cannot come to Jesus alone. He needs help. Four men lower him through the roof to Jesus. No mean feat of dedication or labor! Note that Jesus heals the man not only because of his faith, but also because of “their faith,” the faith of those men who worked so hard to get him to Jesus. Note as well that Jesus, in response to the kvetching of the scribes about blasphemy, draws a direct link between sin and disease, forgiveness and healing. He asks, “What’s the difference between me saying ‘Your sins are forgiven’ and ‘Get up and walk?’” Answer: none. In fact, Jesus says both to the paralyzed man: “Child, your sins are forgiven” and “…rise, pick up your mat, and go home.” Given back his mobility, the man rises and walks away. Miracle over.

Not quite. Notice one last thing. . .Mark reports: “He rose, picked up his mat at once, and went away in the sight of everyone.” Not only did Jesus restore his health, he restores his purpose: to be a creature in praise of his Creator! In the sight of everyone, this healed creature amazes the on-lookers; he witnesses to the power of God’s forgiveness by doing what he was made to do. Mark reports: “They were all astounded and glorified God…” Through his faith in God’s mercy, the man is healed. In his healing, he is given new purpose. With his new purpose, he restores the purpose of those witnessing his healing: “They. . .glorified God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this.’" What God does for us, He does for His glory. What we do in response, we do in praise and thanksgiving. That is our purpose.

Think about your dis-eases. Not so much your physical afflictions but your uneasinesses, your anxieties and doubts. Aren’t these usually the doors through which you walk to sin? Uneasy about the future, you plan against God’s promise to care for you. Anxious about your current situation, you try to fix things according to your passions, your own dimmed lights. Or maybe doubting some truth of the faith, you decide against right reason and the teachings of the Church and go out into the world’s intellectual desert to find an answer more pleasing to your broken mind. Though we are certainly free to follow these leads, we are never freed in following them. In fact, we are always enslaved more tightly, made sicker, paralyzed more thoroughly when we turn from our divinely-given purpose and follow an attractively decorated but nonetheless deadly end.

We have one purpose: to praise our God with body and soul, heart and mind through time and space. And when we are no longer bound by any measures of movement or created expanse, we praise Him face-to-face, complete in our end, fulfilled in our purpose. Perhaps the best way for to think about sin/forgiveness, disease/health is to think in terms of whether or not we are living out our created purpose, whether or not we are living toward our divinely-gifted end. This is not to say that every scrape and bump, or cough and headache is a sign of disobedience. These are reminders of creation’s falleness and our participation in a world groaning after its own purpose. Our illnesses are opportunities to see a purpose beyond simply enduring pain for pain’s sake, beyond the experience of disease as a natural dysfunction of the body. Like the paralyzed man in Mark’s gospel, we are children faithful to a Father, and we are healed/forgiven when we trust that our dis-eases are not who or what we are as loved creatures. If we are not our diseases, then we are our sins either. What tumor or fracture or infection or mental disorder or willful disobedience praises God? They don’t. Their purpose is wholly-other-than, something else entirely.

We can smell the Lenten desert from here. It’s hot and dry as always. All the better for cleaning those nasty wounds. All the better for stripping away the dead flesh and draining those abscesses of sinful infection. Rather than obsessing on what’s wrong with our spiritual lives—our living day-to-day with Christ and his people,—focus instead on praising God. Fast from purposeless posing in Narcissus’ mirror. Fast from rending your religious garb and heaping ashes on your fallen head. Fast from beating your breast and making a show of piety. Instead, feast on forgiveness and showing mercy. Feast on praising God in His infinite goodness and love. Feast on giving Him thanks for His gifts of life, redemption, and eternal residence near His throne. He’s done, is doing, and will always do something new for us. Spend these forty days of Lent in the excessive luxury of gratitude, sparing no moment to self-indulgence, giving nothing to disease or anxiety.

Our wounds are healed. And even if we still bleed, even if we still hurt, our purpose is renewed. Bleed, hurt, cry…do it all “on purpose,” do it all for one purpose, the purpose you were made to complete: praise God; bless God, and preach His Good News.

*"The preacher preaches to himself first."

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New podcast!

Lazy me. . .I finally got around to posting the podcast of last Tuesday's homily, "Resisting the world's leaven."

Check it out by clicking on the "Roman Homilies" link in the right side-bar.

Let me know what you think. . .good, bad, and/or ugly! I haven't listened it yet.

Fr. Philip, OP

Question for book benefactors

A question to my book benefactors. . .

Someone (or someones) recently purchased about six books from my Wish List. . .mostly the books on Eastern Orthodox prayer and spirituality.

My question: were these shipped to Rome or Texas? I'm asking b/c if they were shipped to Texas, I will need to find other sources for my prayer book since I won't be back in Texas 'til July. This doesn't mean the books won't be used. . .I have a second book brewing in my Monkey Mind that will make good use of these gifts!

Leave comments, please. . .I won't publish them.

Some navel-gazing. . .

BE WARNED: this is a fairly rambling piece of somewhat self-indulgent navel-gazing. . .

Normally, I am all-too aware of "where I am" spiritually--usually, somewhere around Not Quite Mortally Wounded Enough to Give Up Entirely but never Flying High Near the Throne. Like most struggling Catholics, I do as well as I can and throw my lot in with God's promise of mercy. This is as it should be. We struggle; we hope; and we get on with our day. Lately, something has changed, and I can't figure out what exactly is different.

Though I value the intellectual life, my basic instinct is intuitive; that is, most of my decisions/evaluations are deeply rooted in empathetic urgings, or fits and starts--maybe even leaps--of insight that push me onward and outward. I hate to admit it, but many of my choices in the past have been gambles rather than reasoned choices. For the most part, these bets against logic have worked out to my benefit. I vaguely remember someone once saying something about only children and fools rely on Providence. . .

Anyway, during my recent visit to the U.S., I was in touch with a strange sense of Something Isn't Right. There's nothing I can point to concretely as an example. Just a really bizarre, almost physical, twinging that I am in the wrong place spiritually. This isn't about being in Rome or about studying philosophy. . .it's more about my relationship to God and His Church, something more fundamental than what I am doing intellectually or vocationally and more about who I am as a priest.

During my three years as a campus minister at U.D. I was in a position to work as a priest on a daily basis. I celebrated Mass as many as five times a week. I was spiritual director to several students, a few staff members, some folks from the community. I heard confessions daily. There were even a few weddings and some baptisms. There's not much of that here in Rome. Two Masses a month. One spiritual directee. No confessions, baptisms, or weddings. Who is a priest without his people? Hmmmmm. . .

Though I taught literature and theology at U.D. the entire time I was there, these were academic exercises rather than strictly priestly ones. Teaching thrills me almost as much as preaching. . .I've learn more in front of a classroom than I ever have sitting in a desk. It's the give and take of a good discussion rooted in a text that stretches me intellectually not the solitary life of a scholar sitting in his room reading. The teaching I did stretched my spiritual muscles as well as my brain. But nothing strains against my naturally spiritual laziness like having to prepare five homilies a week. Of having to read, study, pray over, and preach about the scriptural readings for the ecclesial occasion. Add to that a poet's pride in needing to be original (i.e., not simply reaching into the file and pulling out a homily from three years ago) and you have a recipe for growth. I recently reviewed some of my earlier homilies and compared them to the few I've preached since October 2008. Though my more recent homilies are better focused and more clearly communicated, there's not as much energy there, not as much verve in the text or the delivery. Is that a bad thing? Maybe this is an indication that I am maturing, or maybe I'm feeling spiritually constipated. Stunted. Or held back. Who knows?

In many ways--despite my years in the academy--I was not prepared to be a student again. Sitting in a desk, taking notes, being examined. There's a different kind of discipline in being a teacher. Come to think of it. . .I've rarely been a student without also being a teacher. The typical model of university teaching is Master/Apprentice. Accomplished scholar imparts his/her mastery to those who want to attain competence in a field on the way to achieving expertise. From the beginning of my professional training as a reader/teacher of literature, I have been steeped in a different model: Coach/Athlete. Though I rebelled early on against the Marxism used to fuel this model (the so-called "pedagogy of the oppressed"), it best fits my personality. It is more dynamic, more intuitive, less authoritarian than authoritative, and it gives the teacher lots of room to grow. There's content to impart, of course, but the power of this model is the demonstration of a skill and the constant need to hone that skill.

Maybe my current spiritual discomfort has something to do with my academic discomfort? For Dominicans, study is a form of prayer. But I don't study well alone, or rather, I study best when studying is a communal activity, something done with others who need to sharpen their intellectual skills. What's a coach without his/her athletes?

So, I'm a priest without his people and a coach without his athletes. That goes a long way toward explaining my current malaise. Don't get me wrong here! I'm not unhappy or depressed or anything like that. Just. . .blah. Just tepid in all things spiritual and academic. The intellectual work I have ahead of me is daunting, even overwhelming. But that's not new. What's new, I guess, is that I feel little or no urgency to engage it or complete it. Why? I dunno. I'm reading. I'm thinking. I'm praying. Doing what I can to progress. But my heart isn't in it right now. I wish I could say that I'm being unduly distracted by more urgent problems. Nope. Or that I am being oppressed or burdened with third party problems. Nope. Yet, the sense of being stalled, of wading through molasses remains. Even my creative project--the prayer book--isn't moving my spirit to bigger and better things.

Who knows? It could be this Roman winter--cold, dark, damp. Could be that I am focusing on my health right now. Losing weight. Getting my HBP meds atraightened out. Or that I am too much concerned about where I will be this summer. It's easier to live in the future, isn't it?

What I need is a Coach standing over me yelling, "One more page, you wimp! Come on, you lazy bum! One more book! One more homily!" Ha! Yea, that's the ticket.

post-Pelosi announcement from the Vatican (Updated)

The Vatican Press Office published the following notice after Pelosi's visit with the Holy Father:

Following the General Audience the Holy Father briefly greeted Mrs Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, together with her entourage.

His Holiness took the opportunity to speak of the requirements of the natural moral law and the Church’s consistent teaching on the dignity of human life from conception to natural death which enjoin all Catholics, and especially legislators, jurists and those responsible for the common good of society, to work in cooperation with all men and women of good will in creating a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of its development.

Will this have much influence on our nation's third-ranking abortion fan? I'm not holding my breath; however, hope springs eternal. . .even in politics.

A report from Breitbart:

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday told U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a Catholic who supports abortion rights, that Catholic politicians have a duty to protect life "at all stages of its development," the Vatican said.

Pelosi is the first top Democrat to meet with Benedict since the election of Barack Obama, who won a majority of the Catholic vote despite differences with the Vatican on abortion.

The Vatican released remarks by the pope to Pelosi, saying Benedict spoke of the church's teaching "on the dignity of human life from conception to natural death." That is an expression often used by the pope when expressing opposition to abortion.

Benedict said all Catholics—especially legislators, jurists and political leaders—should work to create "a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of its development."

Pelosi could not immediately be reached after the 15-minute meeting, which was closed to reporters and photographers [HA! So much for the photo-op. There'll be no campaign posters touting the Holy Father's visit with Pelosi flying around SanFran in 2010. Good for them]. The two met in a small room of a Vatican auditorium after the pope's weekly public audience.

A number of the bishops in the United States have questioned Pelosi's stance on abortion, particularly her theological defense of her support for abortion rights.

Benedict has cautiously welcomed the new Democratic administration, although several American cardinals have sharply criticized its support of abortion rights in a break from former President George W. Bush.

Pelosi had meetings with Italian leaders the past few days, including Premier Silvio Berlusconi.

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Recent arrivals

Grazie mille! Mille grazie!

Recent book arrivals from the WISH LIST:

Metaphysics and the Idea of God

Aquinas: God & Action

Finite and Eternal Being

Science and the Spiritual Quest

"Work on Oneself": Wittgenstein's Philosophical Psychology

God? A Philosophical Preface to Faith

Vatican II: Renewal within the Tradition

Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages

Thank You notes go out tomorrow to all for whom I have a return address!

Resisting the world's leaven

6th Week OT (Tues) Gn 6.5-8; 7.1-5, 10; Mk 8.14-21
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
Convento Domenico e Sisto, Roma

Is Jesus surprised or disappointed? Is he exasperated or angry? Maybe all of these and more? Once again his best students and closest friends fail to “get it.” Having lived with him, traveled with him, listened to him, badgered him with questions, witnessed his miracles, the disciples seem to be as deaf, dumb, and blind as they were the day he netted them and pulled them into his ministry, gaping like fish for a breath. Exhibiting the same obstinance that the Pharisees seemed to favor when dealing with Jesus, his own students apparently need some sign, some miraculous konk on the head in order to see who Jesus is and to hear his saving Word. Fortunately, for the disciples, Jesus was with them, right there with them to continue teaching them, to continue showing them his unfailing Way. Two thousand and nine years later, what do we have to open our eyes and unstop our ears? When we clamor for signs and wonders, who steps up and reminds us that faith is first and always about trust, about throwing ourselves on the powerful mercy of God?

In the time it takes to cross to the opposite shore of the sea, the disciples had forgotten the lesson of the fishes and loaves. The Pharisees come forward after this miracle and demand signs from heaven to prove Jesus’ divine mandate, signs he refuses to give. Once on the opposite shore, Jesus warns his friends against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod, warning them against the poisonous influence of legalism and worldly politics. They think that Jesus is rebuking them for failing to bring bread. Frustrated, disappointed, he says, “Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear? And do you not remember?”

They do not understand. Their hearts may be hardened. They are blind to his signs and deaf to his Word. And surely they have failed to remember. They have Jesus among them to remind them of their failures and to enlighten their ignorance. What do we have now when we find ourselves in the same predicament? Thanks be to God, we have Christ among us as well! What else is the Eucharist but our present-day miracle of the loaves? What else is scripture but our spoken Word, divine words that open eyes and unstop ears? What else we are doing here this morning as the Body of Christ than being reminded of who Christ is for us? We do not merely remember a story or recall a lesson, we witness again in this breaking of the bread the cross and Christ’s sacrifice. What other signs could we possibly want or need?

When we allow the leaven of the Pharisees—the poisonous influence of religious legalism—or the leaven of the Herodians—the poisonous influence of accommodating the Church to the world’s philosophy—we risk forgetting who we are; we risk confusion, loss, hard-heartedness, spiritual blindness, and eternal death. We risk not only our own lives here and here-after, but we risk the lives of those we are sent to save through our witness to God’s mercy. We cannot risk ignorance of God’s Word, so we read, hear, and enact His Self-revelation in scripture. We cannot risk misunderstanding, so we listen to and follow His Church’s apostolic faith. We cannot risk hard-heartedness, so we care for the least among His people. We cannot risk forgetting, so we come together as one heart and one mind and we remember. And in remembering what he did for us in this Eucharist, we go out, out there, and we tell others what we have remembered and to whom we give thanks and praise for our salvation.

If you have seen God’s abundance at work, if you have heard His saving Word, you cannot fail to share what your eyes have seen and your ears have heard. To fail in this is poisonous. To you and to everyone you meet. Thanks to be God, you never need to forget; you never need to grow cold. You have us and we all have Christ with us, always with us.

Of many things. . .

Of many things. . .

1). Comments on SSPX controversy?

The canonical questions in this mess are beyond me., so I will leave those aside. I'm always delighted that those who have excommunicated themselves in disobedience find their way back to the Church in obedience. Bishop Williamson's holocaust denial is just dumb. However, we don't excommunicate Catholics (or refuse to rescind an excommunication) because they hold dumb ideas about historical events. I find it bizarre (and telling) that the very people who whine and carp about the Church excommunicating heretics, etc. are the same people demanding that the Holy Father exclude Williamson for his non-theological ideas. Make no mistake, this controversy is a media-made event designed to embarrass the Holy Father. Bishop Williamson needs to obey his SSPX superiors and recant his nutty notions of the holocaust.

2). Comments on the Legionaries of Christ controversy?

The Bible is pack full of sinners being used by God to put His Good News into the world. Think: if we only allowed living Saints to found orders, build churches, write theology, etc. how much could we get done toward preaching the gospel? Not much. That being said. . .I see two paths for the L.C. right now: 1). keep what is good, true, and beautiful about the L.C. spirituality and 2). rapidly distance the movement from the founder. The first is just good spiritual practice. The second is just good P.R. In philosophy there's a informal logical fallacy called "poisoning the well." In this fallacy an opponent will attempt to discredit an argument by pointing out that the defender of the argument holds indefensible positions or is somehow dodgy morally or intellectually. The idea is to cast doubt on the position under debate by poisoning the source of the offending argument. We see this a lot when debaters resort to comparing their opponents to Nazis, or pointing out that their opponents hold positions similar to some other undesirable ideology. That the founder of the L.C. was a sinner is plain. Who isn't? Does this discredit his spirituality? No. L.C. spirituality stands on its own quite apart from its author. In other words, L.C. spirituality is either true, good, and beautiful or it isn't. That it was composed and promulgated by a sinner is irrelevant. For P.R. purposes, the L.C. needs to distance itself from its founder, that is, quickly and irrevocably disconnect its spirituality from the man who founded it. This means apologizing, cleaning house for any co-conspirators, re-organizing, and basically starting from scratch in terms of promoting itself as a Catholic religious order. The Church needs the fervor and discipline that the L.C. offers. However, the L.C. does not need its founder in order to thrive.

3). Obama's stimulus package?

Pork. Pure and simple. Pork. Millions of taxpayer dollars to left-wing political groups and allies of the Democrats. I'm worried about something Mike Huckabee noted on FoxNews last week: the stimulus bill is fundamentally anti-religious in that it has a number of provisions that forbid the practice of the faith for those receiving money from the bill. Of course, the MSM has made no mention of this nor will it. I don't watch TV here in Rome, but I managed to get in a few hours of watching CNN while I was at home. Though I knew that the MSM is basically a televised Obama cheerleading camp, I had no idea the extent to which these "journalists" have abdicated their responsibility as our nation's fourth estate. On Lincoln's birthday, I watched a "report" on CNN that spent almost an hour comparing Obama to Lincoln. It was a fawning, saccharine, duplicitous Hallmark card of a show. Little more than a propaganda piece. An early Valentine's gift to The One. How can we have any sort of proper political debate when our media refuses to report the most basic facts about the political process? This is why I regularly visit Newsbusters. . .and you should too.

4). Increasing number of attacks on the Church?

This is old news. The Church has been under attack since the Holy Spirit visited the apostles in the Upper Room on pentecost. Nothing new in this. As an institution, the Church represents one of the few places left in the west that teaches personal responsibility and virtue. So long as we do this we can expect to be the targeted by the world's culture. Yes, we need to fight back. But not for the sake of the Church. The Church has been around for 2,000 years and will continue to be around until the Lord decides otherwise. Our fight is not against the culture but for those who cannot fight for themselves. Our job is to preach the Good News and teach the truth of the faith "in season and out." Those in the Church who would see us compromise or accommodate in order to get along are seriously deluded. I'm not suggesting that we become belligerent or aggressive. We don't need to be violent in order to speak the truth to the powers of this world. We just have to be persistent, unwavering in speaking the Word to those who will see and hear. Those that refuse to see and hear have condemned themselves. Remember: our treasure is not of this world. We can lose all of our stuff and still flourish as a Body. What the Church needs now more than anything are courageous leaders among the laity and clergy to stand up and assert what we know to be true: God has won this fight. From all eternity, God has won.

5). What's your book about?

If I manage to get a manuscript to Liguori Publications by May 8th, my book will be available in August 2009. Basically, all I am doing is adapting traditional litanies and novenas for contemporary use and writing several original litanies and novenas. The original prayers are taken from a variety of sources, including the works of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. I'm also including some prayers based on the mystical works of Meister Eckhart, Aquinas, Dionysus, Gregory of Nyssa, and a few other Patristic sources. Right now, I am working on the original pieces, including a triology of novenas rooted in the creation theology of the Eastern and Western Catholic traditions. If this book does well, I am going to propose a second book that will be a set of short reflections based on Patristic texts. This will be more of a daily-use book for growing in holiness. We'll see how thing go!

6). Lots of books about Eastern Orthodoxy on your Wish List. Considering a move to the East?

No, I'm a happy Latin Catholic. The books about Orthodoxy on my Wish List are there for two reasons: 1). I'm using them for my own book of prayers and 2). I'm giving the lectures on Orthodoxy to the U.D. students during our March trip to Greece. Generally, the E.O. do a better job of unpacking a theology of the Holy Spirit than the West does. I appreciate the more literary approach of the East and find their style of writing (less rational, more poetical) more appealing. As a Dominican, I am commited to the use of right reason in theological discussions, but sometimes we miss the subtlies when we focus exclusively on the rational. More than anything, the East has a better understanding of how creation and deification work in our salvation.

7). How was the trip home?

All went really well! No airport delays. No problem getting the meds through customs. I was very happy about this. I was also delighted on my flight over b/c the plane was only 2/3 full. This meant I got an extra seat next to me to stretch out! The flight back was full, however, so I was cramped and couldn't sleep. Ah well, the price of paying cattle-car rates, right? I visited with Mom and Pop for about a week and then drove to Irving where I was greeted warmly by students and faculty. One of my former students and some of his friends threw me a party. I had a chance to visit with several guys considering priesthood. Spent some time in Wal-Mart stocking up on things I can't get in Rome. Ate too much fast food, so this week is dedicated to puring Burger King and Wendy's from my system. Yuck. Had an unexpected visit with my provincial while in Texas. . .always a pleasure. I watched too much TV while visiting in MS. My mom loves HGTV, so I am once again up on all the latest yard fashions and my armchair skills at renovating old houses and shopping for new ones are up to par. Took my two nieces to see "Hotel for Dogs" and was astounded at the political messge of the movie: animals are just like humans and animal shelters are evil. The personification of animals is nothing new in cartoons and children's movies, but the none-too-subtle message of this movie is that animals and humans are morally equivalent agents with freely acting souls. I also found it interesting that all of the evil animal control agents were white men while the sympathic public was a hodge-podge of racially mixed women. The main characters were racially mixed too, but without fail the evil in the movie had a white male face. Something else I noticed while in the U.S.: we are a really fat nation. I've struggled with my weight all my life, but returning to the U.S. after only seven months in Rome gave me a perspective I hadn't counted on. I can see why the world thinks of the U.S. has an all-consuming Mouth and Stomach. Granted, I contribute to this image just by walking around Rome! Sigh. Am I glad to be back in Rome? Yes. I was surprised to find myself looking forward to returning. This semester is going to be tough. . .all Italian classes, thesis-writing, finishing up the book, trip to Greece, etc. But I am pleased to be back.

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Priests on American military bases in E.U.?

Request for info:

Anyone out there know anything about American military bases in Europe needing English-speaking priests?

I have a couple of months that I may be able to spend this summer serving as chaplain if the particulars (transport, housing, compensation, etc.) are right.

Let me know.

Back in Rome

I made it back to Rome!

Got back to the university at 9.30am local time.

Thanks for the prayers and the recent activity on the Wish List. . .

Now, back to bed!

New OP Blog!

A new Dominican blog!

Fr. Dominic Holtz, OP, a Central Province friar and prof at Aquinas Institute in St Louis, MO has started up a preaching blog: Specious Pedestrian.

Visit him often and tell him I sent you!

Quick Update

Just a quick update. . .

Travel has been perfect! All my flights were on time. I arrived in MS exactly on time. Amazing. I give thanks to God and to all of who prayed for me.

The family is doing well.

I'm in Irving, TX right now.

I've been working away on my book. My editor tells me that it will be out in August 2009 if (IF!) I can get a manuscript to her by May 8th. So, add prayers against procratination and equipment failure to your daily supplications.

I arrive back in Rome on Feb 15th and begin second semester on the 16th. This will be a difficult semester b/c all of my license-level classes will be in Italian. Fortunately, I will be able to take exams in English.

I've received permission from the Provincial to live in Irving for the summer (July-Sept), so I will be teaching literature and theology at U.D. second summer term.

A few new books have made it onto the WISH LIST. These would be very helpful in finishing up my own prayer book. I already have an idea for a second book!

God bless and keep those prayers going. . .Fr. Philip, OP

Pray4Me! :-)

I am leaving in the morning (Fri. Jan 30th) for a flight to Atlanta and then one to Memphis! Then driving to MS to visit with the parentals.

I'm returning to Rome on Feb 15th.

Please pray for a safe flight. . .especially for NO delays and NO complications at FCO!

God bless you all. . .Fr. Philip, OP

[NB. I've turned commenting off so I don't have 3,000 emails waiting for me when I get back!]

Homily for St Thomas Aquinas (repost)

To mark this feast day for St Thomas Aquinas, I am re-posting this homily from the 2008 Vespers Service celebrated at St Albert the Great Priory in Irving, TX.

+ + + + +

St Thomas Aquinas: Wis 7.7-10, 15-16 and Matt 23.8-12
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St Albert the Great Priory

The Book of Wisdom wisely teaches us: “…both we and our words are in [God’s] hands…” It is wise that the Book of Wisdom teach us this b/c as a book this book would not want—if a book could want—to be left in the hands of a fool to be read by foolish eyes and taught by foolish tongues. The wisdom imparted here also reminds the potential fool that he or she does not read, teach, write, or research alone. Prior to any desire for knowledge, any longing to know, is the primal hunger for God, our preferred state of perfected union. Our intellectual and academic pursuits are marked from the beginning with the presence of God, Wisdom: “…I chose to have [wisdom] rather than the light, because the splendor of her never yields to sleep.” So even before the light is shone in the darkness, wisdom abides and seduces us to the humility proper before our Father in heaven.

What is wisdom? Aquinas writes, “According to [Aristotle] (Metaph. i: 2), it belongs to wisdom to consider the highest cause. By means of that cause we are able to form a most certain judgment about other causes, and according thereto all things should be set in order…[and in the second article] Accordingly it belongs to the wisdom that is an intellectual virtue to pronounce right judgment about Divine things after reason has made its inquiry…”(ST II-II.45.1-2). Slightly more simply put, wisdom is that habit of mind that seeks to discover and study the final causes of all things and put these things in their proper order given their final cause. Wisdom is not some goofy, spooky secret that floats around waiting for the right moment to possess someone. Nor is wisdom to be found among the sticky tomes of Retail Gnosticism that haunt Borders and Barnes & Noble. These “wisdoms”—usually some form of esoteric paganism muscled-up with pseudo-scientific jargon—these wisdoms tend to provide the weak ego with a boost of faux confidence and leads the newly self-minted guru to exalt him or herself. But here’s what we know from the wisest teacher of them all: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

On receiving a gift, we say “thank you” to the giver, thus humbling ourselves before the giver as a sign of our dependence on him or her for that gift. We say grace over our food, giving thanks for our benefactors and our cook. Perhaps you woke up this morning and gave God thanks for one more day to serve Him. We are all here now offering the ultimate thanksgiving of the Mass. But do you thank God for your Reason, your ability to deliberate on moral problems, your sense of right and wrong given the limits of right reason, your ability to experience creation and deduce godly truths? Do you thank God daily for His wisdom? If not, I wonder who it is you call “Master”? I wonder what it is that moves you to think about anything at all. . .

To help his disciples maintain the humility necessary to grow in wisdom, Jesus tells them: “Do not be called ‘Rabbi.’ You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers.” He also says not to call anyone “father” or “Master” b/c they have one Father and Master. The essential point here is that there is a single source of Wisdom for us, just one origin for the understanding of all things made. This warning isn’t about titles or honorifics but about foolishly identifying someone created as the source of Creation. It is not difficult to see how quickly such folly grows into madness. And that madness into the exaltation of one who was created from dust. What is there in the human mind that precedes the wisdom of the mind’s Creator? Nothing. Thomas called it “straw.” Straw has its proper uses, for sure, and it is a good thing, but it is straw not enduring truth. Enduring truth starts for us when we come to understand that “…both we and our words are in [God’s] hand…”


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Mom Update

Mama Becky Update:

Thank you all for the many assurances of prayer! Mom is always amazed at how quickly we Catholics can get the word out for prayer...just got off the phone with her...she has a bad case of pneumonia, not bad enough to be hospitalized, thank God. She has COHF and emphysema, so any respiratory infection is life-threatening.

Again, thanks for the prayer!