A rose kept alive in history

Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha: Ex 2.1-15; Matt 11.20-24
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
Sisters of St Mary of Namur

Are there any better symbols of sin and its consequences than the prison and the cemetery? Disobedience and death. “The founders of a new colony, whatever the Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have invariably recognized it among their earliest necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison.” In these first few lines from his novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne brings his readers to witness a dreary gathering, a scene heavy with sin, punishment, and individual failure. Before the prison-door stand “a throng of bearded men, in sad-colored garments and gray, steeple-crowned hats. . .” This crowd of utopian worthies has “assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak, and studded with iron spikes.” With the grim certainty of those who believe themselves innocent of sin, the earliest Bostonians wait outside their “ugly edifice” for the village's latest sinner to emerge, to show herself as one chastened by “the black flower of civilized society, a prison.” Hearing Jesus speak so disparagingly of the citizens of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernuam, we might wonder if Hawthorne is right: despite our deepest desires for holiness, our most strenuous work to do the good, and the constant offer of redemption from the Father through His Son, we are doomed to reject the Holy Spirit's ministry among us and fill our prisons to breaking only to end by stocking our cemeteries for eternity. Is our story, as Hawthorne describes the life of Hester Prynne, “a tale of human frailty and sorrow”?

It would grossly irresponsible of us to see only the good in our hearts, ignoring the siren call of sin so that we might pretend innocence like those waiting outside Hester's prison-cell. We would be equally irresponsible if we were to make our lives into a daily, weekly vigil against every impulse, every natural instinct that comes with being that sort of creature who knows the difference between good and evil. We give energetic life to the same pride that brought down our first parents when we dwell obsessively on our failures in a futile quest for a purity that lies beyond our unaided reach. We can be pure. But not by ourselves. Though our prisons and cemeteries mark the consequences of human sin, Christ is the rose-bush flowering outside our cell-door, along side our tombstones. He is for us “some sweet moral blossom...that relieve[s] the darkening close of [our] tale...” But he is more than that: with us he is our holiest spirit; for us he is the only light in the darkness of our sin.

Jesus rails against the obstinate hearts of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, condemning their blindness to his mighty deeds and offer of salvation. We know that he is rejected as a heretic and demon by the temple, as a rebel by the empire, and possibly as a madman by most of those who hear him. The audacity of his message is too much to hear: the Father and I are one; He has sent me to you as your lamb of sacrifice; believe in me and you will be saved from sin and death. Too easy, too neat, too much for a disobedient heart grown muscular on the hard labor of chasing after salvation. There must be more to it than simple trust in God and love of neighbor!

How like the Psalmist we can be when we find ourselves doubting God's mercy: “I am sunk in the abysmal swamp where there is no foothold; I have reached the watery depths; the flood overwhelms me.” We may have escaped the prison, but the cemetery is not far away. Or is it? “But I pray to you, O Lord, for the time of your favor, O God! In your great kindness answer me with your constant help.” And how does the Lord answer us in our mire? “Turn to me in your need, and you will live.” Even as we indulge the folly of believing ourselves innocent, even as we grow more and more foolish in our refusal to turn our hearts to the mighty deeds of God, He says to us, “See, you lowly ones, and be glad; you who seek God, may your hearts revive! For the Lord hears the poor, and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.” This promise is Christ among us. No prison door remains locked. No tombstone stands against our eternal lives.

Peace at the point of a sword

15th Week OT (Mon): Ex 1.8-14, 22; Matt 10.34-11.1
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
Sisters of St Mary of Namur

Peace is not the absence of acrimony and violence. To cease conflict, sheath our swords, and smile at one another is preferable to wholesale war, of course, but the mere lack of strife and bloodshed is not the peace that Jesus instructed his apostles to preach. The peace of Christ is found only when we discover, receive, and live out our divinely created purpose. If the Christ born of the Virgin is one person with two natures—one human, one divine—and we are the adopted children of the Father brought into His family through Christ, then we too are creatures gifted with a human nature and drawn to completion in Christ, seduced by heaven's love to love eternally in heaven. This peace—our reconciliation to God by partaking in His divine nature—cannot be achieved by selling the truth of the gospel to the philosophy or political system most likely to quell the primitive brutality of war. To our surprise, Jesus says to his disciples, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword.” What does Christ's sword cut in two? And which of these two severed parts are we to receive so that peace may be ours?

Jesus ends his class on how to be a faithful apostle with the startling announcement that his purpose on this earth is not to bring about global political harmony. He did not come to end war in our time. Instead, he claims, his purpose is to bring the sword that will cleanly and decisively sever the bonds of all human relationships so that our created purpose might be discovered, received, and lived out—whatever it may cost the family, the nations, or the whole human race. No fewer than eight times in Matthew's gospel reading this morning, Jesus teaches his apostles that he must be received as the one sent to bring us all back to the Father. But in order for us to receive him as our Redeemer, we must discover him as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the final and unique source of all our ties here on earth. Jesus sends out his students and friends so that the world might hear and believe all that he has taught and bear witness to all that he has done: “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.” By receiving Christ as the one sent to take us back to God, we abandon mother, father, brother, sister, friends; we take up his cross as our own, and everyone and everything we love now becomes a hateful distraction, a rabbit hole that can only lead us to a wonderland of temporary peace.

Surely, you may object, Jesus is not telling us to abandon our families and friends in order to follow him! That is exactly what he is telling us. If we receive him as the Christ promised by God's prophets, then we must eagerly bear our throats to the sword he wields, expose all our loves to the cutting edge of his new creation. All the bonds of creaturely love are sliced clean, and we are free to refashion those loves in the one love who made us. Jesus says, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” If the life we find is a life of love without Love Himself, then our loving lives are lost before they are lived. Only by surrendering our lives and receiving his love as our Life can we be found in Christ. Having discovered Christ, having received Christ, we are truly liberated to live as Christ. And this is the peace he died to give us.

We are deceiving ourselves when we believe that peace is simply the absence of acrimony and violence. Christ's peace is not merely the toleration of and respect for the cultural and political differences we find in the world. It is not enough for us to give a charitable nod to settled conflicts and the cessation of war. The reconciliation we long for, the harmony we were created for is found only when we receive the one whom the Father sent. And as Jesus makes surprisingly clear, to receive him as our Redeemer is to lose our lives on the point of his sword. And in dying we are born again so that we may die in Christ for one another.

Where's our will; where's our way?

15th Sunday OT: Amos 7.12-15; Eph 1.3-14; Mark 6.7-13
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
Sisters of St Mary of Namur

Brothers and sisters, like the Ephesians before us who heard the message of Paul, we gather this morning as we do every week to bless God the Father for raising His only Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ from the tomb. We bless Him for His gift of eternal life in Christ, for bringing us back into His holy family through Christ, and for bestowing upon us every spiritual blessing with His Holy Spirit. Our Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, making us holy, without blemish before him. Loving His people, He destined us for adoption as His sons and daughters, to be taken into His kingdom as heirs by sending His Son among us in the flesh; both human and divine, Jesus lived as one of us, died as one of us, and returned to his Father's right hand as the one, perfect sacrifice that opened the gates of heavens for us and holds them open still. So that we might forever praise the glory of the Throne in heaven, God favors us through His Holy Spirit with every award, benefit, and honor we need to grow and flower as saints of the Church. In the body and blood of Christ, we are reclaimed, repaired, and reconstituted; made wholly new, delivered to divine freedom, and purified of every disabling transgression. His abundant gifts do not burden us. They liberate us from every evil and show us the Way in darkness. With wisdom and insight, Christ has revealed to us the mystery of his Father's will for the fullness of time: He brings all things in heaven and on earth to their completion, to their perfection in Christ. In him we are chosen, we are destined with the divine purpose, so that we who first and always hope in Christ will exist to praise his glory alone. In the words and deeds of Christ Jesus we see and hear the word of truth, the good news of our salvation; and believing in him, we are branded by the cleansing fire of His Holy Spirit. The fulfillment of this promise on Pentecost is the first payment of our inheritance, the first step toward our redemption as God's possession. Paul is supremely confident in the faith and fervor of the Ephesians. Are we as confident of our own dedication? Who do we think we are to take up the cross and follow Christ?

Paul writes to the Church in Ephesus from prison. As a prisoner of the Roman Empire, Paul preaches a gospel of freedom in Christ from the chains of sin and death. Even as he languishes in jail, Paul shouts out God's Word across the known world. Amos, a sheep-herder and dresser of sycamores, is sent by God to prophesy to Israel. Angrily confronted by the priest, Amaziah, and ordered to leave the temple, Amos says, “I was sent by God to speak His word.” And Jesus, calling the Twelve together, sends his friends into the world, giving them authority to command unclean spirits, to preach and to teach. A prisoner, a sheep-herder, a tax-collector, a handful of fishermen, a doctor, and a few ambitious corporate climbers—all chosen, all taught, all sent to do one thing: speak the Living Word of God in spirit and in truth so that the heirs of the Father might know that their inheritance is at hand. Not one of these apostles or prophets goes willingly. Not one goes without apprehension. Not one of them leaves to do God's will without believing that he is unprepared, unworthy. But they go b/c they trust that God does His work through them and will use them to bring His will to completion.

As baptized men and women, we have already accepted the call from God to be His apostles, to be those who go out and preach His gospel in word and deed. As the Body of Christ together in this chapel, we are here to say “Amen, so be it” to God's charge that we become Christs where we are. And though we may believe ourselves unprepared and unworthy, we are nonetheless vowed to do exactly that. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul takes the time to describe to his brothers and sisters the origin and flowering of their work as heirs to the kingdom. His detailed account of their creation in love and their recreation in Christ's sacrifice is not just pretty theological rhetoric. His goal is to open their eyes and ears to the truth of their identity as ones who have been picked out, selected to do the job God has for them to do. Do you feel unprepared? Who doesn't? Nonetheless, you are a daughter of the Father, an heir. Are you unworthy? Who isn't? Nonetheless, you are a son of the Father, an heir. Are you a prisoner? A shepherd? A fisherman? Probably not. Are we without tools? Training? Experience? Maybe. Nonetheless, we are sent. The only important question now is: will you, will we go? If not, why not? What, who holds us back?

Amos is threatened by a priest who invokes both divine and worldly power, temple and king. Paul is threatened by imperial Rome who invokes its divine power in the exercise of worldly power, the Emperor is God. The apostles are threatened by temple, empire, and the rulers of this world—priests, soldiers, and demons. Though threatened from every direction by every force available, Amos, Paul, and the apostles go out anyway and do what their Father has commanded them to do. Who, what threatens you? The police department? Local, state, federal government? Your pastor? Spouse? Family? If so, listen again to Paul, the prisoner of Rome: “In [Christ] we were...chosen, destined...so that we might exist for the praise of his glory...In [Christ] you also, who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him, [you also]] were sealed with the promised holy Spirit, which is the first installment of our inheritance...” What creature can un-choose you? What relationship do you enjoy that trumps your inheritance as a son or daughter of the Father? What deficiency in training, moral purity, motivation, or wit can defeat the promise of your baptism? “In accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us,” we are free from every deficiency that limits us, holds us back, or fights to defeat us.

Are we as confident of our own dedication to Christ as Paul is of the dedication of the Ephesians? Who do we think we are to take up the cross and follow Jesus to heaven? We are, right now, everything we need to be to not only shout out our dedication for the world to hear but to continue our walk on the Way as well. We cannot be afraid or timid or lax. There's work to be done, God's work. And when we do this work with the Holy Spirit, we are more than capable; we are blessed. What we need is the will to do what we have promised to do.

Global Warming = Global Gov't, says Pope Gore

We've known all along that the Global Warming Alarmists had an agenda other than saving the planet from carbon-poisoning.

Now we they've named it:

“'Just two weeks ago, the House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey climate bill,' Gore said, noting it was “'very much a step in the right direction.' President Obama has pushed for the passage of the bill in the Senate and attended a G8 summit this week where he agreed to attempt to keep the Earth's temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees C.

Gore touted the Congressional climate bill, claiming it 'will dramatically increase the prospects for success' in combating what he sees as the 'crisis' of man-made global warming.

“'But it is the awareness itself that will drive the change and one of the ways it will drive the change is through global governance and global agreements.'”

Read the whole--very scary--thing here.

Professor Fear

14 Week OT (Sat): Gen 49.29-32, 50.15-26; Matt 10.24-33
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
Sisters of St Mary of Namur

Joseph tells his brothers not to fear his wrath. “Can I take the place of God?” he asks. Jesus too urges his disciples not to be afraid of those who will persecute them. Only the One who can kill both body and soul deserves our fear. We might ask: what is fear? Our brother, Thomas Aquinas, tells us that sorrow is the passion we experience in the presence of evil; fear is the passion we feel in anticipation of future evil (ST.I-II.41.1). Moral theologian, Joseph Delaney, defines fear as “the unsettlement of soul consequent upon the apprehension of some present or future danger.” Friedrich Nietzsche infamously proclaimed, “Fear is the mother of all morality” (BGE). We could say that fear is a teacher. Fear rises in the human heart when evil threatens, when danger looms. But don't we usually think of fear as a kind of darkness itself, a trap that holds us fast in pain and anxiety? Aren't we supposed to suppress fear with faith? To overcome it by trusting in the providence of God? Joseph says not to fear. Jesus says, “Do not be afraid.” And at the same time, we are told “that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” So, are we being foolish or wise when we indulge the passion of fear?

In our clinical culture—where there are no sins only crimes and diseases—fear is understood as an emotional malady rather than the morally neutral passion that it is. This is why we so often hear that “fear of the Lord” is really meant to be understood as “awe of the Lord.” Why would we fear the God of mercy and love? Why be afraid of the One Who made us? We are not wrong to say that the proper human response to the presence of God is awe. But awe alone is simply an expression of wonder and amazement. We might feel awe in the presence of the Grand Canyon, our favorite athlete, or even a particularly powerful piece of literature. We are awed but not afraid. Fear is anxious anticipation. It's that sort of waiting that grips our souls at the mere thought of evil or danger. It warns us away; it cautions deliberation and demands rational attention. Like any of the principal passions, fear is best experienced as a wild animal tightly bound with the twin-leashes of intellect and will. The choices we make in fear can only be judged good or bad after they have been vetted by reason and deliberately acted upon. We are being neither foolish nor wise when we experience fear. Only acts—intentionally chosen—can lead us to folly or wisdom.

Joseph soothes his brothers' fear of his wrath by telling them that he is not God. Joseph's most terrible punishment is nothing when compared to the wrath of God. Likewise, while telling his disciples three times not to fear, Jesus tells them that there is one time when fear is the smart response. He tells them not to fear persecutors, those who can only kill the body. They are not to fear b/c they are held in the hands of a loving God. However, they are to fear this loving God b/c only He can kill body and soul. If there is any danger to anticipate, it comes from failing to honor the will of the One Who made you, the One Who can unmake you. So what Joseph and Jesus teaching us here? They are teaching us that it is indeed deadly foolish—when faced with the choice of betraying Him by accepting the spiritual rule of this world's princes—it is folly to choose against God. Why? Because it is God alone who loves us eternally. We are unmade by our own choosing when we choose the fleeting love of princes over the eternal love of the One Who gifted us with life.

Fear is a teacher. And the lesson is simple: the choice you are about to make is a dangerous one—think carefully, choose wisely. When you are faced with a dangerous or evil choice, always choose the option that best acknowledges God's abiding care for His creatures, the option that pulls you closer to your perfection in Christ. We can call this the morally good choice. At its root, this is the choice that plants and nourishes wisdom. It is the choice that offers true worship to the One Who is wisdom Himself.

Molto Commentary: Caritas in veritate

Excellent commentary on the Holy Father's latest encyclical:

Catholic World Report Roundtable: Caritas in veritate

New release date for prayer book

Please note. . .

Liguori Publications has moved up the release date of my prayer book.

It will be available on August 21st.

Order yours now!

Scaring the wolves

14 Week OT (Fri): Gen 46.1-7, 28-30; Matt 10.16-23
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
Sisters of St Mary of Namur

As those who often have to tell people what they don't want to hear and risk being yelled at or rejected outright, we are not the ones you want on your marketing team. The whole point of marketing is to attract customers and keep them loyal. You have make sure your product is useful, attractive, affordable, and does what it promises to do. Telling customers the possible unhealthy consequences of using your product is something you will not do voluntarily. This is why we have laws that force you to be honest, if not exactly transparent. After reading the gospel this morning, we might want to suggest to Jesus that he take a few marketing classes, or at the very least, hire a PR firm. The promise of his product is anything but alluring. Persecution, scourging, betrayal, public scorn, and ultimate rejection, even death. With an ad campaign like that, there's lots of room for the new and improved. Fortunately, we Christians are geared to living on promises! Our hope in Christ is never a gamble.

Why would anyone listening to Jesus' sell his product run to the front of the line and plop down his/her life for a chance to be tortured and killed? There's a whole lot of crazy in that bet. Given the nature of the world and the gospel we preach, the chances of being ridiculed and rejected are high enough already. Throw in a little fundamentalist secularism and the need to design and rule social change and those who hate us feel entitled—even morally obligated—to shut us up, to push us toward the killing cliffs. We threaten the power of their narrow worldview. Knowing what we know about the gospel and Jesus' dire promises of betrayal and death, we have to be more than just a little crazy to listen to him. We must be suicidal!

Of course, we know that we aren't crazy or suicidal. We are something far more dangerous to the rulers of this world. We are hopeful, loving. And b/c we are ruled by hope and love, we are joyful. And b/c we are joyful, our faith is all the more attractive to those who have not yet tried our product. Our trust in the promises of God makes us less dependent on the nannies of the state for our basic needs, less likely to find our self-worth in achievement and wealth, more likely to cheer a virtuous peasant and boo a vicious king, and far less likely to offer sacrifice to the gods of war, vengeance, and material gain. The marketers for this world's messianic message fear the hope-filled possibilities we live and preach daily. We are a threat b/c we live and breath those virtues that look beyond their power, beyond their control and toward the One Who created us to love Him by loving one another.

Christ promises us that when the time comes to witness to his Father's plan for the cosmos and to endure persecution b/c we do so, His Spirit will give us the words to speak. These words will not be philosophically sophisticated, or theologically profound, or even all that persuasive to those who will not hear them. What these words will be is truthful—full of His truth b/c He is the Truth. When we speak the truth, we must do so in charity. Without charity, the truth is without passion. Without truth, charity becomes mere sentiment. Aquinas teaches us that “joy is caused by charity” (ST II-II. 28.1) and we know that God is love. Overwhelmed by the Spirit of Love and Truth, we can do nothing else but speak a word of contradiction to the world and suffer the consequences. So be it. It is better to be betrayed in hatred for his name than to betray in his name for the sake of applause. Wolves not only roam the wilderness in search of lost sheep to devour, they also roam the hearts of those same sheep, scaring them into silence and inaction. However, we know that they scatter at even the smallest word of witness.
So, speak the word of truth and watch the wolves turn tail and run!

Where to find me for confession and Mass!

While in and around DFW-Irving, I will be celebrating Mass at the Church of the Incarnation on the campus of the University of Dallas on the following days:

Saturday, July 18: Confession 4.00 & Mass 5.00pm

Sunday, August 2: 11 am Mass
Sunday, August 9: 9 am Mass
Sunday, August 16: 11 am Mass

If you are in the Fort Worth area: I am celebrating Mass for the Sisters of St Mary of Namur at their Our Lady of Victory Center on West Shaw. Mass starts at 8.00am weekdays with Lauds; at 11am on Saturdays* and 10.30am on Sundays.

*Tomorrow (11th) we have have Mass at 8am.

Pray: no visa problems!

Another pray request. . .

I found out yesterday that I may have really messed up my visa status in Italy.

There may be nothing wrong, but I will have to find out by driving to Houston soon.

Please pray that I can simply renew my student visa!

The Danger of the Daily Maybe

14th Week OT (Thurs): Gen 44.18-21; 45.1-5; Matt 10.7-15
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
Sisters of St Mary of Namur

Always the careful teacher, Jesus instructs his newly appointed apostles on how they are to do their jobs in his name. He instructs them on what to say: “As you go make this proclamation: 'The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.'” He tells them what they are to do: “Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons.” He tells them what not to take with them and how to greet those to whom they will preach. Then he concludes this lesson in practical ministry with an ominous statement: “Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet.” Among our Protestant brothers and sisters, this is what is called a “hard-saying of Jesus.” It's not hard b/c it is difficult to understand or carry out, but b/c it offers both the apostles and those who hear the gospel from them a hard choice between saying Yes or No to God's offer of salvation. This a hard choice b/c there are no soft options between receiving the Word and not receiving the Word. Is there any sandal dust outside your house?

First, let's think about what Jesus is telling the apostles to do here. Notice that all of his instructions in this gospel passage give his apostles practical ways of dealing with common human flaws. He tells them what to say, thus eliminating the temptation to preach falsehood. He tells them what to do, thus ruling out a long list of work not properly done for the gospel. He tells them what to take with them, thus limiting the Things in their lives, freeing them to travel more efficiently and to give witness to the ultimate value of Things. And finally, he tells them what to say and do when the Word is ignored or rejected, thus saving them from the temptation to hang around a stubborn household or town and waste what little time they have. Jesus' demand for either a Yes and a No to God's offer of His salvation puts one of our most obstinate habits into hard relief. We want what we want when we want it. We like options. Lots of them. And we like to change our minds when what we want turns out to be inconvenient, not what we thought it would be, or something better comes along. Jesus stakes this spiritual vampire squarely in the heart.

But why would he insist on such a black and white choice? Why stand so resolutely against the beauty of diversity and difference when choosing a spiritual path? His instruction to the apostles seems downright mean, even cruel and intolerant. Jesus is not only a careful teacher but an expert on the human soul as well, a divine psychologist, if you will. He understands the human heart and mind and knows that our love for vacillation and change is quite nearly hard-wired in us. The habit of loving and trusting our own preferences over and above what is true, good, and beautiful is too deeply settled in us to root it out with half-made choices and soft commitments. God knows that our answer must be Yes or No, or we will be tossed around with every storm that comes. We will be lost if we are not anchored. And our anchor must be unshakably caught in His Word, Christ Jesus, and our lives together in the Holy Spirit.

Let's not pretend that saying Yes to the gospel once is all it takes to make us perfect followers of Christ. We know better. We are offered the Word everyday and everyday we say Yes or No. We live out that choice in all we say and do or fail to say and do. Does this make the sum total of our lives a long, drawn out Maybe? No. What it means is that we committed to making the choice between Yes and No. We are refusing to settle for the lazy way of a Daily Maybe, a little life of soft compromises and easy choices. Say Yes or say No. There is no browsing in the marketplace of squeamish options. We are given the Word daily; there can be no muttered Maybe.

The Danger of the Daily Maybe

14th Week OT (Thurs): Gen 44.18-21; 45.1-5; Matt 10.7-15
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
Sisters of St Mary of Namur

Always the careful teacher, Jesus instructs his newly appointed apostles on how they are to do their jobs in his name. He instructs them on what to say: “As you go make this proclamation: 'The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.'” He tells them what they are to do: “Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons.” He tells them what not to take with them and how to greet those to whom they will preach. Then he concludes this lesson in practical ministry with an ominous statement: “Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet.” Among our Protestant brothers and sisters, this is what is called a “hard-saying of Jesus.” It's not hard b/c it is difficult to understand or carry out, but b/c it offers both the apostles and those who hear the gospel from them a hard choice between saying Yes or No to God's offer of salvation. This a hard choice b/c there are no soft options between receiving the Word and not receiving the Word. Is there any sandal dust outside your house?

First, let's think about what Jesus is telling the apostles to do here. Notice that all of his instructions in this gospel passage give his apostles practical ways of dealing with common human flaws. He tells them what to say, thus eliminating the temptation to preach falsehood. He tells them what to do, thus ruling out a long list of work not properly done for the gospel. He tells them what to take with them, thus limiting the Things in their lives, freeing them to travel more efficiently and to give witness to the ultimate value of Things. And finally, he tells them what to say and do when the Word is ignored or rejected, thus saving them from the temptation to hang around a stubborn household or town and waste what little time they have. Jesus' demand for either a Yes and a No to God's offer of His salvation puts one of our most obstinate habits into hard relief. We want what we want when we want it. We like options. Lots of them. And we like to change our minds when what we want turns out to be inconvenient, not what we thought it would be, or something better comes along. Jesus stakes this spiritual vampire squarely in the heart.

But why would he insist on such a black and white choice? Why stand so resolutely against the beauty of diversity and difference when choosing a spiritual path? His instruction to the apostles seems downright mean, even cruel and intolerant. Jesus is not only a careful teacher but an expert on the human soul as well, a divine psychologist, if you will. He understands the human heart and mind and knows that our love for vacillation and change is quite nearly hard-wired in us. The habit of loving and trusting our own preferences over and above what is true, good, and beautiful is too deeply settled in us to root it out with half-made choices and soft commitments. He knows that our answer must be Yes or No, or we will be tossed around with every storm that comes. We will be lost if we are not anchored. And our anchor must be unshakably caught in His Word, Christ Jesus, and our lives together in the Holy Spirit.

Let's not pretend that saying Yes to the gospel once is all it takes to make us perfect followers of Christ. We know better. We are offered the Word everyday and everyday we say Yes or No. We live out that choice in all we say and do or fail to say and do. Does this make the sum total of our lives a long, drawn out Maybe? No. What it means is that we committed to making the choice between Yes and No. We are refusing to settle for the lazy way of a Daily Maybe, a little life of soft compromises and easy choices. Say Yes or say No. There is no browsing in the marketplace of squeamish options. We are given the Word daily; there can be no muttered Maybe.

Prayers for the Niece (Updated)

Please, dear readers, keep my 9 year old niece, Melanie, in your prayers. My mom told me yesterday that it is very likely that she has contracted viral meningitis. She is going in today for more tests.

God bless, Fr. Philip

UPDATE: Just got off the phone with mom. . .Melanie didn't have viral meningitis after all. She had all the symptoms, but nothing panned out at the doctor's office.

Deo gratis! And gratis to all of you who prayer for her.

Give Shea a Shave, . .Follow HancAquam!

That Red-Whiskered Were-Catholic, Mark Shea is gloating--GLOATING!--that he has more followers than HancAquam.

This cannot stand!

Become a Follower (right side bar ---------------------------->)

Don't let this Cyber Thug claim victory!!!

Feeling like a mooch

It never fails to amaze me. . .

. . .the generosity of Catholics in general and HancAquam readers in particular.

Recent activity on the WISH LIST reminds me that even in hard economic times, Catholics are willing to help those in need. . .even when those in need are over-educated Dominican friars writing a thesis and dissertation in the philosophy of science with a ridiculously limited book budget!

Those who have been reading this blog for some time know that I occasionally beg for books. This is humiliating for me. . .in the best sense of that word. Asking for help is not easy for me. I grew up self-reliant in a family of hard workers. I had a full-time job at 16. Worked my way through college and grad school. And to this day, I blush when I have to ask for money from my superiors. Not having a full-time job right now makes me feel like a mooch.

I will tell you a story from my novitiate some day. It involves a broken pair of glasses and my novice-master. Let's just say that as a 35 year old former college teacher who left a well-paying job at a large hospital, asking for what he needed was difficult. Obedience reared its ubiquitous head!

As always, thank you for your generosity. God bless!