On being a lover of parables (Podcast)

Saint Joachim and Saint Anne

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

Church of the Incarnation, Univ of Dallas

Podcast

Parables—like poetry—drive most people crazy. The symbols, the allusions, images with multiple interpretations—all of these breed frustration and impatience even in the heartiest soul. However, there are some who enjoy the challenge of figuring out these literary mysteries. Think of them as miniature detective stories planted with bits of elusive wisdom designed to stretch the imagination and exercise the mind. And despite the cussing and spitting that parables and poetry often evoke in some, these art forms can push us to broader and deeper understanding, both guide us and force us to consider angles of approach that we might otherwise fail to use. So, let's wipe our chin, confess our cussing, and consider the possibilities. Jesus teaches with parables because he knows something we oftentimes forget: as we progress along the Way we need more and better food for the journey. We can't continue to live and grow in the Christian life consuming nothing but cut and dried propositions, raw statements of belief, and easily digestible greeting card pablum. At some point, we have to tuck into the meat and potatoes of the Good News, risking a bout or two of indigestion along the way. Case in point, those tiny mustard seeds can cause diverticulitis and yeast an itchy rash. Mustard seeds can also grow into a hearty, edible plant and yeast is necessary in leavening bread and making beer. Even the smallest seed, the tiniest bacterium—given time and patience—can produce a desirable (and delicious!) result.

Let's say that Jesus is using the mustard seed and the yeast bacterium to refer to the faith infused into an individual soul. Given the right conditions—a set of listening ears and seeing eyes, an opened heart and mind, a strong desire for holiness—an individual infused with faith can nurture this virtue of trust into a hearty way of life that produces an admirable fruit. But what if Jesus is using the seed and the yeast to refer to the faithful individual planted in the fertile soil the Church? The seed and yeast of one soul's faith can fertilize and leaven the whole Body of Christ, prompting the Body to produce a higher, stronger yield of holiness. But what if Jesus is using the image of the seed and yeast to refer to the Church herself, all of us together constituting just one mustard seed, one bacterium, his one Body planted in the fields of the world? Then, like the faith growing in a single soul, and the single soul growing in the Body of the Church, the Church is planted in the world—one seed, one bacterium—to thrive and produce an admirable fruit. Do we settle on just one interpretation of the parable? Or do we take choose to hold all three simultaneously? Even better: do we take these three and grow them into another and another, always remembering that the mustard seed can only produce mustard and that yeast will always be yeast?

If we hope to avoid being favorable compared to the Jeremiah's loincloth—rotted and good for nothing—then we must safeguard the Word we've been given and at the same time broadcast it as seed into the fields of the world, as yeast into the unleavened dough of our culture. The Lord charges Judah with a faithless pride. He says that they are a “wicked people who refuse to obey my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts,” who serve and adore strange gods. If we hope to avoid this righteous charge—as individuals, as a Church—then we must listen to Christ's parable with more than an analytic mind. Our task as those baptized into the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord goes far, far beyond the recitation of liturgical formulas, far beyond the soothing litanies of good intentions. We are not only charged with spreading the seed of the Good News, we are also charged with nurturing what we have planted, tending the fields, pulling the weeds, and reaping an admirable harvest. But even as we work, we do so as servants of a more merciful Lord, one who cared for us as we grew from a seed to a sprout to a fruit-bearing plant. 

Parables—like poetry—can be infuriating in their vagueness. But let's not mistake Jesus' purpose in using the parable of the seed and yeast: he's teaching us that not everyone, at any given time, is ready to produce the same admirable fruit. An excellent farmer is a patient farmer. He is also a lover of parable and infuriatingly persistent.

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Godwin's Law gets a corollary,  Sherrod's Law:  "The first one to accuse his/her opponent of racism loses." Besides, crying "Racism!" just doesn't work anymore.

Speaking of Sherrod. . .if her case is so important to the Left's media meme that the Tea Party/GOP/FoxNews is racist, why was she conspicuously absent from the Sunday talk show circuit?

Change You Can Believe In:  things could be worse!  Is this a message of hope?  Really?

Must watch vid of the week:  Democrat Howard "YEEEHAWWW" Dean gets spanked by Chris Wallace.  Who would have ever thought Dean could be speechless?

Heh.  No surprise here:  freedom-loving, uber-tolerant, diversity-preaching lib calls for the supression of organized religion.  Why?  Because he/she disagrees with religious believers.  Great argument.  I'm convinced.

Most conservative Supreme Court ever?  Pay particular attention to how the Court's "conservative" rulings are labeled.  What's in a label?  

Not only is Democrat John Kerry berthing his $7 million yacht in RI in order to avoid MA taxes, he had the thing built in New Zealand!   Um, what about American jobs, Mr. Kerry?

Speaking of coffer-raiding politicians:  the city manager of Bell, CA (pop. 36,552) rakes in $787,637 a year.   This means that the city manager gets paid approx. $21,550 per resident.  Excessive?  The median income of Bell residents?  A little under $40,000 a year. (NB.  read the combox to see what happens when I try to do math.)

Did the media hacks on JournoList conspire to get B.O. elected?  Well, it was a conspiracy in the same way that lemmings rushing off a cliff is a conspiracy.  

The Curt Jester is shocked to discover that women "priests" are not so orthodox when it comes to all things liturgical and theological!  Oddly, I never doubted it. 

I hate marshmellows.  Don't eat them.  Here's why. 

I've always wondered. . .how to prepare a kiwi.  NB.  they forgot the pork gravy.

On the use and abuse of medical procedures. . .sometimes it's just not about you.

I don't recommend this divination procedure for Catholics. . .but my Episcopalian readers might find it useful. 

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New Podcast

Please note that I have changed my podcast hosting site.

TooFiles had become too unreliable from my end, so I moved back to Pod-O-Matic.

Here's the podcast for "Ain't Nothing to do but Keep on Knocking."

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Congrats to the newly ordained!

Three Dominican ordinations at Blackfriars, Oxford.

(L to R): His Grace Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham, Fr. Thomas Skeats, Fr. Robert Gay, and the Rev. Br. Lawrence Lew.

I had the pleasant of studying with Fr. Skeats at the Angelicum this last year. Also, Br. Lew is wearing the same dalmatic I wore when I was ordained deacon at Blackfriars in 2004. Trust me, that thing is HEAVY! Fortunately, it was all of 67 degrees that day, July 3rd. Ah, English weather. Can't wait.

More pics and a report at New Liturgical Movement

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Ain't no other way than to keep on knocking

17th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

Church of the Incarnation, Univ of Dallas

Podcast

The Colossian Christians are in trouble. They've been tinkering with the gospel, messing about with the apostles' teachings, and now their faith is in danger of being wrecked. Paul diagnoses the problem with a warning, “See to it that no one captivate you with an empty, seductive philosophy according to human tradition, according to the elemental powers of the world, and not according to Christ.” If Paul has the right of it, the Colossians have surrendered themselves—body and soul—to the vacuous traditions of human philosophy and the hungry, elemental powers of the world. They have been intellectually seduced by the specious arguments of the Talking Heads of their day and driven to abandon Christ by taking part in the mystical rites of angels and the earth-bound gods. Having set aside Christ, they forget their new lives in him and crawl back to the darkness that promises enlightenment but delivers only death. Therefore, Paul must remind them of where they have been and where they must go: “Brothers and sisters: You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him. . .he brought you to life along with him.” When tempted by the lovers of worldly wisdom with promises of a life liberated from our old-fashioned and oppressive morality, do you recall where you were before Christ? After Christ? If not, here's a reminder: you were held captive by ignorance and sin; then, with Christ, you were dead and buried in baptism; raised along side him, washed clean; and then bought to new life in him. When challenged or tempted to forget where you have been with Christ and where are you going now that you follow him, turn to the prayer that Jesus taught us and remember. 

The prayer that Jesus teaches his disciples is more than a formula for petitioning God correctly. His prayer is a memorial, a status report, and a promise. Looking back, the prayer tells us where we were Before Christ. Fallen, lost, wandering, and dead. Looking around right now, the prayer serves as a measure for us to gauge the depths of our faith. Committed, hesitant, lukewarm, or zealous. Looking ahead, Jesus' prayer reveals our destination, our point of rest. Fullness, completion, forgiveness, and freedom. Regardless of where we choose to look, or how we are bound to see, Jesus teaches us to pray as he himself prays: with the wisdom to bring together in one moment the beginning, the middle, and the end. In other words, Jesus prays as one who stands with the Father at creation, suffers with us in our disgrace, and redeems us through the Holy Spirit. When we pray as Christ as taught us, we participate in his priestly ministry, if only imperfectly for now, standing with him at the throne—united as one Body, giving thanks and praise to our Father with one tongue; loving, forgiving, hoping with one heart; and seeking out His truth and goodness with one mind. Christ the High Priest teaches his priestly people how to offer themselves as a sacrifice, to partake in his life by giving themselves over to lives of holiness.

How does Jesus teach us to make such a sacrifice? We confess to our Father that he is indeed our Father in heaven. That His name is blessed among us. That His kingdom among us has arrived, is arriving, and will arrive in the fullness of time. That His will among the angels and saints is His will here on earth. That all we have and all we are comes to us as the daily bread of His grace. That His forgiveness of our debts moves us to forgive the debts owed to us. And that we are spared His final test of faith only by gracious will. If we will stand with Christ at the throne and offer ourselves as sacrifice, lifting ourselves up as those made holy through surrender, then Christ's prayer, the Lord's Prayer, must be for us a model of how to live now, right now, as we hope to live with him forever. From the start of our lives in Christ to our lives with him right now and on to our eternal lives in heaven, we must offer one holy sacrifice, one act of praise and thanksgiving—to serve one another in love so that the Father's love is made perfect in us. 

The Lord's Prayer is a memorial, a measure, and a promise. Paul accuses the Colossian church of forgetting their new births in Christ, of failing to take their measure against Christ's holiness, and of refusing to accept the truth of God's promise. Rather than persevere as the redeemed children of God, the Colossians listened to vain arguments of the lovers of worldly wisdom. They allowed themselves to be seduced by the mysteries of angels and the elemental powers. As they lived in the world, they became of the world and forgot both where they came from and where they were going. Worst of all, they let slip from memory the one sacrifice that saved them. They forgot that Christ obliterated the bond of the Law against them, a bond that opposed their eternal lives. He removed it from their midst, nailing it to the cross. Hoping perhaps to avoid the nails and the cross themselves, they cast around for alternatives, more pleasant, less painful alternatives for seeking and finding their salvation. They found none. And neither will we.

But what do we do when it appears that nothing we do brings us peace? Nothing we do or say seems to bring us closer to God, or takes us further away from sin? No doubt most of us here want to be closer to God, want to be further away from sin. But all the wanting and doing we can manage in a lifetime seems to go unheard, unanswered. Can we be blamed for turning away from the demands of a Christian life and seeking out a more pleasant, more attractive alternative? Or at the very least seeking to decorate the bare bones requirements of following after Christ with a little worldly wisdom or angelic mystery? What do we do when anything we do, when everything we do ends in apparent failure? We persist. Jesus tells the disciples that a friend who will not get out of bed to give you a loaf of bread b/c you are his friend, will eventually relent to your pleadings for no other reason than that you persist in asking! 

Spiritual failure is not remedied by forgetting who you are in Christ.  Running after worldly wisdom and exotic theologies is not the answer. The answer lies in persistent prayer and vigilance in your priestly sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. Jesus teaches us to seek then find; to ask then receive; to knock and knock and knock some more, and the door will be opened. The point of prayer is not to change God's mind about His blessings, but rather to better prepare the one praying to receive His blessings with gratitude. If you are not finding or receiving God's blessings, then perhaps you are not allowing your search, your requests for His blessings to transform you. You must seek and be transformed by the search. You must ask and be transformed in the asking. Persistent prayer is not about worrying God to death with your needs. Persistent prayer is about first remembering who you are as a redeemed child of the Father, then placing yourself on the altar of loving service as a sacrifice. If you think you are going to argue God into responding, or appease Him with fantastical, mysterious rites—think again! He wants a contrite heart surrendered to loving service. 

Jesus teaches his disciples to pray as he himself prays. His prayer is devoid of worldly philosophy, devoid of pagan babbling and occult meaning. There's no magic there, no mystical keys to open hidden doors. He teaches us to pray so that we are made ready to do our Father's will, to receive our daily blessing, to forgive as we ourselves are forgiven, and to rely on His promise that no temptation is stronger than our faith in Him. If we remember, if we persist, we will arrive at the throne, whole and perfect. There is no other way but Christ, no other altar on which to sacrifice, nothing else to do but seek him out and receive with gratitude all that he has to give us.

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Democrat John Kerry parks his multi-million dollar yacht in RI in order to avoid paying MA taxes. . .and the Dems wonder why there's so much resentment against their redistributive tax policy.

Heh. . .looks like the federal judge hearing B.O.'s suit against AZ anti-illegal immigration law is asking the DoJ some tough questions.

VA Dem Jim Webb pens a piece of lefty heresy:  the days of affirmative action/diversity programs are over.  The impatient crowd awaits the thunk of the axe and the bounce of his head down the gallows' steps.  

If you have an interest in Supreme Court church/state jurisprudence and the interpretative history of the mythical "wall of separation," you might like this book.  By reviewing notes, journal entries, and personal correspondence, the author attempts to demonstrate that the justices who invented the Wall used cherry-picked historical evidence in order to promote a pre-determined outcome.  

A question about the Harry Potter books and a lively discussion in the com box.  Yours truly participates.  The Devil tempts us to overestimate his power over us. . .that way, when we sin we can blame it on him. 

Liberal media fascists call for a gov't crackdown on blogs/media that they don't like.  Ah, for the good ole days of classical liberalism among our Enlightened Elite. 

On choosing a college, racial diversity, and PhotoShop.

One mean kung-fu throw!

My dad and younger brother would run over people to get to WalMart for one of these.

On the importance of not living life metaphorically.

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Heh. . .that USDA official turned out to be kinda nutty. . .I was ready to count her among the thousands of others B.O. and his "post racial" admin have thrown under the Bus of Nasty Racial Politics. 

Anglican Church giving communion to pets. . .well, it's not it's communion-communion.

Christianity on the rise in China. . .while still a Marxist-feminist Episcopagan and teaching English in China, I attended Catholic services in Beijing and Shanghai.  The churches were packed every time.  And prominently positioned in a pew:  several commie bureaucrats monitoring the event.  I wouldn't be surprised if churches in the U.S. end up with federal Diversity Officers assigned to our parishes to monitor compliance with anti-"hate speech" codes.

Training religion teachers:  "You can keep your catechism!"  In my seminary days it was a common practice among the enlightened faculty when confronted with students hungry for sound doctrine to bark out, "This isn't catechism class!"  Though true, strictly speaking, the outburst revealed a deeply planted suspicison of all things orthodox.

Context for Me but not for Thee:  Left-liberal "journalists" caught red-handed manipulating the news to elect B.O. are crying foul and claiming that their remarks are being taken out context.  Fair enough.  Let's see how concerned these folks are about context when it comes to their own reporting on political positions they disagree with. 

English Catholic dinosaurs will moan at the Holy Father when he visits the post-Christian nation in September.  Their burning issue?  The long settled question of women's "ordination."   Apparently the near total collapse of the Church of England over this issue has escaped their notice.  Keep hope alive!

Not only have atheists become less profound in their arguments for rejecting the existence of God, heretics have become decidedly less interesting and robust.  Sober, well-read, and intelligent atheists and heretics provide an important service to orthodox theists:  they keep us on our toes! 

Are we losing the ability to think clearly?  Probably.  I don't see much of this sort of thing at U.D., but I see a lot of it in the culture at large. 

Finally!  An explanation for that ridiculous B.O. Nobel Peace Prize.  It all makes sense now.

More mean humor directed at vegetarians.  Really, can be too much? 

Proof that Barney the Dinosaur is Satan.

Uh. . .apparently Wolverine of the X-Men is Jewish.

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A review of my second prayer book. . .

Check out Jeff Miller's review of Treasures Holy and Mystical over at The Curt Jester.

He gets it. . .he really gets it!

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Remember that black USDA official who was caught on tape confessing at a NAACP meeting that she didn't help a farmer b/c he was white?  She was forced to resign.  Now, it looks like an unedited version of the tape has surfaced and it supports her claim that her comments were not racist.  More evidence that the Racist Card is being used willy-nilly.

Conservative blogs are reporting on the full video and admitting that her remarks are not racist.  Compare and contrast this honest reporting to what you find in the MSM when they are caught with their pants down, e.g. Rathergate, Global Warming Scandal, the plagarized Tea Party video, etc.

BTW, the USDA official blames the NAACP for getting her fired.  Oy!

The all-white MSNBC news line-up, a vocal critic of the allegedly racist FOXNews, revamps its image to include one black woman on its logo.  At least they are listening to critics.

The MSM/State Run Media is neither mainstream nor state run.  Let's start referring to it as the One Party Media. Hmmmmm. . .

Are the police and media in France covering for militant Muslim street gangs?  The most recent "Fall of the Roman Empire" comparison. 

The Communist vs. The Wounded Marine:  an election to watch!

"A fact which cannot be changed."  USCCB comments on the recent rule change regarding how cases of the attempted "ordination" of women are handled. 

Elite colleges discriminate against Christians in admissions.  All the more reason to send your kids to colleges like the University of Dallas!

Even more reasons to send your kids to schools like the University of Dallas:  the background story on the Univ of IL's firing of a Catholic professor.  None of this surprises me at all.  Anti-Catholicism, especially in the academy, is the last acceptable prejudice.

Shameless self promotion alert:  OSV gives you a chance to nominate You Can't Leave Home Without It Catholic blog!  So far, HancAquam doesn't appear on the list (hinthint).

Oh my. . .a whole site devoted to cuteness.  I need some insulin.  Stat!

GM's 2011 model: the Obummer.  You gotta love the side view mirrors.

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New Blogger Features

Blogger has added a new feature for its hosted blogs.  Check under each post for options to share the post on Facebook, Twitter, email, etc.  There's also an option to "buzz up" the post, meaning that you can click the Buzz Up button and increase the buzz about the post.  So, use 'em!  Please.

I wish blogger included a podcast option. . .

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This is HUGE:  The Daily Caller has obtained emails from the infamous lefty media listserve, Journolist, that prove a concerted media effort during the 2008 Presidential campaign to protect B.O. by killing reports of Jeremiah Wright's racist condemnation of the U.S.  Surprise!  Not.

Big Journalism is on the case with on-going coverage. 

This cannot be repeated often enough:  Mel Gibson is NOT Catholic!

Female Lutheran bishop resigns.  So much for the "relational wisdom" of women in the handling of sexual abuse accusations.  Jepsen is a darling of the religious left, i.e. she supports All the Right Causes in the relentless pursuit of gutting the faith.

Fr. Z. reports on the new website, Protect the Pope.  Unfortunately, in post-Christian Britain the Holy Father needs protection.

On characterizing the postmodern cultural elites who rule us. 

Want to smuggle 18 monkeys into Mexico?  Don't follow this guy's example.

Um, I don't know either. . .

Well, you can't say that you weren't warned.

Axioms of the Cynical & Depraved.  My fav: "He's not dead, he's electroencephalographically challenged." 

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Yawn, no surprises here.  Individual mandate to buy health insurance is a tax. . .so says B.O.   Oh, and your taxes will pay for abortions despite the 30 pieces of silver that B.O. used to buy off Stupak.  Oh, one more thing:  you probably won't be able to keep your doctor either. 

The Anchoress is a little frustrated with the Vatican's recent P.R. blunder.  Their mistake?  They issued new canonical guidelines on how the Church will handle cases of clerical sexual abuse. . .and included in the same document new rules on dealing with the attempted "ordination" of women to the priesthood.  Probably not brightest move.  The MSM has focused almost exclusively on the ordination rules. 

Mark "Scary Beard" Shea takes on the goofy meme, "Science Works, Religion Doesn't."  He addresses the incoherence of the materialists' non-definition of "religion."

Lefty propaganda outfit plagiarizes a Tea Party video to prove that the Tea Party is racist.  Wow.  That has to be the definition of desperation.

Speaking of plagiarism. . .Michael Moore, that wealthy, anti-American socialist who made his millions manipulating the capitalist markets and the truth, apparently stole a story from a Knoxville reporter.  Fortunately, for Moore, he's too big to fail.  Pun intended.

Right-wing violence:  these Tea Party radicals are getting out of control. . .er, I mean these union activists are getting out of control.  Obviously, these so-called "union goons" are really Tea Partiers dressed up in union outfits.

B.O. is shutting down blogs all over the country.  NB.  rather than attack individual blogs for abuse, the gov't shut down an entire server network, meaning some 73,000 blogs were closed. 

A review of Predators.  Let's see:  aliens (check), explosions (check), exploding aliens (check).  Yup, I'll be seeing this one.

Just call me "Joe."  How would you like to have 746 letters in your name? 

You might be a grad student if. . .

What do puppies, bulldozers, and Hell's Angels have in common? 

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Love first, then a sign (Podcast)

16th Week OT (M)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

Church of the Incarnation, Univ of Dallas

Podcast

I spend most of my year living in Rome with 80 or so friars from all over the world. Though most of the brothers speak some intelligible version of English, the language of the priory is Italian. For example, notices of community events posted on the bulletin board are in Italian. Out on the streets of Rome, unsurprisingly, billboards and store signs are all written in Italian. So are street signs. So, if you want to navigate the city, you will need to know just enough Italian to get around. The whole point of signs is to inform, direct, and warn their readers. Whatever the purpose of signs in general or any sign in particular, signs are only able to do their jobs if those who need the signs can read them. For example, about 99% of the notices posted on the community bulletin board in my Roman priory are useless to me. This is not the fault of the notices. For all but the most practical, simplest purposes, I am illiterate in Italian. Just so, those heckling Jesus for a sign to confirm his identity and power are illiterate as well. While I can't read Italian, they can't read the signs of the Messiah's ministry among them. My deficiency is due to age, laziness, and general disinterestedness. Theirs seems to be a more profound lacking. Jesus says that those wanting signs of his identity are illiterate because they are “evil and unfaithful.” The lesson is here? Don't ask for signs you can't or won't read.

If you pay any attention at all to skeptical or atheistic objections to religious belief, you will notice that the principal demand made by our intellectual opponents is the demand for evidence. Evidence of God's existence. Evidence of an afterlife, miracles, the existence of angels, etc. Basically, what they are asking for is some sort of material sign from God that something of what we believe as Christians is true. Most of them claim that they will become believers when the stars align in the sky to spell out the message, “God exists.” They should get credit for being open to the possibility that God exists. However, not all atheists are so open-minded. The Canadian atheist and philosopher, Kai Neilsen, for example, has this to say about such miraculous evidence, “We are no better off with the stars in the heavens spelling out GOD EXISTS that with their spelling out PROCRASTINATION DRINKS MELANCHOLY. We know that something has shaken our world, but we know not what. . .”* He goes to say that such an unusual event might be “big trick or some some mass delusion.” In other words, there's likely little chance that Prof. Neilsen can be taught to read the signs of God's presence in His creation. But if he could be taught divine literacy, how would he go about learning it?

What Jesus makes painfully clear in his reply to those clamoring for a sign of his identity is that so long as they persist as an “evil and unfaithful generation,” no sign will tell them what they want to know. For Jesus to demand of them goodness and faithfulness before he gives a sign seems like question-begging or special pleading. They must believe and then the signs will be legible. Faith informs, makes possible, renders intelligible all the signs one needs to believe. This is exactly backwards for unbelievers. But that's the power of Jesus' demand. Believing in him on the basis of material evidence requires nothing more than intellectual assent, saying yes to a well-evidenced argument. That's knowledge not faith. Few of us—if any of us—are raring to die in defense of a proposition; suffer torture, persecution, and death to attain a conclusion properly deduced in a valid syllogism. Our relationship with the God through Christ in the Spirit is fundamentally a relationship between Father and child, Maker and made. This is not the sort of relationship that comes about as a result of evidence, proof, and deduction. When you ask a friend for proof of his or her love, you admit that their love is secondary to your need for evidence, thus providing evidence that you do not love. 

First, you love; then you read all the signs through that love. Without this initial commitment, this primary allegiance, all signs of love shown to you will be illegible, and you will be as illiterate as the clamoring crowd and our friend, Prof. Neilsen.

*Taliaferro, Charles.  Evidence and Faith:  Philosophy and Religion since the Seventeenth Century, 345.

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At the feet of Christ (Podcast)

16th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

Church of the Incarnation, Univ of Dallas

Podcast

If you check the fiction bestseller list you will find listed among the top fifty books a high percentage of mystery novels. Whodunits set in ancient Rome, medieval Europe, 18th century Japan, and even our science-fictional future. Police dramas that draw in viewers with the mystery of an unsolved criminal case dominate the TV listings. The nightly news is filled with reports of the mysteries of our collective drive to both get along and get ahead—terrorist plots, political intrigue, predictions of economic ups and downs. Perhaps nowhere more prominent does mystery appear than in our day to day efforts to come to, to serve, and to understand the nature of the divine, the workings of heaven here on earth. We Christians have whole libraries packed with books that identify and attempt to explain one mystery or another: the Incarnation, the Holy Trinity, Divine Providence, transubstantiation. And even with all this collected knowledge and our collective wisdom to interpret it, we often find ourselves explaining the faith to the skeptic with one, terribly unsatisfying sentence: “It's a mystery.” Sure, the Church has some profound ideas, a useful method, a set of reasonable assumptions, centuries of logical arguments, and even some intriguing evidence from the world of science, yet mystery remains. And always will. Why? Because teaching and being taught the mysteries of our faith is the business of a truly humble heart, an inquisitive mind, and a meek and merciful soul. All that we must learn, we learn at the feet of Christ. 

In his letter to the Colossians, Paul identifies himself as a minister of the Body of Christ; one given stewardship over the mission “to bring to completion for [the Church] the word of God, the mystery hidden from ages and from generations past.” He writes that this mystery “has been manifested to his holy ones, to whom God chose to make known the riches of the [mystery's glory]. . .” What is this mystery that Paul must bring to completion? God's Self revelation, first given to the Jews, must be made manifest among the Gentiles. He writes that the mystery to be revealed “. . .is Christ in you, the hope for glory.” Why must the Gentiles be made privy to the mysteries of salvation? Paul says that he proclaims the mystery of Christ, “admonishing everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, [so] that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.” He understands his commission as one that will fill up “what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body . . .” In order words, the Body of Christ is not complete until every tongue, tribe, nation, and people have heard and seen the mystery of Christ proclaimed and accomplished in the Church. We know that this apostle to the Gentiles dies a martyr's death, preaching God's Word. His task, his commission falls to us, the Body of Christ he nourished with both his life and his death. So, how do we continue on?

We have in the sisters, Martha and Mary, two models, two paradigms for how we might proceed to reveal Christ's mystery to the world. When Jesus visits the sisters, Martha begins to fuss about, trying her best to prepare a suitably hospitable meal for their guest. Frustrated that Mary is ignoring her domestic duties in order to dote on Jesus, Martha complains to Jesus and asks him to admonish Mary for her apparent laziness. Instead of scolding Mary for her inattention to duty, Jesus turns Martha's complaint back on her, saying, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.” When should notice here that Jesus doesn't chastise Martha for griping nor does he seem ungrateful for her work on his behalf. Rather than soothe Martha's hurt feelings by telling Mary to get to work, rather than tempering Martha's anger with a lecture on patience, Jesus goes straight to the root of her fussiness. Martha is anxious; she is worried. Faced with the presence of Christ in her home, Martha chooses to get busy; she deflects her anxiety by “doing stuff,” hoping, perhaps, that by staying busy she will burn off the fretting worry. Mary, on the other hand, sits at Jesus' feet and listens to his instruction. She too might be anxious. She might be just as wound up and nervous as her sister in the presence of Christ, but she chooses “the better part,” attending to Jesus as he teaches her the mysteries of his Father's revelation. 

Why does Jesus consider Mary's rapt attention to be better than Martha's distracted busyness? Let's ask this question another way. Who is most likely to learn: a student who sits in class tuned in to her iPod, her Facbook chat, and her doodling; or the student who attentively listens to the teacher—no distractions, nothing to cloud her mind or burden her heart? If you have ever tried to teach a child a difficult math problem, or convey a set of relatively boring facts, then you know the answer to this question! Mary has the better part because she is more likely to learn, more likely to “get it,” more likely to become the better teacher and preacher of the mysteries herself. Martha will get quite a lot done, but will she be open to seeing and hearing the mystery that Jesus has to reveal? Jesus tells Martha, “There is need of only one thing.” There is only one needful thing, only one thing we need: to listen to the Word, the Word made flesh in Christ.

When you take up Paul's commission to preach the mystery of Christ to the world, do you first listen to the Word; or do you get busy “doing stuff” that looks Christian, sounds Christian? Do you really hear what Christ has to say about God's mercy, His love? Do you attend to the Body of Christ in action during the celebration of his sacraments? Do you watch for Christ to reveal himself in those you love, in those you despise, those you would rather ignore or disparage? Can you set aside the work of doing Christian things and just be a follower of Christ, just long to be filled with the Spirit necessary to teach with all wisdom? It's vital that we understand that Martha isn't wrong for doing stuff. Her flaw rests solely in her anxiety and her worry while she's doing stuff. Being anxious and worried about many things while doing God's work is a sure sign that we are failing to grasp the central mystery of our commission to preach the Good News: it is Christ who preaches through us, not only with us, along side us, but through us. If we have truly seen and heard the mystery of our salvation through God's infinite mercy, then there is nothing to fear, nothing to be anxious about, nothing that can or will defeat the Word we are vowed to spread. Why? Because everything we do and say reveals Christ to the world. If the Church is the sacrament of God's presence in the world, and we are members of the Body of Christ, the Church, then we too are sacraments of God's presence. Individually imperfect, together we are made more perfect on the way to our perfection in Christ. 

To do what you have vowed to do, to preach and teach the Good News of Christ Jesus, choose the better part, choose to sit attentively at the feet of the Lord and take in the mystery of God's mercy; choose to surrender your anxiety and worry, and come peacefully, patiently closer and closer to the unfolding mystery of having been set free from sin and death. Bring to the feet of Christ a truly humble heart, an inquisitive mind, and a meek and merciful soul. This is the best part of being his student: nothing learned in Christ's classroom will ever be taken from you, even as you persevere in giving it all away.

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Smoothing the Way (Podcast)

Arrrrgggg. . .I'm beginning to think that I am going to have to be either a philosopher or a preacher.  This homily made perfect sense while I was writing it.  Once I started preaching. . .all sense was lost.  You can probably hear it in my voice.  Sigh.  Also, I was completely distracted by the rivers of sweat flowing down the back of the neck. 

Memorial of St. Bonaventure

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

Church of the Incarnation, Univ of Dallas

Podcast

Jesus tells the disciples that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. Is this how we experience our lives in Christ? Light and easy? It's a fair question and one no few of us have asked. But no blame should fall on us for doubting that the life we have chosen in Christ is light and easy. True, the demands of growing daily in holiness are few. All we need do is love God and others as God Himself loves us. Be merciful, avoid evil, witness with our every word and deed the way to salvation through Christ. The demands are few, but they are relentless—unwavering and constant. Even the smallest task done all day every day for years will eventually exhaust the strongest body, the purest soul. It's not the weight of our work toward holiness that burdens us but the repetition this work requires that can send us into despair. Anyone can be holy, do holy work for an hour or a day. But being holy, doing holy work for a lifetime is much, much more difficult, if not impossible—well, impossible, that is, if holiness were measured by what we manage to accomplish in a lifetime, or measured against the perfection of achieved by Christ. His yoke is easy and light, and so is the life in Christ to which we have vowed ourselves. Isiah shares the secret of being a follower and doing God's work: “The way of the just is smooth; the path of the just [God makes] level.”

If we experience our lives in Christ as a heavy burden is it probably because we believe that our work toward holiness includes the arduous task of clearing away the wreckage of our sin. How can I come to Christ and do and be what and who he demands if I am loaded down with the garbage of a dissolute life? Don't I need to be clean before I start down the Christian path? It makes sense to hold that nothing clean can come from a filthy source. Nothing good can come from evil. And this would make sense if we were talking about human goodness, human evil. But we're not. Isiah says it plainly, it is God Himself who levels the steep hills, straightens the crooked paths, and sets us right by washing us clean. It is God Himself who prepares us for the work we must do. Christ's yoke on our shoulders is light and easy not because we come to him as self-made, ready-made holy men and women, but because the really hard work of our holiness has already been done for us. All we need do is persist, endure in the work. And even then we persist and endure only because of His grace.

If Christ's yoke is heavy and difficult around our necks it is likely because we ourselves weigh it down, because we ourselves have tried to put it on without Christ's help. Knowing that only Christ forgives us our sins, does it make sense to believe simultaneously that we are burdened by sin and that we must come to Christ cleansed of that sin? Can sin remove sin? If you believe that you cannot take on Christ's yoke until you are strong enough to bear it, then how do you get strong enough while you are weak? Can weakness strengthen weakness? Obviously not. The burden our Lord lifts is not only the actual sin that we carry but also the heavy and false belief that the job of lifting this burden is ours alone. It is not. Never has been. It is God's job to smooth the steep hills and straighten the crooked paths. Let Him do His work. It is your job to travel His smoothed-out, straightened-upped Way. Now, that your work is light and easy and the yoke around your neck is a joy, count yourself among the loved ones of the Lord, hurry to Him and find your rest.

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