The Audacity of Christ

Easter Octave (Th)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Joseph Church, Ponchatoula

Yesterday, we read the story of Jesus appearing to a few of his disciples on the road to Emmaus. After he “opens their eyes,” allowing them to see him for who he is, he vanishes. The disciples say, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” They hurry back to their brother and sister disciples and report this encounter with their resurrected Lord. In the middle of their testimony, Jesus appears! He says, “'Peace be with you.' But they were startled and terrified. . .” We can only imagine the shock of seeing the dead and resurrected Christ in their midst. Imagine the confusion, the relief, the fear—all these bound up in a desperate hope that their teacher had rejoined them to continue his mission. Noting their terror at his appearance, Jesus says, “Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts?” Ummmm, b/c you were dead and in the grave for three days and now you're walking around and talking us? Is that a good enough reason to be startled and terrified? The disciples' experience with the Risen Lord can be seen as a pattern for our lives as disciples. Having met Christ “on the way,” we come away from the meeting burning with zeal and eager to give our testimony. But once we realize what our encounter means for us and for the world, we are startled by the audacity of what God has done, what He is doing; then, we are terrified until Christ appears among us and prays, “Peace be with you.”

On Easter morning, when the angel appears at the tomb, Mary Magdalene and Mary are “fearful yet overjoyed.” When Jesus appears to the disciples after the resurrection, they are “startled and terrified.” But then he shows them the wounds on his body, and they are “incredulous for joy and [are] amazed.” Fearful, overjoyed, startled, terrified, incredulous, and amazed. Exactly the combination of emotional reactions we'd expect from rational people confronted by the resurrection of a beloved friend all thought long dead and buried. With their minds spinning for any plausible explanation and their hearts pounding with fear and wonder, they must've looked like first-century tourists standing in Times Square. What else can Jesus say but “peace be with you”? They needed his peace; they needed his reassurance. He had sent them out to teach the world all that he had taught them. Then he was executed. Now he's back! Alleluia! He's back. But he won't be with them for long. He has yet to ascend to his Father, so his visit is welcomed but brief. In the short time that he has with his friends, Jesus reminds them that his death and resurrection is nothing new, nothing at all surprising. He opens their minds to the scriptures, renewing in them his charge to them to go out preaching the Good News of repentance and God's mercy. 

Our own lives in Christ follow this familiar pattern, this ebb and flow of wonderment and fear. Zeal followed by disappointment; clarity followed by confusion; amazement followed by incredulity. But when we open our minds to Christ's spirit, embed ourselves in scripture and the sacraments, dedicate ourselves to prayer and penance, disappointment, confusion, and incredulity always give way—again—to zeal, clarity, and amazement. The disciples saw and touched his wounds. We have his body and blood in the Eucharist. The disciples listened to the Word read and preached. We hear his Word read and preached. They evangelized the known world. We are charged with evangelizing a world they could not know. Christ suffered death and rose from his tomb so that the Good News of God's mercy to the repentant sinner could be proclaimed to the whole world. To his friends in Emmaus and to his friends here in Ponchatoula, Jesus says, “Peace be with you. . .You are witnesses of these things.” Go out—startled, terrified, overjoyed—go out and tell the whole world!

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Coffee Cup Browsing

Recycler-in-Chief celebrates Earth Day in style!  Burn 53,300 gallons of jet fuel.  Clogs L.A. streets with his limo and a 30 vehicle-motorcade. 

Send greetings on every Muslim holiday on the calendar. . .Earth Day greeting. . .but nothing for Easter.    Maybe this omission explains this pic? :-)

Just being nice ain't enough:  "The religions that grow, succor and motivate people to perform heroic acts of service are usually theologically rigorous, arduous in practice and definite in their convictions about what is True and False."

A question of fairness in the U.K. It's not about not helping those in need; it's about not surrendering our freedom to bureaucrats and politicians who use "poverty" to gobble up power.

An answer to a question about transubstantiation. . .

"Dirty weeds" can't be recycled. . .Clean up your trash, granny!!

The Zombie Apocalypse begins in CA, specifically SanFran. . .more specifically, last week.

Secure your wireless access or the Black Helicopters may be circling your house in the near future.

Two things the Left loves:  Green-ism and taxes.  Why not combine the two?  YEA!

A few hopeful stats on this this year's ordination classes.

"Parking Tickets" for all those time you go to WalMart and some @#$% has managed to take three spaces!  (Yea, bad parking is just one of the things that cause me to need whisper a quick Act of Contrition.)

Profound sayings from the Wisdom of the Ages.  My college friends used to say about a particularly clueless colleague, "He's a stump in the rain."  Also, we liked, "All flash, no film."

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Can your testimony be bought?

Octave of Easter (M)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Joseph Church, Ponchatoula

A lot of money changes hands in the week that Jesus is betrayed and put to death. Judas gets his thirty pieces of silver—the price of a slave—for ratting out his friend and teacher. The Roman soldiers who witness the empty tomb get a large bag of coin for lying about what happens to Jesus' body. The story they are paid to tell—that the disciples stole his body in the dead of night—“still circulates among the Jews to the present day.” Apparently, the chiefs priests and elders got their money's worth! It's curious though that they thought it necessary to concoct a mundane conspiracy in order to explain Christ's resurrection. If they truly believed that Jesus was a fraud, and if they believed that most people would agree with them, why go to the trouble and the expense of paying off the Roman guards to lie? Simply offer an alternative explanation for the body's disappearance and let the rumors fly. Doubt is a powerful virus in the body of truth. It replicates and spreads, infecting every fact it touches. My guess is that the chief priests and the elders were worried that Christ really had been resurrected and that a great many of their followers would believe this truth. Paying off the Romans guaranteed that their alternative theory would be grounded in “evidence”—the false witness of the tomb's guards. Regardless of their motivations, there's a deeper story here: we are all too willing and able to sell our testimony to the highest bidder. 

One of the constant pressures one surviving and thriving in a largely secular culture is the temptation to give a little when it comes to bearing witness to the gospel. Christ said himself that he came to bring a cleaving sword. That his message would divide, persuading many and angering most. The history of the Church in the world bears this out. Even when the institution of the Church held near absolute political, social, and economic power in the West, Christ's uncompromising teachings on the necessity of repentance and his commandment to love caused trouble. Nothing undermines our sense of social balance, our need for justice, more radically than Jesus' order that we must forgive one another as many times as it takes. Common sense demands a limit to the number of times I must forgive the same sin! Whoever told you that following Christ has anything at all to do with common sense lied to you. Don't let the devils of convention, practicality, and good manners tempt you into selling your testimony for thirty pieces of silver. In the long run—the longest run—it's a really bad bargain.

Judas sold his loyalty. Christ was resurrected anyway. The soldiers sold their integrity. Christ's church thrives anyway. Two thousand and eleven year later, the truth of the empty tomb is still proclaimed around the world. The priests and elders had hoped that an alternative theory and a large sum of money would keep the truth from getting out. Didn't work. However, their resurrection conspiracy theory still has a chance of succeeding. All they need today is for us to weaken and fall prey to the cultural predators who circle our wounded Body. All they need is for us to stumble once or twice over our sins and give up on the notion that we are forgiven; to surrender the gospel of mercy to common sense, science, politics, or political correctness. Doubt will see its chance to infect the truth, and we'd be tempted to accept the offers to sell our testimony, to lie about our Christ. If we remember that we are already bought, already paid for, we can dismiss these devils. We belong to Christ and there's not enough silver in the cosmos to pay for what is free.

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A Prayer of Gratitude for Easter

For the Easter season to Pentecost:

Father, our Abundant Provider and generous Lord: In You I live and move and have my being.

Everything I am and everything I have is Your blessing. This day I offer it all to Your service. 

Thank you, Lord, for this season of my life, for the gifts You have given me, for those I love and who love me in return. 

Thank You, Lord, for Your creation, for Your revelation in scripture, for our salvation in Christ Jesus, for the holiness I await in the coming of the Holy Spirit, and for the Church that will rise from the tongues of fire. 

Make gratitude my constant prayer, Father, so that I may live as a Living Blessing for others. I ask all these in name of our Easter Lord, Jesus Christ! Amen.

from a 2006 homily

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Do not be afraid. . .Joy overwhelms!

Easter Sunday (A)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Joseph Church, Ponchatoula

You know what has happened all over North America, South and Central America; all over Europe and Russia; in China, Japan, and Australia; in Washington, London, Rome, and Tokyo; you know what has happened in all of creation: from our beloved ball of dirt and water, circling the sun to the edge of space-time itself; from massive stellar nurseries to the theoretical objects of our scientific imaginations. You know what has happened. Our Lord is risen! Alleluia! Our Lord is risen indeed! Betrayed, arrested, mobbed, mocked, whipped, and nailed to a cross as a criminal, he died, was buried, and on the third day, he rose from the tomb and appeared to two of his most loyal disciples, Mary Magdalene and Mary. “[F]earful yet overjoyed, [they] ran to announce [his resurrection] to the disciples. And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them.” Through their fear and in their joy, Mary Magdalene and Mary hear him say, “Do not be afraid.” Christ message to all of us, to all of creation, on this Easter Sunday morning is: do not be afraid. You know what has happened: our Lord is risen. He is risen indeed. We have nothing to fear.

On this Easter morning 2011, it seems that we have much to fear. We hear that men, women, and children are dying in wars in Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Government troops are killing protesters in Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, and Egypt. Civil wars rage in half a dozen African nations. Earthquakes and tsunamis have devastated Japan. A severe drought lingers in central and western Europe. Closer to home, we are still struggling with the destruction of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the BP oil spill; wildfires burn across Texas; tornadoes in Missouri laid waste to whole neighbors and the St. Louis airport; unemployment continues to rise, and we are threatened with a national and international economic collapse. Set along side these natural and economic disasters are the man-made disasters of our cultural decline: abortion; the failing family; governmental assaults on marriage and child-rearing, personal achievement and responsibility; and our own battles within the Church to teach and preach the apostolic faith with a clear, authentic voice. We have much to fear. But the Lord is risen, and his message to us this morning is: do not be afraid! 

Mary Magdalene and Mary are afraid. An angel of the Lord visits them at their teacher's tomb. The angel appears like lightning. His garments are as white as snow. He rolls back the stone of the Lord's tomb and announces to the frightened sisters, “Do not be afraid! I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said.” He tells them that Jesus is going to Galilee. “[F]earful yet overjoyed, [they run] to announce this to his disciples.” Fearful and overjoyed, they run to announce the resurrection of their Lord. They meet Jesus on the way, and he says, “Do not be afraid.” Unsaid, b/c it needs no saying, is our Easter theme: “Be overjoyed!” And once again Mary Magdalene and Mary serve as gospel examples for Christ's 21st century disciples. Mourning their teacher's brutal death, overwhelmed by fear and grief, the sisters approach his tomb only to find that his promise of his resurrection from the dead has been fulfilled. Strengthened by the angel's proclamation of the empty tomb and his admonition not to be afraid, the sisters run to announce spread the good news, and along the way, Christ finds them. Christ finds them as they run to do his work. He does no less for us, finding us along the way as we do the work of faithful disciples.

It seems that we have much to fear. Wars, natural disasters, economic collapse, rampant disease and social decline. And even if we tempted to fear, we do not have time to waste on the luxury of being afraid. Fear paralyzes us; it freezes our hearts, draining our spirits of the joy we need to do Christ's work. Fear confuses us; it clouds our reason, depriving our minds of the clarity we need to seek out and find God's wisdom. And fear deceives us; it lies and cheats and steals, obscuring God's truth; it offers nothing but ulcerous worry and desperation. We cannot afford the luxuries of despair, anxiety, or confusion. As the redeemed children of the Father and the adopted brother and sisters of the resurrected Lord, we cannot surrender the time, energy, talent, or treasure to feeding the fantasies of fear. We have too much to do. Too many have yet to hear God's promise of mercy to the repentant. Too many have yet to see the miracles of new life in Christ. Too many have yet to taste the food and drink from the altar of thanksgiving. Too many for too long have spent their lives in debilitating servitude to sin and death. Unafraid and overjoyed and in the name of the Risen Christ, we are charged with spreading the Good News that all of creation—from the smallest points of matter to the largest stellar clusters—all of creation—man, woman, and child—stands redeemed by the sacrifice of Christ on the cross and his empty tomb. 

Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid of ridicule, or persecution, or death; do not be afraid of your failures, or your flaws. Joy overwhelms. Joy overcomes all obstacles, breaks all barriers. Set your minds on the sure knowledge that Christ's victory is complete. As one Body, the Church, with one heart and one mind, we proclaim with one voice that our Lord is risen from the dead as he promised! Death is defeated. You have died in Christ. A new life in him awaits. “When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.” With Mary Magdalene, Mary, John, with all the disciples then and now, set out to announce to the world that our Lord is risen, and that he waits for us all to join him. There is nothing to fear. The battle is won; the war is over. Victory goes to our King. From an empty tomb, victory has always and will always go with the Risen Christ!

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Placing ourselves on the side of Reason, Freedom, & Love

An excerpt from the Easter Vigil homily of our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI:

[. . .]

In the opening words of his Gospel, Saint John sums up the essential meaning of that account in this single statement: “In the beginning was the Word”. In effect, the creation account that we listened to earlier is characterized by the regularly recurring phrase: “And God said …” 

The world is a product of the Word, of the Logos, as Saint John expresses it, using a key term from the Greek language. “Logos” means “reason”, “sense”, “word”. It is not reason pure and simple, but creative Reason, that speaks and communicates itself. 

It is Reason that both is and creates sense. The creation account tells us, then, that the world is a product of creative Reason. Hence it tells us that, far from there being an absence of reason and freedom at the origin of all things, the source of everything is creative Reason, love, and freedom.

Here we are faced with the ultimate alternative that is at stake in the dispute between faith and unbelief: are irrationality, lack of freedom and pure chance the origin of everything, or are reason, freedom and love at the origin of being? Does the primacy belong to unreason or to reason? 

This is what everything hinges upon in the final analysis. As believers we answer, with the creation account and with John, that in the beginning is reason. In the beginning is freedom. Hence it is good to be a human person. 

It is not the case that in the expanding universe, at a late stage, in some tiny corner of the cosmos, there evolved randomly some species of living being capable of reasoning and of trying to find rationality within creation, or to bring rationality into it. 

If man were merely a random product of evolution in some place on the margins of the universe, then his life would make no sense or might even be a chance of nature. But no, Reason is there at the beginning: creative, divine Reason. 

And because it is Reason, it also created freedom; and because freedom can be abused, there also exist forces harmful to creation. Hence a thick black line, so to speak, has been drawn across the structure of the universe and across the nature of man. 

But despite this contradiction, creation itself remains good, life remains good, because at the beginning is good Reason, God’s creative love. Hence the world can be saved. Hence we can and must place ourselves on the side of reason, freedom and love – on the side of God who loves us so much that he suffered for us, that from his death there might emerge a new, definitive and healed life.

[. . .]

H/T:  Whispers

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Not yet arrived. . .

To the kindly HancAquam Book Benefactor(s) who purchased for me, Opening Up the Scriptures: Joseph Ratzinger and the Foundations of Biblical Interpretation AND Rediscovering Aquinas and the Sacraments. . .these books have not arrived yet.  

I don't want you to think that I've rec'd them and failed to express my gratitude! 

Thanks to the generous soul who purchased two much-needed books this afternoon. . .Both will be used in my summer classes at U.D.

God bless, Fr. Philip

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Our Lord is dead!

Good Friday (A)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Joseph Church, Ponchatoula

Our Lord is dead! Thanks be to God, our Lord is dead.

We Catholics are often accused of being a bit strange if not outright bizarre. We worship statues, pieces of bread; venerate bones and pieces of cloth; we march around towns in funny costumes, singing hymns in a dead language. As odd as these may be nothing quite compares to our Good Friday celebrations. Granted, what we actually do and say isn't all that odd; well, no odder than usual. No, what's odd, maybe even cruel, is that we celebrate the execution of our Savior. We celebrate the brutal beating and bloody death of a man we claim to love and honor. Surely, we deserve to be called “perverse” for believing that such a horrible death is worthy of celebration. Perverse or not, we do celebrate; we offer God thanks and praise for this sacrifice. For without it, we would still labor for the Devil as slaves of sin. But b/c of it, we are free. 

Good Friday then is as much a feast day of our freedom from sin as it is a memorial of Christ's death on the cross. Therefore, with each lash, thanks for your liberation. With each nail, praise God that you are ransomed. And when you come forward to kiss the altar of the cross, give yourself over again to the Love Who is your King. 

Our Lord is dead! Thanks to be God, our Lord is dead.

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

Obamasaurus Rex. . ."artists, academics, and self-described intellectuals have self-selected themselves into an almost parallel universe of leftist chic and wishful thinking."  And B.O. is their fossilized god.

And if you need evidence of the leftist academic fantasy-world, check out this report on a recent conference of college composition teachers.  This is the Marxist-feminist B.S. we were force-fed when I was a grad student instructor way back in 1987. . .24 yrs ago!!!  They are obviously suffering from a fatal case of Epistemic Closure.

Well, this is embarrassing.  I could only watch about three seconds of the thirteen second pause.  NB. fast forward to 1:30.

The Anchoress has the links for all your Holy Thursday/Good Friday needs!

Why has radical eco-evangelism failed in spreading its gospel message?  My guess is that they fudged the numbers; hyped false causes of the problem; offered only expensive, bureaucrat-heavy top-down solutions; and came across as Dirty Hippies Hell Bent on Saving Us from Ourselves.  Oh, and the quasi-religious tone of their campaign didn't help either.

The True Cross and the One Crucified

This pic has no caption.  Nor should it.

Ninja Squirrel OD'ed on the coffee again.  Bad, Ninja Squirrel, bad.

Funniest Thing Evah!

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Coffee Cup Browsing

Wealth Redistribution Leftists on campus not so eager to redistribute their hard-earned grade points to needy classmates.  Slimy GPA Capitalists Pigs!

The attack on the Church in Spain continues a pace.  This is the third, fourth, fifth (?) act of vandalism against Catholic churches in Spain this year.

Yes, confessions can be heard during Holy Week. . .even on Good Friday!  It has become Hardened Tradition among priests of a certain generation to argue that Church rules forbid the celebration of confession during Holy Week.  This is false.

Ouch!  S.N.A.P. is fed some of its own bitter soup after one of its shrinks goes to jail for possessing child porn.  S.N.A.P. started out with a righteous cause.  Now its all about the $$$ and the publicity.

Hilarious. . .for philosophy geeks, that is.  Jeff, you need one more for the Dominican adage "never deny, rarely affirm, always distinguish."  Maybe something like Madonna's "V" for vogue to signal a need for a distinction.  :-)

As predictable as Easter and the start of summer:  "(Insert name of vacuous pop-star) outrages Catholics during Holy Week."

Good question for Fr. Tom Reese, SJ:  if the Church must radically alter her doctrines b/c of membership losses, must the Jesuits do the same?

Professor of Dogmatic Theology at Catholic university sends email:  "F@#$% Democrats!"  He's not fired.  Oh, wait. . .

A necessity for Easter Sunday Mass. . .(ducks and runs)

The Original Annoying Vegan. . .

There was a priest at yesterday's Chrism Mass sporting this hair-do.

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The Poisoned Cup of Betrayal

Wednesday of Holy Week (A)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Joseph Church, Ponchatoula

Judas Iscariot is one of three souls Dante condemns to the ninth circle of Hell, the circle reserved for traitors. He spends eternity being gnawed on by one of the three heads of the Devil. That Judas is a traitor is indisputable. He betrayed his friend and teacher, Jesus, to the men who plotted against him. For 30 pieces of silver and with a kiss, Judas sends Jesus to Pilate and the cross. Why Judas betrayed his friend is up for speculation. A quick read of the gospel story seems to point to greed. Judas was a thief. He stole from the disciples' common purse, robbing his brother-students of contributions made by the faithful. It's possible that Judas' greed joined forces with his nationalism and both pushed him to betray Jesus b/c he felt that Jesus had betrayed his promise to claim the Judean throne in a bloody revolution. Or maybe Judas was destined to betray Jesus and simply acted out his scripted part in the Passion drama. Figuring out the psychological motivations of the living is difficult; doing so for the long-dead is impossible. What we know is that Judas sold his friend and teacher for a price. He lived just long enough to regret that bargain. Whatever we may think of Judas, his betrayal of Christ brings home one hard truth: even our most faithful friendships are poisoned when we bargain with the Devil.

Everyone involved in the plot against Jesus understands that they are plotting against an innocent man. They distort his teachings. They find witnesses to lie about his actions. They knowingly accuse him of crimes he did not commit. Even Pilate knows that he's innocent, but he takes the politician's route of irresponsibility and dumps the decision to execute Jesus onto the mob. And the mob—cheering Jesus on Monday and screaming for his execution on Friday—knows nothing more of the man or his mission than what they've heard on the street. He's a blasphemer, a revolutionary, a fraud. They betray Jesus and their own religious heritage by finding him guilty w/o the trial that their traditions demand. All of them—the Pharisees, the scribes, the chief priests, the Romans, the mob, and even his own friends—all of them make a bargain with the Devil and suffer from the poison he injects into their souls. For each of them the poison is slightly different but no less deadly. At the moment they seal the deal with the Enemy, they become enemies of God.

And that's the Devil's ultimate goal: to increase the ranks of God's enemies. He lead a third of the angelic host into Hell. From the Pit, he tempts and taunts and tries his best to make us believe that it is possible for us to become gods w/o God. He will use silver to tear one away from Christ's friendship. He will use anger and vengeance to tear away another. With subtle compromise and accommodation he will gather many more. Most of us don't have it in us to be a Pilate or a Judas. But how many of us have the makings of a Mary or a Martha? We don't have to be Pilate or Judas to betray the Christ. Nor do we have to be Mary or Martha to be his faithful friend. When the crisis moment comes, when our enemies enter the garden and ask, “Aren't you a friend of the man from Nazareth?”, all we need do is set our faces like flint and tell the truth. Let the sword fall, or the cell door close, or the gag choke our voice. Let come what will. But tell the truth. Anyone who bargains with the Devil, anyone who closes a deal with sin lives just long to regret it. And that's just long enough to be too late.

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A Rant about "The Borgias"

I caught the fourth episode of Showtime's new costume drama, The Borgias last night.  From a production-values standpoint, it was very nicely done.  Not quite as lavish as their last effort, The Tudors, but still favorably comparable.

One glaring error was their treatment of the Dominican friar, Girolamo Savonarola.  Fra. Girolamo was a fiery Florentine preacher who railed against the political and moral corruption of the papacy of Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia). 

The Good Dominican Friar is introduced preaching in a pulpit wearing something that looks like a Benedictine habit belted with a cord!  Throughout the episode, he is referred to as a member of a mendicant Order but the Order is never named.  He appears a couple of times in the same habit.  One of the pope's enemies visits Savonarola in his cell at the priory and they talk beneath a huge painting of OP saints and blesseds--all wearing historically accurate OP habits. 

Savonarola was sent to Florence in 1482.  He was 30 years old.  He was executed at 48 years old. In the episode, he is portrayed by an actor in his late sixties. 

Another error:  the pope's son dresses a spy in a habit identical to Savonarola's and sends him to watch his father's chief enemy in the College of Cardinals.  The cardinal ends up in a confessional with the spy.  When the spy flubs the rite, the cardinal asks the spy to identify his Order.  He responds, "I am a member of the Mendicant Order of St. Benedict."  Ugh. 

My complaint is less about the specific errors than it is about the general inability/unwillingness of these productions to get Church Stuff right.  How hard could it be to google "Savonarola" and figure out the details of the OP habit, his age, and the name of his Order?

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Coffee Cup Browsing

A quick review of the new HBO series based on the first novel in George R. R. Martin's Fire & Ice saga, The Game of Thrones.  If you read a lot of fantasy, you will like Martin's novels.  They are long on plot/character but the supernatural elements are muted.

On the disappearance of the anti-war Left.  Why aren't those protesters screaming and foaming at the mouth in front of the White House like they did from 2003 to 2008?  

Fr. Z. gives us an amusing rendition of a Children's Mass. . .in Latin.  This is not at all improbable!

Prof. Jacobson marks the beginning of Passover with a repost of his 2009 article on the role of Christian America in the defense of the Jewish people.

On the U.N. prostituting itself to one Big Solution after another in order to increase its power and influence:  ". . .apocalyptic rent-seeking is an institutional feature of the UN. . ."

Soon. . .

Calvin & Hobbes quotes. . .these are great!

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Choose: Mary or Judas?

Monday of Holy Week (A)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Joseph Church, Ponchatoula

Yesterday—Palm Sunday—began for us a week-long remembrance of a series of outrageous events that precede Jesus to his death on the cross. Entering Jerusalem on a donkey and hailed as a king by the crowds, Jesus goes on to visit Lazarus, Mary, and Martha in preparation for the Jewish feast of Passover. Today's outrageous events in the family's home foreshadow Good Friday's execution and reveal the hearts of two of Jesus' disciples: the devoted heart of Mary and the traitorous heart of Judas. Defying religious law, social convention, and good fiscal sense, Mary uses a pint of expensive perfume oil to anoint Jesus' feet. She compounds this outrageous act with another: she uncovers her hair and uses it to dry the oil from his feet. Mary's devotion shocks Judas who protests the anointing, arguing that the oil should be sold and the proceeds given to the poor. Since he was stealing from the disciples' treasury, his real concern, of course, is for his own pockets not the poor. Judas' traitorous heart is a sharp contrast for Mary's devoted heart, and we learn from the contrast the ultimate worth of extravagant love when weighed against the pretenses of faked charity. With his indignant outburst, Judas pretends to care about the poor. But it is Mary who exemplifies the proper attitude of a beloved disciple. While she points toward Jesus' death and burial by anointing him, Judas actually brings about his death by betraying him. Our Holy Week question is: will you be a Mary or a Judas the week before Easter?

By almost every measure that we hold dear, Mary's anointing of Jesus' feet is outrageously wasteful, an over-the-top act of devotion that would likely set even the most extravagant among us to wonder about her sanity. That jar of oil was worth a year's wages! And she just dumps it on Jesus' feet! We have wonder if Lazarus and Martha tried to stop her, or did they just look on in horror along with Judas? Jesus doesn't object. When Judas sputters his outrage, Jesus says, “Leave her alone.  Let her keep this for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.” What is it that Mary is supposed to keep for Jesus' burial? Maybe there's a bit of the oil left, or maybe he's referring to Mary's devoted heart, her extravagant love. There will always “the poor” among them for them to love and serve, but he will be with them for only a few more days. It is Mary's deeply rooted charity that will survive his death and that charity will serve the poor far longer than Judas' coin.

Our practical natures might be tempted to side with Judas on the question of whether or not to sell the oil and give the proceeds to the poor. Even though he's stealing from the treasury, surely Judas is right to object to the waste of the oil. Even if he steals half the money from the sell, a lot of poor folks can be fed from half a year's wages. Surely that's a better use of the oil, a more efficient way of being charitable. Judas' motives for wanting to sell the oil should not be allowed to taint the final goodness of the righteous goal of feeding the hungry. And if this were a story about the most efficient means of handling a common purse, then Judas would be right. Unfortunately for Judas, this is a story about Jesus' impending death and who marks his passing with the proper devotion and respect. Mary's love leads her to the cross with Jesus. Judas' greed leads him to betrayal. Mary's love binds her to a life of discipleship. Judas' guilt hangs him with a rope and ends his life in suicide. Mary lives on as an example of servant-devotion; Judas died as an example of what happens when we allow selfish expediency to rule our hearts. 

This week we remember the outrageous events leading up to Jesus' execution. We can follow Mary's example or Judas' example. Will you love exuberantly, or you will pretend to love and betray your Christ?

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Cheer him! Crucify him!

from Palm Sunday 2007:

The Mass

Palm Sunday: Phil 2.6-11 and Luke 22.14-23.56

Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP

St Luke Church, St Paul Hospital and Church of the Incarnation

Paul says that Jesus, emptying himself, took on the form of a slave and became one of us to die as one of us for all of us. We can cheer all we want. Wave palms all we want. No one here will ask Jesus to let his cup pass. No one here will volunteer to hang on that cross and let Jesus go free. Are we cowards? No. We know that Jesus must die so that we might live. The certainty of his death is the only possibility of our eternal life. Only he is Son of God, Son of Man; fully human, fully divine. His death pulls us down into the grave and his rising again draws us up with him. Everything that needs to be healed will be healed. All repairs will be made. Nothing will be left broken or hurt.

But today, just today, knowing what we know about his journey from here to the tomb, even still we must cheer and whistle. And wave palms. And shout “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” And we want so much to grab the tail end of his departing scene and pull it back, just yank it back to the garden or the roaring sea or the mountaintop or the desert or to any of the dozens of place where we sat with him to listen to God’s wisdom, to see the radiant glory of his love for us.

We want him anywhere but here in Jerusalem. He rides to the cross, ya know? And we must cheer. We must cheer because later we will shout, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” What did we forget between our cheering him into the city and our heckling him to the cross, between our exuberant welcome and our jeering blood lust? To be Christ we must follow Christ. Who wants to follow Christ to the cross? Who wants their flesh torn and bleeding? Who wants the thorns of a mocking crown piercing their scalp? I deny him. I do not know him. No, I’m not his disciple. Never heard of him, never met him. Who? Who? No, sorry, doesn’t ring a bell.

We’ve come too far for that now, brothers and sisters! That desert was forty days long. Along the way we dropped coffee and tea, booze and cigarettes, TV and shopping, email and chocolate. We dropped gossiping, nagging, sex, meat, cussing. We picked up extra hours of prayer, daily Mass, weekly confession, spiritual reading, volunteer hours, being nice to little brother and sister, obeying mom and dad, obeying husband or wife, extra money in the plate on Sunday. The devil bought out his best temptations to show us our weaknesses and sometimes he won and sometimes we won. But he knows and you need to know if you don’t already: God wins all the time, every time, for all time! And He has given us Easter to prove it. But now…if you will be Christ you must follow Christ. Walk right behind him. Feel the stones. Wipe the spit. Hear the curses and jeers. Taste the salty iron of blood. See the cross on his shoulder. And know that he carries for you the only means of your salvation. The sacrificial victim carries his own altar to the church of the skulls.

How far will you follow?

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