Seek what is above. . .

Easter Sunday (2012)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Our Lord, Jesus Christ, is risen! His tomb stands empty! Three days after his trial and humiliation, three days after walking the Way of Sorrow, three days after his grisly execution on a Roman cross, and three days after a stone sealed his grave, our Lord, Jesus Christ, is risen. His tomb stands empty. This is the historical fact of the first Easter morning: where we should find a broken and decomposing body wrapped in a burial shroud, all we find is dust and cloth. Mark tells us that when Mary Magdalene; Mary, the mother of James; and Salome arrive at the tomb to anoint their Master's body, they find the stone rolled away and sitting inside a young man clothed in a white robe. The women are amazed. The man says, “Do not be amazed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He has been raised; he is not here.” John tells us that Simon Peter and another disciple run to the grave. They search the tomb, and seeing that Jesus is not there, they believe. And though they believe, “they [do] not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.” The disciples, mourning the brutal death of their teacher, seek for him below, literally, in the ground. They believe, but they do not yet understand. Paul writes to the Colossians, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.” We are raised with Christ, therefore, we must seek what is above. 

In the Garden, on the day of his execution, our Lord asks Judas and the temple guards, “Whom do you seek?” They answer, “Jesus the Nazorean.” Jesus says, “I AM.” In the same moment that he is betrayed by his friend, Christ reveals (again) that he is the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob; that he is the voice that spoke to Moses; that he is one with the Father and one with the Spirit; he reveals his nature, and in doing so, reveals his purpose: to die on the altar of the cross in sacrifice for the salvation of the world and to rise again into the heavenly tabernacle. If the history of our redemption had ended on Golgotha with the bloody execution of one man to save us all, ours today would a religion of human sacrifice. But our history does not end at the Place of the Skull. In fact, our history doesn't even begin there. The story of our redemption begins at the creatio ex nihilo, the creation of everything from nothing when God breathed His Word across the Void and all things came to be and were made good. The Word of our creation speaks through the Law and the prophets, revealing His will; he speaks through all the things of creation, revealing His design; and he speaks in the voice of one divine person, Jesus Christ, to reveal, finally and uniquely, His merciful love. Dying on the cross, the Christ utters his final sentence, “It is finished.” He is dead. The final sacrifice is complete. His work is done. Now, he is risen by the Spirit and our work in the Spirit has just begun. 

Where do we begin? On Good Friday, we heard Jesus ask his betrayer, “Whom do you seek?” At our vigil last night, we heard Isiah say, “Seek the Lord. . .call him while he is near.” We also heard the man inside tomb say to the women, “You seek Jesus, the crucified.” This morning, we heard Paul, writing to the Colossians, say, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above. . .Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.” We begin the work of bringing to the world the saving Word of God by first seeking that which is above, seeking after the one from whom we receive our salvation. We begin by dying to sin, turning from disobedience and death, picking up the cross we've been given, and following Christ. We begin by setting our hearts and minds to trusting in God's promises to provide for us, to forgive us, and to always love us. We begin by believing that his tomb is empty so that we might come to understand that he is raised in glory to sit at the right hand of the Father, to understand that we too will be raised in glory to eat and drink at His eternal feast. When we seek what is above, our lives are directed toward, aligned with the divine will, the holy purpose encoded into the DNA of creation. When we seek what is above, we come to believe and understand that we were given life to propagate life—the life we now live and the life we hope to live with God forever. As seekers of what is above, we come to believe and understand that all of creation, all of God's creatures, reveal His presence among us, reveal His purpose to us, and direct us along the path to both righteousness and peace. Whom do you seek? Whom do you follow? Who are you here at this feast of the resurrection of the Lord? And who will you be when we lay you in your grave? 

Peter says, “You know what has happened. . .” He then recounts the life and death of Jesus. He ends by reminding the disciples that “he commissioned us to preach to the people and testify that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness, that everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.” You know what has happened. Our Lord is risen. His tomb is empty. Through his resurrection we are made children of the Father and commissioned to preach to the people and testify that Jesus is the long-promised and long-awaited Christ. If we are preachers of his Word, then we are also prophets who bear witness to the guarantee that anyone who believes in him will be forgiven their sins, brought back to righteousness, and gifted with eternal life. To be the preachers and prophets of the Good News of the Father's mercy, we must always seek him who is above, seek him who is beyond, and keep all that we are focused on the holy purpose of our graced lives. In his Easter homily in Rome, our Holy Father, Benedict, said, “Jesus rises from the grave. Life is stronger than death. Good is stronger than evil. Love is stronger than hate. Truth is stronger than lies.” Make your lives a living witness to this fact: not even death itself can contain the glory and power of God!

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It is done. . .

Just finished the Easter Vigil here at St. Dominic's. . .we received 13 new Catholics into the Church!

Happy Easter !!!
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"It is finished. . ." and begun.

Good Friday 2012
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Our Lord takes a sip of wine and sighs, “It is finished.” Our Lord is dead. Do we mourn? Do we rejoice? His mortal life is finished, and now we. . .what?. . .celebrate/remember/grieve. He is finished; his work is done. And whatever we choose to do with his passing, our pilgrimage to lives eternal is just beginning. The poet, W. H. Auden, chose to dwell at the cross on Good Friday. He writes:

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling in the sky the message 'He is dead'[. . .]

I thought that love would last forever, I was wrong
The stars are not wanted now, put out every one
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood
For nothing now can ever come to any good.*

Mr. Auden was wrong. . .about being wrong. Love does last forever and there is no need to empty creation of its stars and oceans and woods. Come Easter morning—we know—that Christ's tomb is empty and all creation is brought back to Love. But for today, our Lord is dead. And the good he brings seems forever away. Do we mourn? Rejoice? Do we laugh or cry? Whatever we do, we take one step toward eternity. 

* Stop All the Clocks, W. H. Auden, 1937.  This poem was written as lyrics for a play.  The subject of the poem is a deceased politician, not Christ; however, I thought the idea of the poem fit well with Good Friday.  

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Yes, confessions can be heard on Good Friday. . .

Will your pastor open the confessional on Good Friday?

Though celebrating the sacrament is not required, many pastors believe that confession is forbidden on Good Friday.

Due to a bad English translation from the Latin and a desire to dampen any enthusiasm for "pre-Vatican Two" devotional practices, a generation or two of priests have been led to believe that the rubrics for Good Friday forbid confessions being heard today.

Not so!

The 2002 edition of the Roman Missal removes all ambiguity:  "On this and the following day, the Church, from a most ancient tradition, does not at all celebrate the sacraments, except for (the sacraments of) Penance and Anointing of the Sick."  

So, there may be many perfectly good reasons for not offering the sacrament today; however, "The rubrics say we can't have confession on Good Friday" is not one of them.

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BXVI: "Is disobedience a path of renewal for the Church?"

From the BXVI's Holy Thursday homily:

[. . .]

Recently a group of priests from a European country [Austria] issued a summons to disobedience, and at the same time gave concrete examples of the forms this disobedience might take, even to the point of disregarding definitive decisions of the Church’s Magisterium, such as the question of women’s ordination, for which Blessed Pope John Paul II stated irrevocably that the Church has received no authority from the Lord. Is disobedience a path of renewal for the Church? We would like to believe that the authors of this summons are motivated by concern for the Church, that they are convinced that the slow pace of institutions has to be overcome by drastic measures, in order to open up new paths and to bring the Church up to date. But is disobedience really a way to do this? Do we sense here anything of that configuration to Christ which is the precondition for all true renewal, or do we merely sense a desperate push to do something to change the Church in accordance with one’s own preferences and ideas?

[. . .]

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Meditations on Christian Dogma, two excellent books. . .

Two books recommendations for you. . .

Meditations on Christian Dogma, Vol. 1

Meditations on Christian Dogma, Vol. 2

Both volumes were written by The Rt. Rev. James Bellford, D.D. and first published in England in 1898.  The links above will you give the 3rd editions of these volumes published in 1906 and reprinted by St Pius X Press.

Bishop Bellford gives us two excellent volumes of meditations on basic Christian dogma.  Volume One covers God, The Incarnation, and The Blessed Virgin.  Volume Two covers Beatitude, Laws, Grace, Virtue, Human Acts, and The Last Things, among others.  

Three qualities highly recommend these books:  orthodoxy, clarity, and brevity.

First, orthodoxy: these meditations provide thoroughly orthodox insights and explanations of the principle dogmatic truths of the Catholic faith.  Written before modernist and postmodernist innovations infected our theological vocabulary and thought, these volumes lay out the fundamentals of our apostolic traditions as the Church has received them from the beginning.  The Good Bishop was deeply influenced by Aquinas and his books can be read as commentary on the Summa.  Though there is no critical apparatus to link specific meditations to individual articles of the saint's major work, a quick glance at the table of contents will confirm that Bellford has structured his work along a line similar to Aquinas'. 

Second, clarity:  without the gobbledegook of modernist and postmodernist theological language to clutter up his thoughts, Bellford's meditations are strikingly clear.  He relies principally on scripture, conciliar documents, papal decrees, and the Church Father for his images, vocabulary, and tone.  For example, he introduces his meditation on The Last Supper, "In the Last Supper Jesus Christ exhibits His love, and proves Himself to be our best Friend. . ."  He then quotes John 13.1 and continues, "This was the farewell banquet on the last evening of His earthly life; in it He delivered His Testament, His final work of love, and bequeathed as a keepsake and eternal memorial of Himself.  This bequest was not His portrait, not even the most valuable of His created works, not an empty type or figure of Himself; it was Himself under the form of a simple creature, it was His own Body and Blood, it was the food of eternal life for our souls under the appearance of perishable bodily nourishment. . ."  Simple, clear, concise.  Some of the more philosophically complex topics naturally use more sophisticated language, but the overall style of his writing is easily comprehended but nonetheless rich for reflection. 

Third, brevity:  each meditation is exactly two pages long.  This means that he gets to the meat of the matter w/o sputtering on about his feelings or personal experiences.  If you want a book of meditations that touches your emotions, then you will have to look elsewhere. Bellford's books are meant--in their brevity and clarity--to shoot you with the large dose of intelligent insight quickly and cleanly.

I highly recommend these books for Catholics who suffered through the Dark Days of butterflies and rainbows catechesis and who now find themselves grasping for an anchor in the faith.  For new Catholics, these books will give you more than just the basics; they will give a foundation and a solid framework from which to grow in holiness.  For seminarians and clergy, these books will give you a basis from which to access newer theologies and often provide excellent prompts for papers and homilies. 

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Just Say NO to P.C. Foot Washings (repost)

NB.  Fr. Michael has the Holy Thursday Mass tonight, so no homily from me.  I thought I'd repost on the Annual Holy Week Liturgical Question of Foot Washing. . .

Q: Any opinion on the yearly controversy over the rubrics regarding the Holy Thursday liturgy for foot washing?

A: I always dread this question! My iron-clad rule is: Say the black, do the red. In other words, read the prayers as they are written in the liturgical books and follow the rules as they are. Following this rule, the priest will wash the feet of twelve men from his parish.

Now, the controversy revolves around two elements of this liturgy: 1) who washes? and 2) who gets washed? Some say: everyone washes; everyone gets washed! Others follow the rubric requiring the priest to do the washing, but they usually try to mix and match the washee's to accommodate some weird need to use this liturgy to express the "diversity" of the parish (as if just looking around in the pews doesn't demonstrate this well enough).

The B.I.G. issue, of course, is whether or not women can be included as washee's. The rubrics clearly require that the washee's be men, males (viri). In the U.S., bishops are allowed to grant pastors an exception to include women. Most do, I would bet. Fine.

What this debate about rubrics usually misses is the whole point of the rite itself. Jesus washes the feet of his disciples in order to show them that he is not only their Master and friend but their servant as well. He will go to the cross as a servant for them (and for us all). The priest, acting in the person of Christ, washes the feet of twelve men in order to liturgically enact this revelatory moment.

This liturgy is not about diversity or tolerance or discipleship or community-building. This is the moment when Christ--fully God, fully man--begins to empty himself in preparation for his passion and for the cross. In one very important way, this liturgy is about who the priest is for his parish--since he is and acts in the person of Christ as head of the Church, the priest is symbolizing his servant-leadership of the community. To use foot-washing on Holy Thursday for any other purpose is simply perverse.

Some will argue that since Jesus tells his disciples "to go and do likewise" that this is reason enough to turn the liturgy in a podiatrical free-for-all. If this is the case, then let's follow the example of scripture precisely. Celebrate the liturgy as it is written and then "do likewise." In other words, the priest will wash the feet of twelve men and then another part of the liturgy can be devoted to the "doing likewise." Or maybe a foot-washing free-for-all liturgy can be planned for another time of the year, or even regularly scheduled during Lent. Not perfect solutions by any stretch, I know.

What is tiresome about this yearly debate is the constant refrain of prog liturgists that this event needs to "express diversity." No, it doesn't. There is no good reason for this liturgy to do any such thing. Why this liturgy should yield to the demands of liturgical political correctness is beyond me. There's no demand that baptisms reflect the parish's diversity. Diversity in confessions? Will every Latino couple getting married in the parish need to find an Asian couple to get married with in order to celebrate diversity? Can three black guys get ordained to the priesthood at the same time, or do they need to wait until at least one white guy is ready for ordination?

Of course, the other possibility is to simply skip it. It's optional.

2012 Addendum:  One of the stated goals of the Spirit of Vatican Two Revolution is to de-clericalize the Church by opening all liturgical roles to the laity.  Following the rubrics for the Foot Washing gets in the way of this hallowed goal; therefore, the rubrics must be ignored.  Listen carefully to the homilies tonight.  How many preachers note that Holy Thursday is specifically designed to celebrate the institution of the Eucharist and the ordained priesthood?  If your pastor doesn't mention this element of the liturgy, it is probably b/c he's never heard it himself!

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Judas faithfully served his god. . .

Wednesday of Holy Week (2012)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

We become what we worship; that is, we change into that which we love most. Ps 115 teaches us that the makers of idols and those who trust in them will be just like their own creations—with eyes that do not see, noses that do not smell, ears that do not hear, and throats that do not speak. If you love a thing of this passing world, your love will be passing as well. If you love God—eternal and boundless—your love will be eternal and boundless; you will become a partaker of the divine love that makes and sustains all of creation. Judas is an example of a man who loved passing things instead of God; he loved money, power, influence, and his own skin—all of which betrayed him when he died. Judas' betrayal of Christ is the most egregiously treacherous act in human history. But do we understand why he did it? Do we understand the nature of his betrayal? We must understand if we are to see this temptation heading our way. Judas' treason was rooted in his worship of the things of this world. He was an idolater. He became the thing he worshiped. And died in its service.

I don't mean to suggest here that Judas was transformed into a lump of silver. Money is simply a way to evaluate the relative value of things in order to make commercial exchanges more convenient. We use phrases like “he sold his soul for a drink” as a way of saying “he committed murder in order to get the money to feed his addiction.” Now, think in more spiritual terms. Judas sold Christ to the temple for 30 silver coins. To be more precise, he sold the temple information on Christ's whereabouts. But in doing so, he sold his soul for that bag of coins. Why did he do it? Judas served a lesser god while pretending to serve our Lord. He worshiped at the Altar of Temporary Things. We could call it avarice or lust for power but it amounts to the same thing: he did not love the Lord; instead, he loved his possessions and he wanted more. To satisfy his god, he sacrificed his friend and teacher. And, in the end, his god made good on its promise—Judas himself became merely a means for exchanging one thing for another. His coins bought him a hanging suicide and a name forever linked to the betrayal of one's friends. For all his infamy in our history, Judas was just a man, an ordinary man tempted to the limits of his willingness to love.

This week—especially the next three days—we delve into the darkest moments of our faith, and the limits of our willingness to love are tested. No one is going to offer us 30 silver coins for information on the whereabouts of the Lord. Nothing so spectacular as that. Our tests will be smaller, more precise, and much, much sharper. Will we fail to speak up in defense of the faith at a party? Will we deny being a follower of Christ at work? Will we secretly give our time and money to causes that undermine the Church? Will we teach theological and moral error to the children in our care? Will we fail to forgive, to love, and to hope each time the chance arises? Will we pray for those who hate us? No one will ask us to stab our Lord in the heart. However, we will asked to give him a nick here and there, nothing too big, nothing too dangerous. But one little nick from each of us here will add up to a very large, very deadly slice. Watch for the temptation to betray your Lord, listen for that jingling bag of coins, and remember the prophet Isiah: “The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint. . .the Lord God is my help; who will prove me wrong?” 

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My prayers books. . .

Just wanted to plug my prayer books!

Treasure Old & New:  Traditional Prayers for Today's Catholics

Treasures Holy & Mystical:   A Devotional Journey for Today's Catholics 

Beatitudes & Beads:  Rosary Meditations on Blessedness

The first two books contain original litanies, novenas, and prayers written in a traditional format but addressing more contemporary issues and needs.   The second book contains an original rosary based on the Sermon on the Mount.

The third is booklet-sized version of the Beatitude Rosary that appears in the second book.  This booklet is also available in Spanish.

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Monday Fat Report

Almost forgot the Monday Fat Report!

327lbs.  Nothing lost, nothing gained.

Gotta lose a little before Good Friday. . .those prostrations before the Cross ain't gonna do themselves.

P.S.  Doh.  I just noticed that last week was 328lbs.  So, I lost one!  :-)
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End of an era. . .

Keep Scuba Mom in your prayers!  Today is the first day of her retirement.  She's worked at the same bank for 30 yrs. 

Also, keep Pop in your prayers as well. . .he's responsible for entertaining her.  Good luck with that, Pop!

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A vespers homily

A Vespers homily from fra. Thomas More Barba, OP, student friar of the Southern Dominican Province. . .

fra. Thomas is preaching in the chapel of the new studium priory in St. Louis.
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Coffee Cup Browsing

On an Army base in Afghanistan:  a cross is offensive. . .but a rainbow flag is just fine.

Plane makes emergency landing b/c two kids refuse to buckle seat belts. . .apparently, their parents were with them!  Give them a few years and they'll "Occupying" something with all the other brats.

". . .the nearly impenetrable parochialism of American liberals."  They are shocked that someone, anyone could disagree with them.  Make that "American liberal Catholics" and this article describes the contemporary Church perfectly.

Heh.  The MSM is shrieking about the ideological prejudices of the five conservative Justices who ripped into ObamaCare this week.  No mention of the ideological prejudices of the liberal Justices who had to make B.O.'s argument for him from the bench.

Devious, dishonest, creepy. . .she forgot amateurish.

NBC caught red-handed editing the 911 call from Zimmerman.  Read the transcript of the actual call and you will understand why our media are the least trusted of America's professionals.

Catholic biblical interpretation. . .excellent article for Easter studies!

The U.N. is the enemy of life. . .abolish it.

Conservatives understand liberals. . .liberals do not (cannot?) understand conservatives.  The consequences of self-righteousness?

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Choose wisely who you will be this week. . .

Palm Sunday (Year B)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

The King has arrived in Jerusalem! We shouted his name. We sang “Hosanna, hosanna in the highest!” We waved our palm branches, welcoming him among us. Then, we read aloud his Jerusalem Story. He's anointed in the house of a leper. He's sold as a fugitive to his enemies by Judas. He celebrates the Passover feast with his friends. He gives us the bread of life and the chalice of salvation, his Body and Blood. He is abandoned by his friends in the Garden of Gethsemane. Denied three times by Peter and betrayed by Judas. He is tried by Pilate, convicted by the crowd, scourged by legionaries, herded to the Place of the Skull, and nailed to a cross. To die for us in our sins. The question of Holy Week, the challenge set for us is this: how far do you follow him? Are you the woman from Bethany? Peter? Judas? Pilate? Are you in the faceless crowd? A Roman solider? Or, are you Mary, his mother at the foot of the Cross? John, his beloved disciple? Are you the Good Thief? Who you choose to be this week determines who you will become Easter morning. Choose wisely, choose Wisdom!

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A 1st Century Scapegoat No More

5th Week of Lent (S)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Once attained, power—political, religious, financial—is very difficult to give up. There's something about the ability to impose one's will on people and events that's highly addictive, even corrosive to one's capacity to hear the truth. Caiaphas is a good example. He served as High Priest of the temple in Jerusalem for eighteen years, an unusually long term for the office. Caiaphas must have been an excellent politician. His nation was ruled by a foreign military power, the Roman Empire. His people were sharply divided into competing regional and religious factions, some of whom were militant nationalists and terrorists. His life was made even more difficult by this itinerant preacher who went around healing unclean outcasts; cavorting with tax-collectors and prostitutes; crashing bible studies in synagogues; and worst of all, publicly proclaiming his own divinity. The scribes and the Pharisees had reported that this country-bumpkin preacher only had a small group of devout followers, but he was also drawing big crowds and talking about the destruction of the temple. When he raised a man from the dead, Caiaphas had had enough. The threat had to be eliminated. Powerful people do not easily tolerate competition or opposition. The Way, the Truth, and the Life does more than compete and oppose—he wins. Always has, always will. 

We might have some sympathy for Caiaphas and his allies. There's no doubt that they are in an untenable bind. They govern a subjected nation and rule only b/c their conquerors allow them to. If they can't suppress the religious and political zeal of their own people, the Romans will do it for them. The Sanhedrin had long hoped to bring all the people of Israel back to their Promised Land. To do this, they need a lure, a draw; they need an intact temple and functioning priesthood. The last thing they need is some street preacher stirring up more trouble. That he appears to be who he said he is only makes their situation more dangerous. Raising Lazarus from the dead proves to be the one competitive stunt, one oppositional act that they cannot let slide. Caiaphas prophesies that the death of one man will save his people. He's right, of course, but not in a way that he can ever imagine. We can be sympathetic to his situation, but his religious and political power render him unable to hear the truth; he is both deaf and blind to the righteous Way that Jesus forges for the people of God.

Caiaphas' position as an the supreme Jewish authority in his nation prevents him for seeing who it is that he is plotting against. Deaf and blind to the Word, he sees a future for his people in the death of one man. I wonder if we share his vision. I mean, do we see a future for our people, the People of God, in the death of just one man? Caiaphas sees a scapegoat to appease the Romans. What do we see? Tomorrow, the final leg of our journey to Jerusalem begins. We walk into the crowds behind Jesus. They cheer; they call his name. They wave palm branches and welcome him as a king, shouting, “Hosanna!” We know where our king ends the journey, and we know where he finally ends and how he gets there. Our eyes and ears are wide open. But what do we hear in the cheering? What do we see in the clamoring crowds? Do they understand what we does for them? Do we? The temple of his body is destroyed on a Roman cross. And God's people are saved. Not from the Romans, or the Venetians, or the Ottomans, or the Nazis. They (and we) are saved from the corrupting power of sin. We are a graced nation won on a cross.

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