Let heaven find you

11th Week OT (M) 
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP 
St. Dominic Church, NOLA 

Last week, today, and the rest of this week, we hear Jesus using a familiar phrase: “You have heard it said. . .but I say to you.” Our Lord uses this phrase to set up a contrast btw the Pharisees' understanding of the Mosaic Law and how his own followers are to understand it. While the Pharisees reduce the Law to what amounts to a behavioral code, Jesus teaches us to understand the Law in terms of the First Commandment. All of the behaviors required of us and forbidden to us under the Law are first and foremost ways of loving God, self, and neighbor. The Pharisees teach: Follow all the rules perfectly and you will learn to love perfectly. Jesus teaches: No, love perfectly as God loves you and following the rules will come naturally. Why is Jesus' the superior way? Loving First is more fundamental; that is, the roots of moral behavior are deeply planted in the rich soil of love. Without love providing stability and nourishment, good behavior is just a matter of being a good actor. And as the Pharisees reveal again and again, good behavior w/o real love too often leads to self-righteousness and pride. 

And why are self-righteousness and pride dangerous? Isn't it better to be self-righteous than not at all righteous? Isn't it better to be proud of who and what we are than it is to be ashamed? The problem with self-righteousness isn't the righteousness part; it's the self part. Righteousness is all about Being Right with God. And only He can initiate, empower, and accomplish that gifted-feat. We cooperate, of course, but our role is all about reception of the gift. So, self-righteousness then is the self-satisfying attempt to do that which God alone can do—make us holy. If I am among the unrighteous, how do I lift my up to sit among the righteous? By what authority or power do I accomplish this elevation? This is the point at which pride enters. Pride tells me that I am perfectly good just as I am. Nothing wrong. Nothing needs to be fixed. Complete in my sin and perfectly holy just b/c I'm Me, I can dispense with cooperating with God's little gifts of love, hope, and faith, grab my belt and yank myself up into the sky! Why is my pride dangerous? B/c it is false. Pride gives me a view of the world and God that is untrue. Not only is pride a lie, it's an ugly lie. To combat the allure of the lie, Jesus teaches me humility—not shame—but the humility of one who understands that nothing truly belongs to me. 

If nothing truly belongs to us, and we are commanded to love as God loves us, then it follows that we best obey the Law by going well beyond the minimum behavioral requirements of the Law. Jesus says that we must forgo the vengeance allowed by law. He says that we endure humiliation by inviting more. He says that we give twice as much service as we are required to give. He says that love leads us to give when asked, to lend when someone wants to borrow. None of this makes any sense at all if self-righteousness and pride rule our hearts. Only under the Law of Love can we understand why turning the other cheek and going the extra mile bring us closer to Him. The more and better we understand that everything created—including us—is a gift, the more and better we love. And the easier it is to grow in holiness. Why? We cannot cling to what passes away. We cannot hoard as our own that which never belonged to us. We cannot demand that a gift be given. Nor can we lay claim to the righteousness that is God's alone to bestow. You have heard it said that following the rules will get you into heaven. But our Lord says to you, to all of us, attach yourselves to nothing made, love generously, and let heaven find you.

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How big can your love be?

11th Sunday OT 2013 
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP 
St. Dominic/Our Lady of the Rosary, NOLA 

Let's get right to it: why does the notoriously sinful woman wash Jesus' feet with her tears, dry them with her hair, and anoint them with oil? But before we tackle that question, let's ask another one: why should we ask that question at all? Why should we ask why she does what she does? Two reasons: 1) her motives for doing what she did tells us a great deal about how and why her sins are forgiven; and 2) the parable Jesus tells Simon is meant to teach him (and us) about the long-term effects of forgiveness. So, why does she do it? She wants Jesus to reward her with absolution. She wants to embarrass the smug Pharisee in his own home. She wants to appear in public with a great prophet and discredit him by association. Or, we can go with Jesus' assessment of her motives, “. . .her many sins have been forgiven because she has shown great love.” The notoriously sinful woman honors Jesus in a way his host did not b/c she wants to show Jesus Great Love. Tying her devotion back to the parable of the generous creditor, Jesus concludes, “. . .the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” We are forgiven everything. How big is your love? 

Here's a better question: how big can your love be? The only thing we know for sure is that our love cannot be bigger than God who is Love Himself. So, btw the Nothingness of Evil and the Perfection of God, we have plenty of room to grow and shrink, to expand and contract. When we grow in love, we do so along with God in response to the Great Love that He gives us. When our love shrinks, we do so as well. We become less human, less like the image and likeness of God who made us. Of course, it's sin that causes us to shrink in love, to contract away from God. It's sin that derails us on our Way to God, and sin that staunches the free flow of mercy into our lives. This is why Jesus directly ties the sinful woman's love for him to her forgiveness. Which came first: her love or his forgiveness? Did Jesus forgive her as a reward for loving him? Or does she love him b/c he forgives her? Jesus says, “. . .her many sins have been forgiven because she has shown great love.” So, she loves first, then he forgives. But how does she love in the first place while wallowing in sin? Surely, she must be forgiven before she can love? Can our love ever be big enough to overcome your sin? No. But God's love for us is big enough to make up the difference, big enough to bring us all to repentance through Christ. 

Paul writes to the Galatians, “I have been crucifed with Christ; yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me…” You see the genuis of the Catholic faith is that nothing required of us all is truly required of us alone. We admit from the beginning that we can do nothing without first receiving the grace necessary to complete the task. Even our desire to cooperate with God’s various gifts is itself a gift. Our completed tasks in grace are no more responsible for saving us than any number of goats sacrificed and burned on an altar. We are not made just by our works. In other words, we cannot work our way into holiness apart from the God of grace Who motivates us to do good works. Paul writes, “We who know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ even we have believed in Christ Jesus…b/c by works of the law no one will be justified.” We are made just when we are crucifed with Christ (in baptism) and when he abides in us (in confession and Eucharist) we remain just. We can proclaim with Paul then, “I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself for me.” We can say, “I live by knowing, trusting that Christ loves me away of my sin.” 

Can we, then, be members of the Body of Christ, the Church, who participate in the ministries of the Church not for pragmatic gain, nor the need to “feel something,” nor in the hope of fitting-in, but b/c we long to show Christ a Great Love, the love that he first showed us on the cross and shows us even now on this altar? Can we do what the sinful woman does: freely, openly, purely, and without caring about gossip or any negative consequences, can we express our Great Love for Christ and one another with the gifts of tears—humility, forgiveness, mercy; and the gifts of service—teaching, preaching, healing, feeding? Can you show others—for no other reason or purpose than your Great Love for God—can you show others the Christ Who Lives In You? And can you show them that Christ did not die for nothing but that he died and rose again for everything, everyone everywhere? And can you show them that b/c he died and rose again for everything and everyone everywhere, that they too, saying YES to his gifts of trust, hope, and love, that they too can shine out a Christ-light for all to see, that they too can wash filthy feet with repentant tears and anoint them clean with precious oil? 

Now, you might thinking at this point: “Hmmm. . .I can say that I love God, but I don't really feel like I love God. He loves me, I know, but I don't feel Him loving me.” Let me gently remind you: your feelings on the truth of God's love for you are irrelevant; that is, whether or not you feel God's love is irrevelant to the truth that God does love you. Since at least the middle of the 19th c.,* Christians have been duped into believing that emotions take priority over the intellect in all things theological, that the only worthy human response to reality is emotional. We've replaced “What do you think?” with “How do you feel?” and we've decided that how we feel is more important than what we think. This is not the Catholic faith. We are rational animals not emotive animals. We are human persons composed of a human body and a rational soul. That which makes us most like God is our intellect not our passions. Why am I ranting about this? B/c too often I see otherwise faithful Christians anguishing over their apparently empty spiritual lives b/c they do not feel God's presence. Feelings ebb and flow, come and go. Yes, feelings are spiritually significant, but they do not tell us much about the truth. The truth is: God loves you. He is with you. And how we feel about these truths is irrelevant to whether or not they are true. 

The notoriously sinful woman's sins are forgiven whether she feels forgiven or not. The Pharisee is a hypocrite whether he feels like a hypocrite or not. Jesus did not command us to feel love. He commanded us to love. So, angry, sad, joyful, exhausted, pitiful, happy—does it matter to our obligation to love? No, it doesn't. Do not let fleeting emotions bargain away the triumphs of God's Love. Feel what you feel and Love anyway. Feel angry and love anyway. Feel depressed, exhausted, spiteful, and love anyway. Feel elated, ecstatic, on cloud nine, and nearly uncontrollably happy, and love anyway. Feel bored, isolated, cranky, and mean, and love anyway. Christ did not die for nothing. He died for you. And you are not nothing. You are everything to him. We are everything to him. Yes, our sins betray us. But his Great Love forgives us. Our debt is always canceled, always forgiven. Knowing this, is your love big enough to forgive others? Probably not. But God's love for you is big enough to make up the difference. He loved you first anyway, so allow Him to forgive through you. Allow yourself to be just one small way for His Great Love to be found in this world. Allow yourself to be the greater love of Christ who lives in you. 

*I'm thinking particularly of Friedrich Schleiermacher, who reduced religious faith to feeling and intuition.

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Is Math Real?

There is an on-going debate about the ontological status of math. 

Yes, you read that correctly. People actually wonder about the nature of math's reality. 

And why not? We wonder about the ontological status of all sorts of. . .things?  (Well, that begs the question. . .)

Anyway, the Realist-Antirealist debate is not limited to math. Physicists ask about the ontological status of theoretical objects all the time.  Can you say "quarks"? 

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The soul of godly behavior

10th Week OT (F) 
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP 
St. Dominic, NOLA 

Though we have just heard the Gospel read aloud, it might be difficult for us to hear the Good News. All this talk of adultery, divorce, cutting off body parts, and getting thrown into Gehenna beg the question: what's so good about this Good News? If yesterday's and today's readings from Matthew were our only glimpse of Jesus, we could easily come away believing that our Lord is a sadistic busy-body bent on making our lives a scrupulous misery. Fortunately, we interpret scripture as a whole, within the whole of God's plan for our salvation and not just in slogan-size pieces. Jesus is doing more here than repeating the text of divine legislation. What's good about this evening's gospel is that our Lord is showing us the spirit of the Law. He's revealing to us the soul of godly behavior. It's one thing to act in a particularly godly way; it's quite another to act this way out of a godly motivation. Over time, it's how we think and feel about our behavior, how we come to decide to be godly people that will mark us as followers of Christ. 

True, as people who hope to follow Christ faithfully, we are obligated to imitate our Lord, but we must be more than good mimics of Jesus, holy mimes. There's no doubt that imitating Christ's behavior is vital to holiness, but physical imitation alone does little more than make us good actors not good Christians. To be a good Christian requires me to motivate my bodily actions with nothing other than a deeply-held desire to give glory to God. I can be secondarily motivated by compassion for the homeless, pity for the sick, sympathy for those in jail, but the motive that matters most is my desire to share in and share out that portion of God's glory that He shines into me. The reason that giving glory to God matters most is simple: my compassion, my pity, my sympathy too easily become mine alone and my motives can quickly turn selfish. Even though I am only able to be compassionate b/c God has shown me compassion, the human tendency to ego-boosting makes it almost impossible for me not to make my good works All About Me. So, to avoid making myself into my own idol, I do the good work I have vowed to do, but I do it only b/c I desire that God's Word, His glory, His mercy be better known to the world. 

When Jesus tells us that our motives for murder, adultery, divorce matter more than the behaviors themselves, he's not telling us that the behaviors are somehow OK. He's telling us that in the long-run, for the long-term benefit our souls, it's most important that we pay attention to why we behave as we do. A murderer who murders out of imitation is in much less danger of spiritual suicide than a alms-giver who gives out of his need for public attention. Why? Because the murderer can be shown that he is doing evil and brought to repentance, while the selfish alms-giver truly believes that b/c she is doing good her motives don't matter. To the world, her motives don't matter. To those who receive her alms, her motives don't matter. But to Christ—who loves her—her motives matter a great deal. It's the condition of her immortal soul that worries the Lord. So, he tells us all that it is better to rip out our eyes than it is to use that eye in a lustful way. Why? Because one act of adultery is far easier to repent of than a lifetime of using one's eyes to indulge a lusting heart. Here's the Good News: we are dead to sin. Paul says it perfectly: “We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. I would add that we are tempted, but not taken. There is no need for us to pluck anything out or to lop anything off. Lust, pride, envy, greed, all the deadly sins are deadly to us only if we ponder on them and deliberately choose to indulge in them. Therefore, choose to hear the Lord and bring your soul to godly behavior. 

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A "Black Pope" in white

For our Lefty Catholic Friends who've been singing hymns of ecclesial democracy and dancing in the new winds of theological reform. . .Sorry, folks, but our Holy Father is not dancing with you. . .

[. . .]

Bergoglio is also a Jesuit, and by now his actions have made it clear that he intends to apply to the papacy the methods of governance typical of the Society of Jesus, where the superior general, nicknamed the “black pope,” has practically absolute power.

His reticence in attributing to himself the name of pope and his preference for calling himself as bishop of Rome have made champions of the democratization of the Church rejoice.

But theirs is a blunder. When Francis, on April 13, appointed eight cardinals “to advise him in the governance of the universal Church and to study a project for the revision of the Roman curia,” he selected them according to his own judgment.

[. . .]

In early October the eight will be gathered around the pope. They will deliver to him a sheaf of proposals. He will be the one to decide. Alone.
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Let the hammer fall!

Linked from New Advent:

"Watch closely, Catholic leaders: Australian Chief of Army demonstrates how you address sex abuse."

BAM!  Exactly right.  Kudos to the Chief for keeping his cool. I would not have been able to do.
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We cannot do this on our own

10th Week OT (Th) 
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP 
St. Dominic Church, NOLA 

Our Holy Father caused a bit of a stir a few days ago when he reportedly told a group of visiting religious that some traditionalist Catholics tend toward the Pelagian heresy, while some progressive Catholics tend toward the heresy of Gnosticism. Just yesterday, we learned that we don't really know what he said, or even if he said anything at all. Regardless, just the report that the Holy Father may have mentioned these two heresies has been enough to reignite interest in both of these ancient yet enduring theological oddities. Very briefly, Gnosticism is the idea that we are saved by the acquisition of specific, secret knowledge—salvation by knowing. Pelagianism is the idea that, despite the Fall, we are still capable of choosing good over evil without God's help—salvation by works. When Jesus tells the disciples that their righteousness must surpass that of the Pharisees, he's admitting that the Pharisee are righteous and that some part of being righteousness is about obeying the Law. However, to be a follower of Christ is to be surpassingly righteous, to excel in being something more than just a Law-abiding Christian. What is that Something More that we must master? And how do we begin to acquire it? 

The 5th century British monk, Pelagius, denied that Adam and Eve's disobedience tainted human nature with Original Sin. Beyond setting a bad example, the Fall had no real spiritual consequences, no lasting effect on whether or not we to be choose good or evil. Had Pelagius' views won the day instead of Augustine's, we would all be functional pagans with the Church's blessing. How so? Basically, ancient pagans believed that the gods directly interacted with mortals only rarely and usually by invitation only.* Sacrifices were performed not only to assuage divine anger but also to keep the gods from nosing around in one's business. Pelagius' views on the effects of the Fall leave Christians pretty much among their pagan neighbors as de facto pagans themselves: striving to be good while avoiding the notice of God, calling upon His help only when things become dire. Now, this particular idea—God only needs to make an appearance when I need Him—is indeed both ancient and new. How many of us are functional pagans when it comes to our daily interactions with the Divine? How many of us believe that righteousness is a state we ourselves work for by being Good Boys and Girls? 

Jesus wants the disciples (and us) to be Good Boys and Girls, but he wants our righteousness to surpass the merely Pelagian righteousness of the Law-abiding Pharisees. “You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.' But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. . .” Jesus seems to saying here that anger is spiritually equivalent to murder. No. He's saying that both anger and murder will see us liable to judgment. Under the Law, only murder gets you in trouble. Under the New Covenant, anger—the motive for murder—can hurt you as well. In other words, contra Pelagius, it's not just our deeds that cause us spiritual damage, or grant us benefit. How we think, feel, and choose our deeds goes into the equation as well. If this is true, then we must look to God's grace constantly. Not just when we think we need Him, but every moment of every day, we must persistent in calling upon the Lord for His divine assistance, asking to receive from Him every good gift He has to give us. We can nothing good without Him, so the only way for us to surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees is to turn our heart and minds toward Him; repent our sins, and take in His mercy with thanksgiving. We are not functional pagans. We cannot do this on our own. 

*I realize that the relationship btw ancient pagans and their gods was far more complicated than this, but generally speaking, what I've said here is true.

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No, the Pope didn't say that. . .

Figures. . .

In response to media flurry, the Latin American Confederation of Men and Women Religious (CLAR) released a statement on June 11 claiming that the assertion of a gay lobby at the Vatican “cannot be attributed with certainty to the Holy Father.”

[. . .]

The same source claims that the Pope also said that “the reform of the Roman curia is something that almost all of us cardinals requested during the congregations previous to the conclave. I also did. I cannot personally make that reform, with these managerial issues... I am too unorganized; I have never been good at that. But the Cardinals of the committee will carry it out.”

[. . .]

Regarding the decision of “Reflexión y liberación” [a leftist Chilean paper] to publish the story, CLAR says that “in fact, no authorization was requested.” 

“It is clear that, based on these facts, it cannot be attributed with certainty to the Holy Father, the specific expression contained in the text, but only in its general sense.”

[. . .]

Which means everything else reported about the conversation is probably false too. 

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Promise Fulfilled

NB. Here's today's excuse:  went to dinner with a friend last night and sat in the restaurant drinking iced tea for 2.5 hrs. . .so, at around 2.00am I finally drifted off to sleep. Woke up at 4.30am. Thus, the following Borrowed Homily from last year. . .mea culpa.

10th Week OT (W)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP 
St. Dominic Church, NOLA 

When first century Christians were first discovered by their pagan neighbors, they were described as Jewish sectarians. In fact, most of the earliest Jewish disciples of the Way understood themselves to be Jews who were following the Law and the Prophets by following Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah. Scattered throughout the Gospel accounts of Christ's public ministry, particularly his teaching, we read sentences like, “He said this/did this so that the scriptures might be fulfilled.” In the Creed, we declare that Jesus' birth, trial, death, and resurrection happened secúndum Scriptúras—“in accordance with the Scriptures,” meaning that he fulfilled the messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The intimate and indissoluble relationship between the Old and New Covenants is most clearly seen in the Last Supper. Jesus transforms the thanksgiving bread and wine of Passover into his body and blood for our Eucharist. He teaches us the most perfect means of returning to our Father, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” 

The Catechism presents a concise description of the relationship between the Old and New Testament, “[The OT] prophesies and [foreshadows] the work of liberation from sin which will be fulfilled in Christ: it provides the New Testament with images, 'types,' and symbols for expressing the life according to the Spirit. . .The Law of the Gospel 'fulfills,' refines, surpasses, and leads the Old Law to its perfection. In the Beatitudes, the New Law fulfills the divine promises by elevating and orienting them toward the 'kingdom of heaven'”(nos.1964-6). Yesterday, we read the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus lays out a means for participating in God's beauty through acts of charity. When we embody His love and behave in a loving way toward others, we actively take part in Love Himself and achieve blessedness. The whole purpose of the Mosaic Law was to give God's chosen people a concrete means of acting in the world for their own good and the good of others. The Prophets were sent to preach and prophesy the spirit of the Law: as former slaves who were delivered from bondage by your God, do not think and treat others as slaves; think of and treat everyone as members of your family. 

Jesus fulfills this prophecy by successively transforming us from slaves of sin; to students of holiness; to friends of the Master; to brothers and sisters; and finally, into co-heirs of his Father's Kingdom! If we hope to take advantage of the most perfect means of returning to our Father, we must start by receiving His gift of mercy and throw off the chains of sin. Once freed from sin, we enroll in Christ's school of holiness to study the ways of charity and peace. When we have learned the basics of loving God, self, and neighbor, and how to live with one heart and mind, we begin to explore the love found in a friendship with God through Christ. Friends then become brothers and sisters through adoption into the family of God, and siblings become the inheritors of the treasuries of the heavenly household. This plan for returning to the Father has been the plan since the beginning. And none of it has changed. None of it has been abolished. Christ came not to abolish the plan but to fulfill it, to make it possible for us to start and finish our perfection through him, with him, and in him. Not only do we give God thanks and praise in this morning's Eucharist, we also take part in his sacrificial love for us. He surrenders himself to death so that we might be holy. Rise, then, from the death of sin and go be holy!

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Pelagians and the Pantheists. . .oh my!

from Catholic Culture:

During his conversation with the CLAR representatives, the Pope reportedly said that he was troubled by two different currents within the Church: a Pelagian tendency, which he saw in some traditionalist groups, and Gnostic or pantheist trends that he had seen in some women’s religious communities. He also expressed concern that some religious orders have been unable to attract new vocations—perhaps suggesting that “the Holy Spirit does not want them to keep going.” 

I've encountered both the Pelagian and pantheist tendencies in my short time as a Dominican friar.

While working in Campus Ministry at U.D. I regularly bumped into students who believed that they had to work overtime to earn God's love.  My first few months in the pulpit were aimed directly at this heresy.

I've also met many pantheists among religious. It's a strange combo of progressive fascism, religious syncreticism, pop-psychology, and radical feminism, all neatly wrapped up in the trendy "New Universe Story" mythology.

The difference btw the Pelagians and the Pantheists I've met is this:  the Pelagians were 18, 19, 20 year old college students who didn't know any better. . .the Pantheists were well-seasoned religious who knew exactly what they were doing.

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Your reward will be great. . .

NB.  So, I'm sitting here at 5.45am, casually composing a homily for the 8.30am Mass at St. Dom's and then it hits me:  I have the 7.00am at OLR!  Thus, is my excuse for the homily below:

10th Week OT (M) 
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP 
Our Lady of the Rosary, NOLA 

Way back when I was a religious skeptic and hipster agnostic, one of the most damning criticisms of the Christianity that I'd ever heard was that belief in an afterlife dangerously focused the hearts and minds of the poor and oppressed on some promised “pie in the sky,” causing them to meekly accept their poverty and oppression in exchange for a better life after death. So, when my Marxist-feminist professors railed against the economic injustices of capitalism and the subjugation of women under western patriarchy, I knew that traditional Christianity was an accomplice to these crimes against humanity. The Church's promise of paradise was nothing more than a means of keeping po'folks and women in their places here on earth. And there was no better explanation of this scheme than the one found in the Sermon on the Mount. The whole thing reeks of Be Meek, Be Humble, and Be Quiet Right Now and Sometime in the Way Distant Future You Will Be Rewarded for Not Demanding Your Rightful Place at the Table Among Your Betters. Nietzsche was absolutely correct. Christianity is a slave's religion, a fable for sheep. 

This line of criticism is not easy to dismiss. After all, Jesus says, “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. . .” After you have suffered persecution, trial, and death for his name's sake. Why can't our reward in heaven be great for just being who we are, for just being really nice to our neighbors and generous to our friends? It's good to know that the grieving will be comforted and that the clean of heart will see God and that the merciful will be shown mercy. . .but doesn't all that just mean that we'll be treated with the same dignity as everyone else? And, I'm sorry, but knowing that the prophets who came before us were persecuted is not all that reassuring. Misery might love company but given the misery involved, I'd like to request a different sort of company. Given the choice, I'd prefer to hang out with the Beautiful People: the wealthy, the well-educated, the talented; those who understand that being blessed is all about enjoying those blessings while they are still alive to enjoy them. All this talk of being blessed after I'm dead makes me wonder why anyone would buy into this system called “Christianity.” Why can't my reward be great right now? Why do I have to wait until I get to heaven, assuming such a place exists at all? 

Our lives here on earth aren't just about living in the spirit, living for heaven as if we have nothing to do while we're “down here.” If living in ignorance of the spiritual world is dangerous, so is living as if the material world doesn't matter. We are rational animals who thrive in both the spiritual and the material worlds. As a philosophy, only Christianity offers a way of living fully as both material beings and spiritual beings. The Sermon on the Mount isn't a sermon about suffering now so that we might rejoice later on. Jesus is teaching the crowd that suffering is a hard fact of our material lives. Living in the spirit of charity with our eyes firmly focused on the hope of the resurrection isn't an escape from suffering, it's the only way to make sense of an otherwise senseless burden. Our suffering now has a end, a divine purpose. And that purpose is to encourage us—in our suffering—to bring encouragement to others who suffer. Misery loves company, true. But the company of Christ who suffered for us can redeem misery in this life. Redeem it, not end it. B/c suffering is how we choose to experience and use our pain, our grief, our persecution. If we choose to suffer well for others, we are redeemed and those who suffer are comforted. So, yes, blessed are the poor, the grieving, and the merciful. For their reward is great both in heaven and here on earth. 

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Young Atheists: Lessons for the Church?

A fascinating article in The Atlantic. . .the subtitle of the article reads: "When a Christian foundation interviewed college nonbelievers about how and why they left religion, surprising themes emerged." 

Here's one theme that should Shock and Awe Catholic pastors, DRE's, CYO chaplains, campus ministers, and RCIA teachers: 

The mission and message of their churches was vague
 

These students heard plenty of messages encouraging "social justice," community involvement, and "being good," but they seldom saw the relationship between that message, Jesus Christ, and the Bible. Listen to Stephanie, a student at Northwestern: "The connection between Jesus and a person's life was not clear." This is an incisive critique. She seems to have intuitively understood that the church does not exist simply to address social ills, but to proclaim the teachings of its founder, Jesus Christ, and their relevance to the world. Since Stephanie did not see that connection, she saw little incentive to stay. We would hear this again.

As our Holy Father, Francis recently preached: No Jesus, no Church.  You can't have the Church w/o Christ, or Christ w/o the Church.

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Miraculously strange, indeed. . .

10th Sunday OT 2013 
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP 
 St. Dominic Church, NOLA 

Writing against the heresies of the Gnostic, Marcion in the second century, Tertullian uses Jesus' miraculous resuscitation of the widow's son to a make a point about Christ's relationship with his Father. On the way to making his point, Tertullian quickly summarizes the scene from Luke and notes, almost offhandedly, “This was not a strange miracle." Not a strange miracle? Did I miss something? Luke is reporting that Jesus returns a dead man back to life, right? Out of compassion for a widow whose only son has died, Jesus touches the dead man's coffin, and says, “Young man, I tell you, arise!” And he does. Tertullian tells us that it is not strange that a dead man rises from his coffin? Nothing unusual about that at all. Tertullian and I have very different definitions of the word “strange.” To be fair to Tertullian, he's making a larger point by using this miracle. His larger point is that the revival of the widow's dead son is not at all strange when viewed in the longer history of miracles. He asks, if God's prophets can perform miracles of such magnitude, why not His Son? Especially when the miracle bears the burden of revelation: “. . .they glorified God, exclaiming. . .'God has visited his people.'” And God still visits His People. 

Just a day or two before reviving the widow's son, Jesus had healed the centurion's servant. In both cases, Jesus showed compassion and exercised great power. In both cases, his interventions gave witness to his ministry and glory to God. And in both cases, news of his words and deeds spread like wildfire over Judea. But there is one interesting difference btw the two events. In the case of the centurion's servant, Jesus acts on a request for healing. No such request is made in the case of the widow's son. What's interesting is that the power and glory of God are revealed in both cases, whether those most directly involved in the miracle ask for God's help or not. Where Christ goes—preaching, teaching, healing—so goes the most exacting revelation of God possible. The truth of that revelation—God's Self-revelation—is not contingent upon the need, the desire, the faith, or the belief of those to whom He reveals Himself. To those with eyes to see and ears to hear, He is uncovered, unveiled, and all there is to do is give thanks and praise! For others, strangeness abounds when a miracle occurs and there is nothing to do but seek a non-miraculous explanation. 

Let's ask a somewhat difficult question: do we need a strange miracle to occur before we can say with the utmost confidence: “God has visited His people!”? Do we need a man several days dead revived? Do we need a sick servant healed from a distance? If so, if you need a strange miracle to believe, ask yourself why. Why do I need such thing? And consider: God visits His people daily in the Eucharist. In the breaking of the bread, a great prophet rises among the people. God's mercy; His healing touch; His cleansing spirit; all the gifts necessary to come to Him in the perfection of His Christ. . .all freely available right here in His Church. Think of them as miracles. . .strange little miracles, if you want. Regardless, strange or not, miracles or not, in the Eucharist, all of the sacraments, Christ touches you and says to you, “Arise!” Arise from death. Arise from sin. Arise from disease, doubt, distress, worry. Arise, speak, bear witness, and be yourself a revelation of God the Most High! What else is there for any of us to do but arise and bear witness; arise and give testimony to the miracle of our salvation; arise and speak out for the glory of God that we are no longer slaves to sin but free men and women burdened by nothing and no one but the surpassing love of God and the inheritance we have received through His Son? 

Is our salvation through the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus a strange miracle? Yes and no. Given what little we know about the nature of God—that He is Love—and given what we know about His Christ—that he is fully human and fully divine—and given what we know about the nature of creation—that all of it, us included, participates in the divine life—then, no, it would seem that God's love for us is not miraculous at all. That He would condescend to send His Son among us to save us through sacrificial love seems like the perfectly natural act of a loving Father, not miraculous at all. But then we consider how we look upon creation: how we are tempted to explain the objects and processes of nature w/o reference to our Creator; how we work so hard to acquire things and dominate people outside the laws of charity; how we torture truth, desecrate beauty, and defile goodness, then: Yes! indeed, our salvation is a strange miracle, with emphasis on strange. Through all of the messes we make that we come to accept and receive God's grace and find ourselves lifted up to and adopted into the holy family, yes, that's strange indeed. Miraculously strange. 

“Young man, I tell you, arise!” The dead man sits up and begins to speak. Jesus gives him back to his mother. “Fear seized [the crowd], and they glorified God, exclaiming, 'A great prophet has arisen in our midst,' and 'God has visited his people.'” Through their fear and amazement, the witnesses to this strange miracle recognize the work of the Most High. Through their awestruck fear, they give glory to God, and proclaim the news that God has visited His people. He still visits His people. He still reveals Himself through His Word, His Christ, and His creation. The truths He reveals are not contingent upon the need, the desire, the faith, or the belief of those to whom He reveals Himself. Do we need strange miracles to see His truth? Do you wait for some strange sign to believe? That's not the faith we share. We believe on the witness of Christ's apostles and the witness of his Church. We believe on the evidence of reason rightly revealed as a divine gift. We believe b/c we know who we were before Christ; who we would be w/o Christ, and all that we can be with Christ and him alone. Arise from death. Arise from disobedience. Arise from weakness, uncertainty, pain, and trouble. Arise. Speak. Bear witness. And be yourself a revelation of God the Most High!

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A Mississippi Mystic

Being a Dominican friar and a philosophically-inclined poet-theologian (geez), I am at once intrigued and put-off by those who claim to experience mystical visions. My first thought upon hearing that some peasant child in Ussbackistan is having visions of the Blessed Mother is: Not another one! However, I immediately click over and read all about it. 

Out of the blue, a HancAquam reader and frequent commenter alerted me to a visionary from my own backyard, a Home Grown Mississippi Mystic, and his story is remarkable:

Claude Newman was an African American man who was born on December 1, 1923 to Willie and Floretta (Young) Newman in Stuttgart, Arkansas. In 1928, Claude’s father Willie takes Claude and his older brother away from their mother for unknown reasons, and they are brought to their grandmother, Ellen Newman, of Bovina, Warren County, Mississippi. . .

Read the whole thing!

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Is your heart a Sacred Heart?

Sacred Heart of Jesus 
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP 
St. Dominic Church, NOLA 

Thus says the Lord God, “I myself will look after and tend my sheep. . .I will rescue them. . .I will lead them. . .I will bring them back. The lost I will seek out. . .the injured I will bind up, the sick I will heal.” And we are glad to hear the Lord say that He will look for the lost, rescue the endangered, and mend the broken. We are especially glad to hear these promises when we find ourselves among the lost, the sick, and the wounded. Not only does God do all that He promises to do, He does more. Much more. “God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” To find, to heal, and to mend, you need someone to be lost, sick, and injured. But Christ died for us “while we were still sinners.” Before we repent, before we confess, before we seek his mercy and absolution, he dies for us so that we are able to repent, confess, and seek his mercy. How is this possible? “The love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. . .” Because he surrenders his sacred heart on the altar of the Cross, our hearts are made sacred in the fires of the Holy Spirit! If your heart will be like Christ's, you too will surrender to the Cross. 

What does “surrender to the Cross” mean? And how is it done? If we think of surrendering as the coward's faint way of avoiding injury and death, or if we think of it as a desperate last resort before total defeat, then surrendering to anyone or anything is a failure. But if we accept in all humility that nothing is ours, that no one is ours; that all, everything belongs to God and we just make use of what He gives us, then surrender is nothing like a defeat or a failure. It's the first and last victory of a war we never have to fight. If nothing and no one truly belongs to us, then what do we have to give up? What is there left for us to sacrifice? Well, our sins are ours; we certainly own those. No. The Son is made flesh so that he becomes sin for us. Even our sins belong to God. Only He can forgive them, and He's done that already. So, what do we surrender? We hand over to God all that we think belongs to us; all that we imagine we own. Jesus said on the Cross, “Not my will but Yours be done.” We surrender to the Cross by freely offering to God what belongs to Him already. He doesn't need our surrender, but we need to surrender so that His will might become our own. 

How does God find us when we are lost? Heal us when we are sick? Lead us when we wander off? All trick questions! There is never a second of our lives when He isn't finding, healing, and leading us. The question is whether or not we are free enough from our attachments to Self and Things to be found, healed, and led. Whether or not we have given over all the weights and burdens and trials that work so hard to snuff the fire of His Spirit in us. Why do we insist on carrying our junk when He has already taken from us? Why do we demand to be punished for sins that were forgiven 2,000 yrs ago? Why do we invite tests and temptations when the war against both ended with a victory on the Cross? Christ's sacred heart split and bled out so that we might have access to the Father through His Holy Spirit. That access—our way in—remains open, has never closed, and will never close. But we cannot fit through if we are stuffed to the gills with pride in Self and bent over clinging to tons of stuff. Are you free to be found, healed, led, mended, rescued, and loved into the presence of the Most High? God knows where you are, but He will not find you unless you will to be found? He will not lead you or heal you unless you freely choose to be lead and healed. Unlike the dumb sheep of the gospel, we can choose to be livestock. And unlike the sheep of the gospel, we can choose to be freed by the Sacred Heart of Christ. 

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