14th Sunday OT: audio file

Audio File for 14th Sunday OT:  You call that an easy burden?!

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You call that an easy burden?!

14^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

Our Lady of the Rosary, NOLA

Jesus says that his yoke, the burden he imposes is light. Let's review. Turn the other cheek. Forgive your neighbor not just seven times but seven times seventy times. Go the extra mile. Love God and neighbor as you love yourself. Hate your parents, your siblings if you will follow him. Die for the love of a friend. Eat his flesh and drink his blood. Be prepared for persecution, torture, and death for spreading his Good News. Pray for your enemies. Don't worry about tomorrow b/c God even takes care of the sparrows. Go, and sin no more. We could go on. But the picture here is perfectly clear. There's nothing easy, light, or in any way casual about putting on the yoke of Christ. Just figuring out what some of these commands mean is burdensome enough w/o trying to actually carry them out. Does he understand the burden he's putting on us? He says that he will give us rest. He says that we will learn from him – his meekness and humility. So, when Jesus invites us to take on his yoke, what is he asking us to do? Is taking on his burdens worth the time and effort?

In one of his many sermons,* St. Augustine has this to say about our gospel passage, “All other burdens oppress and crush you, but Christ's burden actually lightens your load. All other burdens weigh you down, but Christ's burden gives you wings. If you cut away a bird's wings, it might seem as though you are taking off some of its weight, but the more weight you take off [by removing its wings], the more you tie the bird down to the earth. There it is lying on the ground, and you wanted to relieve it of a burden; give it back the weight of its wings, and you will see how it flies.” The wise and the learned know that the heavier an object is the more work it takes to make it fly. Lighter objects need less work to fly. But the little ones know that a bird cannot fly without the weight of its wings. Christ’s yoke, his burden on us weighs less than bird bones and feathers. Nothing he asks of us is foreign to him. Nothing he demands of us is beyond our strength. Everything he teaches us and preaches to us is as familiar to him as his own skin. He knows our trials. He knows our weaknesses. Above all, he knows that we are made strong, durable, and patient by the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Paul, writing to the Romans, teaches us, “You are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you…” As baptized and confirmed members of the Body of Christ, God’s Spirit does dwell within us. And since God’s Spirit abides in us, “the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to [our] mortal bodies…” And since our mortal bodies will be given the life of the resurrection of the dead when our Lord returns for us, “brothers and sisters, we are not debtors to the flesh, to live according to the flesh…” And so, we are to live as Little Ones – the poor, the broken, the thrown away, the diseased, those who rush to Jesus for a word of healing. 

 

Why must be become so little? Because to be filled with the Spirit we must first be emptied out as Christ himself was emptied out for us on the Cross. There is no room for God’s Spirit in a body crowded with fear, worry, anger, a lust for revenge, a desire to punish; there is no room for God in a soul stuffed full with the need to worship alien gods; to kill the innocent; to torture the enemy. Greed, jealousy, rage, promiscuity, dissent, all elbow sharply at our souls for more space for themselves but make no room for God. Paul warns us: “…if you live according to the flesh, you will die…” If we will live, we must “put to death the deeds of the body…”

Nothing that you have heard Jesus or Paul say this evening should surprise you. You know the consequences of sin. Firstly, sin makes you stupid. Disobedience quenches the fire of the intellect, so that you choose evil over good. Do this often enough and you become a fool. Secondly, since sin makes you foolish, you come to believe that you are wise. If you are also learned, that is, well-educated in the world, you might even begin to believe that you better than God Himself what is best for you. Enter all those nervous questions about the nature of Jesus’ burden and the weight of his revelation on you. Finally, since sin makes you a wise and learned fool, you may come to believe that you can do without God altogether, becoming, for all intents and purposes, your own god, worshiping at the altar of Self. At this point, you have excluded yourself from God’s love and the company of the blessed. Welcome to Hell. Maybe the Devil will let you rule a small corner of your favorite level, but don’t count on it. You know the consequences of sin. So empty yourself. Make plenty of room for God’s Spirit and Christ's featherweight burden.

If we will come among the blessed and thrive in holiness, then we will take on the light and easy yoke of Jesus and let him teach us the one thing we must know above all else: He is the Christ sent by the Father so that we might have eternal life. This is not the end of our spiritual journey; it is just the beginning. Christ’s warnings about the wise and learned are not meant to push a kind of anti-intellectualism, a know-nothing party of prejudice and blindness. In fact, it is because we are first weighted down with the feather-light wisdom of Jesus’ yoke that we must then come to understand our faith, to use our graced minds to explore and comprehend God’s creation – ourselves and everything else. If we are emptied of the deeds of the flesh and infused with the Spirit of God, then our bodies too are graced, and we have nothing to fear from the mind, nothing to worry about in seeking out knowledge and understanding. To know God’s creation better is to know God Himself better, and when we know God better and better, we become smaller and smaller and more and more ready to receive the only revelation we need to come to Him, the only burden from Him we must carry: Jesus is the Christ!

*Sermon 126
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Revolution x2

From 2009 while I was substituting as chaplain for the Sisters in Ft. Worth, TX.

Independence Day: Genesis 27.1-5, 15-29; Matthew 9.14-17
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
Sisters of St Mary of Namur, Fort Worth, TX

Jesus says to John's disciples, “No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth...People do not put new wine into old wineskins.” What does this bit of homespun wisdom have to do with weddings, fasting, the Pharisees, mourning the death of a bridegroom, and the price of camels in Jerusalem? Better yet: what do any of these have to do with the American Revolution and this country's declaration of independence from the tyranny Old King George? Is Jesus teaching us to party while we can b/c we won't be around forever? Is he arguing that we ought to be better stewards of our antiques—human and otherwise? Or maybe he's saying that the time will come when the older ways can no longer be patched up and something fundamentally new must replace what we have always had, always known. When “the way we have always done it” no longer takes us where we ought to go; when the wineskin, the camel, the cloak no longer holds its wine, hauls its load, or keep us warm, it's time to start thinking about a trip to the market to haggle for something new.

We celebrate two revolutions today: one temporal and one eternal, one local and the other cosmic. The political revolution freed a group of colonies in the New World from the corruption of an old and dying Empire. The spiritual revolution freed all of creation from the chains of sin and death. Today, we give God thanks and praise for the birth of the United States of America by celebrating our 4th of July freedoms. And we give God thanks and praise for the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ by celebrating this Eucharist, the daily revolution that overthrows the regime of sin and spiritual decay.

The revolution of 1776 not only toppled the imperial rule of George III in the American colonies, but it also founded a way of life that celebrates God-gifted, self-evident, and unalienable human rights as the foundation of all civil government and social progress. The revolution that Christ led and leads against the wiles and temptations of the world fulfills the promise of our Father to bring us once again into His Kingdom—not a civil kingdom ruled by laws and fallible hearts, but a heavenly kingdom where we will do His will perfectly and thereby live more freely than we ever could here on earth. In no way do we understand this kingdom as simply some sort of future reward for good behavior. This is no pie in the sky by and by. Though God's kingdom has come with the coming of Christ, we must live as bodies and souls here and now, perfecting that imperfect portion of the kingdom we know and love. No revolution succeeds immediately. No revolution fulfills every promise at the moment of its birth. The women and slaves of the newly minted United States can witness to this hard fact. That we continue to sin, continue to fail, continue to rebel against God's will for us is evidence enough that we do not yet live in fullest days of the Kingdom. But like any ideal, any program for perfecting the human heart and mind, we can live to the limits of our imperfect natures, falling and trying again, knowing that we are loved by Love Himself. With diligence. With trust. With hope. With one another in the bonds of Christ's love, we can do more than live lackluster lives of mediocre compliance. We can work out our salvation in the tough love of repentance and forgiveness, the hard truths of mercy and holiness.

Christ is with us. The Bridegroom has not abandoned us. His revolution continues so long as one of us is eager to preach his Word, teach his truth, do his good works. Today and everyday, we are free. And even as we celebrate our civil independence from tyranny, we must bow our heads to the Father and give Him thanks for creating us as creatures capable of living freely, wholly in the possibility of His perfection.

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10th Anniversary

Today is the 10th anniversary of my ordination to the diaconate at Blackfriars, Oxford by the Bishop Malcolm McMahon, OP of Nottingham. 

Seems like yesterday. 

The temp in Oxford that day was 62. After the garden party, about ten to twelve of us -- still in habit -- invaded The Lamb and Flag pub across the street. A generous benefactor picked up the tab. . .a VERY generous benefactor! Have you ever seen a Brit drink? :-)

One of the newly ordained priests, Fr. Irenaeus, invited me to assist at his first Mass at Sacred Heart in Blackbird-Leys.  

The prior invited me to preach the conventual Mass on July 5th, the memorial of Oxford's Catholic martyrs.
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Yes to Religious Liberty. . .

YES!!!

The Supreme Court sides with religious liberty against B.O.'s attempt to force his fellow citizens to violate their consciences!

The sad thing here is four of the justices sided with forcing people to choose btw their livelihood and their religious beliefs. 

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You Can't Lose an Already-Won-Fight

NB. We had internet service for about 1.5 hrs yesterday. . .off and on all day. And sloooooooooooow. Anyway, since it's working (for now) I thought I'd post this 2012 weekday Peter and Paul homily before things go all blooey again. Look for a Sunday homily after the 6pm Mass tonight. . .if this thing is still working.

Ss. Peter and Paul
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Peter has the keys and Paul has a sword. With these two devices, Peter and Paul preached the Gospel—the keys unlock the gates of heaven and the sword fights the good fight. Both these men were martyred for the faith by the Roman emperor, Nero. Peter was crucified and Paul beheaded. Though they share a martyr's death and a Christian's faith, Peter and Paul were startlingly different sorts of men. Peter was a fisherman, a working-class man with little or no education beyond what most Jewish men of his day received. Paul was a rabbi, a very well-educated Roman citizen with deep ties to the Gentile world. Peter spent his days with other fishermen, discussing tides, catches, and market prices. Paul likely spent his days teaching, public speaking, and rubbing elbows with the political and religious elite. Peter knew Christ personally as a teacher. Paul never met Jesus. Both were students of the Master, commissioned apostles, adventurous preachers, and, ultimately, martyrs for the teachings of Christ. With the keys to heaven and a sword for the fight, Peter and Paul founded an apostolic Church, a Church we have inherited as sons and daughters of the Father. How do we follow them in spreading the Good News? 

In his homily celebrating these two foundational saints, our Holy Father, Benedict, writes, “. . .Peter and Paul, much as they differ from one another in human terms and notwithstanding the conflicts that arose in their relationship, illustrate a new way of being brothers, lived according to the Gospel. . .Only by following Jesus does one arrive at this new brotherhood.” By following Christ and his Gospel, we can arrive at a “new brotherhood.” Not a novel way of being friends, or a superficial means of claiming a “churchy” kinship. But a radically different way of understanding who and what we are to one another through our adoption by the Father in Christ. Because we have died and risen in the baptism of Christ, we are made to be the heirs of the Father's kingdom. As heirs, we inherit all that He has to give. To the Church, He has bequeathed His kingdom—the keys to open heaven's gates for all and the sword to fight against this world's errors and temptations. Our first step in spreading the Good News is make sure all God's creatures know that they are invited to the feast. The next step is to guard this invitation and those who have accepted it with all the strength of our faith and all the courage gifted to us by the Spirit.

After Christ gives the keys of heaven to Peter, he assures the disciples that “the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against [the Church].” If this is true, why resist evil? Why fight against the powers and principalities of the world? The last victory has gone to Christ. He won the war against death on the Cross. That evil cannot prevail against the Church is not a promise or a prediction. It's an historical fact. When Christians believe and behave as if we might lose the war against evil, we reveal a dangerous lack of faith in the Church and not only the Church but in Christ himself. You and I might be defeated by evil, so we fight. But never believe that there is a chance the Body of Christ will fall. When we fight to promote the Gospel and protect those who follow on the Way, we fight to ensure that the Father's invitation to the feast continues to be heard. Peter and Paul died for the faith so that His offer of eternal life might live on to this day. Our witness might not be as violent as theirs, but it is no less effective. Who will see Christ through you today, tomorrow? Who will ask you for the keys to heaven?

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Surprise! Internet service!

A quick note. . .before the internet blinks out again.

Major storms rolling thru NOLA this week.  We had internet service on Thursday, but it was sporadic on Friday. 

Seems fine this morning.

We'll see. 

If all goes well, there will be a homily up on Sunday.

Jury duty on July 1st. Please pray that they either put me on a jury quickly or dismiss me outright. My guess is -- knowing my luck -- they'll make me return for a week or two and never pick me.  

Story of my life.

;-)

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Lightening!

BIG storm rolled through NOLA late yesterday afternoon.

Lightening struck the priory's server. . .

and nearly caused me to keel over with a heart attack!

So, no internet access for a couple of days.

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Audio File: Corpus Christi

Listen to my Corpus Christi homily. . .
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On becoming Corpus Christi

Solemnity of Corpus Christi (2014)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
Our Lady of the Rosary, NOLA

Audio File

All across the world, Dominican friars begin morning and evening prayer before the Blessed Sacrament: O sacrum convivium! in quo Christus sumitur. . .” In our English translation, we pray: “O Sacred Banquet, in which Christ becomes our food. . .” Christ/becomes/our/ food. Our meat and daily bread, our salt and saving drink. For those of us who follow Christ, his body and blood is our daily nourishment, our minimum daily requirement w/o which we cannot survive on the path to holiness much less thrive as forgiven sinners. To take into our bodies his body and blood, to take him in worthily and whole, is to participate not only in his mission and ministry but to become part of/to share in his body and blood. Paul asks the Corinthians, “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?” Yes, it is. “The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” Yes, it is. To take into our bodies his body and blood, to take him in worthily and whole, is to become Christ. Our Lord teaches us, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. . .” He lives among us, with us, and in us. And we are made Christs, sent into the world.

It may sound odd to say that “we are made Christs,” but that is exactly what happens when we step behind him to follow him on his Way. We are made into the image of Christ and sent out to be Christs for the world. Around 350 A.D., St. Cyril of Jerusalem*, teaching on the anointing of the Holy Spirit that follows baptism, notes that “having therefore become partakers of Christ you are properly called Christs. . . because you are images of Christ.” We are partakers of Christ in baptism, confirmation and, most especially, in the Eucharist. When we partake worthily of Christ in these sacraments, we are re-formed into the image of Christ. Now, what is an image? We might think of a snapshot or a painting, or even a statue. But the word “image” here is something more like “an imitation” or “a miniature.” Imitation could imply a fake, like an imitation Rolex watch, so let's go with miniature. When we partake worthily of Christ in the sacraments, we are re-formed into miniatures of Christ, little Christs – woefully imperfect for now but on the way to perfection in him. Cyril teaches us that we are therefore “properly called Christs.” All together, gathered as we are now, we constitute the Body of Christ, the Church. Millions of little Christs all over the world forming one body, Corpus Christi.

So far, we've covered two of the three Scriptural referents for the phrase “body of Christ.” Body of Christ in the Eucharist. Body of Christ as the Church. We also use “body of Christ” to refer to the historical, physical flesh and blood body of the incarnate Son – the body of the Christ Child born to Mary, the body of Jesus who hung on the cross. What's the connection among and between these three referents? What do they have to do with Christ's commandment to love and his commission to go out and preach the Gospel? Turn your attention to the crucifix above the altar. That is an image of the body of Christ, Jesus' body scourged and nailed to a cross. Is that an inspiring image? A depressing image? Does it prompt you toward joy or despair? Think for a moment: knowing that his torture and death leads to your freedom from sin and the offer of eternal life, are you moved to go out and tell others about the Father's mercy? How does that body, hanging on a cross, gives rise to the Body of the Church and the Body of the Eucharist? Can that body up there come down here and push us out those doors into a world that desperately needs a sign of hope?

It can and it does. The corpus Christi on the cross becomes the corpus Christi of the Eucharist and we – eating his body and drinking his blood – become the corpus Christi, the Church sent into the world to love, to forgive, to show mercy, and to preach and teach all that he preached and taught. Our eternal lives are at stake. Piety is necessary but not sufficient. Good works are necessary but not sufficient. Knowledge of Scripture, doctrine, the lives of the saints are all necessary, but they are not nearly sufficient. Jesus says, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. . .” We can do nothing w/o him and the only way to be with him, to partake in his life, mission, and ministry is to eat his body and drink his blood. The only way is for us – each one of us – to become Christ in the living flesh. To make it our daily, hourly mission in life to be Corpus Christi wherever God has placed us. You may be teaching a class, or tending a family, or working 9-5 in an office, or haunting a library for a school project, wherever God has placed you, your mission is to be Corpus Christi right where you are. 

Dominicans all over the world pray twice a day, O sacrum convivium! in quo Christus sumitur. . .” In our English translation, we pray: “O Sacred Banquet, in which Christ becomes our food. . .” Christ becomes our food. His body and blood are our meat and daily bread, our salt and saving drink. Without this feast, we cannot partake/share in his life. We cannot move beyond the words of his teachings and reach the deeds of his hands. We cannot begin to grow in holiness, or even hope for mercy. In this feast, the memory of his Passion is made new, our hearts and minds are filled with his gifts, and we receive his promise of eternal life. Taken worthily, the body of Christ gives us all that need to live and thrive along his way to perfection. “My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. . .whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

* Catechetical Lecture 21, On the Mysteries, 1.

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Apologies. . .

Apologies for the dearth in blogging this week. . .

I arrived back in NOLA to 300+ emails and Facebook msgs. 

There will be a homily for Corpus Christi on Sunday and then things should be back to normal after that.

I have to report for jury duty on July 1st. NOLA doesn't excuse jury duty except under very specific criteria. I don't meet any those criterion. It's the criminal court in NOLA, so I'm expecting a murder case. And even if I plea opposition to the death penalty, they will simply move me to another case.

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Promoter of Preaching

The Chapter of the Dominican Province of St. Martin de Porres met last week. 

The brothers-in-chapter elected Fr. Thomas Condon, OP as the next prior provincial of the Southern Province. Fr. Condon appointed Fr. Jorge Rativa, OP as his socius.

The diffinitorium met this week and made several appointments. . .

Yours Truly was appointed to the office of Promoter of Preaching.

My first response, "Does this office come with a hat?"

The answer: "No." 

I say, "No. Not YET."

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Nuns, nuns, nuns!

Back from NJ. . .spent the last week with wonderful nuns of Summit and the novices from Menlo Park, Lufkin, and Farmington Hills. We had a blast!

I was teaching in the MTS program: Theology and Its Sources.

 

Click on the link for pics.

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Off to New Jersey!

I am off bright and early tomorrow to Summit, NJ where I will teach a series of classes to the Dominican novice nuns of the U.S.

We'll be studying fundamental theology -- revelation, method, etc. 

Be back in NOLA on June 15th.

Pray for us!

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How to get in trouble with Zeitgeist, Inc.

St. Boniface (Readings for the Memorial)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St Dominic Church, NOLA 

From the Vesper’s petitions for the Commons for Martyr’s: “Lord, hold us fast to preaching the gospel even in the face of opposition, persecution, and scorn.” Christian preachers are often tempted to let go of the Gospel when confronted by entrenched opposition. Like water seeking the fastest and easiest route downhill, preachers are coaxed toward taking the most direct path to the dilution of Christ’s teaching and, ultimately, a betrayal of the Spirit that animates us. We see and hear this when preachers begin preaching a Prosperity Gospel—Jesus wants you to be rich!—; or when they begin preaching a Zeitgeist Gospel—Jesus wants us to “fit in” with our times so we can witness from within;—or when you hear the Gospel of Identity Politics—being American, Black, Gay, Male or Female, Left or Right is preached to be more important than being faithful to Christ. All of these, of course, are dodges, ways around the difficult demands of what Jesus teaches us to be and do. They allow us to sift out the hard stuff and celebrate that which most tickles our bored ears. True martyrs (not self-appointed martyrs) present us with an extraordinarily hard reality: they believe the Gospel and die proclaiming it. Could we do the same if called upon to do so? 

St. Boniface, an eighth-century English Benedictine bishop and martyr who served as a missionary to Germany, wrote to a friend, “Let us be neither dogs that do not bark nor silent on-lookers nor paid servants who run away before the wolf…Let us preach the whole of God’s plan…in season and out of season.”* Though this sounds benign enough, Boniface died doing it, or rather died because he did it—he barked and refused to be hired as a religious P.R. man for Zeitgeist, Inc. Paul found himself in a similar position. Paul reports in Acts that he was seized by the Jewish leaders in the temple and almost killed because “[he] preached the need to repent and turn to God, and to do works giving evidence of repentance.” Should we be shocked that Paul would find himself the target of the powers-that-be? Not really. Jesus warned his disciples that they would follow him to the cross if they persisted in preaching his word. And it is persistence that most often gets the Gospel preacher and believer into trouble.

Jesus says, “A hired man, who is not a shepherd…sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away…” The wolf attacks the sheep, killing one or two and scattering the rest. Why does the hired man run? Jesus says, “This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.” A preacher hired by Zeitgeist, Inc. will do the same—cut and run when it looks as though the wolves of persecution, opposition, and scorn come bounding down the hill. The good shepherd will stay and fight. And though he will never lose, he may sometimes die.

There’s almost no chance that anyone here this evening will be called upon to die for preaching the Gospel. In the U.S. in the 21st century, the Zeitgeist has learned more subtle ways of tempting us away from the Good Shepherd. Perhaps the most powerful temptation comes from the devil of freedom, or more accurately named, the devil of choice. Dangling before us the illusion of unfettered choice in a marketplace of unlimited options, the devil of choice coaxes us with a powerful sense of entitlement, a sense of being owed our comfort, our liberty. And so, we stand dumbfounded in the Wal-Marts of religious goods and services, the Winn-Dixies of spiritual options, and we pick and choose. I will preach mercy but not justice; love but not responsibility; forgiveness but not sin. I will preach heaven but not hell; faith but not obedience. With a shopping cart full of our hodge-podge choices, we check-out and pay with our souls, and then go out preaching a gospel half-bought. If our souls must be the currency with which we purchase a spiritual good, let that purchase be our eternal lives with Christ. As the Dogs of God, we can do nothing less than die while ferociously barking the Gospel just as Jesus taught it.

* from the Office of Readings, St. Boniface

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