Fear nothing

 

12^th Sunday (OT)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
Diocese of Alexandria

Fear protects us. Fear makes us sensible animals when we are in danger. Our bodies are threatened by injury, disease, and death with every breath we draw, with every step we take. Being afraid—being cautious, careful—is one way God gives us to defend ourselves against recklessness, attack, disease, and accident. When faced with the probability of bodily harm, we run or we fight. Either way, we hope to survive. And if we survive, we count ourselves extraordinarily skilled, or maybe just plain lucky. Regardless, we’re alive to confront the next possibility of injury or death. Fear protects us. Fear makes us sensible animals. But we’re not here to be sensible animals. At least, we’re not here only to be sensible animals. We have to consider as well that gift from God which makes us most like Him: our being as it was created and is recreated in His likeness and image. Given the divine end programmed into us at our creation, we are much, much more than sacks of flesh and blood and bone. We are enfleshed souls with a purpose, rational animals with a single goal. Fear blocks our best efforts at achieving that goal. Fear makes us weak in light of our mission. Ultimately, fear is spiritual death. It kills our best chance—our only chance!—of coming to God. Therefore, Jesus says to the Twelve: “Fear no one. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known…Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.” He adds rather ominously: “…whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.” Fear tempts us to deny Christ; fear pushes us to reject God’s providence.

Paul, in his letter to the Romans, preaches on the origins of death, arguing that sin and death entered into creation with the disobedience of our first father and mother, Adam and Eve. Believing that they could achieve heaven on their own, our first parents took on an awareness of good and evil that our heavenly Father wished to deny them. In other words, by disobeying God they chose death as their immediate goal, throwing away the original justice they enjoyed from God in Eden. Paul writes, “Through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all men…death reigned from Adam to Moses…after the pattern of the trespass of Adam.” 

 

What is this pattern of trespass? Patterns repeat. Like houses built from the same blueprint, our trespasses against God look the same. Over and over—like our first father—we run after that which we think, we feel is best for us. And over and over again—like all of our ancestors in faith—we fall on our faces, suffering the consequences and wondering what went wrong. Most of the time, we act because we fear inaction; we makes decisions because we fear indecision. In deciding and acting outside the will of the Father for us, we deny His rule and both the natural and supernatural results are always disastrous. This is why Jesus tells the Twelve: “…do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” 

 

Because we are loved by Love Himself, we have been given a gift to use against death. Adam lost our original justice in disobedience, but our Father has restored that justice in Christ. Paul writes: “For if by the transgression of [Adam] the many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many.” Knowing this truth and his mission to save us from sin and death, Jesus says, “Fear no one.” What is there to fear? In every instance that we might find ourselves confronted by injury, disease, or death, God is with us; His Christ reigns. Jesus, using an absurd example, teaches the Twelve: “Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without our Father’s knowledge…So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” And yet, we fear. We worry. We wring our hands and nurse our ulcers with dread. For the spiritual animal, fear is death.

But surely we must worry! We have responsibilities. We’ve made promises. Signed contracts. Sworn allegiances. Besides, Australia is burning. Food is becoming more expensive. Marriage and the family are under attack. Christians are being arrested for teaching the faith. Children are suing parents. Disease is rampant. Whole continents are starving. There are civil wars, invasions, terrorist attacks, looting and rioting. All sorts of creatures – including humans – are being born deformed because of global environment pollution. We continue to believe that killing our children is the answer is overpopulation and the best way to remove inconvenient human obstacles to middle-class prosperity. We have to worry! We do? Really, we have to be worried? Has worry increased food production? Cleaned up our water supply? Stopped the killing of millions of babies? No. No amount of anxiety or fear will bring to light that which is concealed in darkness. We can wring our hands and cry until the Second Coming and nothing will change for the better. Does this sound defeatist? Quietist? Maybe. But that’s hardly the point.

Paul writes, “…the gift is not like the transgression,” meaning the gift of Christ’s life for our eternal salvation is not like the deadly transgression of Adam. Adam sinned and we all die. Christ died and we all live. Does this mean that we will be spared hunger, thirst, disease, war, natural disaster? No, it doesn’t. Does this mean that we can live comfortably in our gated communities out of harm’s reach, quietly consuming, blissfully ignorant? No, it doesn’t. But it does mean that we are focused on a goal beyond the contingencies of this life, a goal that from the other end of history provides us with the meaning of our creation and charges us with acting boldly now to do what we can to right the wrongs of our sins. We will not end hunger. But we must feed the hungry. We will not end war. But we must make peace. We will not cure every disease. But we must care for those who suffer. Our job now is to face the tasks of righteous living without fear, to do everything we can in charity to speak the truth, shed His light, proclaim the healing Word, and to die knowing that we every word we have spoken, every decision we have made, everything we have done has been an acknowledgment of Jesus as Lord. Our gift to a tragically sinful world is Christ’s gift to his tragically sinful Church: words and deed that speak to the love of a Father well-beyond our worries and fear, the mercy of a God who will bring all things into His kingdom, and make right every wrong. So, do not be afraid, each one of us is worth more to our Father than the whole of creation itself.

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Asking is receiving

11^th Week OT (R)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Priory, NOLA

When you water a garden – the hose gets wet before the plants do. So it is with prayer: the first beneficiary of prayer is the one praying. Surely this is why we pray. Not to change God's mind on a specific issue. Not to magically wrangle Him into granting a wish list. But to better tune ourselves to receive the graces He has given us from all eternity. “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” These graces roll out over time, showing up when we need them not just when we want them. So, it's best to be prepared daily to receive the bread He sends; to be open to hearing and doing His will daily; to forgive and be forgiven daily. We do this in our ordinary way through petition – by asking for what we need. But asking for what we need could lead us to believe that we are being deprived or ignored when what we ask for doesn't arrive. Jesus reminds us that asking is receiving, receiving whatever it is the Father is sending our way. So, we ask and we receive. And we benefit in the asking. How do we benefit? Over time, we become His will on earth as it is in Heaven.

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Eating to Remember

NB. I had some "things" to say, so the Holy Spirit got real quiet. Then I realized that the "things" I had to say weren't what the HS wanted me to say. . .so, I shut up and cribbed this homily from 2016. 

Corpus Christi 2020

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

Our Lady of the Rosary, NOLA

AUDIO FILE

As should be plainly obvious to all, I love to eat! And I love to cook. Unfortunately, everywhere I've lived as a Dominican friar, we've had someone to cook for us. One exception: during my time at Blackfriars Hall at Oxford U. the brothers took turns cooking. I loved it b/c I got to show off my southern cooking skills – fried chicken, baked pork chops, garlic mashed potatoes, cornbread. The last time I was up to cook for the 23 of us in the house, I chose to go out with an American bang – hamburgers, fries, and cole slaw. I've never seen a bunch of Brits so excited about a meal! To this day, some 16 yrs after that American blow-out, my Blackfriars brothers remember my burgers. And even the friars who joined up recently – have never even met me – know me as the Burger King! That is the power of food. That's the power of good food. . .a truth all the good citizens of New Orleans know from birth. If food this side of heaven can form the foundation of our memories, what can the Food of Heaven do for us? The Food of Heaven – the Body and Blood of Christ – can get us into heaven! But before we are ready for heaven, we have some holy work to do down here.

And helping us with our holy work is part of what the Body and Blood of Christ does. Jesus tells his disciples at one point, “You can do nothing w/o me.” He also promises them (and us), “I will be with you always.” We know that after he ascends to the Father and sends his Holy Spirit among us, Christ remains with us always in the Body of his Church – that's us. And like any hardworking body, we need good food and good drink to stay alive and working. Not just any old hamburger and diet cola will do! If we are to do the holy work we've been given to do, then we need holy food and holy drink. We need the Body and Blood of Christ to keep us alive and working. And so, Paul writes to the Corinthians, “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” Every time you eat his Body and drink his Blood, you celebrate the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ Jesus, and you do so until he comes again. That celebration, that proclamation of Christ's death, resurrection, and ascension is the source of our strength to do holy work.

When we take into ourselves his Body and Blood, we come closer to being who and what Christ himself is. My job for me is to become as much like Christ as I can this side of heaven. Your job for you is to become as much like Christ as you can this side of heaven. Why do we need to become like Christ? I need to become as much like Christ as I can so I can help you become as much like Christ as you can. I help you as a priest. You help me to become more like Christ as faithful lay men and women. We help one another according to our individual gifts, but we are all working on the same holy work: becoming Christs for one another. To be clear here: we are not just imitating Jesus to be good moral examples for one another. By worthily receiving his Body and Blood, we are made Christs for one another. Around 350 A.D., St. Cyril of Jerusalem*, addresses a group of people who were just baptized and confirmed. He says to them: “. . .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; therefore, we are images of Christ and properly called Christs. 

Now, I mentioned earlier that good food makes for good memories. In my family, no event of any significance goes without a meal. We say, “When two or more Powell's are gathered together, there is a pecan pie.” I remember the big pots of seafood stew I made for my novitiate classmates. I remember the 20 course meal we made to celebrate the turn of the millennium. I remember the Memphis ribs we served at my priestly ordination. And I remember my mama's fried chicken. God rest her soul. Like I said, I like to eat. But I don't eat to remember. Remembering just comes along for the gastronomical ride. Jesus tells us to eat and drink to remember him. Not just to recall him in memory, but to re-member. . .to make us once again a member of his Body. To strengthen our attachment to his Body. To reinforce our belonging to his ministry. There's no magic to this remembrance. He says do it, and so we do. He says that the bread and wine are his Body and Blood, and so they are. He is made present in the sacrament. We eat and we drink. And grow just that much closer to him. We become just that much more like him.

The solemnity of Corpus Christi sharpens our focus on the vitality and necessity of the Eucharist to our growth in holiness. Without it, we can do nothing. Without it, we cannot thrive as followers of Christ. He is our food and drink, our life and our love. For the Eucharist, we need priests. Chicken won't fry itself. And gumbo don't grow on trees. Simply put: no priests, no Eucharist. I will end with a challenge: once a week, once a month find a chapel of perpetual adoration – we have one at St. Dominic's, there's another at St. Catherine of Siena. While in the presence of the sacramental Christ, pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Specifically, pray that the men God has called to priesthood will find the courage to say Yes to that call. Pray that the men and women called to religious life will say Yes to their call. Many bishops and vocation directors in this country have testified to the power of Eucharistic Adoration to send them men for the priesthood, and men and women for religious life. We will have 150 seminarians at NDS next year. Men from about 22 dioceses from El Paso, TX to Savanna, GA. We need ten times that many for several more decades to meet the needs of Catholics in the South. We need the Body and Blood! “Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread [and drinks this blood] will live forever.”

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How do you lose your flavor?

10^th Week OT (T)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Priory, NOLA

How does salt lose its power to season and preserve? It can grow stale with age, through lack of use. It can be diluted, dissolved into a stronger, more aggressive flavor. And salt left too long in the elements is really only good for making icy roads passable. Jesus tells the apostles that they are the salt of the earth, those sent to season the nations and preserve the Gospel. As preachers of that same Gospel, we too are called to be the salt of the earth. Are we awake to the possibility of losing our power to season and preserve? That it's possible our salty witness can be diluted by the more aggressive flavors of this world? That it's possible our commitment to the Truth can be dissolved into the corruption of sentimentalism and tribalism? If we are left too long exposed to the elements of this world – prideful self-assertion, violence, fear, hypocrisy, hatred, false humility – we can lose what power we have to offer the flavor and preserving graces of Christ. If our salt looks and tastes like everyone else's sugar, cinnamon, or sage, then – to mix a metaphor – we've hidden our light under a bushel basket. As Dominican preachers we have an 800+ year old tradition of calling on the seasoning and preserving powers of both faith and reason, a centuries-long legacy of bearing witness to the truth, goodness, and beauty of seeing and knowing God through both the heart and the mind, the intellect and the will. Jesus suggests that only salt can preserve salt. Thanks be to God then we have a vast treasure trove of Dominican salt to draw from. So, as the world around us seems to swirl the cosmic toilet bowl once again, do we have the patience, courage, and fortitude to mine these treasures?

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He is Three in One

NB. Deacon is preaching tonight, so here's one from 2013.

Most Holy Trinity
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
OLR, NOLA

If we were to wonder about the fundamental difference between scientists and believers, we could say that scientists work to expose the mysteries of the universe by use of reason alone, while believers—Christian believers—work along side mystery in reason and wonder to expose themselves to God and His handiwork. Scientists hope to learn more about the universe for the sheer delight of gaining practical knowledge. Believers hope to learn more about creation so that their joy may be complete by growing closer to their Creator. The fundamental difference btw science and faith hinges on mystery. For science, a mystery is a problem is to be solved. For faith, mystery is a truth not yet revealed. What we share with science is the alluring power of Not Yet, the seduction of knowing just enough to keep us motivated to learn more. When Jesus says, “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now,” scientists hear a challenge but believers hear a promise. The promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit is fulfilled at Pentecost. And with the coming of the Holy Spirit, God reveals the central mystery of the faith: He is Three in One.

How to describe this essential mystery? We could say that the Trinity is like a single drop of water in three forms: fluid, frozen, vaporous. But the Trinity is Three in One simultaneously, while a drop of water cannot be fluid, frozen, and vaporous all at the same time. We could say that the Trinity is like a woman who is simultaneously a mother, an aunt, and a sister. But the Trinity is Three in One absolutely, relative only to one another, while a woman is a mother, an aunt, and a sister only in relation to her children, her nieces, and her siblings. We could say that the Trinity is like a person with three jobs: Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. The Father creates; the Son redeems; and the Spirit sanctifies. That's not wrong as such but if the Three are One then all Three must each be Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. You begin to see the problem, right? How do we describe what is essentially unsayable, indescribable? We know that God is Three Persons in One Divinity, but how do we make sense of this mystery? We wait. Jesus says, “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. . .” He doesn't say that we can never bear all that he has to tell us; we just can't bear all the truth right now. So, we wait and trust and hold ourselves in hope that the fullness of this mystery will be revealed when we are finally perfected.

What do we do in the meantime? Between knowing the little that we know and knowing the whole truth, what do we do? Jesus reassures us, “. . .when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.” If the Spirit of Truth comes to guides us, then we must make our ready to be guided. And how do we do that? Writing to the Romans, Paul, teaches: “. . .we boast in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint. . .” As followers of Christ, we boast about both our blessings and our afflictions. We boast of our blessings to show the world the mercy of God. We boast of our afflictions to produce endurance, character, and hope. What we do btw imperfect and perfect knowing is live our lives in that sure knowledge that “the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. . .” When our imperfect knowledge of God's mysteries fails us, love never will b/c God is love and He never fails. And that is the definition of hope: knowing that God never fails. He never fails to provide, to forgive, to honor His promises. We prepare ourselves to be guided by the Spirit by hoping, by accepting the truth that God will not/cannot fail us.

If we accept this truth and live this truth, then we are living with God who is Three in One. We are living trinitarian lives. Since the first century of the Church, our ancestors made a distinction btw the theological Trinity and the economic Trinity. The theological Trinity is the Trinity as He knows and understands Himself. Reason alone cannot help us know or understand God as He knows and understands Himself. So, how do we know anything at all about the Trinity? Since all of creation abides in God, and we live and move and have our being in God, we can look to creation and see the Trinity's presence there. The Trinity works in creation, works through His creatures to reveal His truest nature. This is the economic Trinity. When we love forgive, provide, bless, create, trust, sacrifice, and bear witness to Christ, we manifest—imperfectly, of course—we manifest the Blessed Trinity. Each one of us is a sliver of the mystery that is the Trinity working in creation. Each one of us reveals how we are the Father's favored child, the Son's brother or sister, the Spirit's student and servant. Each one of us is a piece of God's peace, His assurance that all is well, that everything will always be well with Him. 

And we know that all will be well with Him b/c, as the Catechism teaches us, “The ultimate end of the whole divine economy is the entry of God's creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity” (n. 260). The whole point of God's cosmic plan of salvation is to bring us to Him to live perfectly united in Him. Do we need a scientific understanding of the divine mysteries to be perfect? No. Besides, science cannot perfect us. Do we need to work along side the divine mysteries in wonder and reason in order to be made perfect? Yes. B/c we cannot be made perfect, we cannot be brought to God w/o our consent and help. Mysteries of the faith—like the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Resurrection—are all revealed truths that we do not yet fully understand. We know that God is Three Persons in One Divine Being. We know that Christ is fully human, fully divine. We know that Christ was raised from his tomb body and soul. And we even have some inkling of what these mysteries mean to our daily lives as followers of Christ. What we don't yet know, what we cannot yet bear, is the weight, the fullness of these truths completely revealed. For that we must wait to see God face-to-face. And to see Him face-to-face, we must submit to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit urges us to live trinitarian lives. We read in the Catechism: “Everyone who glorifies the Father does so through the Son in the Holy Spirit; everyone who follows Christ does so because the Father draws him and the Spirit moves him” (n. 259). Open yourself to being drawn by the Father to follow Christ. Open yourself to being moved by the Spirit to follow Christ. Follow Christ—wholly abandoned to him—and you will find yourself working along side the mysteries of faith in wonder and reason, opening your heart and mind to all that God has to show you. When Jesus says, “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now,” scientists hear a daring challenge but believers hear a loving promise. Christ promises to make us strong enough, whole enough, beautiful enough to bear up under every truth, all truth, fully revealed and wondrously arrayed. And because of this promise “we boast in hope of the glory of God.” 

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He destroyed death

 

Charles Lwanga & Companions

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St Dominic Priory, NOLA

Jesus quotes his Father speaking to Moses, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,” explaining to the Sadducees, who deny the resurrection, “He is not God of the dead but of the living.” Jesus is pointing out to the Sadducees that our call to holiness (how we live apart in this world) is “not according to our works but according to [God's] own design.” So, he asks them, “Are you not misled because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?” The answer, of course, is Yes, they are misled. But how? Paul helps us here by reminding Timothy that God, “did not give us a spirit of cowardice...” Most English translations render δειλία as “fear” or “timidity.” Opposed to fear, timidity, cowardice is the spirit of power, love, and self-control. These gifts are best used in the service of bearing witness, of giving testimony to the truth that God has “saved us and called us to a holy life.” The living God, the God of the living, calls us to holy life of boldness, love, prudence, and power. Knowing that the resurrection awaits us only reinforces our supernatural desire to bear witness to the mercy of God in this world. The Sadducees (both ancient and modern) see this world as the end, the only world we need worry about. They are misled. We know that Christ “destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.” As preachers and teachers of the Gospel, we are vowed to proclaim over and over and over again, “He is not God of the dead but of the living!”

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The Spirit is the soul of the Church

 AUDIO FILE

Pentecost Sunday 2020

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

OLR, NOLA

Each one of us here is a body and a rational soul. A human person. All of us together make up one Body, the Church. Just as each one of us is a body and the soul, so the Body the Church has a soul – the Holy Spirit. The job of the rational soul is to animate the human body, give it life, direction, purpose; imbue it with intelligence, will, and creativity. Just so, the Holy Spirit animates the Body of the Church, gifting us with wisdom, knowledge, fortitude, piety, understanding, counsel, and fear of the Lord. Each one of us received these gifts at our confirmation and the Church received them all at Pentecost. And receives them still. While the disciples hide in fear, trembling, crying, mourning the death of Jesus, the Holy Spirit breaks through their despair with wind and fire and sets them ablaze with a supernatural mission – to out into the world and teach and preach the Good News of Christ Jesus. That same Holy Spirit abides with us even now, energizing the Body of Christ, the Church, to do all that he has commanded us to do. Therefore, “brothers and sisters: No one can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except by the Holy Spirit.” If Jesus is your Lord, do as he commands.

Doing what Jesus commands us to do is no easy thing. We all know this b/c we have all failed at some point and will probably fail again. But doing what he commands is how we grow in our friendship with the Lord. It's how we accomplish our holiness and bring others to Christ. Every human failure starts with a profound failure to understand a fundamental truth about our who we are as Children of the Father. As Children of the Father, adopted sons and daughters, we are persistently and unavoidably always in the presence of the Holy Spirit. Nothing we say, do, feel, or think is ever not said, done, felt, or thought w/o the presence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised the disciples that at his ascension into heaven he would send to them (and us) an Advocate, a spiritual guide who will be with us always. When we move to do as Jesus commands to move we do so fully in the presence of the love that the Father and Son have for one another. In the presence of the Holy Spirit. If you try to move w/o the Spirit, if you try to speak, think, or feel w/o the guidance of the Holy Spirit, you fail. In essence, you are the pinky toe trying to walk w/o the foot. The foot trying to run w/o the ankle. The ankle trying to jog w/o the shin. You are trying to succeed w/o the very source of Success Himself.

So, if we are always in the presence of the Holy Spirit, how can we ever fail? Good question. The Holy Spirit is with us always. No question about this. However, we are not always with the Holy Spirit. Here's an analogy: the local radio station is pumping out music whether you are listening or not; whether you are tuned in properly or not. The airwaves are filled with TOP40, rap, country, classical, talk, but you can't hear any of it b/c your receiver is off. The Holy Spirit is pumping out Divine Love 24/7. He never stops. He never pauses. So, the question is: are you tuned it? Is your Holy Spirit receiver properly tuned? If you are in a state of sin, then the answer is no. If you aren't praying for the Father's will to be done in your life, the answer is no. If you aren't following Christ's command to love and forgive and accomplish great things in his name, the answer is no. If you are allowing the spirits of this world – rebellion, hatred, vengeance, lust, greed, wrath – if you are allowing these malignant spirits to rule your heart, the answer is no. The Holy Spirit will be with you and me always. But will you and I always be with the Holy Spirit? 

 

How do we guarantee that we are always with the Holy Spirit? How do we make sure that our Holy Spirit receiver is always properly tuned? Immerse yourself in prayer. Always and everywhere give God thanks for everything you have and everything you are. Never cease offering Him praise and thanksgiving. Grow in holiness by looking to the saints for examples of how to grow apart from this world and closer to Christ. Surrender your heart and mind – your whole person – to the will of the Father, and seek His guidance in everything you say and do. Ask for what you need and wait on His grace. Never forget that you are a citizen of the Kingdom, an heir to a divine inheritance. You do not belong to this world. Death is nothing to fear b/c death for you and me is beaten. Christ's victory is our victory, and the war is won. And lest we take pride in this victory, remember: it was won for us not by us. Our gratitude in sharing in this victory is the measure of our humility. Lastly, know that the Holy Spirit gives each one of us everything we need to remain faithful and true. “No one can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except by the Holy Spirit.” Jesus is Lord! Make it so.

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Don't just stand there looking at the sky!

Audio File

The Ascension of the Lord

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

OLR, NOLA

Right before their eyes “as they were looking on, [Jesus] was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.” Place yourself in this scene. You're just standing there with your friends, listening to your teacher lecture. He's repeating some of the same stuff he's said a thousand times before. You have absolutely no idea what he's talking about. One of your more impatient classmates asks Jesus if and when he plans on restoring the kingdom of Israel. Ah! Finally, a real question! Time to get this revolution started! Then Jesus starts taking about times and seasons and the Holy Spirit and Jerusalem and being his witnesses all over the world. And just as your eyes are about to glaze over. . .WHOOSH!. . .he flies up into the sky in a cloud, disappearing from sight. Like everyone else who sees this, you're standing with your mouth open, wondering what just happened. Then two guys dressed in white show up and ask, “Why are you standing there looking at the sky?” Why are we standing here looking at the sky!? Um, b/c our teacher just got kidnapped by a cloud? Here's another question just for us: why do the guys in white ask the stunned disciples why they are looking up at the sky?

Had the disciples been paying attention to Jesus' answer to the question about restoring the kingdom of Israel. . .had they been paying attention for the three years they were with him. . .they would not have been at all shocked by his ascension into the clouds. Not only would they not have been shocked, they would've been expecting it. And they would've watched his rise for a second or two and then waited for the coming of the Holy Spirit so that their work could begin. Before he disappeared into the sky, Jesus had instructed his students, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” That's pretty clear. Make disciples. Baptize them. Teach them my commandments. Not all that complicated really. So, why the hesitation? Notice how the disciples approached Jesus that day on the mountain in Galilee, “When they saw [Jesus], they worshiped, but they doubted.” They offer him due praise and adoration, but they also doubt him. How do they both worship Jesus and doubt him at the same time? The answer to that question tells us why they are standing there looking at the sky.

Seeing your teacher and friend kidnapped by a cloud is pretty amazing. It's worth a gawk or two. But when you think back to the work he's given you to do – make disciples, baptize them, teach them his commandments – his sudden disappearance is a little traumatic. He's leaving us with all this work! All that doubt that you felt comes roaring back and you start to wonder if you can really finish all that he's given you to finish. Even before he charged you with making disciples and teaching them his commandments, you knew that he would going away. Not how exactly but that he would be. So, you do what comes naturally: you worship the Son of God as you should but you also feel the pressure of uncertainty, the heavy burden of not-knowing whether or not you can do all that he asks of you. In the drama of his ascension, you forget that he said, “And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” Then two guys dressed in white show up and ask you why you're standing there looking at the sky. You answer, “I'm mourning. I'm wondering where to go from here, how to get started on all I have to do.” And there's another week to wait before the Answer comes in fire and wind.

Right before Jesus gives them the Great Commission, the disciples worship their teacher. They give him thanks and praise for his presence among them. But under their adoration is a shadow of doubt, just a hint of uncertainty and fear. Can we go on without him? How do we follow him if he's gone? What's happens to us once he leaves? All of them are disciples. All of them are baptized. All of them are well-educated in his commandments. Yet, they doubt. These men and women are not fairy tale heroes. They are not mythical figures that embody archetypal truths. They are men and women. Mothers, fathers, sons and daughters. Real flesh and blood folks. Jesus doesn't teach them fables to guide them through life's hard choices. He doesn't offer them sage advice or moral lessons. In word and deed, he reveals to them the purpose and plan of his Father. He brings them into the history of salvation and makes them participants, players in his Father's program of redemption. Of course they doubt! What ordinary person wouldn't doubt, knowing that he or she is cast as an agent in the rescue of Creation from sin and death? The Holy Spirit has not yet come to them, so their worship and doubt is perfectly ordinary.

Ask yourself: am I standing around looking at the sky? Do I understand my commission from Christ solely in terms of waiting and watching for his return? If so, then your doubt has won out over your zeal for witness; that is, if we still think of our faith as a life lived watching the sky instead of as a means of bringing others to Christ, then we are failing to carry out Our Lord's commission. Jesus says, “Make disciples. Baptize them. Teach them my commandments.” That's our fundamental task. Whatever else we may be doing as his followers, whatever else we may think is necessary for our growth in holiness, our job description as Christians is crystal clear. And yes, even as we carry out Christ's commission, we will doubt. We will be afraid. We'll fall and get back up. We'll fuss and fight with one another over big questions and small. But when our lives together as brothers and sisters in Christ become an elaborate picnic of standing around looking up into the sky, we must immediately remember Christ's words to his friends, “I am with you always, until the end of the age.” Why are we staring at the sky looking for Christ? He is with us always.

Jesus' ascension directly challenges the disciples and us to think hard about how we are spending our time and energy as followers of Christ. There is a heaven. And we are made and remade to spend eternity there. There is a time and place to build an interior castle, to wander around in our own souls, seeking the presence of God. We should ponder the divine mysteries, explore our vocations – run after all the things of heaven! But none of these is an end in itself, none of these is our charge. We are disciples. Baptized and well-educated in the commandments of Christ. We are still here b/c there are still some out there who have not heard God's freely offered mercy to sinners. There are still some out there who have not seen God's love at work in the world. They've not seen me or you following Christ. Do they see us standing around looking up at the sky? Wondering what could possibly be so fascinating about a cloud? Make sure they see you and hear you doing Christ's work and speaking his word. That's the only reason any of us are still here.

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Insanely guilty?

6th Week of Easter(T)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St Dominic Priory, NOLA

If Nietzsche were to serve as the Church's defense attorney at the Last Judgment, he would argue that we be found “not guilty by reason of insanity.” He had no love for the Church, finding us to be “irrational, self-deceived, repressed, and arrogant...” He had even less use for Christian morality, describing it as “pettily reactionary and positively fatal to life…” Before the bench of the judge of this world, we have an Advocate, an intercessor, one who pleas on our behalf. Nietzsche would argue our insanity and ask that we be found not guilty because of it; our true Advocate knows we are guilty and makes no excuses. Our true Advocate knows our crimes better than we do because he became those very crimes for us. He can do more than merely show evidence of our sins, he can give personal testimony to them. He became sin for us, so that sin might be put to death and we might have eternal life. He knows we are guilty and loves us anyway. He loves us all the way to his cross, and he is with us as we approach ours. The Good News is that we never again have to be anything or anyone less than Christ. We are free. And we are free because we have been freed by the mercy of the One Who sits in judgment.

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Infecting the World

Audio File

6^th Sunday of Easter

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

OLR, NOLA

The spirit of this world cannot accept the Truth b/c it does not see or know the Father. The worldly spirit does not see or know the Father b/c it rejected His Christ. Those who belong to the world are orphans. They have no mother or father. No home. No place to be at peace. They call this world their home, but the world is home to no one. It lives and moves, serving its own agenda, eating alive anyone who makes it their god. You see, the world isn't a person or a place; it's a spirit, the living principle of rebellion and disease, the anti-Christ – the opposite of Christ. For us, Christ lived and died in love so that we might be made heirs to the Father's kingdom in the Spirit, so that we might dwell in the Spirit of Truth and find eternal life. The world offers false promises, and baits us with the temptation of becoming gods without God. Christ frees us from sin and death, making us orphans of the world but not orphans in the world. When we abide in the Spirit of Truth, dwelling fully in the love of the Father and Son for one another, we come to know the freedom of the children of God. That freedom compels us – in word and deed – to bear witness to Christ and his works.

Now, we might be tempted to rest on our laurels and just wait out the end of the world. We might be tempted to sit pretty atop our pillar of righteousness and watch the world burn. We could say to the world, “We got ours. If you want yours. . .come to us.” This attitude is a recipe for pride. Christ did not command us to find our salvation in him and then sit back and wait for others to make their way to us hat-in-hand. His command – “Go out to all the world” – is unambiguous and final. There is no rest for us if we will be obedient to our Lord and remain in his love. Divine Love is diffusive by nature; that is, what Love is spreads around to all as a matter of Who Love Is. Our salvation through Christ is not a secret. It's not a treasure to be hoarded. It's not a priceless commodity to be dribbled out only to the truly deserving. We are left in this world as children of the Father so that we might be the living lights of His boundless mercy and love. We are not here to survive. We're here to thrive – to thrive as vocal, active, unrelenting witnesses to the power of the Father's offer of forgiveness to all sinners. Anyone who hears should hear. Anyone who sees should see. Our job is make sure that those who are of this world see and hear – from us – all that they need to come to the Christ.

Through the centuries, as followers of Christ, we have come up with dozens of ways of teaching and preaching the Gospel. We invented universities. Hospitals. Hospices. Orphanages. Schools. Religious orders. Catholic priests, religious, and laymen built the foundations of modern science and medicine. The 16^th century Dominican friars of Salamanca laid the legal groundwork for what we call “universal human rights.” The ways and means we've invented to bear witness to Christ stand under western civilization and give it its bearing toward God. We've accomplished this by being orphans of the world, that is, by submitting ourselves to the spirit of Truth and denying the world our citizenship. This is no easy thing. We know: the world is very much with us. These past three months of epidemic and economic collapse prove this beyond any doubt. However, touched and twisted as we are by the world, our lives are not centered in the world. We are pilgrims making our way through, stopping only occasionally to do the good we are gifted to do. How should we see ourselves as those who have bowed to the Spirit of Truth in Christ?

I'll suggest an image: viruses. We've been flooded with news about viruses lately. One in particular. Whether we've been to med school or not, we've all become amateur experts in virology and epidemiology. Can we see ourselves as viruses in the world? Christian viruses infecting the spirit of the world with the truth of the Gospel? The world certainly treats the Church like a virus at times. Attempts to immunize itself against our influence. Vaccinate itself against our witness. Even isolate itself to prevent further infection. But like all viruses, we are resilient. We keep our basic DNA and adapt to the new defenses. We just keep coming back to testify to the mighty power of God to accomplish great things for His glory. We keep infecting the culture with our works of mercy; with our acts of charity; our unflagging hope in the resurrection; and our absolute trust in the providence of God. The Spirit of Truth who animates our lives in love never tires of revealing the face of the Father to us, and we must never tire of sharing this revelation with the world. So, I'll ask: who have you infected with the virus of Christ? Who have you brought to the field-hospital of the Lord?

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Fear is a reflex

5^th Week of Easter (T)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Priory, NOLA

Fear is a reflex. Like jerking away from physical pain. It's job is to protect us from harm. It helps us make split-second decisions that keep us alive. Fear warns us away from danger. It works hard to convince us not to take risks. By nature, fear is irrational. It arrives w/o deliberation and does its work quickly and passes. But we can nurture fear. We can hold onto to it and feed it, giving it longer life and more control. Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” NB. do not let, do not allow, do not choose to be afraid. Fear is an animal reflex. A thing of the moment. Choosing not to live in fear is a thing of faith and reason, trusting that all things work for the good in God's own time. Jesus says that he leaves his peace with us. His peace is a part of our inheritance as sons of the Father. But that peace is not the peace of this world – security, safety, freedom from want. Christ's peace is the sort of peace that comes with knowing that come what may he has won the war. Not every battle we are called upon to fight in his name. But the war. From all eternity, he is the victor and that victory is ours to enjoy w/o fear.

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No time for a troubled heart

5^th Sunday of Easter

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

OLR, NOLA

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. . .” Easy for him to say, right? He's not suffering through a deadly pandemic. International economic collapse. Political unrest. And the dissolution of western civilization. How can our hearts NOT be troubled? At 7.00 this morning, the JHU COVID-19 tracker reports over 4 million cases of viral infection worldwide. 1.3 million of those in the U.S. The U.S. unemployment rate is higher than it was during the Great Depression. We are seeing spikes in suicide, domestic abuse, alcohol and drug abuse, and psychological trauma caused by isolation and loneliness. Churches have been closed since mid-March and our political culture is poisoned with fear, ignorance, and power-grabbing politicians. If your heart isn't troubled. . .I have to wonder if you're paying attention! Nonetheless, Jesus commands, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” How, Lord? “You have faith in God; have faith also in me.” When Christ gives us a command, he also gives us the gifts we need to obey. We are never left on our own to flounder and fail. If he says our hearts should be at peace, then we have what we need to make them so.

 

As has been the case for the last 2,000 years, as followers of Christ, we find ourselves straddling two worlds – this world and all its problems AND the world where we truly belong, the Kingdom of God. And as has been the case for the last 2,000 years, as followers of Christ, we are charged with living in this world while never submitting to it. Never allowing ourselves to be assimilated into the powers and principalities that deny the kingship of Christ. We are charged with living in this world as signs of contradiction, as sacraments of the Father's mercy – visible, tangible, working priests and prophets for His kingdom. When we become “too much with the world,” we take on the priorities and principles of the world. We begin to act and think and speak like those who are ruled by the world. We cease to smell like the flock, and we start to stink like the herd. And our hearts become troubled. We lose who we are in Christ and struggle to see the gifts he has freely given us. With these gifts we can be at peace. Despite the troubles of the world, we can choose to be at peace. Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” Do allow your hearts to be troubled. Do not choose to be anxious, worried, upset. Instead, choose to trust in God. Choose to trust in me. 

 

What does this mean? Say, we choose to trust in God and his Christ. Does the corona virus magically disappear? Do we move back into a booming economy? Are all the psychological problems, drug and alcohol abuse, domestic abuse, and political unrest magically resolved? No. Will my mortgage and credit cards be paid off for me? No. Will I be given free medical insurance? No. Then what's the point of trusting in God and His Christ? First, it's what you vowed to do at your baptism. It's what you've been saying you do every time you come to Mass. Every time you say, “Amen.” Second, trust is a loving relationship between persons; it's not an incantation that produces guaranteed results. Much less an incantation that guarantees the results we want. Third, trusting God – having faith – means keeping our eyes firmly glued to our final end, our ultimate goal – eternal life with the Father. Nothing this world can throw us can force our eyes to shift. We can choose to look elsewhere. But we cannot be forced to look elsewhere. And lastly, there is no other viable option for eternal life. Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

So, do not let your hearts be troubled. Troubled hearts do not bear witness. Troubled hearts do not love as they ought. They do not forgive as they ought. Troubled hearts do not work in charity for others, or lay claim to their eternal inheritance. Nor do they produce the good fruits of teaching and preaching the Good News. Troubled hearts belong to the world b/c the world needs troubled hearts to maintain control and power. Troubled hearts seek out false security and safety and believe empty promises of a world perfected by policies and procedures. The heart at peace in Christ doesn't fear disease or disability or death b/c such a heart knows that Christ is always there, always present and in control – come what may. The heart at peace in Christ is calmly settled into the kingdom of the Father and rests confidently in the knowledge that all this too shall pass and be made right in His time. Yes, there is suffering behind us, with us, and ahead of us. But the peaceful Christian heart knows how to suffer well; how to suffer with a divine purpose – for the salvation of others. So, while you suffer, “let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices.” And believe in the work Christ is doing through you.

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Do you follow?

4^th Week of Easter (T)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St Dominic Priory, NOLA

From my lit prof days I can still hear the undergrads whining at me, “Just tell us what the poem means! Just tell us plainly.” I didn't know how to do that. Not b/c poetry is a code to be broken for its hidden meaning. Not b/c I was sworn to secrecy by the Illuminati of Poetry. But b/c poetry is a language you have to live with for a while. Like any language it's learned in immersion. Same goes for the providential will of God. The Pharisees want what my undergrads wanted – a plain-spoken, pre-chewed, easy to digest admission from Jesus that he is the Christ. Had they been immersed in the prophetic language of the Father's providential will they would've known Jesus to be the Messiah. Had they persevered in the tradition – the handed-down wisdom – of the prophets they would've seen his works and heard his words as those of his Father. Somewhere along the way they lost the plot and fell into a darkness and deafness of their own making. We are given a lifetime to immerse ourselves in the words and deeds of the Messiah's language of forgiveness, sacrifice, and love. As dangerous as it is to follow him, it is more dangerous still to follow the blind shepherds who would sell us to the wolves. Christ knows his own. How well do we know and follow him?

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Your choice: life or death?

NB. from 2011. . .

3rd Sunday of Easter
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Joseph's, Ponchatula, LA

“Lord, you will show me the path of life!” A declaration, not a request; not a demand, but an outcry of hope. “[Y]ou will not abandon my soul to the netherworld, nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption. . .You will show me the path to life, abounding joy in your presence. . .” Who might be consoled by this psalm? Someone who hears temptation whispering. Someone abandoned by family and friends. Someone barely hanging on to their faith. No, that's not right. That someone would be asking for refuge, begging for mercy. “Lord, please, show me the path of life!” Someone who declares faith in God with such vehemence, cries out in hope with such assurance is strong in their faith, confident that God will never forsake His loved ones. Someone who declares, “Lord, you will not abandon my soul. . .” is convicted by truth, and at the same time, sorely tested by the enemies of truth. That someone is Peter preaching to the Sanhedrin. All of the Eleven remaining apostles standing before the lawless men who crucified the Lord. Who gives them such confidence, such zeal? The Risen Lord, the one God raised up, “releasing him from the throes of death, because it was impossible for him to be held by it.” Eleven of Christ's ambassadors to a fallen world are brought to man's justice before the Sanhedrin. There they lay claim to the legacy of the resurrection. Sure of their inheritance, Peter quotes David's declaration, “Lord, you will show us the path of life!” This is our claim, our inheritance as well.

Around the year 100 A.D. an anonymous author writes out a booklet and titles it, The Lord's Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations. We refer to it as The Didache. Besides the gospels themselves, this booklet is probably the first written witness we have to the teachings of Christ and the early life of the Church. The guiding principle of the text is found in the opening paragraph: “There are two paths, one of life and one of death; but there is a great difference between the two paths.” The rest of the work is a map for the path of life, a map any 21st century Catholic would immediately recognize: “The path of life, then, is this: First, you shall love God who made you; second, your neighbor as yourself; and all things whatsoever you would not have done to you, do not do to another.” There is a summary of the Beatitudes and instructions on how to give alms. The book's description of the path of death is also easily recognizable. “And the path of death is this: First of all it is evil and full of curse. . .” Then follows a long list of sins, in which we find: “. . .murders, adulteries, . . .fornications, thefts, idolatries, magic arts,. . .false witnessings, hypocrisies, double-heartedness, deceit, haughtiness, depravity, self-will, . . .not knowing Him that made them, murderers of children, destroyers of the handiwork of God. . .” The path of life is taken by those willing to sacrifice themselves for the benefit of others. The path of death is taken by those determined to sacrifice others for their own benefit. Lord, you will show us the path of life!

 For a couple of the disciples, after the Lord's resurrection, the path of life begins on the road to Emmaus. While walking along the road, the Lord joins his students and reminds them of all he had taught them. He begins with Moses and the prophets and reveals to them his constant presence in scripture. He reminds them that the prophets foretold his suffering and death and his entrance into glory. Once they arrive home, the Lord sits at table with them, blesses the food, breaks open the bread, gives it to them. “With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him. . .” The Lord vanishes the moment their eyes are opened, but they remember his presence, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” Their hearts were burning! In the company of Christ, listening to his words and breaking bread at the table, the disciples were set on fire with the truth that only he can reveal. That truth, the truth that burns but is never consumed, is that the Lord is indeed risen and because he is risen, we too will rise and join him. We will, that is, if we choose the path of life he has blazed for us, mapped out for us. Christ suffered death—he allowed death, “a death he freely accepted”—in order to reveal to us the beauty and goodness of sacrificing self for the benefit of others, the path of life. Knowing this truth, Peter and the other ten apostles stand before the Sanhedrin and the “lawless men” and proclaim a message once sung by King David: “Lord, you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld, nor will you suffer your holy one to see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.”

Living as we do in a cynical and skeptical age, we are constantly tempted to complicate the simple truths of the faith. Some of us are likely tempted to dismiss historical texts like The Didache as examples of naïve, peasant piety; unsophisticated manuals for those who cannot handle nuanced thinking. Life isn't black and white; it's gray, mostly gray and the circumstances we find ourselves in determine truth, goodness, and beauty. The whole idea that the faith can be reduced to two, mutually exclusive paths is dangerously childish and possibly irrational. But if our choices aren't Life or Death, then what are they? What lies between? A living death? Breathing, eating, working, and all the while being dead inside, living for nothing more than serving self? If Peter and the other apostles are able to confront and defeat their enemies while praising God for showing them the path of life, why can't we? Why can't we choose this path, praise God for showing us the path, and then stand firm, resolute on the truth of the faith and bound eternally to the resurrection we are promised? We can. And we do. Each time we love the unloveable, forgive the unforgiveable, show mercy to the unworthy, and give God thanks for doing the same for us, we choose the path of life. And by choosing life, we see more clearly, hear more sharply, and love more abundantly. If you can leave here this morning and say to a spouse or friend, “Were not our hearts burning within us while [Christ] spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”, if you can say that and mean it, then know that God's truth burns within you and then do what the disciples did: make known to others, to everyone what Christ did for you. . .on the cross, out of the tomb, in the breaking of the bread. Tell them, all of them: the Lord showed me the path to life!

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Being witnesses from above

2^nd Week of Easter (T)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St Dominic Priory, NOLA

Nicodemus hears Jesus say that all must be “born again” to enter the Kingdom. What Jesus means is “born from above.” Being born from above in water makes each of us a part of the Body. Being born from above in the Spirit gives our Body its end. Nicodemus' misunderstanding prompts Jesus to reveal the purpose of the Church: to bear witness to, to give testimony to the workings of the Spirit over time. Being rational animals, we enjoy the limited gifts of imagination, cognition, and prediction. We enjoy and usually make good use of our gifts to know and understand God's creation, to explore and explain the people and things we can perceive. But the Spirit easily slips passed these gifts, making it difficult to fully grasp what He is doing in us and with us. To know and understand the workings of the Spirit, we must hear the witness of those born from above. Those who have seen Christ raised up and have come to believe in him. These members of the Body – still living and living again – are our memory. Our task now is to live with Christ so truly that we become witnesses from above for those come behind us.

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