What gods do you turn to...?

NB. This one is from 2005. . .one of the first I posted on this site! Very different style back then. Even the formatting is different. I had a lot of fun preaching in this style. . .but it's not really right for normal Catholics.

32nd Sunday OT

Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP

Church of the Incarnation, Univ. of Dallas

I believe that most of us are idolators. Now there’s a way to begin a homily! Idolators. Most, if not all, of us. Think about what it is that you spend the most time worrying about, mulling over in your head. What is it that claims the most time, most attention in your day? What is that you call on when you are anxious or feeling insecure or doubtful? What is it that you call on to build up your confidence, your trust? Does stress become an occasion of sin for you: some form of gluttony—food, drink, sex, public piety. Or maybe some form of pride: a false sense of self-sufficiency, or an arrogance that comes from your created beauty or talent.

What gods do we run to when things get stressed out, ragged around the edges? What gods do we worship in the silence of our hearts? Ah, but the temptations are legion, right? A whole pantheon of worthless gods call out for our attention—a temple’s worth of darkling spirits hunger of our gaze. Theses idols thrive in our hearts when we do not first bow to the wisdom of God and seek his consolation, thrive our hearts when we do not first call out His Name in prayer, and ask, just ask for what it is that we need in this moment of stress, this moment of doubt.

I can ask the question about what gods you worship b/c I too often find myself in front of strange gods offering incense and muttering arcane prayers. Frequently, I find myself in front of the god, Dessert, worshiping at his ice cold temple, the ‘Fridge, and praying his most sacred prayer, “I beesch thee, O Carbohydrate, to show me the Leftovers and make me your faithful glutton.” Turning to strange gods in times of need is a condition common among those of us who live in this world and engage it fully. The danger is not so much that we will be wholly consumed by the polytheism of the cult of modernity, but that we will be slowly cooked, slowly digested in the juices of ethical relativism, pop-psychobabble, and world-think.

At this point, you must be saying, “OK, Father. What’s the point?” The point is this: as Catholics we thrive in a world alive with hope, soaked through with the goodness, the truth, the beauty of a God who loves us first and most among His creatures. And it is to Him that we owe our worship and praise, to Him that we owe our allegiance and trust. Of course, we are tempted by the little devils of modernity, the petty spirits of a philosophy that puts the creature at the center of the universe and makes him into a god. But it is the Creator who breathed us into being, and it is the Creator that holds in being now.

I said that most of us are probably idolators b/c we turn to strange gods in times of distress. The Thessalonians are stressing out b/c some of them have died before the Lord’s promised return. In doubt, in stress they begin turning away from their baptismal vows and back toward their comfortable philosophies and pagan religious practices. There is comfort in the familiar; there is solace in habit. Paul writes to assure them. He writes, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose, so too will God, through Jesus, bring with him those who have fallen asleep.” This is hope and consolation; it is comfort and truth: we shall always be with the Lord.

The temptation to indulge in the distraction of idolatry is short-circuited, derailed by the profound notion that we will always be with the Lord. When anxiety, stress, habitual sin grab us by the hand and gently pull us toward the hungry spirits of our age, we are comforted, consoled by the truth of the gospel: the Lord is always with us. There is no need to bow before the idols of modernity, the strange gods of the culture of death. The Lord is with us: “Resplendent and unfading is wisdom, and she is readily perceived by those who love her, and found by those who seek her.” The Lord’s wisdom is poised to be recognized, ready to be welcomed, eager to be of help in time of distress. To fix one’s attention on wisdom is the perfection of prudence, to be vigilant in seeking the guidance of the Lord’s wisdom is to be fully grown in understanding. It is to be a wise virgin, a body and soul risen in faith and freed from anxiety forever.

I will confess: I said that most, if not all, of us are idolators to get your attention. I don’t believe that. Maybe some of us make votive offerings to the gods of modernity, little offerings like a too tight dependence on technology or a quick recourse to relativism when confronted by an unhappy truth or maybe a rationalization of a sin everyone else is indulging in w/o obvious consequence. But I doubt that many of us have turned ourselves over in full-blown worship to the gods of our culture. That temptation is irresistible when hope is difficult and trust seems impossible. When it seems better to you to hang on to your money, job, education, political party, ideology, anything, everything but God and his revelation, then the voice of the gospel seems muted and weak and the seductive music of idol worship vibrates harder, flashes brighter, and you give away eternity for smoke, mirrors, and spiritual fluff. I don’t think we’re there yet, b/c we’re all here now.

That we are here tonight means that we have responded to the prompting of the Holy Spirit to join Christ’s Body in the proper worship of the Creator. Let that be fundamental. Stand, sit, kneel in the presence of Christ tonight, and know that you worship no idols. Know that you come to the altar of God to receive Him in His fullness. To take into your body the flesh of hope and the blood of salvation. 

In stress, anxiety, desperation, doubt, confusion, in whatever condition you find yourself, with whatever temptation dangles empty promises in front of you, you will always be with Lord. Keep your expectation of eternal perfection lodged squarely in front of you. Keep your hope fixed on the Lord’s wisdom: “Whoever watches for [his wisdom] at dawn shall not be disappointed.”

The Good News is that there is no disappointment in the Lord, no frustration, no regret. Just watch, wait, rely in trust, rest in hope, witness in charity, and like the wise virgins, you will be ready when the bridegroom comes to celebrate with his people the wedding feast that never ends.

 

 

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I must die to love you perfectly

 Audio File

 

30^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

OLR, NOLA

Thinking about your daily life as a follower of Christ, what is the one thing you have the most difficulty doing consistently? Personal prayer? Forgiving your neighbor? Being patient with adversity? Suffering well? If you are like me, you will say “loving God, self, and neighbor.” Thankfully, I inherited my mom's amicable nature, her “live and let live” attitude toward life. It takes a lot of rile me up, and I don't hold grudges. Over the years, I've developed a Stoical philosophical approach to disaster, disease, and the general chaos of living in New Orleans. Living in a religious community with ten other friars has also helped me learn how to handle the temptations of homicide. Practice makes perfect, even in avoiding murder! But the one area where I struggle mightily is caritas, love. And the reason for this is pretty simple: I am not yet a saint. Thanks be to God, Jesus provides everything necessary for the Saint Becoming Process. He orders each one of us, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. . .You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Then, dying on the Cross, he shows us how it's done.

“You SHALL love the Lord, your God. . .You SHALL love your neighbor as yourself.” Singular, second-person imperative. An order. Not a suggestion, or a plea, or a prediction but an order, a command. And a strange command at that. Usually, we think of commands in connection with actions. March! Sit! Wear a mask! Stay six feet apart! Pay taxes! So, when our Lord commands us to love, what is he commanding us to do? How are we supposed to act? I mean, isn't love a feeling, an emotion? Isn't it a passion that either just is or isn't there? I love my family and friends, but I know them well. How do I love a stranger? An enemy? How do I love God Who is not a being but Being Itself? Jesus commands us, “Agapēseis. . .” You shall agapē. You shall always and everywhere prefer and will the highest possible Good for God, neighbor, and self. . .in that order. You obey the Lord's command to agapēseis by converting, by turning your intellect to the Truth and your will to the Good, always and everywhere doing the greatest possible Good Thing for God, neighbor, and self. This is the foundation for the Law of Moses and the whole of the Law of Love. This is how you and I become saints: sacrificial love, love expressed perfectly from the Cross.

What keeps us from that Cross? That is, what or who in this world tempts you away from loving perfectly? More often than not it is the Self who lures us away. My needs. My feelings. My hurt. My wants. My reputation. My fears. My prejudices. My work. Me as an idol whom I worship b/c I am – obviously – the source and summit of My universe. NO. You and I belong to Christ. We are his Body in this world. His hands and feet and eyes and ears and voice. We are his flesh and bone sent to do his work and accomplish his mission. Anything that stands in the way, anyone who stands in the way, stands in the way of our Lord's command to love perfectly, sacrificially. If you yourself stand in your own way, then there is nothing to do but move yourself aside. Turn around and come back to Christ. Turn around and run back to the only one who can give you what you need to be perfected in love. Health, wealth, reputation, career, stuff – all of these crumble to dust when you do. Sic transit gloria mundi! Thus passes the glory of the world! You and I must die in this world before we can live forever in the next.

And this why agapēseis is so difficult to obey. I have to die to love you perfectly. To will the greatest possible love for God, for you, and myself, I must die in sacrifice. I must sacre facere – make holy – everything I am and have. All of my thoughts; all of my words; all of my deeds; my heart, my mind, my soul, my body. All of it must be oriented toward understanding the Truth and willing the Good so that I become a living sacrifice, another Christ on the Cross for the salvation of the world. If this sounds narcissistic – I must become another Christ! – remember you and I were baptized into the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, living, dying, and rising with him. You and I were strengthened by the Holy Spirit. At every Mass we celebrate, you and I make of ourselves an offering to the Father through Christ. You and I eat his flesh and drink his blood, becoming him whom we eat and drink. The only way any of us can ever come close to loving perfectly in this life is to lose ourselves in the life and death of Christ, allowing him to love perfectly through us, hoping, that on that Last Day, standing before the Just Judge, it is Christ's face he sees in ours. Wear the face of Christ now, so that you might wear it forever.

 

 

 

 

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It all belongs to God

 NB. I'm "isolating" b/c of COVID. . .so, I didn't celebrate a public Mass today. . .here's one from 2017.

 

29^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

OLR, NOLA

What belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God? Notice that Jesus doesn't say, “Repay Caesar what is Caesar's and give to God what is yours.” Or “Give to God what is ours.” Or “Give to God what is theirs.” Caesar gets back what is his. God gets all that belongs to Him. So, what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God? Whether we know it or not, this is the question that lies under all of our other questions about how we are participate in the affairs of the world. These are daily questions, of course, but they tend to cause us more problems around election time than any other. How can we be both citizens of this world and heirs to the Kingdom? How we think, feel, speak, and act as citizens of the world can determine whether or not we inherit the Kingdom. With our eyes firmly focused on the Kingdom, won't we eventually end up in conflict with Caesar and his rule? Absolutely. And the history of the Church bears this out. And continues to bear it out even now. What belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God? For us, members of the Body, the Church, the answer is easy but not uncomplicated: it ALL belongs to God! You, me, mine, yours, theirs, ours. It all belongs to God, including Caesar himself.

Is this the point Jesus is making when he says that we owe Caesar what is his and God what belongs to God? Why not just say, “It all belongs to God”? Remember what Matthew tells us about the Pharisees. They are plotting against Jesus, trying to entrap him with a legal problem. When they ask their question, our Lord “knows their malice,” and asks them in turn: “Why are you testing me, you hypocrites?” Jesus knows that they aren't interested in a learned opinion on the Law. They aren't genuinely intellectually curious about his response. They're trying to snare him in an impossible political/religious position that they can then use against him. Jesus' brilliant response to their fake question explodes the trap. The coin has Caesar's face and inscription on it. It's his. Give it back to him. Everything else goes to God. The Romans can't fault his reply. The Pharisees can't either. But Jesus knows that everything belongs to the Father. And so do we. So, what do we – in 21^st c. America – do with this bit of teaching? 

 

We all know the standard answer here. We obey just laws. We pay our taxes. We vote in elections. We support our communities. We serve in the military. In other words, we participate in Caesar's state as upstanding, patriotic citizens. There is no contradiction btw being an exemplary citizen and a faithful Catholic. That's the standard answer. And there's nothing wrong with it. However, what happens when we come to understand that everything belongs to God? My life, your life, everything we are and everything we possess first belongs to God. You and I were and are gifted with everything we are and everything we have. Gifted. Given. You might say, “But Father! I worked all my life for my house! Nobody gave it to me!” God gave you life. He gave you the time and talent you needed to work for that house. He's giving you your life now to enjoy your house and your family and friends. At best, we can say that the things we have are borrowed from God, including our very lives. So, what happens when this truth becomes a daily reality for us? What happens when you wake up – alive and well – and note that you are alive and well? Do you give God thanks and then go about your day noticing the abundance of gifts you've been given? I hope so! Because Jesus says that we have to give it all back. At some point, it all returns to the One Who gave it to us in the first place.

The moment it all returns, the moment our borrowed lives and borrowed things go back to God is the moment we spend our short lives preparing for. Jesus says to repay Caesar what is Caesar's. Repay. Nothing more than what is owed. That's what counts as good civil citizenship. But we are also heirs to the Kingdom. On loan to this world for the salvation of the world. When we and all we have are called back, we bring back with us more than we were given. Or, at least, that's the goal. If we have used God's gifts to do His holy work, then we bring back to Him all that we owe plus substantial interest. His love in us has been perfected through our sharing of His love with others. When the Christ the Just Judge looks at you on the day of final judgment, will he see his face and inscription stamped on your soul? Will he be able to lift you up to the Father and say, “This one is mine returned to me in greater love”? Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar while you live. But remember, in the end, it ALL belongs to God.

 

 

 

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Putting your Garment Together

 Audio File

 

28^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

OLR, NOLA

Imagine: you go into the hospital with a terrible but curable disease. Your doc plans out your treatment. When the time comes to start the medications, you refuse to take them. Your doc is confused but honors your wishes and begins the discharge paperwork. You inform the doc that you don't want to leave the hospital. Even better, you'd like to arrange it so that you can be admitted to the hospital once every week. No meds, no surgery, no therapy of any kind. Just an hour in bed and you go home. The doc agrees and gives you a pamphlet outlining some things you can do to help treat your terrible but curable disease. You take the info, read it, and promptly throw it away when you get home. You've come to believe that your weekly visit to the hospital is sufficient to cure your ailment. You feel OK for a few weeks. Then, after one of your weekly visits, you drop dead outside the hospital. How many here tonight think that this is a truly bizarre way to behave – sick, you refuse treatment but insist on staying close to the source of your cure? Isn't this how many of us think about our faith? Weekly visits to church is just enough to treat and cure our spiritual diseases. Jesus says, “Many are invited, but few are chosen.”

Tonight's parable tells us that everyone is invited to the Wedding Feast. From the lowest to the highest; from the smallest to the largest; rich, poor; black, white; male, female; Democrat, Republican; everyone! And it's possible that everyone invited to the Feast will show up. But this is no ordinary feast; it's the Wedding Feast of the Lamb – a party to celebrate the eternal marriage of Christ to his bride, the Church. Those who accept their invitation are expected to show up properly dressed; that is, properly prepared to party forever with Christ in heaven. You wouldn't show up to a wedding on Earth wearing flip-flops, short-shorts, and an AC/DC tee-shirt – especially if you were a member of the bridal party! And you are a member of the bridal party. You are a member of the Church, the Bride. So, accepting your invitation to the Wedding Feast begins with baptism. You put on the white garment of new life, and you proceed through the years to add to your Christian wardrobe, always thinking ahead to the Big Party to come. How do you go about acquiring the articles of clothing you need to Party Well in heaven? Over your lifetime, how do you choose to put your wedding outfit together?

Start by considering what you do not do. You do not come to believe that the absolute bare minimum is enough. Sure, those flip-flops, short-shorts, and AC/DC tee-shirt cover all the necessary body parts. You aren't naked at the Party. And sure, baptism, confirmation, weekly Mass, and a yearly confession cover all the basics. You haven't lived a life-time w/o receiving some of the basic graces. These most basic of the graces keep you coming back – for the most part. Another thing you do not do in assembling your Wedding Garment is come to believe that just any old piece of clothing will serve your eternal end. Sure, that hot pink bandanna on your head looks good with your tee-shirt, and those black socks look comfortable under your shower shoes. And sure, praying the rosary three times a day and fasting on Fridays helps you remember that you are Catholic. Absolutely nothing wrong with hot pink bandannas, black socks, the rosary, or fasting! But your Wedding Garment needs more than the bare minimum and a few flashy accessories. Your Wedding Garment must be in fashion for eternity. It must be durable, proper to the occasion, and serve as a sign of your all-consuming love and devotion to Christ. Your Wedding Garment must be made from 100% pure charity.

You've received your invitation to the Feast. You've accepted the invitation. Now, you are gathering the pieces of your Wedding Garment. We know that the bare minimum and flashy accessories aren't enough. You need a lifetime of loving God, yourself, and others to put this garment together. You need a lifetime of doing spiritual and corporeal works of mercy; acts of selfless love, words and deeds that proclaim to the world that you belong to Christ. You need a lifetime of personal prayer – private conversations with God in the Spirit – listening to His will and making His will manifest in the world. You need a lifetime of allowing yourself to be transformed into Christ so that those around you can see and hear him in your flesh. A lifetime, Father? Yes. What if I've spent decades doing the bare minimum and collecting flashy accessories? No problem. Your lifetime begins again at the moment of repentance and confession. If you will stay at the Party, start now gathering your Wedding Garment. Once the wailing and gnashing of teeth begins, it is too late. Jesus says, “Many are invited, but few are chosen.” Choose to Party with Christ forever.

→ You've probably heard about the desecration of the altar at SS. Peter and Paul Church in Pearl River. If you haven't, go on-line to get the details. I can't repeat them here. Archbishop Aymond has released a statement, condemning the incident, and the priest involved, Fr. Tavis Clark, has been arrested and suspended from ministry. As your “sort of pastor” for the last eight years and as a seminary professor and formator, I need to say something too. What happened in PR is an abomination. It was a demonic attack on the Church, on all of us – the sort of attack that we are seeing more and more frequently these days. We can and should expect more of this sort of thing as our nation moves further away from God and His will for us. The Enemy wants you to be horrified. He wants you to be outraged and vengeful. He wants you to lash out at the archbishop, at your priests, the Church in general. He wants you to leave in disgust and despair. And, honestly, I can understand those who do. Like the abuse scandals that rocked us years ago, this incident, along with the revelations about Fr. Pat Wattigny, gnaw away at our trust and leave us believing that the Church is wholly beyond saving. We've had about 40yrs of bad catechesis, terrible preaching, made-up liturgies, secularized pastoral care, and bureaucratized bishops. Along with all this came seminary formation programs that taught heresy, preached about mercy but never sin, and trained young men to be “ministry facilitators” rather than Spiritual Fathers. Despite the best efforts of the revolutionaries in the Church, most seminarians came out of formation and served as good priests. Some didn't. I want to assure you that the young men being formed at Notre Dame Seminary right now are being formed by a team of faithful, orthodox priests and lay professors. All of us on faculty at NDS think with the Church. Our guys are assigned individually to one of the seven priest-formators who meet with them monthly to review their progress. The seminarians pray a Holy Hour everyday. They pray Morning and Evening Prayer as a community and celebrate Mass daily. They each have a spiritual director they meet with monthly. Their academic work is tightly tied to the tradition of the Church, and their human formation is rooted in acquiring and perfecting Christian virtue. Underneath all of this is the constant exhortation to embrace Spiritual Fatherhood as a priest. Does all this prevent problems from arising? No. Of course not. Seminarians are human. Some leave. Some are dismissed. The formators and professors are human too. This means that we need your prayers and sacrifices to defend us in battle. I am deeply proud to be part of the NDS community. We have turned out some amazing priests. Please! Pray for them and pray for us.

Now, to conclude, if the Enemy has gotten to you, if you're thinking that the Church is beyond saving, and you're disgusted and despairing, I need you to hear this: Christ has won. The war is over. Christ is the Victor. And you and I, as members of his Body, are victorious with him. We have our battles to fight until Christ returns, but never for a moment doubt that Christ has already won. Our battles are over whether or not you and I will remain members of his victorious Body, the Church. Not just the Church on earth – but the Mystical Body that spans all times and places. The Enemy has always attacked the Church. It's his nature. But the Church endures b/c we have the Holy Spirit on our side. Battles can be ugly. But keep your eye on the prize. Don't let the Enemy distract you with his theatrics and abominations. It's not worth you immortal soul.

 

 

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From stupidity to wisdom

27th Week OT (R) 
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Priory, NOLA

Apparently, the Galatian church has fallen back into its old habits and living as if following the Law led to salvation. So, Paul asks these “stupid Galatians” if God supplies the Spirit to them b/c they do works of the law or b/c they have faith. The answer Paul wants from them is: God gives us His Spirit b/c we have faith in Christ! Jesus reveals another possible answer that further undermines the Galatian backsliding: “For everyone who asks, receives.” God always gives His Spirit. That's Who He is – diffusive Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. When we turn to the Law in an attempt to earn the Spirit or coerce the Spirit or in some mechanical fashion control the Spirit, we lose. The Spirit is always, already given as a Divine Gift. What we must do is receive. When we seek, we find. When we knock, the door is opened. When we ask, we receive. Asking is how we receive. Without expectations, without preconceived notions, without plans or designs, ask to receive. Our works, our worries will not conjure the Spirit to do our will. Only by trusting that the Spirit is ever-present and asking to receive can we move from stupidity to wisdom.

 

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Will the Kingdom of God be taken away from you?

NB. Deacon preached tonight. Here's one from 2014. . .

 27^th Sunday OT
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
Our Lady of the Rosary, NOLA 

Here's a warning no servant of God ever wants to hear: “. . .the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.” What's worse than living your life as an heir to eternal life only to discover that—in the end—you've been disinherited? When Jesus finishes telling the priests and elders the parable of the murderous tenants, he quotes Ps 118, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” By rejecting Christ as the cornerstone of their relationship with God, the leaders of God's people reject their inheritance. Their reaction to this prophetic statement? They ain't happy. However, they are more afraid than unhappy—afraid of Jesus' popularity, so they postpone arresting him. They're not worried about losing their eternal inheritance. They're worried about losing their power and prestige among the people. When we think about the arduous demands of faithfully following Christ, do we think first of our eternal inheritance, or do we first consider how following him might look to family, friends, or neighbors? Do we reject the cornerstone of our faith in favor of not being noticed, in favor of never being challenged or excluded from polite company?  

Rejecting God in favor of wealth, power, and fame is not new to the 21^st century. The parable of the tenants retells the history of the Jewish people's stormy relationship with God. We know the story all too well. It tells just like the history of the Church's relationship with God: lots of disobedience and great moments of heroic virtue. What the parable doesn't include is an explanation for our repeated failures. We can hear greed in the tenants' justification for killing the owner's son. But greed never poisons alone. We can hear a little wrath in the tenants' desire to wound their employer. Some pride and class envy. Why do the priests and elders reject Christ? Why do we so consistently reject making Christ the cornerstone of our lives. Making Christ the cornerstone of our everyday lives means risking one of our most valuable treasures: being a respected player in whatever social game that defines us. Family, friends, co-workers, colleagues, neighbors, fellow parishioners. If I make Christ my cornerstone, will I have to buck popular political trends, go against the prevailing attitudes of my peers, and risk losing real prestige for nothing more than a promise of future glory?

Social psychologists will tell you that there is almost nothing more difficult for an individual to do than go against the crowd. The psychology of the herd is infectious; it takes the single soul into a massed spirit where deliberation and freedom are strangled for the sake of frenzy. But few of us will ever be caught up in that sort of mob. The mobs we belong to are much more subtle and more dangerous: the workplace, the family reunion, movie night with friends, faculty meetings, events where those whose opinions of us we honor gather to socialize and strengthen the bonds of the group. When the opportunity arises, do we choose Christ as our cornerstone; or do we choose our standing in the group? When family, friends, co-workers express their support for the culture of death, do you stand on Christ; or do you back down to save face? When your peers start advocate undermining marriage and the family; or expressing racist opinions; or defaming the Church, do you stand on Christ, or back down? If Christ is to be your cornerstone, then everything you are must find its integrity and strength in Christ, regardless of the consequences. As baptized prophets of the Church, you are sent out to live the truth of the gospel. Even if and especially when it means your prestige must take a beating. When the time comes, will you “remember the marvelous works of the Lord,” most especially the marvelous work of your salvation achieved on the altar of the Cross?  

 

If contemplating your willingness to remain faithful to Christ and his Church is making you nervous, listen again to Paul: “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” The peace of God will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus if we make known to him – in prayer with thanksgiving – all that we need. If you need strength to stand firmly on his cornerstone, ask for it with thanksgiving. If you need patience to stand diligently on his cornerstone, ask for it with thanksgiving. If you need wisdom to stand knowledgeably on his cornerstone, ask for it with thanksgiving. Nothing you need to stand upon the cornerstone of Christ will be denied you if you seek it out and simply ask for it with thanksgiving. Any anxiety you may be feeling b/c of who you are in Christ is the product of the Enemy coaxing you toward silence, toward defensiveness and silence. The peace that God gives us surpasses all understanding, all anxiety, all hesitancy and guile. When we speak up to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ, it is not our tongues that speak but his. Not our words but his. Not our time and energy spent but his. As his faithful servants, we serve his mission and ministry by continuing to speak his Word of mercy to anyone who will listen.

 

Paul not only tells us how to pray for what we need to stand on the cornerstone of Christ, he also tells us how to go about training our hearts and minds for the holy work that the Lord has given us to complete. He writes, “. . .whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, pure, lovely, gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Just as we work to discipline our bodily appetites against temptation, avoiding those occasions where we might be tempted to put the things of this world before God, so too can we work to discipline our hearts and minds against the invasive ideas and passions – falsity, dishonor, injustice, impurity, ugliness, crudity, mediocrity, and scorn. Look at the tenants who murder the vineyard owner's son. They think about murder and talk about murder before actually committing murder. They fail to resist greed and anger, and they feed one another's passions until the deed is done. They would, according to the priests and elders, suffer “wretched deaths” for their failure to discipline themselves. When we make a stand on the cornerstone of Christ and lay claim to our inheritance as the Father's sons and daughters, our words and deeds must bring honor, dignity, and praise to His name.

The builders God raised up rejected Christ as their cornerstone, and Christ says to them, “. . .the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.” We stand with Christ in his Church to proclaim the Good News of salvation. Whether this stand is popular or not; prestigious or not; profitable or not. If we would be the people who produce the good fruit of His kingdom, the people to inherit the Kingdom of heaven on our last day, then we must stand with Christ as he died for us.

 

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Do you need a Jobian trial?

Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Priory, NOLA

Brothers, I think we're supposed to pity Job. All the horrors that happen to him. We're suppose to recoil and give thanks to God that we haven't been tested like he was. And that would be exactly the right reaction. But consider this: in the middle of his trial Job is more confident than ever that God will see him vindicated AND his desire to be with his Lord is radically clarified: “. . .my inmost being is consumed with longing.” Satan's plan is to break Job's dependence on God. Satan bets that Job will buckle under the torture and renounce God, giving in to pride and eventually taking the doomed path of trying to become god w/o God. He doesn't. Instead, Job accepts reality as it is not as he wishes it were. He accepts his creatureliness as a given, knowing – as a matter of providence – that his existence is a gift. This truth is what makes his trial bearable, if not entirely intelligible. We know how Job's trial ends. We know that his attempt to grasp at an explanation, an answer to why?, ends in mystery. How does this mystery deepen our own longing for God? Do we need a Jobian trial to perfect our humility?!

 

 

 

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Pull down the idol of Self

 

 Audio

26^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

OLR, NOLA

It seems that disobedience comes naturally to us. Our first impulse is to say NO to God and hope we can get away with saying NO. We can. For a little while at least. In the end though – disobedience comes around to bite us in the. . .the rear. If we're smart, we'll take that bite, jump in surprise, and mend our ways, returning to the straight and narrow that leads to eternal life. Like the first son in Jesus' parable, we might say NO at first but then realize how dumb that is and repent. Saying NO and repenting later is certainly better than the path taken by the second son – saying YES to God and then doing nothing. This is both a lie and an act of disobedience. The bite that comes after this little charade will hurt. . . forever. So, how do we overcome the vicious habit of saying NO to God? How do we get into the habit of obedience, the habit of listening for God's will and following Him? Paul helps us out here: “Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves. . .Have in you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus.” Disobedience grows out of pride; pride is conquered by humility; and humility is nurtured by repentance.

Disobedience grows out of pride. Fundamentally, pride is the vicious habit of thinking and acting as if I can become god w/o God; that is, that I can achieve perfection w/o any help from God. If I can achieve my end – perfection in heaven – w/o any help from God, then there is no reason for me to be obedient to God's will. This is the lie that the Serpent told Eve in the Garden – “You can be like God.” How? By disobeying Him. This tendency to ignore God and outright defy His will is part and parcel of our fallen human nature. How much time and energy do we waste trying to find the perfection we long for and at the same time ignore the only Perfect Way available to us? DIY religion is quite the trend these days. Pick and choose, buffet-style from a wide diversity of options and blend them all together into a comfortable, happy little spirituality that soothes the seared conscience and provides an incredibly shallow sense of spiritual depth. Or we could substitute political activism for religion and feed self-righteousness with outrage, believing that our anger will somehow propel us into a secular saintliness. If we choose anyone or anything but Christ, we are choosing Self. We are choosing pride and willful ignorance. And this path leads to destruction. Every single time.

Fortunately, pride is conquered by humility. If choosing the Self above all others – including God – leads to destruction, then choosing Others over Self perfects humility. Humility is nothing more than acknowledging the truth that I am totally dependent on God for everything I have and everything I am. Nothing I have, nothing I am is truly mine. It all belongs to God. Whatever gifts I have belong to God. My education, my experiences, my talents, my memories, my priesthood, my religious life – all belong to God. My family, friends, colleagues; those who call themselves my enemies – all of them belong to God. The more deeply I acknowledge and live out this truth, the more deeply am I able surrender to God's will and use all that He has given me to preach and teach His Good News. And the more deeply I surrender, the closer I get to being perfected in His Christ. IOW, the less I struggle to take control of my own perfection, the freer I am to receive the perfection He freely gives. Pride clings to Self. Pride stubbornly controls and seeks control. Pride urges me to proclaim myself the god of my life. Pride makes ME into an idol for me.

How do we depose the idol of Self and turn toward Others? Humility is nurtured by repentance. The first son says NO and then repents. Saying NO to God is certainly a sin, but repenting and turning to obedience is salvation. We are free to say to God NO. But saying NO to God traps us in slavery to sin. Once we say NO, it gets harder and harder to say anything else. Over time, we become fools, unable to distinguish Good from Evil. We can hold pride in check and put off becoming fools by naming our sins, repenting of them, and receiving God's always, already offered forgiveness. This is simply a process of saying to God, “I belong to You, Lord. Everything I have and everything I am is Yours! What would You have me do with what is Yours?” Think of repentance as the daily, hourly intentional return to the Truth of who you really are in Christ. When some other god worms its way onto the throne of our heart, repentance is only tool you need to accomplish a coup. Turn to Others and give freely from all that the Father has freely given to you. Turn to God and freely give back to Him everything you have and everything you are. Pull down the idol of Self. Be free to become Christ!

 

 

 

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Are you envious of God's generosity?

Audio File

 

25^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

OLR, NOLA

I had knee surgery in the summer of 2015. Before the anesthesia hit me, I told the surgeon, “Doc, I can't dance. I can't sing. My modeling career ended 30yrs and 200lbs ago. All I got is my brains. Please don't mess that up!” Confused, he responded, “Father, we're operating on your knee not your brain.” I said, “Yeah, well, I take no chances.” Knowing your gifts and protecting them is just good stewardship. Likewise, coveting the gifts of others, being jealous of the riches God has given your neighbors, is a waste of time and a doorway to spiritual misery. While you are busy envying your friend's gift of song, or your neighbor's gift of dance, you are also busy neglecting the gifts God has given you. The Devil loves envy precisely b/c it is a monstrous wasting of your limited time on earth. Envy is an empty longing to possess a gift that will never be yours b/c it was never meant to be yours. When you find yourself daydreaming in jealousy, think back on this reading: “My friend, I am not cheating you...Take what is yours and go...Are you envious because I am generous?” Great question. Are you envious of God's generosity?

I'll confess. I often am. I know my gifts, and I am grateful for them. But there are times when I read a great novel and find myself jealous of the novelist. Or when I see someone drawing a portrait and wish that I could do that. People who can sing or play musical instruments provoke a bit of envy at times. God's generosity is abundant, but it is also specific; that is, we do not all get the same gifts in equal measure. This goes for spiritual as well as material gifts. Some trust God more easily than others. A few are able to live in hope more deeply than most. For many, sacrificial love rises to the challenge more slowly than it does for the gifted. We are all called to be saints. But we are called to be the kind of saints we are gifted to be. That's not an easy truth to swallow. Different gifts means different paths, different tasks, different challenges. It also means resisting the temptation to covet gifts you haven't been given. Envy is poison. It breeds resentment and anger. It darkens the mind and rots the heart. Envy encourages neglect of one's own gifts and violence against those you covet. Ask yourself: am I envious of God's generosity? If so, how do I move toward gratitude?

Paul, writing to the Philippians, shows us one way to answer this question. Paul is torn between his desire to be with Christ after death and his duty to continue preaching and teaching the Good News. He writes, “I long to depart this life and be with Christ, for that is far better. Yet that I remain in the flesh is more necessary for your benefit.” Paul recognizes that he has been gifted with the authority to lead the Church, to labor fruitfully among Christ's people as an apostle. And at the same time, he longs for nothing more than to be with Christ in heaven: “For to me life is Christ, and death is gain.” BUT his gifts require him to “remain in the flesh,” among his people, serving their needs; preaching, teaching; building up the Church. Paul sacrifices his life in the flesh – makes his life holy – by freely giving his gifts from God back to the Church in service. He could've use his gifts to set up a church in competition with Christ's church. He could've declared himself a prophet and gathered a following to rival Peter, James, and John. He could've even used his gifts of oratory to deny Christ and continue his persecution of the Church. Instead, with gratitude, he receives his gifts and puts them to the good use of preaching and teaching the Good News...even as he longs to be with Christ in death. Do not be envious of God's generosity; be grateful.

Think about how much anxiety, resentment, and anger are churned up in your life by envy. If you measure your worth against the gifts other have received, while ignoring your own gifts, you will always fall short. You will always appear diminished, less-than, neglected. If you spend your time and energy longing to have what was never given to you, you throw away – unused – everything that has been given to you. If you are anxious, resentful, or angry, it might be b/c the Devil has succeeded in drawing your attention away from God's generosity to you and toward the apparent “better gifts” of your neighbors. There are no “better gifts.” Each gift is given precisely to the one to whom it belongs. No one else can use your gifts in the way you can. God knows this. And His generosity ensures that everyone possesses exactly the gifts he/she needs to serve Him and His people. The challenge our Lord levels at each one of us is to receive His gifts and make them holy by using them to preach and teach the Gospel in the world. There is no room for anxiety, resentment, or anger in this charge. There is only surrender to God and gratitude for His infinite Goodness and Generosity.

 

 

 

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Could you do that?

 

24^th Week OT (R)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Priory, NOLA

Given our middle-class manners and overall commitment to modern standards of hygiene, to say nothing of our recent descent into collective germaphobia, I'm betting that we'd have the Sinful Woman arrested and placed on a 72hr psych hold if she pulled this stunt nowadays. I'm pretty sure we wouldn't recognize her bizarre behavior as adoration much less a plea for forgiveness. And even if we did, we might be tempted to look around for a camera, suspecting that we were unwitting participants in a piece of political theater. Regardless of our specific reactions, can we honestly say that we would've react any better than the Pharisees did? While they were motivated by jealousy of Jesus' power as a religious figure, we might be motivated to react because. . .? The woman is embarrassing herself in public? She's disrupting a polite dinner party? Being wasteful? Or maybe b/c she's showing us how lacking we can be in showing our Lord honor? Her overt and very public display of reverence seems. . .excessive, emotional, shining a judgmental light on our own unwillingness or inability to express piety worthy of the Lord's love. I wonder if I could do what she did w/o any taint of irony in my heart. That I wonder such a thing speaks to decades of cultivating pride as a defense against appearing excessively religious to others. Thanks be to God that you and I have her witness to remind us that sometimes a display of affection can also be a plea for mercy.

 

 

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Forgive like your (eternal) life depends on it!

 Audio File

 

24^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

OLR, NOLA

Lest we want to be handed “over to the torturers until [we] should pay back [our] whole debt,” we must acquire the good habit of forgiving others. But before we can acquire the virtue of forgiving others, we need to understand what it is to forgive. From Jesus we learn that forgiving another his sin against me is something like “settling accounts” with someone who owes me a debt. There are two ways for this debt to be settled: first, I am repaid, “made whole” and no longer lacking what I loaned; second, I forgive the debt; I waive the obligation for repayment and count the loan a gift. The Master in Jesus' parable decides to settle his accounts, to bring his books into balance. He calls in all the loans he's made. One servant can't repay him, so the Master orders him and his whole family sold to repay what he owes. The servant pleas for mercy, and the Master – moved by compassion – forgives the servant's debt. So what happened here? The money he owes doesn't magically reappear on the Master's books. The Master is still out the amount of the loan. Financially, the Master has not been “made whole.” But spiritually, he has quite possibly gained a kingdom. To forgive is to treat another's sin against you as a gift to the sinner.

Of course, this sounds like an absurd practice! You're telling me that when someone sins against me I'm supposed to take that debt and return it to the sinner as a gift from me?! Yup. That's what Jesus is saying. But be patient. This absurd practice looks less absurd when you consider the alternatives. What else could I do here? I could incur my own debt by sinning against the sinner. Eye for an eye. Tit for tat. You sin against me, so I sin against you. Now we have two sinners instead of one. How is that a good thing. . .especially for me? I've allowed you to lead me into sin. I could hold your sin against me in the depths of my heart and nurture a grudge in silence, allowing your sin to fester and rot, poisoning my whole being. While you go about your merry way, I live with the carcass of your sin fouling me, body and soul. Well, that's obviously not an attractive option. Or, I could take your sin against me and turn it into a gift, handing it back to you in mercy, thus freeing us both from the prison of spiritual death. In other words, I could for-give you. I could fore-go, surrender my need, my desire for repayment or punishment. “I say to you, [forgive] not seven times but seventy-seven times.”

Do you find this to be a difficult command to follow? Why is it so hard for you to turn a debt owed to you into a gift for your debtor? Maybe you believe that forgiving the sinner is the same as approving of a sin. If I forgive him for cheating on me, I'm saying it's OK to cheat on me. Wrong. Only debts and sins can be forgiven. By forgiving him, you are clearly saying that his cheating is a sin. Maybe you believe that forgiving the sinner increases the chances of her sinning again. Forgiveness makes sin easy to repeat. Wrong again. Each act of forgiveness is a sacred gift, a gift that builds virtue and destroys vice in the forgiver and the forgiven. Maybe you just like to nurture the hurt of being sinned against. You believe that nurturing the offense rather than forgiving it gives you some sort of power over the one who sinned against you. Wrong. Again. All this does is guarantee that when it comes time to measure you your heart will be too small to measure, too shrunken and shriveled to register. That's no way to ask the Father to admit you into the Wedding Feast of Heaven.

But we can't pretend that this command is easy to follow. Jesus knows this too. That's why he adds some incentive to mix: “. . .unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart, [you will be] handed. . .over to the torturers until [you] should pay back the whole debt.” If that's not enough incentive for you, consider this: we will pray the Our Father during this Mass. There we pray together “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Think about what you are asking the Father to do here. You are praying, “Father, please forgive my sins against you in the same way that I forgive the sins of others.” How do you forgive others? Do you forgive others? It's vital that you know the answers b/c you're asking the Father to treat you in the exact same way! The measure you use to measure others will be used to measure you. May I suggest that you choose to measure others with compassion, gifting them with abundant mercy and love, foregoing whatever repayment or punishment you might desire, and reestablishing them as your brother and sister in Christ? You never know when the Father may show up to measure you!

 

 

 

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What's your measure?

23^rd Week OT (R)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St Dominic Priory, NOLA

In an interview posted on Youtube, Eleonore Stump tells a story about her son calling to tell her that he wanted her to meet the woman he was going to marry. ES responded, “Tell me about her. What does she do? What is she like? What are her goals?” He answered her questions and ES says, “I can't wait to meet her.” We can easily imagine ES seeing the young woman's picture. Talking to her on the phone. And learning everything she can about her future daughter-in-law from her son. ES points out – in the interview – that she knew a lot about the woman before they met. But she didn't love her future DIL until they actually met. ES's point is that “knowing about a person” and “meeting a person” are two radically different sorts of knowing. Apply this distinction to God, as Paul does: “If anyone supposes he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if one loves God, one is known by him.” As philosophers, theologians, and preachers, we know a lot about God. We have Scripture, the Tradition, reason, created things – all ways of knowing about God. But none of these will – on its own – bring us to love God. Or to be known by God. To love God and be known by Him, we have to meet Him. As JPII, BXVI, and Francis have said over and over again – our faith is rooted in a personal encounter with God through Christ. A person-to-person meeting that allows us to know God not just know about God. How can such a meeting come about? Jesus tells us that radical dispossession is one way – not just giving up things but giving up Self in the service of others. I don't have to tell you all how difficult this is. The air we breathe is saturated with entitlement, the need for recognition; the promises of power and control; and the constant narcissism of striving for Me, My, and Mine. But the litany of apparent absurdities we read this morning from Luke are designed to diminish the Self in the service of loving God and being known by Him. Love your enemies. Offer the other cheek when struck. Give twice what is necessary. Lend w/o expecting repayment. Stop judging. Give gifts. Forgive. The measure we use to measure others will be used to measure us. So, what's my measure? My Self and My Needs? Or, my God-given desire to love God and to be known by Him?

 

 

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Me vs. Me; You vs. You

23^rd Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Bubba's, Turkey Neck, LA*

A spirit of rage and hatred has possessed the land and her people. Portland, Seattle, Milwaukee, Kenosha, D.C. We see it almost every day – screaming, fighting, burning, violence against the innocent; destruction of property; the nearly mindless worship of wrath and vengeance in the streets. Reason and the rule of law seem a distant thing, something that held true long ago and far away. But no more. Those charged with keeping order and protecting the innocent stand by and watch, solemnly chanting the litany of progress and praying that they will be last in line for the guillotine. Even some in the Church have become drunk on the spirit of chaos, deposing the Lord in their hearts for the fleeting but exciting dictatorship of self-righteous finger-pointing, aligning themselves with the words and deeds of those who hate us. When these disordered passions finally burn out, when the consequences of these sins smack us hard in the face, the Church's hangover is going to be staggering. The nation's hangover may very well be fatal. Christ is victorious. . .in the end. But – right now – the battle must be hard fought in the hearts and minds of those who love him. “Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law.”

When we talk about battles we talk about friends and enemies, allies and opponents. Who's with us? Who's against us? There are those who hate us b/c we belong to Christ. They may call themselves our enemies. They may work against the Gospel. They may persecute us or try to recruit us. But we have no enemies in this world. Christ died once for all. This makes every man, woman, and child who lives or will ever live the object of our charity. We have no enemies b/c there is no one we will not try to save. Does this mean that we are obligated to show our bellies to those who hate us? No. That we can't defend ourselves if attacked? No. Does it mean we must welcome them and their unrepentant spirits of rebellion and destruction into the Church as guests? No. Nothing in the Gospel requires us to play the fool in the face of overwhelming even violent opposition. What the Gospel requires is that we do not see those who hate us as our enemies. We show them Christ. Christ in us. Christ in them. And we love b/c love is the fulfillment of the Law. The battle we are fighting isn't Us vs. Them. It's Me vs. Me. It's You vs. You.

Make no mistake. The Devil wants us to think that They are attacking Us, and We have to defend Ourselves in kind. They punch. We punch back twice as hard. And in punching back twice as hard We grow just that much closer to becoming Them. If the Devil can keep us focused on political events, politicians, court battles, elections, and convince us that our lives depend on getting the right people in office to defend us, then he can convince us that our salvation is to be found in the princes of this world. He can get us to ignore the spiritual battles that rage in the hearts and minds of every Christian and lay our faith and hope at the feet of a political party or a candidate or a platform. He can con us into thinking that we can only do Good by voting well. This time the right governor, Senator, President will bring us glory and vanquish evil. It's a lie. Yes, we must participate in civil society and promote the Common Good. But the battle that matters in the Long Run is the battle you and I are waging against ourselves. Who is my King? Who rules my heart and mind? Who died for me on the Cross? Who am I vowed to make manifest in my body, in my flesh and blood? Who do I love more than my political ideology, my sexual preference, my race, my sex, my class? Who sits at the center of my being. . .?

If you cannot answer those question with a resounding “Christ!” then the battle – for you – is lost already. You might ask yourself: how did I lose? Was I too much with the world and not enough with Christ? Maybe I identified Christ too closely with some secular ideology or politician. Maybe I worked hard on “doing justice” and not enough on “being just.” Perhaps I thought those who opposed my political preferences were my spiritual enemies, and I fought them until I became them. I didn't love sacrificially. I didn't love mercifully. I didn't love at all. I opposed, confronted, and rebuked. But I didn't pray, fast, or sacrifice. I argued, rebutted, and campaigned. But I didn't bear witness, proclaim the Gospel, or forgive. I didn't see – in time – that we are spiritually sick, spiritually wounded. . .and I just made us sicker; I poured my salt on our wound. I fought, but did I love? The victory belongs to Christ and to those who love him. Your real enemy is you tempted to abandon Christ and embrace the world.

*This is my imaginary parish where I preach when a deacon is preaching at the real parish

 

 

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Preaching in the Deep

 

St. Gregory the Great

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, O

St. Dominic Priory, NOLA

You won't catch a fish big enough to brag about in a pond. A fish worthy of boasting about has to be caught in deeper water. But deeper water comes with a number of hazards – bigger waves, bigger storms, better chance of getting lost, and less chance of getting rescued. Those are the chances you take to enter the world of Big Fish Boasting! What if we take Jesus to be talking about preaching instead of fishing? What does it mean then to “go out into the deep”? Well, if we think of preaching as a pond-side afternoon of dropping a hook and taking a nap – as a hobby, or something to do when we feel like doing nothing –, then “going out into the deep” has to be that sort of preaching that demands planning, preparation, research; a willingness to challenge and be challenged; a deeply seeded desire for adventure; and an openness to the possibility of both getting lost and catching your White Whale. Preaching in the deep like fishing in the deep not only increases the odds of catching more and bigger fish, it also intensifies the thrill of the chase and hones the preacher's skills.

That's the good stuff. What about the dangers of preaching in the deep? Well, you will ride bigger waves – higher highs and lower lows; more turbulence, opposition. You will confront bigger storms – louder noise, frightening headwinds; risk lightening strikes and the threat of going overboard. The chances of getting lost are greater the further out you go, the further away you travel from a safe port, a safe pulpit. And all these combine to make it harder and harder for you to be found and rescued from your apparent folly. Even so, to fill your boat to the point of sinking must be worth the risk. It's what we signed for. As Dominican preachers we didn't sign up to be amateur fishermen napping the afternoon away by the side of a pond. We signed up as pros to compete in the international Deep Water Championship. When the Lord says, “Go out into the deep,” we know he means for us to bring everything we have and everything we are to the sport and ready ourselves for whatever hazards we encounter and whatever rewards we reap. All the fish – big and small – belong to him. So do the fishermen. So, as we prepare for our next trip out, hear him one more time, “Do not be afraid.”

 

 

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Beware False Christs

AUDIO FILE

22^nd Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

OLR, NOLA

Oh, how quickly the mighty fall! Just last week, Jesus crowned Peter “the Rock,” giving him the keys to the Kingdom; making him the Royal Steward, the foundation stone of the Church. Tonight, we hear Jesus call that same Peter “Satan,” accusing him of betrayal and scandal; putting Peter firmly behind him, clearing the way to his cross in Jerusalem. What happened? What happened to Simon Peter's rock-like faith in Christ? He'd suffered no significant losses in the meantime. He'd had no major existential crises; no tragedies of epic proportions. As far as we know, he'd followed along behind Jesus all this time, happily listening to his Master, taking it all in and just being a faithful disciple. Then the Lord shows his students that “he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly [. . .] and be killed and on the third day be raised.” How does Peter's rock-like faith prompt him to respond? Does he leap for joy, knowing that our salvation is at hand? Does he pack his bags, ready to follow Christ to the Cross? No. Instead, he rebukes Jesus, saying, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” Peter's faith meets Peter's fear in battle, and fear wins. 

 

Consider: Peter is first among the disciples. Destined to be the first pope, the first Vicar of Christ on earth. He's set among the other disciples as the one to whom the Father revealed Jesus' identity and mission as the Messiah. The Lord's revelation that he must go to Jerusalem and die for the sins of the world must've shocked Peter to his core. Peter's reaction to this news probably arises out of a genuine love for Jesus and a genuine love for his own skin. Following Christ means following Christ. To Jerusalem. To the Cross. To a sacrificial death. And, eventually, to a resurrection from the grave. But getting to the resurrection part entails suffering through the persecution, torture, and dying parts. Peter's rebuke is understandable from a merely human standpoint. But Jesus isn't seeing his mission and ministry from a merely human standpoint. He's seeing it from all eternity – the whole of the Father's plan for His people. From this view, Peter is an obstacle, a scandal for Christ. He's literally standing in the way, tempting Christ – as Satan did – to abandon his mission in favor of a fully-lived life on earth. Jesus stops this temptation in its tracks and teaches Peter and us how we must proceed: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” IOW, do as I do. 

 

All of our lives as Catholics we've heard the refrain “deny yourself, take up your cross, follow me.” We've turned the phrase “a cross to bear” into a pale platitude, meaning little more than “well, that's a terrible problem to have.” Got arthritis? Your cross to bear. Got unruly teens in the family? Your cross to bear. Got a bad financial situation? Your cross to bear. The cross Jesus bears along the streets of Jerusalem kills him. It is not only a heavy burden but an instrument of execution. And an instrument of salvation. Arthritis, unruly teens, and an empty checkbook can be heavy burdens, but they are not likely to kill you AND save others. The cross you bear is given to you to build up your faith muscles. To stretch your reliance on hope and tone your eagerness to love and love sacrificially. I can't tell you what your cross is. That knowledge comes with prayer and fasting. But I can tell you that your cross will be most unwelcome, painful, and – if you give God thanks for it – for you, a source of eternal joy. Peter rebukes Christ b/c Peter is scared. For Christ, he is afraid. He is also afraid for himself. No one wants to endure pain and suffering. But if we follow Christ, then the comforts of our middle-class, suburban, American Christianity stand in the way. Like Satan in the desert, this comedic version of the Gospel tempts us to hell.

The False Christs we see everyday attempt to lure us away from The Way, the only way. The False Christ of Legalism tells us that our salvation is found in following the rules. The False Christ of Emotionalism tells us that our salvation is found in feeling the right feelings. The False Christ of Scientism tell us that our salvation is found in “believing in science.” The False Christ of Princes tell us all we need do to be saved is support the right politician. We can add to the list the False Christs of More Money, Career, Prestige and Popularity, Wellness, Revolution, Race/Class/Gender, etc. What all the False Christs have in common is Christ w/o the Cross. Christ w/o sacrifice. Christ w/o Divine Love. Peter wants Christ w/o Jerusalem, w/o the Mount of Skulls. What Christ himself offers is the chance to redeem your life by following him in sacrificial love. That's hard. It's a narrow gate. A potentially bloody path. But it's The Way, the only way. Do not be deceived: Christ w/o the Cross is an obstacle, a scandal. It's the way to nothing at all.

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