Smoothing your heart and mind

NB. Deacon preaching tonight at OLR, so here's a homily from 2012:

2nd Sunday of Advent
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

The Word of God speaks to John—as it had spoken to Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah—calling him out of his desert exile to preach the advent of Jerusalem's salvation, the imminent arrival of the Messiah. John, both a prophet and a herald, travels the whole region of the Jordan, “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” Our gospel writer, Luke, quotes the prophet Isaiah, “A voice of one crying out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.'” This is the charge given to John: ready the nation, prepare God's people; straighten their minds; soothe their defeats; temper their victories; and smooth the rough roads of their stony hearts to receive the consummation of all prophecy by baptizing with water all those who repent of their disobedience, so that their sins may be forgiven. Are you ready? Is your heart and mind straightened and smoothed? Have you prepared yourself for the coming of the Christ? 

You all know that Advent is meant to prepare us for the coming of the Christ Child. This is that time of the liturgical year when we read and hear all about the preaching ministry of John the Baptist. What you might not know is why Luke quotes Isaiah's ancient prophecy and connects it with John's contemporary ministry of baptism? In other words, why—in the middle of telling us about the start of John's mission—does Luke bring in Isaiah's description of the Jews' return from their Babylonian exile? The two events don't seem to have much in common. Historically speaking, they don't; however, prophetically speaking, the two are directly connected. In the 15 yrs. btw 597-582 BC, some 18,000 Jews were deported from Jerusalem to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. In 538 BC, the Persian king, Cyrus the Great, defeated Babylon and gave the Jews permission to return to their homeland, the kingdom of Judea. Isaiah's prophecy, quoted by Luke, is part of a much larger prophecy called the Book of Consolation (Isa 40-55). This is Isaiah's description of his people's homecoming procession, their triumphant parade back to the land promised to them by God. Who leads this procession? God Himself. So, He makes the path home straight, smooth; filling the valleys and leveling the hills. After 60 yrs of hardship in exile, the Lord brings His people home in style! John's mission is to bring God's people to Christ, to make our way to salvation a smooth, non-stop flight to the heavenly Jerusalem. 

Earlier, I asked you if you were ready for the coming of the Christ. Are you prepared to receive him? Writing to the Philippians, Paul prays, “. . .that your love may increase ever more and more in knowledge and every kind of perception, to discern what is of value, so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness.” Paul is praying that the Christians in Philippi will continue to grow in that kind of love that brings them closer and closer to knowing intimately God's will for them, so that they will be able to distinguish good from evil, and remain wholly innocent until Christ's return. How do the Philippians remain in God's will until the Last Day? They work to produce “the fruits of righteousness,” that is, they bring about, make manifest words and deeds that demonstrate their right relationship with God. It's not enough for them to think good thoughts about Jesus. They are exhorted to produce outwardly, publicly evidence of their spiritual excellence by imitating Christ in the world. And these superior words and works will be spoken and done “for the glory and praise of God” and for no other reason. Paul writes, “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it. . .” 

God has begun a good work in you, in all of us, and He intends to complete it. But His good work in each one of us cannot be completed unless we do our share of the heavy-lifting. He will not save us without our help. Over and over again, His people, Israel and Judea, committed adultery with the neighboring gods, sacrificing their righteousness on the foreign altars of oppression and injustice. By falling to their knees before idols, they fell in their holy duties to protect the innocent, the widowed, the orphaned, and the stranger. By worshiping things of their own making, they degraded themselves as things and sought to lift themselves up by pushing down those already pushed out by poverty, disease, and ignorance. Our Lord began a good work in His covenant with Abraham, but Abraham's children failed again and again to take up that good work and work with God's grace to make themselves into a blessed nation. For these failures, God allowed them to be defeated, exiled, and lost among the pagans. Some few remained faithful, and these He brought home. Because they worked with the good work He started in them, these few He returned to their promised land. 

God has begun a good work in you, in all of us, and He intends to complete it. So, how can we use this Advent to prepare for His good work to be completed? First, what good work He has started? For the whole Church, this good work is the work of being Christ in flesh and bone for the world. In other words, the Body of Christ must be the BODY of Christ—the hands, feet, eyes, ears of the Lord, speaking the Word, doing his will among the peoples and nations. For each one of us, this good work is defined by our individual gifts used in the service of the Body. What gifts has God given you? Has He given you a talent? Use it for the gospel. Has He given you time? Spend it on the gospel. Has He given you treasure? Invest it in the gospel. Next, we need to discern what it is that stands in the way of our good work. For Israel and Judea, it was their adultery with neighboring gods. They learned that we all become what we love most. So, what do you love among the idols of our perverse consumerist culture? Violence, death, promiscuity, the financial bottom-line; self-gratification before selfless service; untamed passions; or, do you claim to be a god yourself? In your pride, do you long to become a god w/o God and worship your own ego and id? God will allow it. He will also allow the consequences of our idolatry. 

Are you ready? Are you helping John the Baptist in straightening out your heart and smoothing down your mind? Christ comes to complete in you the good work his Father started. Are you listening to his herald and answering his cry for repentance? Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, they all warned God's people that their disobedience, their spiritual adultery would lead them into the wilderness of exile and defeat. And so it did. God brought them back to their promised land after two generations of living among their enemies, after more than 60 yrs. of purification and penance. Christ's Body, the Church—you, me, all of us together—must be the voice crying out in the desert, calling the world to repentance, calling it away from the edge of self-destruction. But our call is hollow and weak if we ourselves teeter on that same edge. A prophet must prophesy to himself first, and so the Church must preach to herself first. The Advent of the Christ Child is our time to get right with God, to get ourselves realigned with His perfect will, to be filled again with the love that created and re-created us in Christ. Look forward to his birth at Christmas, but look inward as well, look inward toward his birth in you, and love that child like he is your own, then, “all flesh shall see the salvation of God!” 

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Word and deed, word and deed

1^st Week of Advent (Th)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Dominic Priory, NOLA

Christ reveals the Father finally and uniquely in word and deed. He teaches us to pursue his mission and ministry in word and deed. Words alone may satisfy the intellect but leave the will with nothing to do. Deeds give the will plenty to do but can leave the intellect idle. If we will build our spiritual house on solid rock, we will pursue holiness in word and deed, revealing the Christ to the world in every word we speak and every deed we do. IOW, we will bring our whole person – body and soul, intellect and will – to task of growing in holiness. To do the will of the Father, we have to hear and listen to the will of the Father. This means cultivating an intellectual life finely tuned to the Real. Not just the really real of the physical world but the really real of the whole of Creation as created. Here we see the wisdom of the prophets naming God our Father. How else can we receive ourselves as hearers and doers of the Word except as creatures? We are wholly dependent on the Father for our very existence. Our growth in holiness is founded on the solid rock of humility. This is the truth we bear witness to in word and deed. 

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Waking a drowsy heart

1^st Sunday of Advent

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

OLR, NOLA

I don't have to tell you that the world is out of whack. Has been for a while now. But have you noticed that we seem to be swirling 'round the bowl faster than ever? Maybe it's just me, but my brakes aren't working and the ditches seem to be a lot wider than they used to be. I keep getting the urge to yell, “Let me off this thing!” There's a monastery in Wyoming that needs the services of a gently used Dominican friar, I'm sure of it. Unfortunately, fleeing to a cozy monastic cell isn't really an option. And I doubt any of you have that option either. We're in the world as it spirals out of control. We have two sources of solace while we spin: 1). the world has been out of control since the Fall in the Garden, so nothing new, really; and 2). Christ is coming back for us. What counts right now is what we do in the Meantime. Jesus warns us, “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life.” Drowsy. Complacent. Self-satisfied. In the Meantime, we are to remain vigilant, on-guard, ever ready. Advent is our time to practice being prepared for the coming of Christ.

Now, you may be thinking, “Well, I'm not much of a drinker or a carouser, so I'm good. I'm ready.” And that's great! Two fewer obstacles for you to tackle. But how are you with the anxieties of daily life? Are you worrying yourself sick about the kids, the grand kids, the job, the mortgage, the economy, crime, politics, race relations, the Saints' less than stellar win-lose ratio? IOW, are you allowing – yes, allowing – the people and events you have no control over occupy your heart and mind with fantasies of control? That's anxiety. Anxiety is the body and soul's reaction when it becomes clear to you that you have no control, yet you continue to believe and behave as if you do. You can let the illusion go and be free, or you can continue being a slave to magical thinking. Anxiety works well for the Enemy b/c it keeps you preoccupied in pride. While you spend your time and energy proudly attempting to will reality in a different direction through worrying, you neglect your duty to grow in holiness. The more you worry, the more you open yourself to the world, seeking solutions in passing things. The more you worry, the less you trust in God's promise to provide. The less you trust God, the further you fall into the world. The less prepared you are for Christ's return.

How do we prepare? Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, says, to love boundlessly so as “to strengthen your hearts, to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus.” Loving without limit puts us squarely in the world while leaving us uninfluenced by the world. That's holiness. If we love to be seen loving, then we are not loving as Christ loves us. We're loving to make ourselves into saviors: “Look at me! Look at how loving I am! I'm saving all these poor wretches from hungry and disease!” That's not being blameless in holiness but rather being blameworthy in worldliness. Our works of mercy must be done for the greater glory of God and no other reason. Otherwise, we are not preparing ourselves for the coming of Christ Jesus as the Just Judge but rather condemning ourselves with self-glorification. In fact, this is one of the ways that you can allow your heart to become drowsy – you come believe that your mercy is yours to bestow. To give or withhold mercy is mine to decide. A heart and mind given to this lie is more than just drowsy; it's drunk with power. And in need an awakening.

“Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy...” What can we do to keep our hearts alert? First, let go of anxiety, let go of worry. It's distracting and pointless. Advent is about waiting in joyful anticipation for two events we know are coming: the arrival of the Christ Child at Christmas and the Second Coming of Christ at the end of the age. We are to be prepared for both. Ready to welcome him, the Infant Jesus, and ready to be judged by the Just Judge. Worry does nothing to prepare us. Second, go to confession! Water cannot flow through a clogged pipe. You can't chew if your jaws are wired shut. Sin prevents us from receiving God's gifts. Sin clogs our pipes and wires our jaws. Go to confession and be ready for your judgment. Third, be generous. Generosity is one of the many surefire ways of growing in humility. Nothing you have or are is yours. All of it – me, you, all the things of man and nature – belong to God first. We are given these things as gifts to use while we're here. When you are generous with what you have and are, you acknowledge to God and others that you depend on Him alone. Take these weeks of Advent to practice being prepared for your final judgment. Jesus exhorts us: “Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength...to stand before the Son of Man.” 

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He is the King b/c he is the Son

Christus Rex

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

OLR, NOLA

Pontius Pilate – desperate to avoid getting bogged down in a local religious feud – questions Jesus, hoping he will confess to being a political subversive, a charge Pilate can understand and deal with. If Jesus were to confess to being a self-anointed “king,” Pilate could easily declare him guilty and crucify him. No muss, no fuss. The Romans do not tolerate upstart political revolutionaries. Unfortunately, for Pilate, Jesus deftly parries Pilate's questions, forcing him to wade into philosophy – not an area the Romans navigate well. Jesus says, “For this I was born...to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” You can almost feel Pilate rolling his eyes as he impatiently asks his famous question: Quid est veritas? What is truth? Jesus reveals – in word and deed – that he is indeed a king. Not a revolutionary or insurrectionist or even a claimant to the worldly throne of Israel. What baffled Pilate and may still baffle some of us is that Christ is King of the Universe, a title, a reality that flows naturally from his Sonship. He is the King of the Universe b/c he is first the Son of the Father.

Christ's Kingship is something of an embarrassment among some in the Church. Some would prefer that we forget both his Kingship and his Sonship. All this talk of Christ being a Son and a King sounds patriarchal and militaristic, so old-fashioned and unnecessarily hostile. The Jewish leaders certainly didn't like it. Nor did the Roman occupiers. Some, even now, would dethrone Christ and replace him with a Committee or a Parliament! But denying the truth is a sure path to confusion and death. In his 1925 encyclical, Quas primas, Pope Pius XI lays out why this feast is necessary: “...[the] manifold evils in the world [are] due to the fact that the majority of men had thrust Jesus Christ and his holy law out of their lives; that these had no place either in private affairs or in politics: [...]that as long as individuals and states refused to submit to the rule of our Savior, there would be no really hopeful prospect of a lasting peace among nations. Men must look for the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ[...]”(1). Without the Kingdom and Kingship of Christ there can be no Peace of Christ. And w/o the Son of the Father, none of us can reach the Kingdom. So, we celebrate this morning our liberation from sin and our elevation as Sons of God.

A quick reminder: at baptism each one of us is added to the Body of Christ as sons, as heirs to the Kingdom. Yes, even the women are sons b/c they are heirs as well! We become partakers in the divine nature, participants in the divine life. That divine life – the Holy Trinity – created, recreates, and holds in being all that is. You, me, planets, squirrels, bacteria, distant stars, whole galaxies. Everything created was created with Christ, through Christ, in Christ, and for Christ. He is the Living Word that animates – gives life – to every created thing. If you need your faith revived, remember this: you are a living, breathing player in the drama of creation; a rational animal made into a partaker of the divine! You and I aren't just heirs to the Kingdom. We are also growing in the Kingship of Christ as we grow in holiness. We are becoming Christs. Each one of us is Christ, imperfect now but growing in perfection as we practice loving sacrificially. What sustains us in this world as we grow is prayer. Both private prayer and public prayer. What prayer does is perfect the pray-er, the one praying. And with perfecting prayer comes Christ's peace.

We will pray the Our Father this morning. At every Mass. And we will exchange the Peace. Both the prayer and the peace give us a chance to publicly proclaim our allegiance to the King and prepare us for the sacrifice. The Our Father instructs us to surrender ourselves completely to God, holding nothing back, giving all we have and are. We ask that His Kingdom come among us and that His will be done on earth just as it is done in Heaven. Are we prepared for that? Are we prepared for the Father's will to be done on earth as it is done in Heaven? By turning to one another and forgiving one another at the peace, we signal our eagerness, our willingness to be subject to His will. We forgive and love before the sacrifice on the altar, leaving aside all grudges, all hurts, all offenses, all debts. We come forward to take and eat and drink having said, “I am prepared to receive Christ's peace!” Then we receive our daily bread, the bread of life that makes us alive in Christ, perfecting us to be Christs. I ask this every year: who rules your heart? Who or what sits on the throne of your life? Are you ruled by Christ? Or sin and death? Christ the King made you, remade you, and keeps you in being. Hold tight to your inheritance. Come, Lord Jesus, King of the Universe!       

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Do not fear death

33^rd Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

OLR, NOLA

Life inevitably comes to an end. Your life, my life will end. What happens next depends entirely on how we've chosen to live the life we were given. Scripture says we're given 70 years, 80 with good health, to grow into a holiness worthy of heaven. If we were left to struggle with our own strength, we'd probably never make it. A tiny few might muscle through, those few who practice spiritual athleticism and win the godly equivalent of Olympic Gold. The rest us would shuffle along, falling, failing, tripping over our own feet and eventually finding ourselves locked out of the Wedding Feast, wailing and gnashing our teeth in eternal darkness. That is, if we were left to compete with nothing more than our acquired skills and innate talents. Thanks be to God! We are not left alone with what were born with. God created each one of us with an embedded and near insatiable desire for union with Him. Imagine if He threw us into this world with such a deep longing and provided no way for us satisfy it! That would be both unjust and cruel. But our Father is neither unjust nor cruel. He gave us His only Son to be our Christ, our Redeemer. And so, the day and hour of your death is nothing to fear.

When our lives will end is not for us to know. Why? Because knowing this should change nothing about the way we choose to live our lives. As members of the Body, the Church, we have taken on the longish task of growing in holiness – day by day, hour by hour. Whether our death and judgment comes tomorrow, next week, or 50yrs from now is irrelevant. The task is the same: be in the world but not of it. How we negotiate this distinction is helped along with the abundant and freely given graces of Love Himself. All we need do is receive all that He gives us and put these gifts to work in proclaiming the Good News – through word, deed, thought, and feeling, we bear witness to the mercy our Father shows us so that anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear might see and hear for themselves that the Christ is Lord. Knowing that I am to drop dead tomorrow afternoon, or a month from Tuesday, or not until my 93^rd birthday changes nothing about what I have vowed to do and be in the world. So long as I remain finely tuned to the Father and receive His generous gifts, I have a mission and a ministry. Let death come. I am supremely confident in the Father's mercy, even as I am not so confident in my holiness.

Life inevitably comes to an end. My life, your life will end. What happens next depends entirely on how we've chosen to live the life we were given. If we choose to live lives of disobedience, rebelling against the truths the Father has revealed, He will honor our choices at death and allow us to continue to rebel for all eternity. We call this life of eternal rebellion, hell. How is this choice made? Through sin, obviously. But not so obvious is why choosing sin puts us on the path to hell. When you sin, you choose to be of the world while being in the world, that is, you choose to serve the powers and principalities that hold sway outside the Body, the Church. In choosing sin, you align our heart and mind with the virtues of the fallen: pride, greed, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth. Each of these sets up an idol on the throne of your heart. You are ruled – body and soul – by an act of disobedience. In effect, you tie yourself to this world, you bind yourself to a temporary kingdom, a passing prince who cannot and will not satisfy your deepest longing. When death inevitably comes for you, your choices become eternal and like the kingdom and prince you've chosen to serve, you will suffer the consequences of rebellion. The most painful element of hell is knowing you are there voluntarily.

Thanks be to God, hell is not inevitable. Jesus tells the disciples “to learn a lesson from the fig tree.” What is this lesson? Essentially, the lesson is that like the sprouting fig tree signals the arrival of summer, so the signs he mentions signal the arrival of death and judgment. . .“the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky. . .” Eclipses and shooting stars. All of these occur pretty much regularly. And so does death. And judgment follows. So, be prepared. Be prepared to account for the life the Father has given you. Be prepared to show Him a life of bearing witness to the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Be prepared to show Him your good works. Be prepared to show him the souls you've brought to the light. Be prepared to stand before Him and let Him see Christ's face in yours. Count for Him the countless times you have forgiven others; shown mercy; loved generously; and stood in the breach, giving your all in defense of the Gospel. Show Him you took His gift of Life and lived in the world but never did you abandon the path of holiness.   

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Veritas in caritate!

31^st Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

OLR, NOLA

You have heard it said, “Love is Love.” But I say to you, “Love is Love.” Uh? Yes. Love is love. Hate is hate. 2+2 is 4 is 2+2 is 4. And up is up and down is down. In philosophical terms, we call this a tautology; that is, an instance of unnecessary repetition, conveying no meaning. IOW, a vacuous platitude that pretends to be profound. Looks good on a bumper sticker and gets applause at a rally. But doesn't really capture anything more than a disguised ideological sentiment. The same can be said for “Jesus is Jesus,” “God is God,” Truth is Truth.” Emptied of content, the subject and predicate of the sentence, “Love is Love,” simply means. . .nothing. Nothing at all. The great revelation of Christ Jesus – Son of God and Son of Man – is that Love has content; that is, Love is distinct, content-rich, definable, and Real. Love is not simply a cipher, a meaningless place-holder for whatever meaning we choose to give it. Love is a person, a Way to perfection, the Truth of salvation. Love is the nature and reality of the Divine, a means of being fully human on the road to heaven. Jesus, quoting Det., says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.”

We don't hear “shall” used much anymore in English. It seems. . . impolite. “Shall” is imperative. It's an order. “You will go to the store” is a prediction. “You shall go to the store” is an command. Jesus says that we shall love God and neighbor. He doesn't ask or suggest or plead. He orders. And in ordering, he tells us plainly that loving God and neighbor is not simply a matter of emotion or passion. Loving God and neighbor is not whatever we choose to feel it is. Loving God and neighbor is about participating in the Divine Nature, which is God Himself, Love Himself. And Love Himself reveals Himself in Scripture. So, we can come to a better but still imperfect understanding of what it is to love by reading Scripture. There we find that Divine Love is creative, diffusive, Other-centered; correcting, redeeming, sacrificial, and rooted firmly in an objective, knowable reality. And b/c this is so, Jesus can order us to love, to participate fully in Divine Love. Such a thing is not only possible but necessary. If love is merely a subjective passion, an emotion, then we'd have no way of knowing objectively if we are following our Lord's commands. He says “you shall love,” and so. . .we love.

Since we are only able to love b/c God, Who is Love, loves us first, we know that love can't mean just whatever we want it to mean. As I've said, Love has knowable content, content that cannot be changed by mere human willing. Love creates all this was, is, and will be. From nothing, Love creates. Since Love creates and holds all created things in being, we say that Love is diffusive. Think of your grandma's Old School perfume, filling the air. Think of NOLA humidity in July, creeping into every crevice. Love is Other-centered. Jesus orders us to love: God, first; neighbor, next; self, last. Genuine Love corrects error and admonishes sin. Think about a toddler headed into traffic. No parent says, “I love the little bugger, so I have to respect her choice to play on I-10!” Love redeems. Love mends, re-establishes, restores. Love sets relationships right and brings Love Himself back into focus. And love sacrifices. It makes holy that which we choose to surrender to God. The greatest act of Divine Love is our redemption on the Cross, the sacrifice made by Christ Jesus to make our perfection in him possible. B/c God, Who is Love, loves us first, we are able to love in all the ways He loves.

We can ask: if we are able to love in the way God loves, why don't we? The easy answer is: sinful will. Disobedience. A disposition toward wanting to be god w/o God. The more difficult answer is: we've been trained by the world and a corrupt culture to confuse genuine love with fickle emotion. We've been trained to think that love is a fleeting feeling, a gut-reaction, a moment of passing infatuation. To “love me” in this world is to tolerate my destructive choices; to celebrate my disordered passions; to ignore my vices and let me go blind in the darkness of sin and death. This sort of love has no telos, no end, no goal. It's self-indulgent. It doesn't create or redeem. It can't sacrifice or correct. To admonish me, to try and save me from myself is an act of hatred. So, instead we choose to call our indifference to eternal things love and congratulate ourselves for our generosity and tolerance. As members of one Body, the Church, created and re-created in the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, we owe one another veritas in caritate – the Truth in Love. We owe one another everything we are and have b/c everything we are and have comes first from Love Himself. With all your soul, your mind, your strength, Love as God loves – sacrificially, redemptively, creatively.              

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What a weird question!

30^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

OLR, NOLA

Jesus asks the blind man, “What do you want me to do for you?” Weird question. Does Jesus not know that this man is blind? Does he not know that blind man wants to see? Maybe he doesn't. Maybe Jesus isn't who and what he says he is and really doesn't know what this beggar wants of him. Maybe Jesus is ignorant. Maybe he's surprised when Bartimaeus calls him “son of David.” Or, maybe just maybe, Jesus, the Son of David and the Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity incarnate, has a good reason for asking, “What do you want me to do for you?” Maybe he knows that the blind man needs to ask for his sight. Not need to in the psychological sense – like it's an emotional need – but need to in the spiritual sense; that is, the blind man can't be healed until he asks for and receives the healing Jesus has to give him. Can he receive what he hasn't asked for? Can he be healed of his blindness and his spiritual darkness w/o knowing he's blind and living in spiritual darkness? No, he can't. Therefore, Jesus has to ask him what he needs. Jesus asks me and you the same question: “What do you want me to do for you?” How do you answer?

You'll notice – in your daily living – much like Bartimaeus, there are a number of people around you who try to silence you. Don't bother the Lord. He's busy. Don't speak up. Don't ask for that. You're fine just the way you are. Nothing's wrong with you or how you're living. Better to be quiet and endure what Fate has given you. Jesus, rolling his eyes at the naysayers, says, “Come here. What do you need from me?” What we all need is the freedom to be who and what the Father created us to be – heirs to the Kingdom, sons and daughters of the Most High. That's the Big Need. To get to the Big Need, there are lots of Little Needs. We need to have our eyes and ears opened. We need to be freed from the delusions of the world and the noise of our anxieties. We need to be loosed from the chains of ideology, vice, inordinate passion, and hardness of heart. We need to see our disobedience clearly and our wandering minds sharply. What we need – more than anything else – is to understand and receive the Truth: that we are bound to the Christ, body and soul, to become Christ for the world. Spiritual darkness is ignorance of who and what we are. . .in Christ. Spiritual darkness is a chosen state; it's choosing to be deaf and blind to the Truth.

And so, the Lord asks us, each one of us: “What do you need me to do for you?” How do you answer? You cannot be freed from the chains you refuse to acknowledge. You cannot be set loose from the trap you refuse to see. Who or what is preventing you from being Christ in the world? There are attachments. Things. A house, a car, a job, a career, insurance. There are people. A spouse. Kids. Grandkids. Friends. Neighbors. There are worldly obligations. Community ties. Political commitments. Contracts and leases. None of these – in themselves – is blinding. None of them prevents you from being Christ in the world. Properly ordered, each can be a means of being Christ in the world. But before any one of these can be brought to bear on the task of bearing witness to Christ, you must be clear in heart and mind who comes first. Who defines who and what is important to you? Who and what decides who and what you love most? Tie yourself to this world first and most and you will pass into nothing with the world. Tie yourself to Christ – as you say you have – and you will pass into eternity. Love everyone and everything through Christ now and you will love with him forever.

So, what do you need Jesus to do for you? This is where we can hear St. Pope John Paul II say to us over and over again, “Do not be afraid!” Ask and receive. Ask for what you need and be prepared for the Lord to pour His graces on you. If you are properly disposed – opened, surrendered, grateful – you will receive whatever it is He's given you. Take these gifts and put them to work. Bartimaeus asks to see. Jesus says to him, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.” And what does Bartimaeus do? He follows Christ. . .along the Way of holiness and salvation. With new sight, out of the darkness of sin and death, Bartimaeus follows Christ. Will he ever be hungry again? Yes. Can he still catch a cold and suffer a toothache? Of course. Does he still need to earn a living? Absolutely. Bartimaeus still lives in the world. But he is no longer of the world. He is no longer defined by his blindness, his pain, his all-too-human limitations. He belongs to Christ. And as a possession of the Most High, he is free. He is free to be wholly, perfectly, fully exactly who he was created to be – a son, an heir, a member of the Holy Family. Ask and receive. Do not be afraid. Take courage. The Lord is calling you. He's calling you to be healed, to be Christ in the world.

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Burn it all down!

29^th Week OT (Th)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Dominic Priory, NOLA

How does Christ bring division to the world, to a nation, a family, a friendship? He sets them on fire. Or rather, he sets a part of each on fire. Christ reveals that the Father offers His mercy to sinners. Those who accept His mercy become His heirs. By becoming heirs to the Kingdom, we set ourselves against the powers and principalities of the world. To live life along the Way of Christ, walking and talking as he did, is necessarily a bold challenge to the world. It's a defiant poke in the eye of sin and death and a slap to the face of those who choose disobedience. To the foolish will – a will twisted by folly – submitting to the rule of Love is outrageous, especially given that Love entails sacrifice. The world thrives on Self – Me, Myself, & I. This narcissistic folly fuels pride and envy and greed and Christ stands firmly for the liberation of the human person from this diseased isolation. Thus, the divisions his arrival, mission, and ministry cause. When we take up his mission and ministry, we become the sources of division. Do not mistake the world's folly for the peace of Christ. “I have come to set the earth on fire.”

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You cannot be a god w/o God

29^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

OLR, NOLA

The Sons of Thunder – James and John – want to be Big Shots in the Kingdom. Sitting one to the left and one to the right of the throne, they want to be seen and heard and thought to be glorious by the lesser souls of our Father's family – that's you and me. And we shouldn't be surprised by their ambition. As Jesus notes, lording power and authority over the unwashed masses was just one of the perks of being in charge. The “great ones” among the Gentiles relished nothing more than a chance to show the peasants who their Betters were. Jesus, knowing the nature of his Father's kingdom, quickly and easily kills the brothers' dream of power and prestige. He asks, “Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” Jesus is asking if they are prepared to sacrifice everything to be part of the Kingdom, including their lives. Out of pride or ignorance or both, the brothers answer, “We can.” Nonetheless, Jesus says, it's not for him to choose who will be near the throne. That's the Father's job. In His kingdom “whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.” Not what a couple of ecclesial ladder-climbers want to hear.

The ambition of the Sons of Thunder is an instance of the deadliest sin: Pride. Aquinas tells us that pride is the beginning of all sin. So, it is to our good that we think through what Pride is. In the Garden, the serpent tempted Eve with being other than she was made to be: “You can be god without God,” he whispered. Why is the chance to be a god w/o God a temptation for Adam and Eve? God creates us to return to Him in a perfect union. We are made to dwell with God for eternity as perfectly human. To achieve this perfect union, we live lives of holiness in obedience to the Father's will. In doing so, we are free to be who He made us to be. The serpent offers Adam and Eve a shortcut, a less wearying way to become gods: disobey God and come to know all that He knows; you don't need Him to become Him. Thus is the sin of Pride born: “I can become a god on my own; I don't need God's help.” At the beginning of every sin – big and small – is the serpent whispering, “Disobey and you will be free. Disobey and you will know all that you need to know. Disobey and become a god. You can will to be whatever you want to be.”

If it's not obvious why this temptation is so dangerous, I'll unpack it for you. As creatures – created beings – we are all finite, limited. We have bodies that hold us in space and time. We are always somewhere at sometime. We are never eternal, outside space and time. Our ability to reason is impressive but still limited by our language's ability to express reason. Our faith can be weak or strong but even a strong faith is received by and used by a limited human person. What we know or think we know is necessarily restricted by our creaturely properties: our limited abilities to perceive reality; reason with what we perceive; and make prudent use of what we discover or invent. All this means that when the serpent tempts us to godhood w/o the help of God, he's tempting woefully limited creatures to turn themselves into gods. How does a non-god transform itself into a god? The desire for godhood is legit. God Himself created us with the desire to be in union with Him. His plan of salvation makes it possible for us to “share in His divine life,” to be partakers of the divine nature. But what is lesser-than cannot become greater-than w/o the help of what is always, already Greatest. To think that you can become more than a creature w/o the Creator's help is called the sin of Pride.

Now, I doubt many of you are sitting at home willing yourselves to become gods w/o God. It seems a rather exotic hobby! But, I'll ask you this: are you trying to save yourself? I mean, are you working hard to make sure that you are doing all the right things to make God love you? Are you trying to make yourself lovable so that God will accept you? Oddly, this is Pride at work. You cannot make yourself lovable. Neither can I. Fortunately, we are made lovable by Love Himself. And He loves us in virtue of His nature, which is Love. We don't have to do or be anything other than who and what we are to be loved by Love. Know this truth and living it destroys Pride. Once Pride is gone, we must replace it with Humility. Humility redirects our prideful efforts away from the question – what can I do to make God love me? – to a question only you can answer for yourself: do I love God? If the answer is Yes, then who and what you are changes. You are no longer a creature in darkness, a slave to sin and death but free to be who and what God made you to be: a friend in His divine nature, a son/daughter in His Kingdom.     

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What God has created. . .

27^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

OLR, NOLA

Last Sunday, we heard Jesus expound on the reality of sin and cringed a little at his solution for sinners: self-amputation and drowning. This Sunday, Jesus tackles another difficult topic: marriage and divorce. What Jesus has to say on marriage and divorce directly contradicts and is offensive to current secular orthodoxies on the subject. But this is nothing new. The Gospel is fundamentally opposed to the world. Pushing against the Zeitgeist – the Spirit of the Age – is just part and parcel of the Church's mission in saving souls. So, we could ask: how does what Jesus have to say about marriage and divorce push against the Spirit of the Age? At its sacramental core, marriage is about an indissoluble, life-long commitment between one man and one woman; the having and raising of children; and Christ's love for his bride, the Church. The Zeitgeist prefers temporary and utilitarian relationships; short-sighted and selfish sterility; and that the Church come to believe that she has been abandoned by the Bridegroom. Jesus says of the married couple: “[they] are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no [man] must separate.”

Two elements of what Jesus teaches here need highlighting: the connection btw marriage and Creation and man's hardheartedness that made divorce necessary. God created the human person in two sexes: male and female. We have male humans and female humans. Being male, being female is fundamental to what it is to being a human. Hair color, weight, height, skin color, etc. are all accidental to being human. So, dying your hair, losing or gaining weight, even radical surgery do not and cannot make you any less human. Or any less male or female. The Zeitgeist demands that our sex be a matter of personal choice. Your creation has nothing to do with whether you “identify” as male or female. Your DNA, your anatomy, your appearance – none have anything to do with your sex. All that matters is your will. Your will is supreme. What do you choose to be? Chose and that is what you are! Why would the Zeitgeist push such an obvious lie? The lie causes cultural confusion, social anxiety, legal chaos, and defies the Creator. All of these combine to grant the Zeitgeist more power. And power is all the Zeitgeist is interested in. Power to confuse, control, and eventually dominate. . .all done in the name of human liberation.

The second element of Jesus' teaching hits closer to home for most of us. Hardheartedness. Moses allowed that a man could rid himself of an indecent wife by simply handing her a bill of divorce. It comes as no surprise, that the wife was not afforded the same privilege. Why did Moses allow divorce? Because he knew that men (in this case, males) weren't always capable of compassion, joy, or love. The Law was given b/c humans need clear limits, well-defined rules for growing in holiness. Moses' Law made this one exception – divorce – as a concession to the weaknesses of men. Jesus ends this exception for us b/c in him we are always capable of compassion and joy and love! The Zeitgeist has succeeded in making divorce a universal, no-fault concession in this age. Why? Not out of any sort of mercy to our weakness as Moses did, but because divorce tends to reinforce man's unwillingness to be compassionate, joyful, and loving. Divorce is man's futile attempt to undo what God has done. And the Zeitgeist is always ready, willing, and able to cheer on the destruction of the Father's Creation. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, says, No.

Why is marriage the focus of the Zeitgeist's persistent attacks? Simply put: sacramental marriage is the public sign of Christ's love for his Bride, the Church. Every sacramental marriage signifies to the world that Christ loves his Church. Does this mean that every marriage is a happy bond? Hardly! Does this mean that marriages should never have problems? No. Does this mean that every marriage is guaranteed children? No. What sacramental marriage guarantees is that Christ will be in the middle of the bond, strengthening what grows weak and providing all the gifts necessary to keep the bond strong. The bond of sacramental marriage is indissoluble b/c Christ cannot stop loving his Bride, the Church. What the Zeitgeist loathes more than anything else is the idea, the reality that there are some things not subject to the whims of the will alone. There are some things that cannot be changed simply b/c we want to change them. One of these is the truth that Christ gives us everything we need to endure, to thrive; and to achieve the holiness he died to make possible. “If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is brought to perfection in us.”

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It's Gruesome Consequences of Sin Sunday!

26^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

OLR, NOLA

We have Divine Mercy Sunday and Good Shepherd Sunday. Maybe we should call today Gruesome Consequences for Sin Sunday! We have weeping, wailing, impending miseries, rot, corrosion, flesh-devouring fire, fattened hearts, a day of slaughter, millstone necklaces, amputated limbs, plucked out eyes, immortal worms, and unquenchable flames. God's not playing around! Sin is serious business. It's a deadly business. And Jesus is here to tell us the truth. Not the comfortable, middle-class American story about “being true to yourself” and “following your heart.” Nor the one about “just be kind” and “everyone goes to heaven.” Nor that old heresy about “a loving God would never create something like Hell.” Jesus reveals the really real. And he does so in a way intended to make us squirm. He reminds us that both sin and obedience have consequences. That both God's grace and our refusal to receive that grace have consequences. It is better that we go to heaven limbless and blind than find ourselves in the unquenchable fires of Gehenna. Is Jesus being a bit dramatic here? Perhaps. But I'd rather not spend eternity finding out.

I'm told by some of the ancient friars with whom I've lived that once upon a time, not so long ago, the Church spent a great deal of time and energy preaching against sin. So much time and energy, in fact, that when the winds shifted after VC2, the subject was dropped almost entirely. We were told that no one should be brought to Christ out of fear. That preaching on sin and hell was really just about institutional control and abuse of power. That a truly loving God would never allow anyone to go to Hell! So, there's not much point in preaching on the reality of sin or its consequences. And so it came about – over time – that sin, hell, punishment, and the immortal worms disappeared almost entirely from our pulpits. We replaced virtues with “values.” We were taught that conscience does not discover the truth but rather invents the truth. We were assured that simply believing in a lie sincerely was sufficient to make that lie “my truth.” That feelings matter more than facts, and personal experience trumps reason and revelation every time. If sin no longer matters, then neither does grace. And if grace no long matters, then what are we doing here?

By accepting these falsehoods, we've lost our freedom, our freedom to choose to be Sons of the Father, heirs to His Kingdom. Jesus could not be clearer on the subject: “Whoever causes one of these little ones to sin...if your hand causes you to sin...if your foot causes you to sin...if your eye causes you to sin...” Millstone around the neck and a trip to the bottom of the sea. Two amputations. And gouging out an eye. Tell me Jesus isn't serious about the reality and consequences of sin! Whether he's being literal here or not about the amputations isn't the issue. The issue is that disobedience-in-freedom brings about real-world, even eternal, effects. And we choose these effects. They don't disappear b/c we play word games. They don't simply not show up b/c we sincerely believe that this sin isn't really a sin. Our freedom in Christ is supernaturally ordered in such a way that we are freest when we consistently chose virtue and avoid sin. If we believe that our freedom allows us invent our own realities as we go. . .well, we will inevitably create for ourselves hell on earth. The Real – both the natural and the supernatural – is a stubborn fellow-traveler. It doesn't bend to will, reason, or emotion. And do ourselves no spiritual favors by pretending otherwise.

All this sounds rather old-fashioned. Maybe even a bit grim. But how do we read the Gospel and believe otherwise? Hell exists b/c we are free. We are free to reject God's love. He will honor our choice and allow us to live apart from Him for eternity. By denying the reality of sin, of hell, and teaching that conscience creates the Real, we deny ourselves the freedom necessary to choose Heaven. The Good News in all of this is that we do not have to sin. We do not have to be disobedient. We do have to think or feel or act in ways that take us away from Christ. And there's more Good News! Christ freely gives us everything we need to stay with him. That's right. We do not have to rely on our own power to walk along his Way. We receive all that he gives. We surrender. Give thanks and praise. And then we follow him. Step-by-step. Word-by-word. Thought-by-thought, we follow him. Freely, eagerly, gratefully, humbly walk along with him, praying, “Your word, O Lord, is truth; consecrate us in the truth.” 

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Ask AND receive

25^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

OLR, NOLA

A couple of years ago – after the McCarrick scandal broke – the formators at NDS spent a good deal of time talking to our seminarians about clericalism. We covered both species of clericalism – the pre-VC2 kind (the one where the priest is Lord God King of his parish and never to be questioned) and the post-VC2 kind (where the priest is still Lord God King but tries to pretend that he's just one of the guys). These clericalisms manifest in similar ways: abuse of authority in messing with the liturgy; overemphasizing either the priest's role or the laity's role; trying to clericalize the laity or laicize the clergy; and using the pulpit to push personal agendas. We also covered keeping secrets; the threat of blackmail; careerism, cronyism; the failure to fraternally correct miscreant priests; and the temptations of being put on a pedestal. What do all these sins against priestly life and service have in common? Jesus asks the disciples: “What were y'all arguing about?” But they remained silent. “They had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest.” Along the Way of Christ there is no time for wondering who's the greatest among us.

NB. The disciples remain silent when Jesus asks them what they were arguing about. They know their discussion is wrong. They know that Jesus is going to rebuke their careerist ambitions. To their credit, they are at least embarrassed and refuse to answer. Unfortunately, silence is part of the problem in both kinds of clericalism. The fear of being cast out for tattling is real. Whistle-blowers become the targets of scorn; they become subjects of questions and rumors. And their brother-priests grow to distrust them. Oftentimes, they end up ministering to the nursing home at St. Bubba's Parish in Alligator Neck, LA. Or they find themselves in a residential treatment facility getting poked and prodded by shrinks and therapists, looking for a diagnosis. So, too often silence wins and the Church suffers. Jesus tells us that ambition, especially ecclesial ambition – which infects the laity as well! – is best countered with child-like wonder and trust, receiving the Father's gifts with open hands, open hearts, and open minds, always willing and able to take in whatever the Lord sends our way. How do we fail at this child-like disposition? James tells us: “You ask but do not receive. . .” We ask for His gifts, but we do not receive them.

Why? Why do we ask for graces but fail to receive them? Part of the problem here is that God gives us gifts we didn't ask for. I asked for a promotion and God gave me more responsibility. I asked for an “A” on an exam and God gave me more time to study. I asked God for a more loving spouse and He gave me lots of chances to be loving. Another problem is that we sometimes don't recognize His graces when they come to us. That rare moment of quiet given to us to recollect ourselves. That gesture of goodwill from a quarrelsome co-worker. That chance to practice patience during the afternoon rush hour. Both of these problems – getting what we didn't ask for and failing to recognize a gift when it comes – both of these derive from the same source: ambition in prayer; that is, wanting, needing, desiring out of a sense of entitlement rooted in narcissism. The disciples have ambitions for power in Christ's Kingdom. Priests have ambitions for positions and influence in the Church. Laity have ambitions for recognition and reward in the world. All this ambition clashes with the child-like wonder and trust Jesus tells us is essential to flourishing along the Way: “. . .whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.”

So, how do we receive in a way that propels us along the Way? First, we must let go of any notion of what God's grace will look like. Any person or event could be a moment of grace. Since God can bring good from evil, even ostensibly “evil” people and events can be instruments of grace. Second, we must learn to ask for what we truly need not merely what we want. We ask not b/c our Father is ignorant of our needs but b/c in asking we receive. We acknowledge our dependence on His providence and cultivate the good habit of gratitude. Third, we must accept and live-out the truth that we ourselves can be instruments of God's grace to others – if we choose to be. Do I act, speak, think, feel in a way that signals to others that God uses me as a vehicle for his providence? Clericalist priests and clericalized laity signal entitlement and narcissism not the presence of divine gift. Lastly, how do I pray? Do I rattle off a litany of wants? Do I pester God with pet peeves and petty desires? Or do I ask Him to open me up and help me to receive all He has to give me? Am I willing to sincerely pray: “Father, help me to be the least so that I may do your great work in the world”?  

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Are you Satan?

24^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

OLR, NOLA

Peter – the Rock upon whom the Church stands – receives a stinging rebuke from the Lord! Jesus calls him Satan. What did poor Peter do to deserve such dishonorable treatment from his beloved teacher? First, like many students, he fails to listen to his teacher. Second, when he does pay attention, he fails to understand what he hears. And third, his misunderstanding leads him to a selfish outburst and a rebuke. Not two seconds before Peter's outburst, Jesus lays out what must happen to him (Jesus) in Jerusalem. He's to be rejected, killed, and raised from the dead on the third day. Apparently, Peter only pays attention to the rejected and killed part of this revelation. Still thinking as men do and not as God does, Peter rebukes the Lord. This is when Jesus says to him, “Get behind me, Satan!” Peter must've been crushed. The other disciples must've been shocked. Had they understood the necessity of Christ's suffering and death, they might've rejoiced at the coming of their salvation. Instead, they mourn and miss the truth entirely. So, Jesus explains: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” Now, they have something to mourn. Now, they have something to fear.

What is it to “deny myself”? Am I being asked to deny that I exist? That would be a contradiction, so, no. Am I being asking to occasionally deny myself some good thing like a snack or a nap? No, that seems petty in context. Christ is telling us that we must be like him. So, how does he deny himself? He denies himself by placing his human needs aside and taking on our sin. He denies himself by making of himself a sacrificial offering on the cross. He denies himself by setting aside his own will and doing the will of his Father. He does none of these things for his own good; none of these for his own pleasure or purpose; none of these so that he might be praised or applauded. He does them precisely because they all flow from setting himself outside himself as a victim for the cross. I deny myself when I renounce my need to be the center of my world. When I surrender my will to the Father. When I sacrifice all I have and everything I am to do what Christ has done – die for another. If I will to be Christ in the world, then I must strive for perfect holiness through surrender and sacrifice. I can do neither so long as I remain me, me needing, wanting, sinning, failing to love.

What is it “to take up my cross”? We must avoid thinking of the cross as an inconvenience or an annoyance. Oh, poor woman, those children must be a cross for her! My supervisor is my cross! This traffic on I-10 is our cross to bear! No. Jesus is not asking us to take up the petty, mundane irritations of living in this world. He's asking us to find the instrument of our sacrifice, the tool with which we will die for another. Think of the men and women who ran into the Twin Towers 20yrs ago to bring others out. Think of the military personnel in Kabul who grabbed civilians and tossed them on planes as the Taliban approached. Think of our own here in NOLA who help rescue those stranded by the hurricane. Your cross is the way you choose to offer yourself in sacrifice for another. That cross might be motherhood-fatherhood; it might be priesthood-religious life; it might be teaching, doctoring, lawyering – the question is: do you do what you do for the greater glory of God, in His name, in sacrifice for another? Are you willing to die doing it – for another. Not for your glory. Not for applause. Not for a headline in the Advocate. Deny yourself. Take up your cross.

What is it to “follow Christ”? As we continue to watch our world swirl into chaos, following Christ will become the true test of faith. Our Comfy Christ is dead. Cultural Catholicism is dead. Thanks be to God. As the public cost of Christian discipleship increases, we'll see many drop away. Some quietly, some grandly. Those who never denied themselves or took up their cross will count the costs of following Christ to his end and decide that the price is too high. It happened during the Roman persecutions, the Crusades, the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution. Millions have drifted off since the beginning of the Sexual Revolution. Following Christ means following after Christ. Step in his steps. Speak with his voice. Think with his mind. Question and answer with his words. It means being his Way, his Truth, and his Life in the world. Does this all sound impossible? Good! Because it is. . .w/o his grace. With his grace, it is more than possible; it is done. Christ is with us always. All we have to do is stay with him in his Church. He will never abandon us. The question, as always, is: will you abandon him? Or will you deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow him?

 

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Will you remain deaf and mute???

23^rd Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Bubba, Byhalia, MS

When all this COVID mess started I told the seminarians that we would probably be OK if didn't go around licking doorknobs. And here we are this morning witnessing Jesus spitting on some poor soul and touching his tongue! No mask, no gloves, no alcohol wipes. Just spit and touch. Oh, and he commands the man's ears and tongue, “Be opened!” We have here all of the elements of a sacrament: a minister, a sinner, gestures, a physical sign (spit), and a prayer. Through this combination of elements, the man is healed. He hears and speaks. The first thing he hears is Jesus ordering him to keep quiet about the healing. The first words he speaks are words of praise and thanksgiving, spreading his Good News across the district. So much for Jesus' orders! This man's healing is a physical miracle. Mark tells us about it to lend authority to the Lord's overall mission – he really is who he says he is. But what does this healing story tell us about us as followers of Christ? Ask yourself: when am I deaf to the Word of God, to His will for me? When is my witness to Christ impeded by my unwillingness to speak? Christ has healed us of these spiritual aliments. What's stopping you from following in the healed man's footsteps and spreading your Good News wherever you go?

Taking these ailments one at a time. Deafness to the Word of God and His will. We all have a lot vying for our limited attention. Besides the voices of family, friends, and jobs, we have breadth and depth of the internet – news, entertainment, games. We have politicians, actors, singers, sports figures. We are deafened by the sheer volume of digital racket pouring toward us. Sometimes this racket is shoved onto us. And at other times we invite it in. We cultivate it. We entertain it. Why? Escape from boredom. Escape from reality, responsibility, reason. The thrill, the excitement, the rush. Maybe your digital life is more interesting than your real life. Maybe your digital community is more accepting, more loving. Or it appears to be. Maybe you have control among the bytes and digits and very little among flesh and blood. Whatever the reason, this cyber-racket is deafening us to the Word of God spoken through His witnesses. It turns us inward and supplies the stuff of our lives. Illusion, fantasy, simulation, and emptiness. God speaks softly so that we will be attentive. And Christ has healed us so that we might hear.

What about our speech impediments? The man Jesus heals had an impediment b/c he'd never heard his mother tongue spoken. Can we say the same? Do we not know how to bear witness b/c we've never heard a witness to Christ? Do you know the vocabulary and grammar of giving testimony to Christ's mercy in your life? If you know what to say, do you hesitant to speak? Why? Fear of embarrassment? Ridicule? Retaliation? Maybe you don't think you are smart enough or educated enough in theology. Who said anything about theology? You're charged with bearing witness to Christ's mercy in your life. You have a PhD in the field of how the Spirit has led you to Divine Love. Tell that story. Talk openly and honestly about how God moves in your life. Talk about the times you've been moved to sacrificial love, sacrificial forgiveness. Talk about how your prayer life keeps you grounded in Christ. Talk about how your sacramental life keeps the windows and doors of grace wide open. Talk about how your good works manifest God's glory in this hateful, angry, and divided world. Christ has healed your tongue. Speak his truth and let everyone know that he is the Way and the Life.

I know you can feel it too. The world pressing in. It's subtle. It's soft, even gentle at times. But it's there. The times and places and occasions when we are “allowed” to be who and what we are in Christ. Regulations and policies and restrictions pile up over time and hem us in. Ultimately, the idea is to deafen us and silence us. Leave us with nothing to listen to and no one to speak to. This is the Devil's work. What he doesn't understand is that he's doing us a HUGE favor! By pressing, by pushing and shoving, he's forcing us to make a choice, leaving us little to no option but to either speak up or stay quiet. Most will willingly go deaf and mute. Some with resist for a while. And a very few will defy him and listen and speak despite his best efforts. Christ has freed your ears and your tongues. To all of us, God says, “Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he comes with vindication.” No promises of a quick and easy rescue. No promises of revenge or retribution. Just a simple, straightforward promise that we will be vindicated. We have already been vindicated. In Christ, we are healed. In Christ, we are freed. Live that freedom!     

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Not processes or procedures. . .Sacrifice!

22^nd Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

OLR, NOLA

I grew up as a Baptist hearing about the idol-worshiping Cat-licks and how they didn't really know Jesus because salvation for them was just about lighting candles and rattling rosary beads. Cat-licks put their faith in vain rituals and not eating meat on Fridays and whispering their sins to some guy in box. They think the Pope is God, and they aren't allowed to read the Bible! Of course, we all know this is nonsense. But it would be easy for someone who isn't Catholic to get confused. Watching us (as a stranger) must be a surreal experience. We do have statues, candles, rituals, rosaries, and. . .some guy in a box. If your faith is purely intellectual – that is, not incarnated in world – then all of our sacramental prayer and use of the things of the world in worship must look terribly pagan. Unfortunately, it's not uncommon to run into Catholics who do themselves and the Church no favors by living up to the stereotypes our Baptist brothers and sisters hold. So, Jesus reminds us that it is not religious procedures or processes that save us. It's a humble and contrite heart sacrificed to God that gets us into heaven.

I've run into Catholics who insist that This or That prayer guarantees the user the exact results prayed for whether God wills it or not. As if God is somehow forced to grant us a wish b/c the ritual was performed correctly. That's witchcraft not Catholicism. God is not a genie bound to our will by incantations. The Pharisees, attempting to observe God's law carefully as Moses said, built up over time an elaborate ritualistic code that purported to insure the believer he or she was always in compliance with the Law. As these thing do, the code inevitable became the Law and merely following the code was sufficient in fulfilling the Law. Procedures, processes, vain rituals substituted for the sacrifice of a humble and contrite heart. So Jesus accuses the Pharisees: “You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” The Pharisees had kept the script but lost the plot. Jesus wants us to remember the plot and live it. Reciting our lines and acting the part isn't enough. Showing up for Mass, saying your lines, paying your dues, and not eating meat on Friday doesn't cut it. We've not been hired to play the role of Catholics on a cosmic stage. We've been saved to live our lives in the world as men and women being perfected into Christs.

We like our rules, we Catholics. We like our bright lines and hard sayings. We even yearn for the occasional tough talk from Father or Bishop. But we also enjoy the idea that living out our faith is mostly about coloring within the wide lines of procedure. Staying just close enough to the world that we aren't too terribly inconvenienced by the rules but far enough away that the stench of hell can't overpower the bayou. We can live our whole lives walking that edge and never once think that what we've signed onto is about sacrifice and surrender, praise and thanksgiving. So, allow me to say this plainly: if you think being a good Catholic is about doing the absolute bare minimum required by Church law, then you might be a baptized Pharisee! The bare minimum is there as the final net before you experience the stench of hell up close and personal. It's meant as a final warning, a last call, and does little more than prevent you from going Full Pagan. You're here this afternoon and that's great. There's a hurricane on the way. But you're here. Now, have you sacrificed your heart – humble and contrite – to the Father? Have you given everything you have and are to Him for Him to shape you into another Christ for the salvation of the world? Celebrating Mass is an excellent step in the right direction.

Jesus teaches us that the traditions of man won't save us. The rules of religious etiquette won't save us. Saying 10,000 rapid-fire rosaries won't save us. Neither will donating a wad of cash to the parish or taking Father to the Saints game. What will save us, what has saved us is Christ's sacrifice on the Cross. The Son became Man so that Man might become the Son. That's our job as followers of Christ – to become Christ in this world for this world. To do that we have to do more than live as baptized Pharisees. Jesus says that it's what's in the heart of a person that defiles. He lists off several common sins – adultery, theft, murder, deceit. What all of these sins have in common is the failure to love as Christ loves us. IOW, a failure to be Christ when that is exactly what we've all agreed to be. No doubt our resolve to become Christs will be tested as we ride out another hurricane. This isn't the first or the last time we'll be tested. To pass the test we look to Christ. And we do what he did: we sacrifice for the love he showed us on the Cross. We become everything he died to make possible for us to become.  

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