Nothing is free. . .except grace

29^th Week OT (S)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Getting “something for nothing” seems like a trap. It's a favorite dodge of politicians. Free healthcare. Free tuition. And, btw, your taxes are going up. Salesmen like this one too. Here's a free microwave for buying a car. Oddly, a microwave-sized “service fee” appears on the bill at checkout. Clerics discovered this dodge early on. Sure, God's grace is free. Absolutely! All you have to do to get it is attend Mass once a week; go to confession once a year; behave yourself in thought, word, and deed; and be as publicly miserable as possible to show everyone that you are a terrible sinner. Obviously, nothing the gov't gives you is ever free. You paid for both the car and the microwave. And grace that comes with strings attached isn't grace. Paul writes, “Grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” Christ's gift to us is his life, death, and resurrection. What can measure such a gift?

Nothing. No thing, at least. Nothing created. And nothing anything created can say, do, or think. Christ's gift to us is freedom from sin and death. With that freedom we can still choose sin and death. And we often do. But there is nothing we can do before he gives us our freedom to earn our freedom. No amount of prayer, fasting, or alms giving increases God's love for us. No amount of sin, no matter how terrible, decreases God's love for us. He freely loves us according to His nature. We choose whether or not to receive His love and make use of His gifts. This is why Jesus says – twice –, “I tell you, if you do not repent, you will perish...” Why would he tell us to repent if we were not free to repent? Repentance cannot give us grace to repent. “Repent first, then I'll make it possible for you to repent.” That's nonsense. Repentance is our reception of an already, always given grace. That's freedom. And it's free. It's free to you and me b/c Christ paid the price of perfecting our human nature on the Cross, according to the measure of his gift. If you are stuck in sin and death, here's a question: why? Why are you choosing to be a slave to that which cannot and will not save you?     

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The recipe for martyrdom

St. Ignatius of Antioch

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Ignatius of Antioch, writing to the first century church in Rome, asks his brothers and sisters in Christ not to rescue him from martyrdom: “I plead with you: show me no untimely kindness. Let me be food for the wild beasts, for they are my way to God. I am God’s wheat and shall be ground by their teeth so that I may become Christ’s pure bread…Do not stand in the way of my birth to real life; do not wish me stillborn...Let me attain pure light. Only on my arrival there can I be fully a human being.” Now, hearing this, we can embrace his plea as a confession of heroic faith, or we can dismiss it as self-destructive fanaticism. 21^st c. Americans are trained to hear deeply held and fervently voiced expressions of faith as delusions, or, at best, romantic drivel. Cynicism and ironic distance can make it all too easy to hear a bit of comedy in Ignatius' plea. I mean, surely, he's joking, right? He wants to be chewed up by lions so he can become Christ's true bread? Seriously? The answer is: yes, yes, he does. Does the fact that someone could believe so deeply, so fervently make us uncomfortable? Well, it should. Because we are called to that same depth and fervor.

Whatever we may think of his literary talents, Ignatius' plea makes perfect sense when read along side the Gospel. As the kids say these days, “He understood the assignment.” Fall to the ground. Lose your life. Serve and follow Christ. Die. Produce good fruit. The recipe for martyrdom. A recipe for bearing witness to the mercy and love we ourselves have received. We know that we cannot give what we do not have. But do we understand that we must give all that we have? Why? Because everything we have and are is given to us. Our lives, our faith, our hope, everything is first given to us by God. And our mission and ministry is to give it all away. To imitate Christ in passing along to others all the gifts God has given us. Most especially the gift of sacrificial love, the gift of Christ himself. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. It is unlikely that any of us will be eaten by lions in the Coliseum. But we are nonetheless called upon to flourish where we are planted. Ignatius' blood has fallen on Irving, TX; on UD; and St. Albert's Priory. On you and me. We are well-watered. And it is time to bear witness and give back all God has given us. 

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Exist for the praise of His glory

28^th Week OT (F)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Paul taught us yesterday that were are created, chosen, and blessed in Christ so that we might return to our Father holy and w/o blemish. Today he teaches us that we are also chosen in accord with His purpose: to exist for the praise of His glory. Aristotle and Aquinas teach us that to know the nature of a thing is to know its purpose, its telos. And knowing a thing's purpose tells everything we need to know about how that thing is properly ordered in the world while fulfilling its purpose. If we exist to praise God's glory, – that is, our purpose is to praise God – then how do we properly order our thoughts, words, and deeds towards reaching our telos? First, you must know and understand who you are in Christ Jesus. Before you were created, you were chosen and blessed. Chosen to be a son, a daughter of the Most High. Chosen to be His child and heir to His kingdom. You are Christ – imperfect right now – but being made perfect with the freedom won for you on the Cross. Second, you must know and understand that you are free. Free from sin. Free from death. Blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavens to live and thrive as one who is becoming Christ. Third, you must freely give all that you have received. You have received mercy. Be merciful. You have received love. Be loving. You have received faith. Be faithful. You are a gift, so freely give. Lastly, and most importantly, in thought, word, and deed, you must give God thanks and praise for the gift of His Holy Spirit – the first installment of your inheritance. Who is this HS? He is the Love with which the Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father. We participate in their love as a gift, becoming sharers in the divine nature. To the degree that we love as He loves us, we become more and more like Love Himself. Aquinas tells us that love causes joy. Joy is an effect of love. So, ask yourself: am I joyful? Do I exude divine love in such a way that others see Christ through me? Do my words and deeds give God thanks and praise for my inheritance? If someone were to observe me at prayer, would they see joy, or anguish? Would they want to join me in prayer, or avoid me? If you are not joyful at being made Christ, remember this: you exist to praise God's glory. He created you. Chose you. And blessed you so that you can come to Him holy and unblemished. You are gift from Him, made to be given back to Him.

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Created, chosen, blessed

28^th Week OT (Th)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Do you understand who you are in Christ? Paul teaches us: [God] chose us before the foundation of the world and blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing to be holy and without blemish before him. So, before the creation of the world, we were chosen to be returned – holy and w/o blemish – to the Father through Christ. To accomplish this return, the Father blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Before we were created, we were chosen and blessed. Chosen to be sons and daughters of the Most High. Chosen to be His children and heirs to His kingdom. We were blessed, consecrated, set apart to live and thrive in an intimate relationship with Him. Blessed with everything we need to flourish in the world while remaining wholly and only His. It is by the Father's will that we were created, chosen, and blessed. It is His will that we return to Him when our time here is done. It is also His will that we return to Him freely. That you and I return to Him as a Self-Gift. That we make of ourselves a Gift to Him. But we cannot make ourselves a gift to Him w/o Him. So, He became one of us so that we might become like Him. It is through Christ and with Christ that you and I become acceptable gifts, holy and perfect sacrifices offered to the Father. In effect, we were created, chosen, and blessed in Christ to become Christ and to follow him freely to the Cross, to the Tomb, and on to the Wedding Feast in heaven. Do you understand who you are in Christ? You are Christ – an imperfect gift right now – but being made perfect with the freedom won for you on the Cross. So, go home, go to the office, go to the class, to the gym, wherever you go when you leave here this morning and be and speak and act and think and feel like the “being made perfect gift” that you are. You are free to be wholly and only His.

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Hang on to Gratitude

28^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

I grew up in rural Mississippi with more or less tradition-minded Baptist parents. My younger brother and I learned from Day One to say “yessir/no sir,” “please,” “thank you,” “excuse me.” Failure to express proper respect or gratitude earned a swift and terrible rebuke. I still use “Mr.” and “Ms” when addressing adults, and I cringe a little when people call me by my first name w/o asking, or shorten it to “Phil.” It's all very old-fashioned, I know, but there's something about the habits of good manners that makes life easier. In the case of the healed leper, his deeply felt sense of gratitude actually saves him! He discovers – probably to his great surprise – that giving God thanks for his healing is not only the polite thing to do but a way to salvation as well. For us, the baptized, giving God thanks for His blessings is way to persevere, a way to remain in Christ and thus end our earthly pilgrimage reigning with him in the Kingdom. Is it possible that the good manners many of us were taught as children is what remains of this spiritual insight? Saying “thank you,” especially to God, is a path to healing and salvation.

We hear Paul say to Timothy: “If we have died with him we shall also live with him; if we persevere we shall also reign with him.” That persevering part is what most of us find difficult. Dying with him in the waters of baptism was easy. Living with him has its challenges, but we manage it with the sacraments. Persevering with him however is on another level entirely. Persevering here means staying close to Christ. Hanging on to him through the best and the worst. Living with him whether we “feel” his presence or not. Perseverance is the good habit of being tenacious in faith when every fiber of your being is screaming at you: “Compromise! Just fit in! Surrender! This is too hard!” Have you seen that video of a bull dog swinging himself around a tree, teeth clamped on the end of a rope? The rope will break, or the tree will fall before that dog lets go. That's tenacity. That's perseverance. Now, I wouldn't trust my teeth to hang on like a bull dog's. But I do trust that gratitude is the key to staying close to Christ. The leper proves this. Christ teaches this. And I can bear personal witness that giving God thanks for His blessings is essential in our long trek to holiness.

As a priest in an academic ministry, I've never had my own parish to run, so I've spent a lot of time going out to parishes to hear confessions, give missions or talks, and basically just visiting with people. Every time I go out, I hear a lot of anxiety about the Church. I get confused questions about the faith. Angry comments about the news coming out of Rome. Questions and doubts about the future. Just generally an overwhelming sense that things aren't well with the Body of Christ. Something is wrong, something is upsetting the peace we've come to expect from following Christ. In response, I have to sharply suppress my professorial instincts and avoid giving a lecture on the history of the Church. No one wants to hear how good we have it compared to, say, the Church during the French Revolution. Then I have to swallow the need to remind folks that the “peace of Christ” comes with a promise of persecution. What I usually end up saying is that difficult times require a bull dog's tenacity. It might be too much to say that we're being tested. But – we're being tested. Not tested in the sense that God is deliberately trying to scare us or trip us up. But tested in the sense that steel is tested under pressure to measure its purity and strength. Our test is measuring the purity and strength of our gratitude. If you will to endure with Christ, you will be grateful to God for His blessings.

You might ask here: why does God need our gratitude? The answer is: He doesn't. Giving God thanks does nothing for God b/c He needs nothing from us. Our desire to give Him thanks is itself a gift that benefits us alone. In other words, we are doing ourselves a favor by returning thanks for all that God gives us. Failing to give thanks breeds narcissism and entitlement – I am owed. And entitlement is the rich soil of pride. If we nurture pride by failing in gratitude, we end up denying Christ – the ultimate gift from God. We end up being among the nine lepers who were healed but not saved. Ungrateful wretches living lives of resentment and anger b/c we believe that God owes us a debt. As followers of Christ, our best means of staying close to Christ is to be a tenacious Christian bull dog, refusing to let go of gratitude.

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Giving, getting, receiving

27^th Week OT (Th)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

To understand what Jesus is teaching us about prayer and gifts, we need to distinguish between and among three related terms: giving, getting, and receiving. I can give you a book. You can get that book from me. But did you receive the book as a gift? What if I had borrowed the book from you, and now I'm returning it? Is it a gift? No. What if you helped me organize my office in exchange for the book? That's payment; not a gift. What if I spilled coffee on your book, and now I'm replacing it with a new copy? Not a gift. For the book to be a gift it must be freely given and freely received. No strings attached. No obligations. If I expect you to read the book; write a report on it; and take a quiz. . .not a gift. There are strings attached. Jesus teaches us, “...ask and you will receive; seek and you will find...For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds...” Asking is receiving. Seeking is finding. God gives. We receive. God gives us every good gift from all eternity. From the instant of creation every good gift you will ever get has already been given to you. The exact date and time you will get those gifts is a mystery. What's not a mystery is that you will get those gifts only if you receive them as gifts. If you think of God's gifts as payments or loans or any other sort of conditional exchange, well, you have received them as something other than gifts. And you've missed the chance to give the proper response to receiving a gift – gratitude. However, if you receive His gifts as gifts and give Him thanks, then you grow in humility and improve your ability to recognize future gifts. The best strategy then for receiving God's gifts is to always and everywhere give Him thanks for whatever gifts He's already given you. Here's where faith comes into play – we don't know what's a gift and what isn't. God does. So, give Him thanks no matter what happens. Good, bad, ugly. Give Him thanks. Bad knees? Thank you, Lord. Career going well? Thank you, Lord. Trouble in your marriage? Thank you, Lord. Doing well in your classes? Thank you, Lord. Take every chance to be grateful. To grow in humility. Humility makes it possible for us to recognize God's gifts and receive them as such. It prompts us to ask for what we need and receive what we are given. Remember: we receive out of our faith, our trust. Our Father in heaven will not give us a snake when what we need is a fish.     

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Love cannot be outsourced

27^th Week OT (M)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Christian charity – agape – cannot be outsourced to an agency, a bureaucracy, or a corporation. Jesus never commands us to love God and one another through the machinations of gov't committees, commissions, or councils. Agape is one-on-one, hands-on, person-to-person love. The loved and the lover then move on to another in need and love him/her into Christ and then that one joins them to move on to love yet another. We might involve a third-party – like the innkeeper – to help with the basic physical needs of someone in trouble but the loving part of their care is up to us. Now, of course, the innkeeper himself could care for the troubled soul out of love. And that becomes another agape relationship. The point of all these agape relationships is not the relief of material poverty or the healing of wounds. Material poverty is relieved and wounds are healed – and that's all to the good and should be done! But the point – the end goal, the telos – of Christian charity must always and only be to give glory of God. During the Antonine and Cyprian plagues of the 2^nd and 3^rd c in the Roman Empire, the Church flourished b/c Christians were willing to do what the gov't wouldn't – take care of the sick and dying. Their witness turned the tide of gov't persecution, giving the Church her first taste of credibility and respectability. Over the centuries, hospitals, orphanages, hostels, universities, convalescent homes, and scientific institutions followed – all inventions of the Church, established to give glory to God. PF has warned us that the Church can never merely be an NGO, a non-governmental organization, an international agency that sets aside the supernatural work of agape for the salvation of souls for the secular goal of “doing good.” Christian charity is done so that others may see the glory of God at work in my work. Done right, others don't see me at all. But God alone. They see Christ and come to see Christ being perfected in themselves. Are the massive relief efforts of large NGO's more efficient? Sure. But no where does Jesus claim that the Way, the Truth, and the Life is efficient. Or more productive of immediate results. Or better at logistics or management. He simply claims that he is the only Way to the Father. No bureaucracy ever created has the paperwork for that kind of sacrificial love. 

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What will persuade you?

26^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Getting to The Point of a parable can be tricky if we give too much attention to secondary issues. For example, we can easily mistake the parable of the RM and Lazarus to be a parable about the evils of wealth and the eternal glories of poverty. It is true that it's harder for a rich man to get into heaven. Why? Because a rich man can grow to depend on his wealth rather than God. While the poor must depend on God entirely. But our parable this morning doesn't say that the RM depended on his wealth rather than God. It doesn't say that Lazarus was particularly holy just b/c he was poor. The RM doesn't refuse Lazarus charity nor does he go out of his way to be cruel. So, why is he is hell and Lazarus in heaven? The plain text of the parable says that the RM enjoyed luxury on earth therefore he is tormented after death. Lazarus was tormented on earth therefore he enjoys luxury after death. Is this is the point of the parable? No. It's the setup. The backstory. Along with the RM's plea to Abraham to send someone from the dead to urge his brothers to repent. The point of the parable is Abraham's last sentence: “If [your brothers] will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.”

Just two verses before we read the parable, we read Jesus saying, “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for the smallest part of a letter of the law to become invalid.” Jesus is making it clear that he is not abolishing the Law but completing it, perfecting it. The parable reinforces this teaching by making it clear that everything anyone needs to achieve eternal life is already fully contained within the Law and the Prophets. IOW, the Law and the Prophets of the OT foretold the coming of the Christ. The witness of the NT is simply the fulfillment, the perfection of the Old. If the RM's brothers won't listen to the Prophets and follow the Law in love, then even a visit from someone beyond the grave won't change their minds. The parable dares us to consider carefully what persuaded us to repent and follow the Christ. What might persuade others to repent and follow Christ? Embedded in this dare is another question: what prevents us from repenting and following Christ even after we've started along the Way? When we become lost, what encourages us to stay lost?

Going back to the parable, we can see at least one condition that might persuade us away from Christ – wealth. I know I just said that the RM isn't in hell because he is rich. That's true. The text doesn't say that. But we know that worldly prosperity can be a terrible distraction from the pursuit of holiness. Many of us might hope to one day win the lottery or inherit Aunt Mildred's multi-million dollar estate. If you nurture such a hope, you are tempting God and gambling with your soul. Every kind of worldly wealth comes with attachments. The most demanding of which is the desire for more. Bigger, better, richer, more, more, more. And each increase adds more weight to another attachment, another anchor to a passing world. We also know that wealth isn't limited to material luxuries. We can just as easily become attached to the wealth found in acquiring political power, for example. Academic-types know the temptations of the wealth bound up in prestige. Preachers are easily tempted by the wealth given in popularity and applause. None of these is a sin as such. But all of them can persuade us off the Way and get us lost. Like the complacent in Zion, condemned by the Prophet Amos, we can wallow in our luxury and fail to notice how and why we've gone astray.

The Good News is that the Way is always open, always straight and smooth. Yes, the Gate is narrow. But those who have put on Christ and keep him on are supernaturally skinny! Jesus wants us to know and understand that he is the fulfillment of Law and the Prophets. He is the advent of our salvation prophesied and proclaimed in the OT. Our obligations under the Covenant have been satisfied, and we are free and clear of any debt owed to God. As we move through our days toward a final judgment, we are tasked with remaining faithfully within the Law of Love, embodied in the Church and fed by the sacraments. Our only attachment is to Christ. Anything, anyone else is to be attached through him and with him. If you are wealthy, your wealth belongs to Christ. If you are powerful, your power belongs to Christ. If you are intelligent or athletically-gifted or beautiful or eloquent, it all belongs to Christ. To stay on the Way, turn your gifts to the service of others. Attach your gifts to others through Christ so that they too can see and hear the Word of mercy spoken by the Father. Christ is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. And he returned from death to show us his saving love.

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Amazed but not comprehending

25^th Week OT (S)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

So, everyone is amazed. But no one understands. Just yesterday, a bereft father brought his demon-possessed son to Jesus for an exorcism. He tells Jesus that the disciples were unable to cast out the unclean spirit. Jesus responds, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you and endure you?” You can almost feel the disciples hanging their heads in disgrace, looking around for a hole to crawl into! Jesus casts out the unclean spirit, and all were astonished. Astonished yet uncomprehending. What were the Amazed failing to understand? The Big Picture; that is, the divine plan for humanity's salvation. So, Jesus prophesies for them – again, “Pay attention to what I am telling you. The Son of Man is to be handed over to men.” For the second time, the Son of Man reveals his end. And they still don't understand. Why? Because the meaning is hidden from them. AND b/c they were afraid to ask. They feared knowing the truth, knowing the meaning of Jesus' cryptic prophecy. Think about it: the disciples have left everything and everyone behind to follow Christ. Everything they have and are is directly tied to Jesus and his ministry. He's a relatively young man, so they figure they have a good thirty years with him to develop the ministry and establish themselves as religious leaders. Jesus is their bread and butter and he's running around prophesying about being handed over to the authorities! That's not a good look for long-term investment and growth. IOW, they are thinking as men do, not as God does. We know how things turn out. Jesus is handed over. He dies on the Cross and rises from the tomb. The HS enlightens the disciples. And they evangelize the known world, growing the oldest living human institution on the planet, the Church. Here we all are 2,000 years later. Yes, we are astonished, but are we comprehending? God's plan for our salvation was accomplished on the Cross. Our human nature is healed. We are free to receive the gift of divine love and participate fully in the life of Christ as heirs to his kingdom. We are sons and daughters of his household. Beloved children. Partakers in the divine nature. God's plan for you, for me, for all of us together is the same as it has always been: to liberate us from sin and death so that we are able to return to Him like Christ did – fully human, fully divine. That should astonish everyone!      

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Broken elevator, gimpy knees, whiney novices

HELP!

The Priory elevator is broken. The motherboard melted and damaged most of the parts near it. Parts will cost approx. $11,000 and labor another $6,000. Needless to say, as mendicant friars, we don't have $17,000 hidden in a jar or under the Prior's mattress. Or anywhere else for that matter.

The novices have been carrying me up and down the stairs three or four times a day, and they've started complaining about back pain, turned ankles, and psoriasis for some reason.

So, if you can help us out, go to St Albert the Great Priory and send us some $$$.

My gimpy knees and the whiney novices very much appreciate it!

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Denying, carrying, suffering well

NB. For me, writing is thinking. . .meaning, I don't know exactly what I think until I start writing. This homily is an example of what happens when I trust my process. . .and run out of time for editing/revising. Oh well.

St. Andrew Kim

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Gain the world and lose your soul! Obviously, a bad bargain. But many make this bargain everyday. In small ways and large, we all go to this negotiating table daily and haggle over the details. Whether the sticking point is to sneak a twenty out of the till at work or sell dirty bombs to terrorists; to lie in an uncomfortable social situation or cheat on one's spouse, we are – consciously or not – forming the vice of putting ourselves near an occasion of sin. The impulse to cultivate this bad habit is at once social, cultural, psychological, physiological, and spiritual; that is, it's human. We want, and we are motivated to acquire. Jesus knows this better than anyone. So, he says, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” What better way to lose the world and gain your soul than to follow the One who gives his life for the eternal life of the world? How do we do this? We have to notice something fundamental here: the way Jesus carefully balances on the line btw the personal/universal, btw the subjective/objective. I must deny MYSELF. But I still have to pick up MY cross. Having denied myself and picked up my cross, I must follow him. Even after denying myself, there's still a personal cross for me to carry while following him. I'm not carrying your cross or his cross. I'm carrying my own cross. But I'm carrying it beside you and your cross in line behind Christ. Each one of us is bearing his/her unique cross behind a universal savior. And we're doing it side-by-side in the universal Church. The crosses we bear are both a burden to suffer and the way we participate in our own redemption. IOW, The Cross is the altar upon which Sin is crucified – once for all. My cross is the altar upon which my sin is crucified – repeatedly for me. But – my cross and your cross only works for the crucifixion of our sins b/c Sin itself was crucified on The Cross. When we do all this denying, carrying, suffering well, we're bearing witness to the power of the Father to liberate us from our sins and bring us more fully into His divine life. That's martyrdom. That's bearing witness. So, we show the world that we are both wounded and healed, fallen and lifted up, lost and found. That we are both sinful and forgiven, unlovable yet loved by Love Himself. 

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Choose the Rock

St. Robert Bellarmine

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

My father lives in a house I helped to build in 1978. I remember the day we dug the foundation and poured the concrete. I left that house in 1982 to go to college. Since then, I've returned again and again. From as close by as Oxford, MS and from as far away as China. The Order has sent me to England and Italy and to even stranger places like CA. But I've always returned to that forest green house set firmly in the woods of N. MS. Along with my family and the Order, it is my foundation in this world. Despite the best philosophical efforts of Nietzsche, Derrida, Foucault, and the poisonous politics of Marx, I've managed – with the help of the Holy Spirit and the Roman Stoics – to remain grounded in reality. Not an easy task these days! It would be far easier and more rewarding in the world to take a hammer to those foundations and throw myself into the violent sandstorm of socially constructed narratives of identity and power. Instead, I found Christ. Or rather, I finally recognized that he'd found me. I finally heard him: “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.”

Setting aside the question of how wise I may or may not be, I can say that living life w/o a foundation can be a great deal of fun. . .and very, very dangerous. Without a center to return to, without a rock to stand on, every fad, fashion, and trendy bit of nonsense that floats by can put on the costume of truth and demand your allegiance. Without a bit solid ground under your feet – up is down, left is right, yes is no, and nothing really matters. Justice is just power. Peace is just violence. Love is just love. Wisdom is just folly. It's all just whatever. Whatever you want any of it to be. So, we have the Way, the Truth, and the Life. A man, a divine person who is himself the foundation stone, the center. We have his Word, speaking to us still. We have his Body, the Church, us. We have a direction. And we have an end, a goal. What do we do with all this? We act. If we listen and fail to act on what we hear, then we are fools who have built a house on sand. No center. No foundation. The rain and wind come and our house collapses into ruin. You can learn to love the storm and the ruin it leaves behind, or you can build your house on the Rock. Don't be a fool. Choose the Rock.  

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Love God first

23^rd Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

I'm a good Southern Boy. The thought of hating my mama makes me cringe. I can't imagine hating mama so that I can love Jesus. But that's what Jesus clearly says has to happen. How can we understand this command? We can reach for two extremes. First, Jesus means exactly what he says. You have to hate your family so that you can love him. You can love him or your family. Not both. Either/or. So, choose. Second, Jesus is just being hyperbolic. He's exaggerating for affect. He doesn't really mean “hate your mama and daddy.” He's trying to get you to understand how important it is to love him. These extremes are both wrong insofar as they misunderstand the fundamental point Jesus is making. God is love. We live, move, have our being in God. So, we live, move, and exist in divine love. We cannot be Christ's disciples if we do not acknowledge that loving God first makes it possible for us to love others next. The first lesson of being a disciple is this: love in the proper order; love according to the nature of what is. God first; everything created next. This is the foundation upon which we do the work of growing in holiness.

Loving God first has eternal effects. We love our family, friends, and neighbors. We love our enemies. Those who persecute us. Those who sin against us. Those who sin against themselves. We love in apparently ridiculous ways and in dangerous circumstances b/c not doing so places us outside the Love Who is God Himself. We call that sin. If we live, move, and exist in God Who is Love and then reject that love by failing to love, we are in effect ceasing to live, ceasing to move, and ceasing to be who we are. If we should die in this state of unloving rejection, we remain unloving and rejecting for eternity. We call that hell. God loves us still, of course, but we cannot know and receive His love as love. Instead, we experience His love for us as a punishment, a torment, an eternal loss. We receive His love as fear, anger, loathing, and rejection. These perverted perceptions keep us in an eternal state of near-demonic fury. Having chosen to live outside His love while we lived, we can do nothing but persist outside His love in death. Therefore, we are given these years of life to perfect the good habit of loving others in Divine Love.

Loving God first also has real world effects. We love our family, friends, and neighbors. We love our enemies. Those who persecute us. Those who sin against us. Those who sin against themselves. We love in apparently ridiculous ways and in dangerous circumstances b/c not doing so places us outside the Love Who is God Himself. Jesus commands us to love him first b/c he knows what can happen when we love a sinner but rebuke the sinner's sin. The person we love can become the sin we hate. Talk to a recovering alcoholic. He/she will tell you that they became alcoholism. When you confront them with their disease, you are talking to the disease not the person. Talk to a committed adulterer, a serial liar, anyone who's living persistently, knowingly in mortal sin w/o contrition and you aren't talking to the sinner but the sin. Their reaction to you will likely be explosive. Anger, venom, accusations of hatred, maybe even violence. Think of pro-abortion activists and how they react to pro-life prayer groups. The temptation to fight violence with violence is tremendous. Thus, Christ commands us to love him first, foundationally, so that our love is never conditioned on the sin of the sinner but on his sacrifice on the Cross for sinners, including you and me.

That's the Cross you and I are to carry. The Cross of loving the sinner while hating the sin. And yes, the sinner here includes you and me and our sins. Our love for the sinner can never self-righteous or damning or judgmental. You and I have no authority to find anyone permanently guilty of sin. We can see the sinner sin, and we can say that the sin is sin. But we cannot declare a sinner guilty of sin and set his/her sentence for eternity. Only the sinner can declare his/her guilt. Only the sinner can set an eternal sentence, choosing life or death. So long as there is life, there is the possibility of repentance. And so, we love ridiculously, dangerously, extravagantly. We love God first, last, and always. We love as an example, a model. We love as a goal, an end. And so long as we love as God loves us, we abide in His commands, showing mercy, forgiving, and standing apart from the world all the while infecting the world with His creating and re-creating love. 

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Putting on the Mind of Christ

22^nd Week OT (T)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

What is it “to have the mind of Christ”? Think of this way: we talk about the Church as “the Body of Christ” of which each one of us is a member. My right big toe is a big toe on my right foot. It's not a nose or a tongue. My toe is not my nose or my tongue. They each have a specific function, a privileged location, and a distinctly different appearance. But my right big toe – like my nose and tongue – belongs to me. What they have in common is me. We could say that they are what they are insofar as they participate in me. By analogy, each one of us is who and what we are insofar as we participate in the mind of Christ – unique in our gifts, yes; but also common in our shared belonging to Christ. “Putting on the mind of Christ” then means that the unique individual freely assumes him or herself into the common Body of Christ and takes on the mission and ministry Jesus left that Body to complete. This is not merely a new identity; it's a total transformation – heart, mind, body, and soul – a new creation set on the Way to becoming Christ in the world. Our salvation is not merely about being rescued from sin and death; or being healed from an eternal wound; or being found not guilty of our many crimes against God. Our salvation is about living in the world as new creatures in Christ on the Way to becoming Christ more perfectly. We can only attempt this transformation – much less achieve it! – with the persistent and generous aid of God Himself. If my toes, nose, or tongue detach themselves from me, they cease being mine and they cannot fulfill their purpose for me. They cannot function as mine apart from me. Likewise, once we belong to Christ, we cannot fulfill our purpose as Christs if we detach ourselves from his Body, if we “take off” his mind. So long as we have the mind of Christ, we are fed by his Body and given every good gift to grow toward our perfection in him. Our daily challenge then is to use the gifts we've been given keep ourselves attached to Body of Christ – thinking with his mind, feeling with his heart, and discerning with his soul. This is the Way of Peace.     

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Squeezing through the Narrow Gate

21^st Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Jesus says the entrance to heaven is a Narrow Gate. This makes me nervous. Ample Friars have difficulty navigating through narrow spaces. Had I been present at this morning's Gospel episode, I might have suggested to the Lord that he use a different image – a bridge. I would've told the Lord about Mrs. Ruby Turpin – Flannery O'Connor's fictional paragon of 1950's Southern white rural middle-class Protestant respectability, – and her revelation of heaven: “[Mrs. Turpin] saw the streak as a vast swinging bridge extending upward from the earth through a field of living fire. Upon it a vast horde of souls were rumbling toward heaven.” Who's crossing this bridge? Mrs. Turpin is shocked to see “whole companies of white-trash, clean for the first time in their lives, and bands of black [folks] in white robes, and battalions of freaks and lunatics shouting and clapping and leaping like frogs.” (I would've quietly added that she saw an Ample Friar as well.) Ruby also sees her own kind, bringing up the rear and alone singing on key. “Yet she could see by their shocked and altered faces that even their virtues were being burned away.” We can imagine that it was a distant relative of Ruby's who asked Jesus, “Lord, will only a few be saved?”

As is his habit, Jesus doesn't answer the question asked. He says instead, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.” He follows this cryptic answer with an image of some being inside and some being outside. Some make it through the gate in time. Some don't. To those left outside, the Master of the House says, “I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!” It almost goes w/o saying that this is not the image of heaven we're used to hearing about. God is love. God wants everyone in heaven. No soul left behind! All true. It is God's will that all men and women return to Him after death. But – as Jesus makes clear – it is also His will that each one of us return to Him freely. It is His will that we choose to enter the Narrow Gate; that we freely receive the grace necessary to dwell with Him in heaven. Jesus says, “Strive to enter through the Narrow Gate.” Those strong enough will make it through. Those w/o the strength will not. So, the crucial question now is: from where or whom do we get this necessary strength?

O'Connor tells us that Mrs. Turpin is shocked to see who makes it across the bridge to heaven. She's shocked b/c all her respectable life she's believed that getting to heaven is about being clean, propertied, responsible, and white. Of course, none of that matters when striving to enter through the Narrow Gate. What matters is the strength of our striving. And your striving – to be effective – must be graced. That is, simply working for heaven never works. Working with God for your salvation does. Any priest who's heard confessions for more than ten minutes can tell you that Catholics tend to believe – even if only unconsciously – that they must earn their salvation. That God will love them more if they kneel more, fast more, pray more, give more money to the Church. They see the Narrow Gate and think that passing through is the struggle. That getting narrow enough to squeeze by is the work. False. The struggle, the striving is all about working to rid ourselves of whatever it is that keeps us from fully receiving God's help, His grace. God will pull us through the NG if we chose to be pulled. So, the question is: who or what – if anyone or anything – is keeping you from choosing to be pulled?

Look at the freaks and lunatics on Mrs. Turpin's bridge. They carry none of the social burdens she herself chooses to carry. They have not loaded themselves down with expectations of purity or virtue or progress or any other burden that stands in the way of choosing heaven. They choose heaven and live accordingly. Mrs. Turpin chooses status, middle-class morals, property, and race as her burdens. And lives accordingly. In His love for her, God sends her a revelation: none of that stuff matters. What matters is loving God with your whole heart, mind, body, and soul. And then living that love in the company of friends, family, and neighbors. Being loved by God and loving Him in turn has practical, everyday effects. You become more virtuous. More humble. More merciful. Holier. In the world but not of it. But when we start with the effects of divine love and only then move toward God, we become self-righteous. We become RT. Sure of our rightness with God. Sure of our salvation. Only to be shocked when our virtues are burned away and we find ourselves outside the NG. Our strength to enter heaven comes from God alone. Our strength to receive His help comes from God alone. Therefore, our daily exercise is freely choosing to be helped in Christ. 

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