Don't be too quick to pull the weeds

16^th Week OT (S)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

I was once a weed in the wheat field of the Church. As a novice for the province back in 1999, I took the habit fully committed to the idea that the Church must be revolutionized to fit the modern world. I supported all the usual agenda items: women priests, non-sexist language in the liturgy; popularly elected bishops; getting rid of all the supernatural junk cluttering up our theology, etc., ad. nau. I remember telling a senior member of the community that I thought it was ridiculous that a local group of religious sisters had to depend on male priests to say Mass for them! Just ordain a few sisters and be done with it! I had a fever for change. Well, I got better. That's a long story for another time. My point here, and I think Jesus' point in the Gospel, is this: do not be too quick to pull the weeds. Why? Because doing so might damage the wheat. He's warning his disciples about the temptation to permanently exclude sinners from the Kingdom before the final judgment. Weeds cannot, of course, magically turn into wheat. But sinners most certainly can gracefully turn into saints.

Now, I'm not saying that I don't still have some weedy characteristics. I'm not yet a saint. Any of the brothers here can bear witness to my occasional lapses into weediness. Like any other follower of Christ, I have good days and bad. And that's the core of the parable. While we live, we can change. If you are uprooted on a bad day and thrown into the burn pile, who's to say tomorrow wouldn't see you permanently transformed into productive wheat? Only God knows. But what about the damage weeds do to the healthy crop in the meantime? True enough, weeds deplete the available food and water for the wheat. But God's grace is boundless and always available. Weeds can block the sunlight, overshadowing the wheat. True. But nothing can block the light of Christ from reaching the sinner...except the sinner himself. Weeds can give a false impression that the harvest will be abundant. Also, true. But, in the end, at harvest-time, the weeds will go into the burn pile and the harvest will be the harvest. That's God's business. Not something we need to worry about. What we need to worry about is making sure we're in the constant state of being transformed into the best wheat God made us to be. The weeds will take care of themselves. 

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Seeing ain't Seeing

Ss. Joachim and Anne

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

What are the necessary conditions for the possibility of sight? That is, what must be true of me if I am going to be able to see? First, I'll need eyes. Then, an optical nerve. Finally, an occipital lobe with the help of the parietal and temporal lobes in the brain. All of these need to be functional to one degree or another. Then, I'll need something in the world capable of radiating and/or reflecting photons. All of this combined gives me all I need to see. Now, what are the necessary conditions for the possibility of Seeing; that is, what must be true of me if I am going to See – to See in the way the prophets and the righteous long to See? Jesus doesn't give us a detailed explanation for this kind of Seeing. He doesn't lay out the necessary conditions, or list off any minimal criteria. But it's fairly obvious that being a prophet and a being righteous person isn't enough. Being able to glean the will of God in the present moment isn't enough. Being in right relationship with Him under the Law isn't enough. Something more is required. That something more is the reception of grace, taking into oneself the gift of God Himself. Knowing and loving God in the person of Christ Jesus surpasses knowing about Him like a prophet or loving Him like a follower of the Law.

Jesus says that seeing him is to See the Father. Physically seeing Jesus is spiritually Seeing the Father. This is the advantage the disciples have over the prophets and the righteous. Their “seeing” is mediated by either knowledge or the Law. Our “seeing” is mediated by the Incarnated Word, God the Son. They are counted righteous by doing their duty. We are made righteous by receiving the gift of God Himself. In the sacraments, in prayer, in doing righteous deeds; in acts of mercy, love, and forgiveness; in growing in holiness, we take into ourselves the One Who saves. And we become the One Who saves us. Then, we are those who radiate/reflect the light of Christ for others to See. It's not enough that we See. We must also be the condition for the possibility of others Seeing. We must be Seen.

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Can you drink the chalice?

Feast of St. James
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St. Albert the Great, Irving

Mama Zebedee is on a mission! She's out to secure positions of power for her sons in the coming Kingdom. Clear-eyed, purpose-driven, and shameless, she surveys the political landscape and decides that her boys deserve to be the right and left hand of Christ the King. The other disciples balk at this brazen request. We don't know how the sons themselves react. Maybe they put her up to it. Or maybe they're behind her, whining with embarrassment, “Mommmm...!” Regardless, the request is made. And Jesus, either exasperated or just surprised, answers: “You have no idea what you're asking for!” And why doesn't she or the sons or the other disciples understand this self-serving petition? Because they have yet to grasp what the Kingdom of God is or how it will operate. In their minds, Christ's kingdom will be like every other kingdom on the face of the Earth – a purely political entity that governs through legalized violence, taxes, laws, and the exercise of worldly power. Because they do not understand, Jesus attempts to clarify the issue for them: “Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?” They reply, “We can.” They don't get it. But they will.

We know how things end for James and the other apostles. They die bearing witness to the Gospel. Only John makes it to a natural end. Had they known how things would turn out, they might've reconsidered their commitment to Christ. As it is, they stick to him, claiming their readiness to drink the cup he drinks. That chalice – the cup he drinks at the Last Supper – is the chalice of his destiny; that is, a sign of who and what he is for the salvation of the world. Jesus is referring to Ps 11 and the Biblical notion that “drinking the allotted cup” is to accept what God has planned for you. Christ's allotted cup is to die in sacrificial love for the redemption of sinners. Can the Sons of Zebedee and the other disciples accept their own cups? To be prominent in the Kingdom of God means to die while serving the lowest among us. There is no worldly power or prestige or wealth or celebrity attached to serving the lowest. There is be no pomp or parades propping up an inflated ego, or grand monuments marking the faux achievements of a hollow king. If you will be great in the kingdom, you will be small in the world. And being small in the world means losing the Self in surrender to God and becoming His perfect instrument of mercy.

Keep Christ's Cup squarely in mind this year. We are quickly falling into another Presidential election. The Enemy is excited b/c he gets to tempt us with the lie that God's kingdom can be and will be established on Earth if – and only if! – we vote for the Right Person. Paradise on Earth is always just one more election away, just one more politician in office. If we could only get Our Guy or Gal in office, then all would be well. It won't be. It can't be. For the simple reason that the Kingdom is not of this world. We must do our duty as faithful followers of Christ and participate as citizens. Vote, pay taxes, obey the law. But none of that means that we believe the lie that paradise is possible before the second coming of Christ. “Put no trust in princes,” the Psalmist says. Nor politicians nor bureaucrats. “Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.” Ever heard a politician use that as a campaign slogan?

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You are a shepherd

16^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

What do sheep without a shepherd look like? I mean, if you see a bunch of sheep in a field, how can you tell whether or not they have a shepherd? What if they have a shepherd, but he's sound asleep under a tree? Or maybe he's out looking for wolves to attack the flock? Is there a difference btw “not having a shepherd” and “having an evil or lazy shepherd”? Lots of questions this morning! But here's the big one: can a collection of sheep be a flock if there is no one to shepherd them? It would seem that without a shepherd sheep are just sheep wandering around randomly munching grass. The shepherd makes the flock. Jesus knows this, so he takes pity on the people wandering aimlessly around a “deserted place.” How does he shepherd them? He begins to teach. Mark says he teaches them “many things.” He doesn't say what those things are exactly, but we can assume these are the things they need to become a flock – a collection of souls needing direction and purpose. When a shepherd teaches, he conveys to his flock all that the Lord has given him to convey. And nothing more. Each one of us is a sheep. Each one of us is a shepherd.

Pay careful attention then to Jeremiah: “Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture, says the Lord. . .I will take care to punish your evil deeds.” That's quite the warning! So, we need to know what it is to “mislead and scatter the flock.” An actual shepherd might lead his/her flock off a cliff. Or leave them abandoned, food for the wolves. Or he/she might poison their food or water. A shepherd of the faith, a teacher, might lead a flock out of the Church in schism. Or teach lies instead of truth. He/she might sprinkle bits and pieces of doctrinal poison in with some truth and slowly kill the flock. Now, you might be thinking: thank God I'm not a shepherd! I don't have to worry about teaching falsehood! Ah, but you are a shepherd and you do have to worry. You aren't a priest or a bishop. You aren't a professional theologian. You might not teach religion in a school or work with an RCIA program as an instructor. BUT. . .you are a teacher of the faith. You have children. You have family, friends, neighbors. You have co-workers, classmates. You meet strangers everyday while you're out and about. They are your misled and scattered sheep. What are you teaching them by your words and deeds?

Mark says that Jesus looks out on the crowd and has pity on them. Another translation for “pity” is “compassion.” Compassion is the profound consciousness that another is suffering and a deep desire to alleviate their suffering. NB. that the crowd clamoring after Jesus is suffering from ignorance. They don't know. And not knowing is causing them pain. They suffer that pain – they allow it – b/c they don't fully understand their ignorance. They don't know what they don't know. They only know that something is missing. Something is absent in their lives. They are the poor in spirit. So Jesus alleviates their poverty by teaching them the truth of the Gospel. After they are fed the Word, he feeds them with the miracle of the fishes and loaves. First, he alleviates their spiritual hunger. Then, he alleviates their physical hunger. No doubt he teaches them that their Covenant with the Father is fulfilled with his coming into the world. That their sins are forgiven and all they need do is receive His gift of mercy in baptism. That once baptized they are – each one of them – a priest, prophet, and king, charged with sacrificing and mediating for others; teaching and preaching God's Word; and providing for the least among them. And that there is no greater love than to die for a friend. That's what shepherds do for their sheep.

So, as a shepherd, a teacher, for the flock given to you, do you need to get degrees in scripture, theology, and philosophy? No. Do you need to memorize the Catechism and the Bible and be ready to quote Church documents from memory? No. Do you need to follow Christ, pray daily, read the Bible, be ready to defend your hope in the resurrection, and forgive unconditionally? Absolutely. You teach the faith with compassion wherever you find yourself, and you teach in word and deed. Your students/flock are crazy Dallas drivers. The cashier at Kroger. Your spouse. Your kids. The people you work with everyday. Your customers and your manager. Show them compassion by showing them Christ's love. And avoid the promised fate of misleading shepherds.

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Run away! Run away!

15^th Week OT (S)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

When confronted by the Pharisees, Jesus runs away. Instead of standing his ground, digging in, and fighting back against the malicious attacks of his enemies, he retreats. He's the Son of God. The Messiah. He heals, prophesies, resurrects the dead, and speaks with authority. Why is he running away? He could blast these guys with a Word of Truth and leave them quaking in their sandals! And let's be honest here, if we had been there, we'd probably beg him to do exactly that. Who doesn't love a good beat down, especially when the ones getting the beat down are so deserving? So, why does he run? We could say he's showing us how to love our enemies and show them mercy. Or we could say he's making a tactical withdrawal so he can fight another day. Or maybe he's protecting his followers from the wrath of the Pharisees. All plausible. Here's another one: rather than put on a spectacular display of divine power by turning the Pharisees into toads, he withdraws in preparation for surrendering the field to his Church. Think about it: Jesus performs some newsworthy miracle to silence his enemies. That becomes the story. Not just the story but The Story. He's a wonder-working prophet and his works will be remembered for the ages. Over the centuries, his followers point back again and again to these wonders as the foundation of their faith. That can be a powerful foundation. But it's not the foundation Jesus wants to build. He repeatedly tells those whom he heals not to tell others they've been healed. Keep this just btw us, OK? (Of course, they never do!). The foundation he wants to build lies in the hearts and minds of his followers. Each one of us is a stone in that foundation. Each one of us together builds the rock. And through Peter and his confession of faith in the Christ AND our constant and consistent faith, the faith is handed on place to place, year to year. By withdrawing, Jesus actually avoids creating fantastical myths about his magical powers. He avoids writing stories of showy deeds that make him out to be just another local magician. His retreat is a not a surrender to the Pharisees but a surrender to God and God's providence in establishing the Church in His time. What this means for us can be said in a word: patience. I heard groaning! I know, we don't like patience these days. We want action. We want movement and resolution. We want victory. Well, victory we have. And this is why we can afford to be patient. We've already won. All we have left to do is live out our victory til Christ comes again. Live in faith. Share that faith. Fight when we can't do otherwise. And never assume that those who call themselves our enemies are actually our enemies. They've been deceived, and surely we ourselves know what it is to be conned by the true Enemy. Now we know what it is to be the victims of mercy. Set free and loosed to be agents of divine love in an easily duped world. That we have been freed is not a badge of honor. It's a gift. It's a gift we ourselves are charged with passing on. 

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Are you an evildoer?

12^th Week OT (Th)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Lord, did I not go to Mass everyday? Did I not send my kids to Faustina/Highlands/UD? Did I not give to the Dominicans' renovation fund? Did I not daily pray the rosary/the Office/the Divine Mercy chaplet? Did I not go to confession weekly and always do my penance? “I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoer.” Harsh. Evildoer? How does going to Mass, giving to the Church, and praying everyday make one an evildoer? Jesus replies, “. . .only the one who does the will of my Father. . .will enter the Kingdom of heaven.” But giving, praying, and repenting are all included in the will of the Father! True. But on what sort of foundation are building your spiritual home? If your foundation is “doing good stuff” to get to heaven, then you might be doing stuff for selfish reasons. That's a weak foundation. If you are “doing good stuff” to be seen doing good stuff. . .well, that's almost no foundation at all. Maybe you're doing good stuff out of guilt. Or from a sense of obligation b/c you have been given so much. Or b/c you're too shy or embarrassed or lazy to say No to doing good deeds. There are as many bad reasons to be virtuous as there are people who try to be virtuous for bad reasons. Jesus says that the wise man builds his house on solid rock – an unchanging, timeless, immovable foundation. By nature, mere human motives for virtue are temporary. We want congratulations. We want recognition. We want to feel “good” about ourselves. We want, we want, we want. Want dies with the person. What you want goes with you into the grave. If Jesus is to come to know us and we him, then our spiritual house must be firmly built on eternal rock. Sounds good. But what does it mean practically? Practically, it means that our “good deeds” must be motivated by nothing more than a need to give God glory. We pray, give, work, teach, preach – everything we do from writing checks to the OP's to sending the kids to Catholic schools to being considerate to others in traffic, everything must be done for no other reason than to show the world the wonders of the Father's love and mercy. To not only appear to be but to actually be distributors of God's truth, goodness, and beauty. A water hose doesn't think about why it is delivering water to the garden. A car doesn't consider its motives for taking you to the pharmacy. But you and I, we are rational animals, so we must ponder our motives for doing good. And when we do, our motive has to be: this gives God glory; this good deed points to God's generosity, to His greater love, to His truth. Why? The only reason we have anything at all to give is b/c God gave it to us to give away in first place. We all have what we have – wealth, power, intelligence, education, organizational skills – whatever we have, we have it all only b/c God wills that we give it away and point back to Him as our source. For Himself, He doesn't need the recognition or the glory, of course. But those whom He wills to be free from sin and death do need to see how He works in our lives so that they can allow Him into theirs. The rock solid foundation for our spiritual homes is sacrificial love: giving it all away for no other reason than it was all given to us by God to be given away. Do this, then he will declare to us solemnly, I have always known you. Come to me, you good and faithful servants.

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Taste the pie

12^th Week OT (W)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

My maternal grandmother, Milly, made the best chocolate pie in the Mississippi Delta. Maybe in the whole state. Let's say all attempts by aunts, cousins, and second-cousins to duplicate her prize pie fail miserably. There's a written recipe. But it wasn't written by Milly. No one knew who composed the recipe, but it is obviously wrong. Over time, lots of sweet tea, and wasted ingredients, the aunts, cousins, and second-cousins compose a recipe that even the oldest members of the family would agree is authentic. Finally! We have the Real Thing captured on paper never to be altered. Mama Milly's Famous Chocolate Pie had reached it culinary perfection. And no pie could rightly be called Mama Milly's Famous Chocolate Pie unless it tasted like it came from her kitchen. The pies her generation of aunts made were fed to the next generation. That generation fed their pies to the next. And so on. We know a pie is the real deal b/c we have family members who remember. When a fake Milly pie makes an appearance, we know it immediately. Even if it tastes better; it's not a Milly pie. And the pie maker is false. We know the baker by his/her pies. Beware false bakers!

Jesus tells us to beware false prophets. Since false prophets rarely – if ever – advertise their duplicity, how do we know they are false? By tasting their pies. Or, as Jesus puts it, by judging their fruits. Good trees produce good fruit. Bad trees bad. So, is the prophet's fruit good or bad? This could be asking whether or not his/her prophecies are fulfilled. Does the prophet prophesy accurately? Or, we could be asking whether or not the prophet prophesies in a way that brings about unity, peace, hope, and holy guidance. Bad fruit brings about: division, turmoil, despair, panic – all leading to a loss of faith. Our history as a Church is jammed packed with false prophets, bellowing about one impending disaster or another. What they all have in common is a lack of trust in God's providence for his Church and a spiritually unhealthy fascination with when All This comes to an end. God sends prophets our way for just one reason: to tell us we have strayed and need to get back on track. He's in control. His plan has always, is now, and will always win out. Nothing changes that. Not war, natural disaster, dumb politicians, or corrupt Church leaders. If you're paying attention to your growth in holiness then you know we are off course. You know we are barreling toward the last guardrail and the brakes don't work. That's been true since three seconds after Christ ascended into heaven. And this is why God wills that through our baptism into the life, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus we are all made prophets. Priests, prophets, and kings. What David and Elijah and John the Baptist and Christ Himself were by birth, we are made by water and the Spirit. Our great challenge is to be authentic prophets for the God's call to repentance from sin. So, if you want to make Mama Milly's Famous Chocolate Pie, you'll need real chocolate, heavy cream, lots of real sugar and butter, and a tub of lard for the crust. Try it with skim milk, Stevia, and Crisco, and you'll wear the shame of being a false baker. Real bakers, like real prophets, only use real ingredients. And they only produce good fruit.

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Pretty but poisonous

12^th Week OT (T)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

It doesn't really matter what religion you follow as long as you are a good person. I'm spiritual but not religious b/c organized religion is too limiting. There is only one mountain but many paths to the top. Besides, in the end, everyone goes to heaven. So, who cares what faith you follow? OK. Jesus says, “How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few.” As good Catholics, we know that universalism and religious indifferentism are heresies. Long condemned heresies that pop up regularly like mushrooms on a cow patty – pretty but poisonous. That these dangerous bits of bumper sticker theology still appear is obvious. But why do they continue to plague us? What is it about the human person that needs to believe them? Part of it is pride – making myself into my own god. If I'm my own god, then I get to write my own scripture and invent my own theology. Another part of it has to do a failure to understand the nature of truth. Two contradictory statements claiming to be true cannot both be true. Jesus says that his is the only name given under heaven for the salvation of mankind. If we believe this to be true, we cannot at the same time hold that the name of some other god is also salvific. Another part of the motivation for heresies like indifferentism and universalism is the laudable desire not to cause offense. It's just not polite to tell people they're going to hell b/c they don't follow Christ. No socially well-adjusted person wants to defend that claim at the Sunday barbecue! But I think the deeper problem is that we've made religious belief into an intensely private, intensely emotive, highly personalized way of being right about something. When it comes to religious belief, you cannot tell me I'm wrong; therefore, I am always right. Politics used to be like that. No longer. Everything personal is political nowadays. All we have left to always be right about is religion. But as Christians, as Catholics, we aren't allowed to fall back quietly on the motto the “Your truth, my truth” nonsense and relax. Our faith is rational; that is, it is explicable, defensible, demonstrably true, and comprehensive. Our faith isn't a boutique filled with carefully curated, handcrafted treasures designed to please and delight. It's a total worldview. An all-encompassing mindset that informs and guides every thought, word, and deed. It's The Way to think about, talk to, and walk back towards God. Does our faith provide us with knowledge of every truth? No. Nothing in the Tradition tells us which interpretation of quantum physics is the right one. Nothing in revelation or Church teaching tells us whether Whitman or Dickinson is the better poet. Tradition, revelation, Church teaching are all bent toward helping us to respond to God's salvific love and mercy. So, what we know about that response is that it must come through Christ. It must come freely. It reveals our trust in God through our words and our deeds. And on the Last Day, what gets us through that narrow gate is a face shining like a mirror, reflecting Christ's own face back to him. Not the Buddha's face. Or Mohammad's. Or Vishnu's. Christ's. His is the only name and the only face that saves.     

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On not stabbing strangers

11^th Week OT (M)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Jesus is doing one of the thing he does best – teaching us how to think and act beyond the rules and regs. Think about it: the everyday rules we're used to following all have some principled foundation. They are all founded on a deeper, broader idea of what is right and wrong to do. Ideally, if we follow the rules, we're enacting the deeper principle. But sometimes we get trapped in following the rules just to follow them; we behave in the prescribed way w/o knowing the why of the rule or custom. E.g., when we meet a stranger, we shake hands. It's almost automatic. This custom started in medieval Europe as a way of showing the other guy that you aren't holding a knife. Apparently, it's uncouth to stab someone on meeting them for the first time! Now, let's say you shook the stranger's hand and then stabbed him with your left hand. When others react angrily, you don't say, “Well, I shook his hand! I followed the rules.” Yes, you did. You followed the hand-shaking rule. But you missed the deeper principle the rule is meant to enact: trust is vital when strangers meet. Jesus is trying to teach us that the Law, while necessary, is fulfilled in the law of love.

St. Jerome sums it up nicely: “[B]y doing away [with] all retaliation, our Lord cuts off the beginnings of sin. So the Law corrects faults, the Gospel removes their occasions.” What are the “beginnings of sin”? Anger, a need for revenge, feelings of betrayal. The guy you stabbed is angry, so he stabs you back. That's an eye for an eye. No more, no less. Jesus says that stabbing you to avenge his hurt is wrong. The better way is for him to forgive you your sin. Why is this better? B/c the whole point being-here right now is to get to heaven. By stabbing you with vengeance in his heart, he violates the law of love and threatens his place at the Wedding Feast. All for a temporary sense of satisfaction. “Eye for an eye” corrects your fault. Bet you don't surprise-stab anyone again! But the law of love short circuits his impulse to retaliate, thus saving his immortal soul from damage. Deepest in the Law is the law of love – always and everywhere will the best for others. Yes, follow the rules. But understand that the rules are there to enact that which is surest to get us back to God: love God, love self, love neighbor.   

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Legal ain't moral

St. Anthony of Padua

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Slavery was legal in the US for decades. Abortion is still legal in many states. Same-sex “marriage” is legal. So is divorce/remarriage, fornication, and child abandonment. That a moral act is legal does not make it righteous. And perfectly legal acts cannot guarantee righteousness simply b/c they are legal. This implies that there is something greater than the law to follow if righteousness is our goal. Jesus says that our righteousness must surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees and scribes. NB. he doesn't say that the scribes and the Pharisees are unrighteous. They are. According to their own reckoning of the Law. They follow the Law he came to fulfill. What they are missing – potentially – is the internal dispositions that give the Law its eternal effect. That is, the Law serves as an exterior sign that they are committed to God w/o touching who they actually are internally. We might defend this view of the Law by saying something like “well, better to follow the Law hypocritically than not at all!” But this approach can lead to self-righteousness and judgmentalism – the enduring sin of the scribes and Pharisees. Or maybe we could approach the problem by saying “fake it 'til you make it.” Follow the Law externally until you can follow it internally. Obey the 10 Commandments and eventually you'll come love God and neighbor. After all, virtues take time and practice to thrive. That's better but still not good enough b/c death stalks us all and our time to practice may end sooner than we think. Jesus tells his disciples to love first and obedience results. Love first and forgiveness and mercy and everything else we need to grow in righteousness results. The details of the Law “shake out” as we perfect the virtue of willing the Good of the Other. Love of God is perfected by loving His creatures. The more we love God and neighbor, the more we resemble those we love. And the less likely we are to treat Him and his creatures as inconvenient obstacles to getting our way. If pride is the original sin of believing and behaving as if we can become God w/o God, then charity is the original virtue of believing and behaving as if we can only become God with God. Loving God comes first. Then obedience and righteousness. Until obedience and righteousness are no longer necessary. 

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Are we crazy?

10^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

When I told my parents that I was changing my major from business to philosophy, my Mom said, “You're out of your mind.” She said the same thing when my application to join a religious order was rejected and I said I was determined to find one that would take me. I can't repeat here what she said when I told her I was going to China to teach English for a year. But it roughly translates as “you're out of your mind.” It's the business of children to make parents question their sanity. I aced that part of being a kid. More than once or twice. Now, Jesus' family is confronted by abundant evidence that he is nuts. He running around the country doing things that only a prophet can do: healing people, casting out demons, forgiving sins. He argues with respectable religious folks, claiming to have the authority to re-interpret scripture. He's got this gang of twelve hanging around with him, men who once had decent jobs and families. And occasionally he runs off into the desert to be alone with God. Add all these to the fact that everywhere he goes a mob follows along, clamoring for his attention. We're part of that mob. So, how crazy do you have to be to follow a crazy man? What promises does he make to induce our obedience?

Let's review: He promises us persecution at the hands of our family and friends. He promises trial and imprisonment by governors and princes. He promises ridicule, opposition, and outright violence for his name's sake. He tells us that his Way is straight but exceedingly narrow, difficult to navigate at times but clearly plotted and mapped out. Along the Way, he promises us battle after battle in a war he has already won. We have before us a long, hard struggle against an Enemy who cheats, steals, lies and has no moral qualms about using whatever he needs to ensnare us. Finally, he tells us that to follow him with our whole hearts and minds and bodies, we must follow him all the way to the Cross and the Tomb. That's a promise too. Given all these promises, we would have to be out of our minds to even think of crowding around this guy and begging him for his help. And yet, here we are, celebrating his death and resurrection, participating in his divine life.

Why do we follow around a man whose own family thought he was out of his mind? All those promises of pain, loss, tribulation were not made to warn us off, to keep us away. They aren't predictions or punishments. Jesus' promises to us are the consequences of living in the world while not being of the world. IF you follow me, THEN you will be persecuted. It must happen b/c the world cannot abide its own imperfection and those seeking perfection in Christ are irritating reminders that there are more and better ways of being human, more and better means of being perfect. The world accuses: how dare you point out my diseases and disabilities by seeking a way to have yours healed? There's nothing wrong with me, do not tempt me to believe otherwise by pointing out your own faults and how you've come to have them mended! For all the suffering we are promised as a consequence of following Christ, there is one promise that balances the scales: we will be made perfect in the Father's love. In fact, even as we seek that perfection now, we abide in His love. We may be out of our minds for following a crazy man, but we follow him into an audience with the Father to see him face-to-face. Where the Head goes, the Body follows. And b/c we believe, we speak. Or better: we preach! We reveal, we disclose what he has done and is doing for us. That makes us preachers.

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It all belongs to God

9^th Week OT (T)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

“Why are you testing me?” Great question. And we know the answer. They aren't so much testing Jesus as they are trying to trap him. Watch five minutes of a Congressional cmte hearing with hostile witnesses and you'll see the trap. Ask what appears to be a genuine question. But the question is loaded with assumptions, false dilemmas, and ill-defined terms. Any direct answer to the question-asked implicates the witness and the answer ends up on the evening news as as out-of-context, deceptively edited clip. Jesus is no dummy. He knows the trick. And he's a master at answering the question that wasn't asked. He tells the Herodians and Pharisees to give to Caesar what's Caesar's and to God what's God's. An inoffensive response that leaves his prosecutors in amazed silence. Maybe they hear the underlying assumption of Jesus' response. Maybe they don't. What belongs to Caesar? What belongs to God? Well, everything belongs to God, including Caesar! Caesar may not acknowledge God's ownership, but that failure doesn't change the fact that God the Father is the Creator of the Universe, the first cause of all that is and will be. Caesar lives and moves and has his being in God, so there is nothing Caesar has that doesn't first belong to God. Jesus' response to the trick question essentially says, “Give it all to God.” Sure, we have to pay taxes. But we're doing it with God's coin. We are paying God's taxes with God's coins. And Caesar gets to play the middle man while he lives. Think about all this is terms of grace: God created us to be perfect as He is perfect. We do this by choosing to participate in His divine life. But the ability to choose to participate is itself a gift from God. When we fail to participate fully, He gives us the gifts we need to get back on track. Even the ability to receive and use these gifts is a gift. It all belongs to God. Opting out of this economy of divine love is a possibility. Love after all entails freedom. But there are consequences to opting out like there are consequences to not paying taxes. Namely, we free ourselves from the every source of our creation and our re-creation in Christ. We set ourselves outside the divine economy, refusing to reap its benefits – now and forever. But even then, it all belongs to God. All we've done is fail to love God. He still loves us. And he will honor our choice not to love Him. We belong to Him. He doesn't belong to us.

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Blessed are those who reveal the Word

St. Charles Lwanga

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Celebrating a martyr's death challenges us to put Christ first. By “first” I mean over all, under all, around all, and through all. The martyrs held on to Christ in the face of persecution and death not b/c they hoped to be rewarded in heaven, but b/c they themselves were Christ to the limits of their capacity to be Christ. They could no more deny Christ than they could deny themselves. To do so would've been a lie. When Jesus preaches his Sermon on the Mount, he is laying out for us what being Christ in the world looks like. Seen up close, it looks like poverty, suffering, loss, and immeasurable joy. Seen from a distance, it looks like detachment from passing things and attachment to all that endures. Detaching from the temporary and attaching to the permanent inevitably brings the kind of loss and suffering that only wayfarers encounter. We are on our way along the Way and leaving behind anything and anyone who will not follow causes us grief. That grief is cured in knowing that we are walking toward Christ and that those we've left behind are as free as we are to follow along. If we've done our job faithfully, they will see what we see and hear what we hear and know that nothing in this world can bring them enduring happiness. Blessed are those who bear witness to the mercy of God and blessed are those who reveal the Word of God to those who think themselves unworthy of His love.   

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How do we know it's true?

7^th Week of Easter (S)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

We know that John's testimony is true. That's what John says about himself in his gospel. How do we know that his testimony is true? Well, it depends on what we mean by “know” and “true.” If we think that “knowing the truth” is about having overwhelming scientific evidence that a statement is true or false, then it would be difficult to say whether or not John's testimony is true. His gospel purportedly records real historical events taking place in real physical places. We know from other historical sources that these events took place and that these places are real. But is the gospel just about events and places? That is, is what's fundamental to the Good News verifiable through history and geography? As an incarnational faith, Christianity is certainly revealed and practiced in space and time. So, yes, history and geography are vital. But the gospels do more than give us verifiable facts like the time and location of the crucifixion, etc. The gospels record how sinners – like you and me – encountered Christ and came to follow him into a new life. That sort of witness can be true w/o being factual. How do you “fact-check” an encounter with the Living God? You can't. So, how do we know that John's testimony is true? In one sense, we don't. In another, more important sense, we do. Our own experiences of being forgiven and re-created in Christ matches what John – and Mark and Matthew and Luke – says about his own love of Jesus and how that love transformed him. We recognize – re-think or think-again – how we were brought into relationship with Christ. We see how others are brought into the Body and flourish as new creatures. We see people who have hit rock bottom, fall on through into surrender, and receive God's abundant mercy. We see ourselves fall and fail and get back up with the grace of God and march on with the work we've been given to complete. We've seen the ones we love – maybe even ourselves – fall out of the faith altogether and return when the darkness get too thick to breathe. We've grieved and loved and forgiven and lost, and we did it all with Christ by our side. That kind of truth isn't testable in a lab or checked in an archive. It's lived. And we have the gospels to give us the divine pattern of living in the world w/o being of it. We have the gospels to show us the possibilities of being Christ for others as he was and is for us. We know John's testimony is true b/c it's our testimony. . .in a different age with different characters and better technology. . .but the testimony – at its root – never changes. John's testimony? Christ died so that we don't have to. Repent. Believe. And follow Christ.

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He doesn't ask much

6^th Sunday of Easter

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Our Lord doesn't ask much of us. Love one another. Trust one another. Believe in one another. Correct one another. Remain in his love. Keep his commandments. Receive his peace. Teach and preach all that he has taught us. Baptize in his name. Remember him. Forgive. Show mercy. Serve. Keep his word. Feed the hungry. Visit the sick and imprisoned. Mourn the dead. Bless the poor. Drive out unclean spirits. Heal the blind and crippled. Deny ourselves. Pick up our crosses. Follow him. Oh, and, at last. . .die for the love we have for him. He doesn't ask much. Still, I'm tired.

O Lord! I am tired. My knees are swollen! My back aches! I have calluses on both my typing fingers! My eyes itch. I haven't slept well in four days. And I'm breaking out like a high school freshman. My room looks like a FEMA camp after Hurricane Katrina. And I've not done laundry since the third Sunday of Lent. . .2022. Here at the end of another semester, I've forgotten how to read and I can no longer do basic addition or long division. I'm tired, Lord. I'm tired. What do you have to say, Lord? “Love one another as I have loved you. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you.” Well, thank you, Lord. One more thing: can you unchose me?

The answer, of course, is no. He can't. Or, he won't. He knows our limits. And the limits beyond those limits. And he knows all that we give and all that we hold back. When we've given everything we have, all that we've held back. . .he gives us a new limit and the strength to reach it. The strength he gives is not some sort of magical grace-dust or a boost of sanctifying merits. He gives us himself. He's the limit. Not as an example, or a model, or a roadmap. He is the Limit. The Omega of all our striving. Think about it. Our end, our goal – Christ himself – comes to us in our soreness and sleepiness and crabbiness and hands himself over to us so that we might be made perfect as he is perfect. The Perfection we seek surrenders himself to us, the Imperfect, and dares us to surrender ourselves to him in return. How do we accomplish this astonishing task of surrender? “This I command you: love one another.” And forgive, show mercy, preach and teach, deny yourself, and follow him.

Looking for answers, or maybe just some small consolation, I've searched the ancient libraries of the world – Oxford, Cambridge, Rome, London, Beijing, Ole Miss. . .and I've read hundreds of books and manuscripts. Talked to masters, professors, mystics, seers, soon-to-be saints, and quite a few sinners. I've asked: how do I surrender? How do I hand over my life, everything that I am to God? I found the answer. My guide: a diminutive mystic of the Thomistic kind, a fellow renowned for his wisdom, patience, and kindness. I asked him my desperate question. He hefted his walking stick. Climbed a chair. And locked his eyes with mine and said, “Do, or do not. There is no try.” Expecting further distinctions or a citation from the Summa, I hesitated for a moment before developing a facial tic and bursting out laughing. Love, or do not love. Forgive, or do not forgive. Believe, or do not believe. There is no try. Surrender, or do not. There is no try. There is no limit to surrender in love. Love one another as Christ loves you. He will not unchose you to complete the work he has given you to do. He doesn't ask much of us. Love one another. Trust one another. Believe in one another. Correct one another. Remain in his love. Keep his commandments. Receive his peace. You know the to-do list. So, with sore knees, cramping fingers, grouchy disposition, blurry eyes, and a facial tic, charge head long and recklessly into the holy work you have to do. You aren't alone. As he promised, he is with us always, working right along side us and keeping us within his perfect peace.

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