Second Wedding Homily (11/25/06)

Sacrament of Matrimony
Tobit 8.4-8; Hebrews 13.1-6; Matthew 22.35-40
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
Church of the Incarnation, University of Dallas


If marriage is about love then we have from Hebrews a sampling of what marriage means for Christians. Love is mutual, hospitable, empathetic, honorable, pure, contenting, a promise of care, and a cure for fear. And so is marriage. If marriage is not about love then it must be about selfishness, inhospitality, callousness, dishonor, impurity, agitation, a promise broken, and an infection of anxiety. Marriage without love is no sacrament at all but vain gesture and puffed up words, an agreement merely to tolerate someone else in your life. Much like a disagreeable rental contract or a necessary but mostly annoying roommate. Christian marriage is always about love. It must be. Because being a Christian is all about love.

To say that being a Christian is all about love is not to say that being a Christian is all about being mushy, weak-kneed, starry-eyed, and panting. Love is not just about passion; it is primarily about the Good; that is, love is essentially Who God Is for us so that we might come to Him and be with Him forever. Created to be completed in love, we seek out and sometimes find a love here and now that though no match for divine love nonetheless works to make that Love feel possible, works to make the Love we were created to be more probable.

In his first encyclical, Deus caritas est, Pope Benedict XVI writes about the various meanings of the word “love.” He points out the word’s patriotic, familial, romantic, and neighborly meanings. He concludes, however, “Amid this multiplicity of meanings […] one in particular stands out: love between man and woman, where body and soul are inseparably joined and human beings glimpse an apparently irresistible promise of happiness”(n. 2b). Marriage, then, is the Christian sacrament of God’s revelation of Himself to us through the committed love of a man and woman and they become together a living witness to the promises of grace given to us at baptism.

Christian marriage cannot be about passion alone or convenience or desperation; it must be sacramental, that is, revealing of God’s presence and His work in the world. Inasmuch as an ordained priest should be a living sign to the world of Christ the Head of the Body, so the married couple ought to be a living sign of the Father’s love for His bride, the Church. God does not love as we do; God is love. Love is Who He is to us and for us.

We use the word “agape” to describe Christian love. Benedict writes in DCE, “…this word expresses the experience of a love which involves a real discovery of the other, moving beyond the selfish character […] Love now becomes concern and care for the other. No longer is it self-seeking, a sinking in the intoxication of happiness; instead [agape] seeks the good of the beloved: it becomes renunciation and it is ready, and even willing, for sacrifice”(n. 6). What Christian marriage will thrive unless the man and the woman find the courage of renunciation and the will to sacrifice, that is, the motivation to sanctify their lives together by setting aside selfishness—petty wants, superficial hurts, suspicions of neglect.

Jesus says, “You shall love the Lord [and] you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” And he says that you shall do so “with all your heart, all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is not only a description of the Messianic fulfillment of the Mosaic Law, it is a command. You shall. Not “think about it” or “you’d be better off if you did” or “you could if you wanted to” but “you shall.” And not only “you shall” but “you shall” with every muscle, bone, and inch of flesh; with every thought, word, memory, and deed. You shall love! First God and then neighbor as self.

This is a command rather than a suggestion b/c we are weak, unfocused, fallen, and vain. Not constitutionally, mind you; but willfully…willfully weak, unfocused, and vain. And Jesus knows this. Thus the command to love. Our love for one another is too important to our holiness to be left to chance and will. Of course, we can refuse and spend eternity without Love, without God. But, knowing our inclination to habit, Jesus orders us to love and hopes the habit of loving sticks. And it does, it does often enough and powerfully enough that we see in the world bright examples of charity and mercy, living examples of mighty generosity and graced service. Christian marriage should lead us in love!

To family and friends: a warning—your participation here today requires you to not only follow the excellent example of love given to us by Larry and Christie, but it also requires you to reflect back to them the love that they shine out. In other words, you all must be ready to celebrate with them and mourn with them and support them when necessary—in the smooth times and the rough. And be ready to show them day-to-day what their ministry of marriage means to you; what their witness to God’s love for His Bride, the Church, means for us all. It is not enough to dress up, show up, stand up, sit down, and eat the buffet! There’s the “amen” here and the “amen” means “Yes, it is” and “Yes, I do.” Say “amen” with conviction and promise. B/c that is how God hears it.

Larry and Christie, Tobit and Sara prayed to the Lord on their wedding night for mercy and deliverance. They blessed the Lord and praised His name. They recounted their creation as man and woman and the need each has for the other in order to be complete. They are married for a noble purpose and ask to live together to “a happy old age.” With all that in mind, allow me to exhort you: make your love mutual—giving and returning in kind; be hospitable to one another—generous and affectionate; show empathy for each other and for others—b/c you are one body; honor each other—be faithful in thought, word, deed; let nothing and no one enslave your love—not money, not career, not things, not ideas; be ready to say without shame or hesitation: “I will never forsake you or abandon you;” and live together in holiness w/o fear, w/o rancor, w/o pining for options, w/o glancing over the fence. And love as Christ loves us.

With the Lord as our helper we have nothing to fear!

Our own den of thieves?

33rd Week OT: Revelation 10.8-11 and Luke 19.45-48
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St. Albert the Great Priory


The temple has become a den of thieves! What was given to the people for the worship of the Lord has been made into the resting place for those who would plunder the wealth of others. Rather than offer the proper sacrifices and pray lovingly from the heart, these thieves loot the wages of the poor, stealing what little the little-ones have to offer. Though surely stealing from the poor is crime enough, these thieves compound their crime by stealing the sacrifices that were to be made to the Lord! They are robbing the poor and robbing the Lord. No wonder Jesus lets loose a storm front of righteous anger. He pronounces his judgment against the thieves by driving them out of the temple area and then he rectifies their crime. Luke writes, “And every day he was teaching in the temple area.”

How does Jesus’ teaching rectify the criminal abuse of the temple? Not only were the temple bureaucrats stealing the monetary offerings of the poor, they were also stealing their inheritance in the Law; that is, Jesus is principally upset about the fact that the sacrificial system of the temple had become mechanical, rote, easy-cheesy grace, if you will, and the core of the Law, its righteousness in love, had been stolen by professionalized legalism and religious commercialism. The thieves, in other words, steal not only money but tradition and orthodoxy as well.

Of course, what they are doing in the temple area looks perfectly traditional and orthodox b/c “it’s always been done that way.” But it is clear that the Spirit is with Jesus as he teaches the fulfillment of the Law and not just its letter, the completion of the covenant in his ministry and not just the jots and tittles of ritual. The people “hang on his words;” they are brought to attention, given the Word of life, and sent to speak that Word to others, spreading the First Commandment that accomplishes all ten of the others in a single life of love. No doubt simple expediency, daily practicalities, and common sense slowly lead the temple administration to the set the system Jesus objects to so strongly. But it is precisely the destruction of the Law’s ideal under the creeping, erosive compromises of “getting along” and “adapting to the times” that make the temple into a den of thieves.

We have to wonder how the Church compromises with the present age and makes the temple into a resting place for thieves. Have those in charge robbed us of our inheritance and given us instead airy delusions of permanent theological and litrugical revolution? Have those in charge stolen our tradition and replaced it with process, compromise, guidelines, and procedure? We can say perhaps that the Spirit of the Law was once swallowed in prissy ritualism and then freed in active participation. But now liturgical busyness and didactic wordiness drown the transcendent in gyration and syllable. We need Jesus teaching in the temple all day, everyday.

Thankfully, we have you. All of you. Living, breathing, walking tabernacles of the Lord, spreading out to witness, to teach and preach, to bring Christ as Teacher and Lord to the world. But our first witness must be to the Church. Where do you see a den of thieves? Where do you see robbery? Trespass? Fraud? Where do you see our heritage being stolen, our inheritance being spent on fashionable twaddle and private curiosity? Where is the faith’s virtue being diminished in favor of the culture’s vice? Where are you being encouraged to silence, complacency, and intimidated to compliance with the requirements of our culture of death?

We celebrate the Vietnamese martyrs today. Like the crowds in the temple area they hung on Jesus every word. However, as martyrs, they literally found themselves “hanging on his words.” Speaking the Word to a hostile culture, they died. Their lives in death continue to seed the church.

Do not let their blood water a den of thieves.

Being who we ought to be while doing what we ought to do

St. Cecilia: Rev 4.1-11; Lk 19.11-28
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
Church of the Incarnation

(NB. Fr. J.D. is losing his voice. He asked me about an hour ago to take the noon Mass. So, this homily is a little more rushed than usual. Please pray for Fr. J.D.!)

I imagine the kingdom of God will look very much like a Chinese buffet that stretches into infinity…along the way, say, every third pan of moo goo gai pan or so there will be a Border’s store that offers deep discounts to dead but risen Dominicans. My other vision of the kingdom of God involves ice cream, fried chicken, and blow ‘em up alien movies, but the Mass must go on. My point here is pretty simple: though the kingdom of God is now for God and will be for us eventually a reign of enduring praise and thanksgiving, right now, we can let our imaginations run wild! Perhaps children imagine boundless playgrounds. Mothers imagine uninterrupted peace and quiet. Fathers see golf courses and big screen TV’s. Jesus’ disciples envisioned booting the Romans out of Judea at the point of a sword and they thought Jesus was their man to lead them. Jesus uses the parable in the gospel today “because he was near Jerusalem and they thought that the Kingdom of God would appear there immediately.”

So, b/c they were approaching Jerusalem and b/c they thought Jesus was some sort of divine George Washington and b/c they had visions of stomping the Romans with the Son of God throwing fireballs and calling down avenging angels, b/c of all these, Jesus tells them a parable about how to wait for one’s master profitably. In other words, the kingdom is coming, yes! But we have some prep work to do in the meantime. How are you going to spend that “meantime”?

This gospel should sound familiar not only as another version of the talents parable in Matthew but also as a reinforcement of this last Sunday’s gospel. The basic idea is the same: the end is not going to look like you think it’s going to look and it’s not going to come when you think it’s going to come! Given these hard truths, we now have two questions that need to be answered together: what sort of persons ought we be and how ought we to spend the meantime btw now and the consummation of the Kingdom?

We ought to be people who are willing to cry out without fear of hypocrisy, without shame, without hesitation: “Worthy are you, Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things; because of your will they came to be and were created.” We ought to be people who look on all that God has created for His glory and honor and spend our meantime lifting up one another as creatures who reveal—imperfectly, incompletely—as children who reveal the Father so that each of us and all of us may come to know Him more and better. We ought to be people who diffuse our heavenly gifts, who hone our graces, sharpen our talents and use them for the good of others so that God’s love might be perfected in us. We ought to be people who spend this meantime straining against spiritual isolation, prideful scruples, picayune legalism, rushed judgment and self-satisfying condemnation. We are a people to whom much has been given. We ought to be people from whom much is required.

Our Father and our Lord requires us to put the gifts he has given us to work for those around us. It is death to hide God’s gifts. It is hell on earth to refuse to live in this meantime as a man or woman for others to God’s glory. The kingdom of God will not match our wildest imaginings. Will you stand up and match up to the wildest gifts of the Spirits given for our good?

Will we say with the angels and the saints: “Worthy are you, Lord our God,to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things!”

Go to Hell (or not)

Little Gidding, IV

The dove descending breaks the air
With flame of incandescent terror
Of which the tongues declare
The one discharge from sin and error.
The only hope, or else despair
Lies in the choice of pyre of pyre—
To be redeemed from fire by fire.
Who then devised the torment? Love.

Love is the unfamiliar Name
Behind the hands that wove
The intolerable shirt of flame
Which human power cannot remove.
We only live, only suspire
Consumed by either fire or fire.

--T.S. Eliot

Hell and damnation have popped up a couple of times in my homilies lately. Some have wondered why.

Is it b/c I am secretly still a Baptist and trying to subvert Vatican Two universalism?

NO. (though subverting an alleged VC2 universalism is on the agenda)

Is it b/c that deep in my heart I’m hoping all my enemies go to hell?

NO.

Is it b/c I just like a little drama in the pulpit and preaching about hell is always an easy way to get attention from the congregation?

NO.

It is b/c the gospel readings recently deal with hell?

(dingdingdingding) YES!

I try as best as I can to preach the gospel in front of me. If Jesus starts talking about throwing goats into hell b/c they didn’t feed the hungry and visit the imprisoned, then I’m going to be preaching about spiritually stingy goats roasting in hell. I’ve never made hell the point of a homily b/c Jesus never makes any of his teachings solely about hell. Hell always seems to be the conclusion of a much larger, more complicated instruction on how we should be treating his little ones among us.

The Catechism teaches us in n. 1033: “We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves[…] Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren. To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called ‘hell.’”

Notes on Hell:

1. Union with God (i.e. “heaven”) is the result of freely loving God.
2. Grave sin is a sign that we do not love God freely.
3. We separate ourselves from God when we refuse to minister to Christ’s “little ones.” (cf. Matt 25.34ff).
4. When we die in mortal sin we reject God’s love forever and live forever without Him.
5. Hell is the “definitive self-exclusion” from heaven. You excluded yourself from heaven.

Don’t wanna go to hell? Then don’t.

Jesus is Coming! Look busy!

33rd Sunday OT: Daniel 12.1-3; Hebrews 10.11-14, 18; Mark 13.24-32
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St. Paul’s Hospital and Church of the Incarnation


If the God’s people were surprised at the first coming of the Messiah, we will be downright shocked when he comes again. His arrival marked the beginning of an age, a time set aside for us to hear the Good News preached and taught and a time for us to make a decision about our intentions either to grow in holiness with God’s help or to rot in sin without it. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit swept over the assembled apostles and their families and friends and opened the age of Christ by anointing those gathered with the fire of His spirit. They were lifted up, shaken, enlightened, and set ablaze with the sight of a mission so simple and grand that their tongues were loosed in a manic rush to say everything sayable about God, using every word known to every man and woman and child in creation. That polyphony of voices, that cloud of uttered spirit infected larger and wider crowds, bigger and longer histories and came into those human tabernacles as the rain of Miracle Grow necessary to give the Gospel of Jesus Christ a Body, the Body of Christ, the Church! From this fecund garden of the Holy Spirit sprouted more than 2,000 years of preaching, teaching, forgiving, uniting, celebrating, living, dying, and rising again. And yes, 2,000 years of what appear to be regularly scheduled and tremendously colossal boo-boo’s, assorted bone-headed decisions, and crackpot family members embarrassing us in the paper. And even so, we get up, brush off, and continue to brightly shine.

We fall and get up because we believe that the coming of the Messiah was the just the beginning of this sanctifying roadtrip. Without being perfect right now, we are convinced that we are capable of being perfected by a God who made us for perfection and gives us everything and everyone we need to work with His gifts for the completion of our holiness. We are made to be holy. And we can be if we will but use God’s gift of His Son as our template, our exemplar.

Perfectly human and perfectly divine, Jesus Christ is one man and one god—one person, wholly and entire the only Son of the Father and our brother in the Spirit. He offered for us on the cross one sacrifice for our sins and now sits forever at the right hand of the Father. The Letter to the Hebrews reads, “For by one offering [—not the many and necessarily repetitive offerings of the temple priests—] he has made perfect forever those who are being consecrated.” There is no additional sacrifice necessary for our salvation. Nothing more we need do or can do to improve on or add to the redemptive work of the Cross and the Empty Tomb. We preach and teach and wait for the hour, the day, the month of his coming again—the birth of great power and great glory.

The advent of Christ’s first coming marked a period of preparation—the Law, the Prophets, his herald, John the Baptist, and finally, Mary’s fiat. The advent of Christ’s second coming, his return, is also marked as a period of preparation—the birth of the Church at Pentecost, the missionary work of the apostles, the universal establishment of his Church in the world (our triumphs, embarrassments, failures, and our holiest successes), the merciful work of the saints, and the development and defense of sound doctrine for teaching.

His first coming and his second mean that we are at once done and still working. Finished and still carrying on. The first coming of Christ saved us. His second coming will complete us. His first coming made our holiness possible. His second coming will perfect our holiness or see us dead forever. That’s hard to hear, I know. It’s harder to say, but this truth is gospel truth and its veracity testifies to God’s unfailing love for us. He loves us as Love Himself and love never dominates or forces; love never controls or condemns. If we choose to ignore this period of preparation, simply refuse to grow in holiness by failing to use our gifts for the good of others, then our Father will honor that decision. And we will live forever without Him.

The advent of the second coming of Christ—the period of preparation before his coming again—is the long, historical temptation of our souls to leap out to Love, abandon selfish will for charity, release an enslaved intellect to freedom in truth, surrender vice to virtue, and yield darkening despair to hope. Do these with God’s grace, his promised assistance, and listen again to the prophet Daniel: “[…] the wise will shine brightly like the splendor of the firmament, and those who lead the many to justice will be like the stars forever.” Those who lead many to justice. Those who bring many into a right relationship with God. Those who by their example of excellent holiness attract many to walk a path of service to others for God’s greater glory. These saints will shine brilliantly and hang in the heavens like the stars forever.

I started by saying: if God’s people were surprised at the first coming of the Messiah, we will be downright shocked when he comes again. Why? We will be shocked b/c we do not know when he will come again. We do not know how he will come again. We do not know what any of this second coming will look like. Jesus’ own description is so vague as to be useless: dark sun, darkened moon, comets, and “the powers in the heavens will be shaken.” He will come in the clouds with angels. He does tell us though to learn from the fig tree. We know that summer is near when the fig tree becomes tender and sprouts leaves. The lesson? Watch for the signs Jesus has given us and know that he is near. Is this helpful? Not really. Unless we say that the signs are constantly with us and so our vigil for his coming again must be constant as well.

Peter writes: “Since all [of creation is] thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God[…]? Excellent question and one far more important than playing decoder games with biblical texts and the weather. Given the advent of the second coming, what sort of person ought you to be? And this is surely the point. You might wonder: what’s Jesus waiting for? Surely the world cannot be a bigger mess; surely we cannot become more self-destructive, angrier, greedier, more hostile to peace and the poor! He’s waiting on you. Me. All of us. He waiting for us and our repentance. Peter writes: “The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

Add these to your to do list for next few months: hear and see the Word in the world; preach and teach the Good News of repentance and forgiveness; do good works for the glory of God; grow and grow in holiness not just by avoiding sin but by embracing grace; let your every word, your every move shout joy to the world; and repent, offer contrition, seek forgiveness, do penance, and for Christ’s sake—literally, for the sake of our Lord—live like a redeemed child of our loving Father!

A Wedding Homily

Sacrament of Matrimony: Marci Strauss & Joseph Lee
Genesis 2.18-24; Ps 145.8-9; 1 Cor 12.31-13.8; John 2.1-11
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
Church of the Incarnation, University of Dallas


Love is patient. Love is kind. And it is not jealous or rude or pompous. Love is gentle and giving. And it is messy. Sometimes horribly messy. Love is often difficult and strange. Almost always it is impractical, risky, and hazardous to one’s health. Love makes us generous, forgiving, and blind. It makes us stupid, a little nuts, and it makes almost perfectly human. We love because God made us in His image and likeness. And God is Love. For this reason—Deus caritas est—Love never fails.

If love is messy and dangerous and often makes one stupid, why bother with it at all? We have no choice. We can no more fail to love than we can fail to breathe and live. We might fail to love this person or that one, but if we live and move and have our being in God, we love. Passionately. Distantly. Eagerly. Reluctantly. Or even grudgingly. But we love. And in loving we become more and more like God Who is Love. This perfection, this growing more fully into the image and likeness of God is our salvation; it is how God says to us: “You are healed; you are saved; you are loved. Now, become love for one another!” Hazardous, wasteful, and downright dumb, yes; but loving one another is worth the price of insuring against a long life of short passions and a too early grave so late in living.

Without love we are dead in the heart—just waiting to be buried. Paul writes to the Corinthians: Present your spiritual gifts for inspection! Speak in tongues, prophesy, explain the mysteries and teach all knowledge, trust and move mountains, sell everything and walk the world stripped naked in poverty. Do it all! But if you do not love…you are noise, discordant racket. You are nothing. Thankfully, we have been given a more excellent way: love bears every burden, trusts every promise, hopes for every gift, and endures and endures and endures. Love rejoices in the truth and never fails…even when, no, especially when we fail to love one another.

So there he is in Cana. Mingling. Chatting. Sipping a decent wine. His disciples are there too. Mixing and drinking. Having a good time at this wedding. Then disaster strikes! The wine is almost gone. Mary finds Jesus in a circle of friends telling stories about playing hide and seek in the temple and scaring his parents to death. Mary pulls Jesus away from his fun and says to him, “They have no wine.” Jesus replies, “Woman, what does this have to do with me?” You can almost see Mary getting That Mom Face—relaxed but stubborn, sure of getting her way but patient about it. Then Jesus says something completely unexpected: “My hour has not yet come.” Mary knows what this means. It is not yet time for him to reveal himself as the Messiah. So, like any good mother dealing with a stubborn son, Mary ignores him completely and tells the servants: “Do whatever he tells you.”

Jesus changes the stone jars of water into stone jars of wine and the wedding party goes on! Why now? I mean, why did Jesus choose a wedding to reveal his divine Sonship? Why did he pick a marriage rite to say publicly, “I am the promised messiah; I am the Anointed One”? By performing this miracle, the gospel says, Jesus “revealed his glory” and that “his disciples began to believe in him.” Simply put: Jesus picked this time and place and event to reveal his divine mandate to preach a good news to the children of Israel because it is at a wedding that we celebrate the coming together of two people in one flesh. Jesus announces that he is here to heal the breach between his Father and his Father’s nation. They would be “one flesh” in him—human and divine, a healed injury, a forgotten anger, and a revelation of God’s love. That’s what a marriage is: the completion, the perfection of a man and a woman in one flesh so that God’s love may be revealed to the world and in the world, more fully proclaimed and better understood.

We are not here this afternoon to participate in a wedding. This is not a wedding feast. The liturgical books say that we are participating in the “Rite of Marriage within the Mass.” The lectionary says that this liturgy is the “Conferral of the Sacrament of Matrimony.” Sacrament. We are here to witness Joseph and Marci confect a sacrament. They are enacting God’s grace, our Father’s invitation to live with Him now and forever. When they say “I do” they become one flesh, one body and their lives together become one witness to God’s love for us, His children, His church. And this is why the Church teaches the indissolubility of marriage: Love never fails, God never fails. What God has brought together, let no one destroy.

As witnesses to this sacrament, this public sign of God’s grace, we are all charged with saying “Amen.” Do not say “amen” lightly. It requires a commitment. It is not enough for us to show up, take our places, and sip the good wine afterwards. By being here and by our “amen” we are committing ourselves to what at first might seem like an easy task—supporting Joseph and Marci in a long, happy marriage. The sacrament is not done when the wedding is over. We have been preparing them for a marriage not a wedding; for a sacrament not a ceremony. The sacrament of marriage is not a magical ritual that wipes away all faults, all warts; gets rid of every complaint, every hardness of heart and all anxiety. The sacrament confers the grace necessary for Joseph and Marci to live as one flesh in the world as a sign of God’s love for the world. But it does not confer moral perfection, angelic virtue, or heroic endurance. That’s our job—those here who say “amen”—that’s our job: to be a perfecting influence, a virtuous refuge, an encouragement to endurance through the jagged days. With all of our own faults, our own problems, we are called by this sacrament to stand with these two today and celebrate their love for one another. And we are called to stand with them when they need us in less celebratory times.

Joseph and Marci: listen for the “amens” today. Hear them all. There are people here who love you and who are standing with you today, tomorrow, and on into whenever. You are a sensible pair. Well-prepared to meet the rough spots. You both laugh easily. You both give generously and take gratefully. You are practical and creative. Meticulous and free. You are smart, passionate, and your love for one another is plain to see.

I will end with this exhortation: be patient with one another and kind; do not be jealous or arrogant, puffed up or mean-spirited; take care of one another when things are good and not so good; seek the other’s happiness and will the best; bear together, trust together, hope together, and endure, endure, endure.

Remember: Love never fails.

Unnatural, impractical, and downright dangerous

St. Elizabeth of Hungary: 1 John 3.14-18 and Luke 6.27-38
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
Serra Club Mass and Church of the Incarnation


The naivety of what Jesus is asking of us here is almost laughable. Truly absurd. The degree of holiness required to accomplish this level of humility is staggering. Love those who hate us. Lend without expecting or pursuing repayment. Stop making judgments. Doing just these three would mean opening ourselves to national destruction, the collapse of our economy, and the collapse of our judicial system. It would seem that the sensible people in Jesus’ homily are the sinners! They love those who love them and defend themselves against their enemies. They expect debts to be repaid and they repay their debts. They work at making sure justice is served as a deterrent to future crime. Frankly, I would rather live in a society run by the sinners—it will be ordered and predictable. What Jesus is asking of us here seems to me to be beyond the limits of human possibility; what he is asking is unnatural, impractical, and probably dangerous.

If what he is asking is even a little unnatural, impractical, or probably dangerous, why does he think we can measure up to his standard? Why would it occur to him to say out loud that we should—as a matter of our holiness—take on flipping the moral and legal expectations of our day? Some might say he’s asking us to flip human nature and go against our primitive evolutionary imperatives of survival! He wants us to fight our genetic heritage. There is only one way for us to follow Christ on this one given what he is asking of us. And he knows that one way: we must die and become new men and women in him.

John writes, “We know that we have passed from death to life b/c we love our brothers.” We love our brothers—our sisters and brothers in Christ—and therefore we know that we have passed from death to life. The love we have for one another is sufficient evidence for concluding that we died and yet live, that we went from life to death to life again. And how did we come to love one another given all these survival of the fittest genetic issues we carry around in our DNA? John again, “The way we came to know love was that he laid down his life for us.” We came to know the love required to rewrite our genetic code, to rearrange our DNA, if you will, through the heroic sacrifice of Calvary, the once for all bleeding of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection from the dead.

It is Easter morning! The empty tomb is the laboratory of our Christian genome project—we are edited, revised, undone and redone, rewired, and now we walk out of that tomb not just refurbished and mark 50% off, we walk out LOVED by Love Himself and there is nothing for us to do but love right back by loving those He Himself loves. What was impossible for us is natural for Him and what is natural for Him is now supernatural for us b/c He loved us first. We are to love our enemies, our debtors and our creditors, those who judge us and those we judge, those who strike us and those we want to strike, we are to do all these not simply b/c Jesus asks us to but b/c we are becoming Christ in the Father’s love. We have much to endure and much to gain.

Want to know how to live these absurd requirements? Let’s pretend: here we are at the end of the age, standing before the Judge of all creation. On his right the white fire of the heavenly staircase taking saints to the banquet. On his left a scorched hole, stench of seared flesh, and the naying of goats forever lost. Time for you to pick the scale with which he will measure your immortal soul. Will you pick the Measure of Justice or the Measure of Mercy? Choose carefully: “For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”

Wisdom, foolishness, and fried fish

St. Albert the Great: Sirach 15.1-6 and Matthew 13.47-52
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St. Albert the Great Priory, Irving, TX


Jesus tells the crowds a simple, familiar parable. The Kingdom of heaven is like a big net thrown into the sea. The fishermen collect every sort of fish in their net. When the net is full they haul in the bounty and celebrate the wondrous diversity of God’s creation, the wondrous multiplicity of shapes, sizes, colors, beliefs and worldviews…and…theological perspectives. Wait. Let me read this again...“When the net is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. Thus it will be at the end of the age.” What?! No celebration of diversity?! No affirmation of difference or spiraling hymns to a harvest of tolerance?! Nope. “The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace.” Darn. I was hoping to sing a new church into being. You know, one without dogma or creed.

OK. Enough fun. Jesus tells the crowds this familiar parable and asks them, “Do you understand?” They say, “Yes.” Why does he ask this question? The parable is simple enough. Everyone is invited to the Kingdom. Christ’s sacrifice was made once for all. Some will see and hear the Word preached and come to the Kingdom as guests. Others will see and hear and choose to live forever as they lived in life—without God. So, why the question? Jesus is checking for wisdom. Not just “knowledge of” or “information about” but wisdom—an abiding awareness of the presence of God in the world, an awe before His glory. Sirach tells us that like a mother wisdom nourishes, embraces, cherishes, and teaches. Wisdom inspires, enjoys, makes glad. She exalts the wise and bequeaths an everlasting reputation.

Do you understand? It is not enough to know of God or have a lot of info about God; it is necessary to fear Him, to hold Him in awe, to be nourished by Him, to be embraced, to be cherished, and to be taught. When we are in a proper friendship with God—humility—His wisdom breathes life into us, fills us with joy, and makes us glad to be His children. Then we are ready to learn, ready to thrive in understanding, ready always to move into the world with our faith in front of us—measuring, weighing, accessing, and asking every time: “Is this choice, this decision, this action—is it righteous? Does it help me grow holier, grow closer to God and my brothers and sisters in the kingdom?”

We are wisest when we pray, “Lord, teach me your wisdom.” We are at our most foolish when we pray, “Lord, here’s what you need to understand about your historical context, your cultural and gender biases, your religious limitations, ad nauseum…” We are wisest when we pray, “Lord, open my mouth and fill me with your wisdom and understanding so that I may preach your Word.” We are foolish when we pray, “Lord, I’m opening my mouth, don’t bother filling it with anything, it’s already full of my own opinions and I’ve figured out what’s best for me in my current circumstances. I’ll be preaching those words instead.”

Like a mother God’s wisdom gives the wise food, drink, comfort, and understanding. The foolish get a fiery furnace where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

Do you understand all these things?

The Spiritual Vision of Pope Benedict XVI

I rec'd a new book from Doubleday Books on the life and theology of the current holder of the Petrine Office, Let God's Light Shine Forth: Teh Spiritual Vision of Pope Benedict XVI. Robert Moynihan has edited together an excellent little book on what B16 thinks about the major themes of Christian life: the Trinity, Mary, Creation, Politics, bioethics, etc. and he includes the texts of the Holy Father's first Word, Message, and Homily as pope. The book contains generous quotes from the Holy Father's pre-papal days, including some provocative texts on the liturgy: "I am convinced that the ecclesial crisis in which we find ourselves today depends in great part upon the collapse of the liturgy, which at times is actually being conceived etsi Deus non daretur: as though in the liturgy it did not matter anymore whether God exists and whether He speaks to us and listens to us"(118). This book would make an excellent text for an adult formation class or a young adult introduction to the faith. Though some of the language is a bit technical, nothing is so complex or rarified that your faithful Catholic couldn't understand it. Check it out!

Happy Anniversary!

Happy First Anniversary to "Domine, da mihi hanc aquam!" One year ago today I braved the blog world in answer to the annoying cajoling of my students to put my homilies on-line. Since that time I have logged more than 40,000 hits. That's nothing compared to Amy Welborn and Mark Shea, but not bad for a preacher from Mississippi! Thanks to all who frequent my blog...God bless, Fr. Philip, OP

Goofy Theology of "The Monastery"

Anyone else watching The Monastery? I saw just about 45 minutes of it tonight and I was struck by the superficiality of the monks' theology! Just about everything the abbot said was New Agey psychobabble. The Asian monk was speaking Buddhist with a Berekely accent. And Br. Gabriel actually said to the big whiney ex-Catholic, "It's like God needs us." What?! The only one I heard tonight that sounded remotely Catholic was the hermit, Br. Xavier. I have to admit that this is the first time I've seen this show. I haven't seen anything about it on the blogs. Is there anyone out there watching this show and critiquing the goofy theology these guys are preaching?

Divine gift or Demonic bribe? Hmmmm...

32nd Sunday OT: 1 Kings 17.10-16; Hebrews 9.24-28; Mark 12.38-44
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St Paul’s Hospital and Church of the Incarnation


Is it best to give much, to give often, or to give wholeheartedly? Perhaps it is best to give much, often, and wholeheartedly! This is certainly better than giving little, seldom, and miserly. A stingy heart leaks bile not blood and will dry quickly into a stone. The gospel question here is: from where do we give? Out of what do we give? Jesus praises the widow for her generosity. But her generosity is not a matter of amount, frequency, or attitude. Her generosity is measured by her poverty. While the rich people at the temple give from their surplus wealth—what was leftover—the widow gave from her destitution, her impoverishment. She contributed “all she had, her whole livelihood.” Now, this is not an exhortation from Jesus for rich people to give more, more often, and with a more gracious attitude, This is, in fact, a call for every generous heart—rich, poor, somewhere in between—to think carefully about what our Father has provided for us and how we spread His goodness around.

Christ wants more, better, and best from us always, but what he wants most is our contrite hearts and humble spirits. Out of these sacrifices he wants an outrageous generosity to pour out service, prayer, and abundant witness. So let me ask you another gospel question: what are you putting into the Lord’s treasury? Where does your generosity come from?

You might ask: “Why does it matter where my generosity comes from? Isn’t giving the point?” The short answer: No. Giving isn’t the point. Giving is the result, the conclusion. What must come before or underneath giving itself is a wide-open, bountiful, abundantly generous heart, a heart at the center of which is the living sacrifice of Christ himself on the cross. Christian generosity pours out from the heart-tabernacle, from the holy of holies where the Lord Himself rests in us—the hub of friendship with God, the axis point at which the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit meet to contain all that we are and all that we have. An abundantly generous heart is a bottomless covenant, an eternal promise of blessing and gift, of virtue and of holy consequence. If we will give as the widow did, we give a lot or often or graciously, we will give as God our Father gives: fully, freely, without price, expectation, or debt. We will give ourselves, all of ourselves, everything we have and are, give all that we love, all that hold for security, all that we reserve just for us. We will give as Christ gave to us and for us on the altar of the cross and gives to us now on that altar of sacrifice. We must give our lives if we are to live.

Let’s see if we all understand the sacrifice of Calvary, the generous gift of Christ’s life for our sins. Jesus died on the cross, was buried, rose from the tomb, ascended to the Father, and now we come together to sacrifice him again on that altar. We are here to beat and bruise his body again, here to lash him and crown him with thorns, here to pound those nails through his hands and feet, and lift him up over Golgotha so that we might benefit again from his death—a death that we repeat over and over again in the Mass. Right? NO! That is an anti-Catholic parody of our theology of redemption. The Catholic theology of redemption is the theology of redemption found in today’s reading from Hebrews. Christ does not offer himself repeatedly for our sins; he does not come before the holy of holies once a year like the levitical High Priest to expiate our sins; he does not enter a wooden temple for us. Instead, he enters for us the temple of the presence of God. He went before the holy holies once to expiate our sins. And he offered himself once for all on the cross. Hebrews reads, “…now once for all he has appeared at the end of the ages to take away sin by his sacrifice…[and] will appear a second time, not to take away sin but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await him.”

Surely this is the Christian exemplar of generosity! Christ doesn’t give much, often, or graciously. He give all, forever, and perfectly. He gives us all of his life—his time among us, his trial, his suffering, his death, and his resurrection. He gives us forever the benefits of his high priesthood, making us a royal, holy, and prophetic people. He gives us perfectly the one sacrifice we need, the only sacrifice we need for new life, for life eternal. And to complete, for us here in history, to complete the sacrifice of the cross, he will return in abundance, in glory, in awesome blessing and bring the fullness of divine healing to everyone who waits for him, everyone who waits with hearts opened, with tabernacle doors thrown wide.

Let me ask you again: what are you putting into the Lord’s treasury? Where does your generosity come from? Think about what you take out of the treasury, what we all take from the treasury! My point here is not to shame anyone into being generous. My point is simply this: if we are withdrawing from the abundant treasury of God’s blessings—and we are—then surely we are filled with those blessings, surely we are stuffed like our uncles at Thanksgiving with the gifts and rewards of our Father’s goodness and beauty. Wonderful! Precisely as it should be. But if we are stuffed and continuing to stuff, then surely we are called to spread the goodies, to diffuse the blessings. You might say to me, “But Father, God gave me these blessings for my benefit. I prayed for them especially!” Yes, absolutely correct. He gave you that blessing so that you might use it to its fullest effect—by giving it away! By giving it away you will be truly blessed in your near reckless generosity. Hoarding blessings and gifts from God is a contradiction in terms. Let me suggest a radical notion to you: if you have a blessing or gift that you aren’t eager to give away, it is probably not a blessing or gift from God at all, but a bribe from the Devil. He is trying to buy you, an agent of Christ, off. He is trying to prevent you from delivering the Goods to those in need by making you think that the purpose of a blessing or gift is its immediate, personal use. The nature of blessing and gift is giving not hoarding.

What are you putting into the Lord’s treasury? Where does your generosity come from? Whatever abundance you have and whatever blessing you are, they and you come from God. It makes no sense to say that Christian generosity is obligatory; that it is stingy or mean; that it is frugal or sparing. Christian generosity comes from the welling up of love that is God Himself in us. Sitting at our center, the stillpoint of our body and soul, He dumps blessing after blessing after blessing into our lives and moves us to treat each blessing according to its nature: gift, giving, given, gave. The widow does not give much or often or perhaps even graciously. She gives out of her poverty and her poverty is transformed into fertile wealth—the teaching of Christ that feeds the generations. Of course, put time, talent, and treasure in the plate. We have bills to pay like everyone else. But put yourself on the altar of gift and offer a contrite heart and a humbled spirit as a perfect sacrifice to the Lord.

He wants you wholly given, perfectly gifted, and beautifully graced. Once for all give it all, everything, and enter the kingdom of God.

Blessed are they who gossip...

Pope Saint Leo the Great: Sirach 39.6-11 and Matthew 16.13-19
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St. Albert the Great Priory and Church of the Incarnation

PODCAST!
Jesus is a gossip. Notice how the gospel begins: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” He wants to know what people are saying about him! You might say, “Well, he’s setting the disciples up to teach them about who he is.” No doubt. But he’s doing so by asking his students what others think of him, what others are saying about him. As a teacher I can tell you: we want to know what our students think of us! It’s important to us b/c we teach in order to pass on a certain wisdom, a manner of framing the world and moving around in it. We want to shout at our students sometimes, cajole and prod them, swift kick them or lift them up, but we always want to know how well we are teaching, how well are we handing on to them what wisdom we have.

OK, it might be a little much to call Jesus a gossip! If he is a gossip, he is a Holy Gossip and he is testing his disciples to see if they have been listening to how well his Word has been passed on to the people, how well his Word has diffused out and settled into the hearts and minds of those gathered to hear and see. The disciples tell him what they have been hearing. Some have said that you are John the Baptist. Some have said Elijah, some Jeremiah or one of the other prophets. You can almost see Jesus smirking or maybe rolling his eyes just a little! Well, not everyone is paying close attention apparently! But at least they hear that his is prophetic, at least they “get” that he is not a magician or a snake oil salesman. They know that he speaks with authority and wisdom.

Now, the real test: do the disciples know this? Have his students been paying attention? What has he taught them? Turning to the class, Jesus asks, “John the Baptist and Jeremiah, uh? Well, OK. Who do you say that I am?” Always the favorite, Peter’s hand goes up first: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Precisely right! Gold star for Simon Peter! And he and his faith are rewarded with the keys to the Kingdom. He is made steward of Christ’s realm and Head Gossip of the Church. It is now his job to make sure that all the rumors, all the whispering and innuendo, all the chitchat and yammering about who Jesus is comes out right. It is his job to make sure that what gets whispered is more than rumor and story. He is charged, with the other disciples and eventually the whole Church, charged with setting loose in the world the juiciest bit of chisme creation has ever heard: Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God! And he is here to do the work of our salvation.

Blessed are you who whisper this truth. Blessed are you who gossip about this gift of the spirit. Blessed are you who hear and see, listen and witness. Blessed are you who question and learn, who ask and receive. Blessed are you who speak wisdom and sing God’s praises. Blessed are you who pour out glory and a spirit of understanding. Blessed are you who raise your hands, open your mouth, and proclaim that Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God. And, finally, blessed are you who admit your ignorance and submit yourself as a graced natural resource to the stewardship of Peter. It is upon that rock, Peter, that Christ’s Church is built, where His Church stands, and where His Church prevails.

If your tongue must be loose, let it be bound with the gossip of the gospel. Whisper to one another and anyone who will hear: Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God!

Battling Heretics in the Seminary, or Protest at Your Own Risk

A few commenters on my Exhortation below have challenged me to clarify my statement that we need young men called to the priesthood to battle dissenting professors in our seminaries. The primary objection to this assertion seems to be that these young men, following my advice, will end up either "flying under the radar" as closeted orthodox believers in order to survive or booted out of seminary for being troublemakers and end up "damaged goods."

My initial response to this objection was to argue that my students here at UD are fully aware that courage requires prudence. One does not do battle courageously and do it imprudently. I hold to this still. But I also concede that not everyone reading my Exhortation understands the connection between courage and prudence. There is a real chance a zealous young man might decide to do battle with a dissenting seminary prof and do so imprudently, and thus find himself bounced out on his ear. My own experience with the liberal professoriate proves that there is nothing more illiberal than a liberal with a PhD, power, and with whom one disagrees.

Another reader in a private email pointed out that since I received my theological education in schools run by my Order (Aquinas Institute in St. Louis and Blackfriars Hall, Oxford University), I had a very different experience than most seminarians. I concede this as well. Most of my profs were Dominican friars and sisters. There is a different dynamic when you are being taught by people with whom you will be spending the rest of your life! I would point out, however, that religious order seminarians rarely get to choose their seminaries. I think this is probably the case with diocesan seminarians as well. One commenter made the point that young men answering the call to priesthood need to exercise prudence in choosing a diocese or religious community so that he is not put in a position of having to battle anyone. All is can say to this is: good luck with that! Seriously, there might be two seminaries in this country where the entire faculty is acceptably orthodox (and my definition of "orthodox" is more expansive than most!).

Given all that, let me say this: if you are an orthodox (notice I didn’t say conservative!) young man in a seminary and you find yourself confronted by a professor obstinately teaching error or dissenting from well-established Church teaching, you have several options:

1). Be quiet, take notes, tell him/her what he/she wants to hear. Get through it knowing that you don’t have to believe any of their nonsense!

2). Politely question and offer respectful critique. Emphasis on respectful.

3). If the dissenting prof uses the rhetoric of freedom or diversity when defending his/her right to dissent, then ask him/her how he/she feels about students dissenting from his/her dissent. Most will say, "Bring it on!" Most of those won’t mean it. See #’s 1 and 2.

4). Offer intelligent opposition in writing assignments, but leave the public debate to more adventurous souls. Dissenters can usually take a little opposition in written form. It’s being called out in front of the class that riles them.

5). Couch your opposition to their dissent in strictly Thomistic terms: "It would seem that your understanding of the Trinity leads us to X, Y, and Z. I wonder if you could help me see how your understanding of the Trinity could avoid X, Y, and Z?" Simple statement of fact or possible conclusion.

6). Open defiance is really not an option with liberal or conservative dissenters. Both have security issues and your opposition will be couched in terms of a "formation issue." I found that most of my opposition—always polite, intelligent, humorous, and exactly correct! (HA!)—was reported as "anti-female" and "anti-laity;" in other words, I insisted on the Church’s teaching on the priesthood and sacraments.

7). I always counsel against using any form of liberal democratic protest against dissenting profs (petitions, pickets, et al). I know, I know, the irony is seductive, but it only draws attention to them and makes them think people really care what they think. Don’t add any rooms to their delusional castles.

Of course, as a last resort you could always listen, take notes, ask intelligent questions, ask the prof to lay out the consequences of his/her teaching, and actually learn something from their dissent. I mean, even if you just learn how not to dissent, it would be worth the effort!


Fr. Philip, OP

Neo? Buddha? Or that Guy from NPR?

Anniversary of Deceased Brothers and Sisters of the Order of Preachers
Revelation 21.1-7; John 17.15-21, 24-26
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St. Albert the Great Priory, Irving, TX

PODCAST!
Before going with his disciples to the Garden where he is betrayed, Jesus asks his Father to consecrate his disciples, his friends and students, in the truth, “Consecrate them by means of the truth. Your Word is truth.” What is Jesus asking his Father to do, precisely?

Let’s look at what he is not asking his Father to do. First, he is not asking his Father to deposit into the minds of the disciples a set body of knowledge or a cache of information. He is not, in other words, asking the Father to download the divine equivalent of an doctrinal encyclopedia into the brains of the disciples. Peter, John, James, Andrew, and the rest aren’t Matrix characters waiting for the operator to punch up a Dogma Program and hit them with Truth 3.0. Nor is Jesus asking his Father to flood their hearts with luminous warmth, with the fragrant aroma of pure enlightenment and self-knowledge, to bestow on them the bright intellectual clarity of an ascended Master. The disciples aren’t gurus to be illuminated; they aren’t maharishis to be dissolved into cosmic Oneness, to be sprinkled like stardust on a solar wind. Finally, Jesus is not asking his Father to educate his friends to be savvy cultural critics, bored and boring observers of the state of human society, or distant “readers” of intellectual trends, shifts in political power, and swings in the populist mood. The disciples are not marketing savants or fashion mavens or trendsetting celebrities.

So, if Jesus is not asking the Father to set his disciples up as information caches, bodhisattvas, or pop-cultural ciphers, what is he asking? He is asking his Father to make them Christs; to make them into sacrificial servants of the Church; to set them aside for the consuming work of teaching and preaching as Jesus himself taught and preached. Jesus is praying for nothing less than the radical transformation of his students into the embodied Word, walking, breathing, living—flesh and bone—incarnations of the Word.

Jesus says to his Father, “Your word is truth. As you have sent me, so I have sent them into the world…” In just the same way that God sent His Son into the world for our salvation…in just that way…Jesus sends his disciples into the world to preach the Word and they send us into the world to preach the Word and we send…who is it that we send to preach? “I do not pray for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their word, that all may be one as you, Father, are in me, and I in you…” Jesus prays for those who will hear his Word from you, from me, from us as a family, as an institution. He is not praying for institutional unity or uniformity, he is praying for one heart and mind among us. A single Word, a single teaching, one preaching, one witness to Christ alone.

How do we preach, teach, live, breath, eat, drink the Word, the Truth? Are we, are you “set aside” in the Word of Truth that is Jesus Christ? In other words, do you see and hear and taste and feel the world through the ancient faith, through the histories of our mothers and fathers in Christ, through that which has been handed on to us as definitive of us, as telling of who and what we are as Catholics, as witnesses, as preachers, as Christs?

Jesus revealed his Father’s name to the disciples so that the Father’s love for Jesus may live in his disciples. He continues to reveal the Father’s name so that His love for Christ may live in us. If we will be consecrated in the Truth—set aside in the Word—we will do now what Christ did then so that all, everyone and anyone, will know what Christ continues to do: he loves us into eternal life.

Who will you send today as a disciple? Who will you consecrate in truth?