Therefore, peace be with you. . .

NB.  Yes, this is an adapted homily from 2006. . .for reasons too complicated and embarrassing to get into, I had to recycle something from the archive.  If it doesn't work at the vigil Mass this afternoon, I'll have time in the morning to compose something new. 

P.S.  This one didn't go over so well. . .I felt a stirring amongst the crowd that didn't bode well.

2nd Sunday of Easter (2012)
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St Dominic Church, NOLA

Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? The victory that conquers the world is our faith. And so, peace be with you in the mercy of Christ!

You might think that Jesus would take it easy after his passion, his death, his descent into Hell, and his resurrection! What better time, what better excuse would any of us have to take a break—“I was betrayed by my friends, beaten by the police, nailed hands and feet to a cross, left to die, stabbed by a spear, buried in a tomb, spent three days in Hell, and then my Father raised me from the dead. Yea, I think I’m gonna take the week off, relax, catch up on my reading, do the spa thing…” That would be me anyway. Jesus, on the other hand, has a much better work ethic than I do and seems particularly energized by his trial and tribulations; he’s revved up to continue his ministry, appearing to Mary Magdalene and the woefully hard-hearted and doubting disciples several times over the last week.

The disciples are wallowing in anxiety, self-pity, disappointment, and maybe even a little shame at their failure to better defend their teacher and friend against the self-serving powers of the Temple and the Empire. Are they reluctant to believe that he is truly risen b/c they are embarrassed to confront him? Maybe. They don’t seem all that ashamed when they finally come around and see Jesus for who he is. Maybe they are reluctant b/c they do not look like victors over the world; they do not look like those who have believed and conquered the world in faith. They are despondent, worried about many things, depressed, crowding together to comfort one another in their waiting, in their despairing anticipation.

What are they waiting for? What has paralyzed them so? Frozen their spirits and slowed their hearts? Why aren’t they out there in the world claiming victory in faith? Why aren’t they out there proclaiming that the conquering Word has risen from the dead and living among them? Why can’t they see? Why can’t they hear? Why won’t they believe? 

Faith releases us from the need to control. Faith conquers the need to entertain all possible options. Faith recognizes the powerful singularity of Truth, the breathtaking beauty of raw reality, the Very Good of all creation. Faith reorders priorities, reschedules plans, reorganizes futures. Faith is the seed of a covenant of love, a promise of boundless mercy and unconditional favor. Faith places you in the conquering good will of the Father—His will that you love, that you be loved, and His will that we keep his commandments. Faith comes first. Trust is primary. Faith then plans. Faith then philosophies. Faith then theologies. Faith then sciences. Faith then politics. 

The disciples will not believe absent the presence of Christ among them for the same reasons that you and I are not likely to believe. We like control. We need nearly infinite options, unfettered choices. We love the idea of relative truth—My truth, your truth, or no truth at all! We value human justice above divine mercy and cannot let go of vengeance. We have plans, expectations, back-up plans, important worries, dire anxieties, vitally important worries, extremely dire anxieties; we have schedules, deadlines, due dates, things to do, places to be, people to meet! And I don’t have what I need! And I don’t need what I have! I have sins; I have BIG sins. I’m a big sinner! A huge sinner! Lock the doors! Be afraid…!! Hell is rushing up to meet me and I’m running as fast as I can to meet the Devil. . .faster and faster and faster. . .

And Jesus stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” He showed them his hands and his side, his passionate wounds. As the disciples rejoiced, Jesus said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” He breathed on them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” And he gave them the power to forgive sin through his mercy and in his name.

Thomas the Twin wasn’t with them when Jesus appeared and did not believe the apostolic witness when it was given. Thomas was not a doubter; he was a denier. Thomas did not say to his fellow disciples, “I’m having difficulties working through the implications of the Lord’s death and Resurrection.” He didn’t say: “The possibility that Jesus has been dead for three days and has risen from the tomb is troubling, and I’m struggling with it.” Thomas said: “I will not believe until I see it for myself.” That’s not doubt; that’s denial. He is placing his willful need for understanding above his trust in Christ and requiring that God be worthy of his trust.

The Lord lets Thomas feel his wounds and then lets him know in no uncertain terms that his denial is a failure of trust: “Have you come to believe b/c you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” Jesus is not calling for “blind faith.” He is calling on Thomas, the disciples, and us to believe the witness of the Church, to trust the evidence of those who have lived their lives in faith before us. Jesus is not asking us to deny our intellect, to deny our good sense, or to leave our expensive educations at the door of the Church. Nothing about the Catholic faith requires us to assent to foolishness in order to be good Catholics. Nothing about the faith requires us to adopt willful ignorance, or stupidity. Nor are we required to stop asking questions or surrender a healthy curiosity. 

Doubt as such is no obstacle to the faith so long as we are ready to doubt Doubt, that is, so long as we do not invest a great deal of trust in our doubts. When you invest in your doubts, when you make uncertainty primary, you are actually trusting in your own judgment, trusting that you have the better answer. St Thomas Aquinas teaches us that even believing resembles doubt sometimes in that both have “no finished vision of the truth.” Have your doubts. Struggle with the Church’s witness. Ask questions and seek faithful answers. But understand that doubt itself is a form of certainty in one's own judgment, and it cannot grant us a license to dissent; having doubts, asking questions does not constitute a God-given right to deny. We are victors over the world in faith, in trust, not in suspicious denial and rebellion.

Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? The victory that conquers the world is our faith. And so, peace be with you! Receive the Holy Spirit. Be unstuck, become unglued; be opened, enlivened, renewed; be born again in faith and victory; conquer this world by the power of your trust, your bone-deep, blood-rushing witness to the truth of our Catholic faith: the living faith of the faithful dead, unbroken and unchanged, for us and with us the same teachings of Jesus, the same preaching of the apostles, the power of the sacraments, the magisterial authority of the Church, the very Presence of Christ among us!

He is risen from the dead. And that victory conquers the world. Therefore, peace be with you. Receive the Holy Spirit; believe, and be at peace in Christ's divine mercy.

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Book Recs for Teen Boys

Wendee wrote to ask about any book recommendations I might have for her 14 y.o. son who loves history.  

A search on Amazon turned up some likely candidates, so I thought I'd post the link here for any other parents or kids who might be looking for something good to read. . .

Turn of the Century Boys' Adventure Books (it's not likely that these will have any offensive or age-inappropriate scenes in them)

C.S. Lewis' Space Triology

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Surprise. . .

A box of books from the Wish List arrived yesterday. . .WooHoo!!

There was no shipping invoice, so my Kind and Generous Benefactor will remain anonymous. . .to me, at least. 

Nonetheless, my prayers on your behalf will be properly credited to you in Heaven!

Also, a Thank You to Jason S. for the Kindle Book. . .I started reading it last night. . .good stuff!  You'd really be amazed at how many novels about ancient Rome there are.

God bless, Fr. Philip Neri, OP

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Staying with us in the breaking of the bread

Wednesday of the Octave of Easter
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Have you ever had one of those moments when you suddenly, unexpectedly understand something that has eluded you for years? Try as you might, you just can't quite see the whole problem clearly, or grasp the solution firmly. Others try to help. You consult experts; read books; search the internet, but the pattern of events or the connections among the various elements of the problem just won't congeal into a coherent picture. Finally, one day, while you're mowing the yard or driving to work—BAM!—it hits you! All the pieces, all the connections, all the definitions and angles fall gracefully into place and you understand. Zen Buddhists call this satori. In the West, we call it a Eureka moment—the moment that our minds pierce the fog of confusion and we achieve a peaceful clarity; it is the moment our eyes are opened and we see, truly see. While walking toward the town of Emmaus, two of Jesus' disciples have their eyes opened to Christ's presence. Why couldn't they see him at first? The disciples were “looking downcast,” depressed with grief. Rather than seeking the Lord himself, they were looking for consolation. How was their sight returned to them? In the blessing and breaking of the bread.

Cleopas and his fellow disciple are despondent about the death of Jesus and the disappearance of his body from the tomb. Their grief and confusion prevents them from recognizing Jesus when he meets them on the road. They recount the dramatic events of the past few days. In response, Jesus, exclaims, “Oh, how foolish you are!” What causes their folly? Their hearts are slow to believe all that the prophets had revealed about the Christ. Jesus asks, “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Had the disciples listened and believed all that Jesus had taught them, they would know that there is no reason to grieve, no reason to be downcast. Being a patient teacher, Jesus walks them through the scriptures, beginning with Moses, and shows them step by step how he has fulfilled the Law and the Prophets. When they all arrive in Emmaus, the disciples make a simple yet profound request of the stranger who's walked with them, “Stay with us.” He does. And their eyes are opened to see the Lord when he blesses and breaks bread for them. He stays with us in the breaking of the bread.

Like these disciples who spend their limited time grieving the death of the Lord instead of seeking his wisdom, we too cause ourselves useless confusion and anxiety by refusing to trust in a fundamental truth: God is always with us, always among us, and providing for our care. How often do we cry out for God's help and fail to see the help He has sent b/c we are too busy looking for the help we want? How often do we bargain with God and fail to see the gifts He has freely given us b/c we are too busy bargaining for the things we want? In the scriptures and the teaching ministry of the Church, we have everything we need to understand that Jesus is the Christ. In the sacraments of the Church and our own charitable works, we have everything we need to grow in holiness. What the scriptures, the magisterium, the sacraments, and our good works cannot do for us is prise open our eyes to see God working among us and for us. For that, we must say, each of us must say, “Stay with us, Lord!” And he remains—plain to see and hear—in the Word of his prophets and in the breaking of the bread.

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Updates

I've updated the Kindle Wish List with some novels set in ancient Rome. . .my favorites!

And I updated the Books & Things Wish List with some Must Have texts from the neo-Thomistic tradition of Garrigou-Lagrange--JPII's dissertation director at the Angelicum.

Some kind and generous soul recently purchased several books from the Wish List. . .when they arrive, I will send a Thank You note ASAP!

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Coffee Cup Browsing

Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum in Rome. . .meditations written by the founders of the Focolare Movement. Save these for next year. . .

Academic Crimethink. . .this is how I became a Marxist-feminist lit theory robot in the 90's.  This sort of thing happens in schools of theology as well.

Faith & Riches. . .to put it bluntly:  believers are going to out-breed unbelievers.

Replicating NBC's "editing mistake" shows that it was no mistake.

Good question, actually:  why aren't the bounty-hunting Black Panthers not under arrest? 

Cowardly Dawkins won't debate professional Christian philosophers. . .nor will he speak (unopposed) on a Catholic radio show.  We need better atheists!

Oh, what a difference five yrs. makes in the "anti-war" movement.  The occupant of the White House seems to matter a great deal as well.
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Monday Fat Report

Not sure what to make of this. . .

I'm down to 318lbs.   That's a nine pound drop from last week.

Just to be sure, I weighed three times within an hour this morning.  All the readings were within a .2lbs. variance.

So. . .who knows?. . .whatever the reason, I'm grateful!  Your prayers are obviously working.

Fr. Philip Neri, OP
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From fear to joy. . .

Octave of Easter (M)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

We have two stories of fear this morning. Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James, discover Christ's empty tomb. “Fearful yet overjoyed,” they start to run back to the other disciples to report that their Lord's body is missing. Meanwhile, the temple guards report to the chief priests “all that has happened.” Afraid that the story of the missing body will be heard as evidence of Jesus' authenticity, the priests and elders bribe the guards to spread a false story about how the disciples removed their teacher's corpse from the tomb. The disciples are afraid. The priests, elders, and guards are afraid. Everyone it seems is brimming with fear this Easter Monday morning. The two Mary's flee the empty tomb. The guards run to the chief priests. The chief priests bribe the guards. And the guards accept the bribe. Everyone is afraid and everyone deals with their fear differently. However, our Lord appears to the Mary's and says to them, “Do not be afraid.” He changes their fear into a mission, “Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” In the presence of the Risen Christ, our fear, worry, anxiety are transformed into a passion for spreading the Good News of the God's providence and mercy!

Anyone who tells you that there's nothing to fear in this world is lying. In the news just this morning: Syria is waging a civil war; N Korea is threatening to attack its neighbors; racial violence is on the rise all over the U.S.; Islamic extremists are taking power in Egypt and Liyba; 38 Nigerian Catholics were killed Easter morning during Mass by two car bombs; there is civil unrest in China; and the religious freedoms of western democracies are under attack in Europe, Canada, and the U.S. Our Holy Father, Benedict, said in his Easter homily that “darkness threatens mankind.” There is much to fear but there is no reason to be afraid. In the presence of the Risen Christ, fear is transformed into a passion for giving witness to the victory of life over death, the victory of truth over falsehood, the victory of light over darkness! The bloody cross of Good Friday yields the empty tomb of Easter Morning. Having been students at the feet of Jesus, the Mary's know this truth, so they are “fearful yet overjoyed” at finding his body missing. And when the Christ appears to them and says, “Do not be afraid,” they begin their mission to spread the good news of his resurrection.

We are in the presence of the Risen Christ this morning. Any fear we may be feeling; any anxiety we may be nurturing; any despair, disappointment, anger, dissatisfaction, emptiness—any and all of the disordered passions we are capable of experiencing, all of them can be transformed into a passion for living the Good News and spreading word of God's mercy. How? When the Risen Christ appears to the fearful Mary's, they “approached [him], embraced his feet, and did him homage.” They go to Christ; they receive him as their Lord; and they give to him the honor and glory due his name. Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid of mockery or death; do not be afraid of your failures, or your flaws. Joy overwhelms fear. Joy overcomes all obstacles, breaks all barriers. Set your minds on the sure knowledge that Christ's victory is complete. Death is defeated. You have died in Christ. A new life in him awaits. The battle is won; the war is over. Victory goes to our King. From an empty tomb, victory has always and will always go to the Risen Christ!

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Seek what is above. . .

Easter Sunday (2012)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Our Lord, Jesus Christ, is risen! His tomb stands empty! Three days after his trial and humiliation, three days after walking the Way of Sorrow, three days after his grisly execution on a Roman cross, and three days after a stone sealed his grave, our Lord, Jesus Christ, is risen. His tomb stands empty. This is the historical fact of the first Easter morning: where we should find a broken and decomposing body wrapped in a burial shroud, all we find is dust and cloth. Mark tells us that when Mary Magdalene; Mary, the mother of James; and Salome arrive at the tomb to anoint their Master's body, they find the stone rolled away and sitting inside a young man clothed in a white robe. The women are amazed. The man says, “Do not be amazed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He has been raised; he is not here.” John tells us that Simon Peter and another disciple run to the grave. They search the tomb, and seeing that Jesus is not there, they believe. And though they believe, “they [do] not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.” The disciples, mourning the brutal death of their teacher, seek for him below, literally, in the ground. They believe, but they do not yet understand. Paul writes to the Colossians, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.” We are raised with Christ, therefore, we must seek what is above. 

In the Garden, on the day of his execution, our Lord asks Judas and the temple guards, “Whom do you seek?” They answer, “Jesus the Nazorean.” Jesus says, “I AM.” In the same moment that he is betrayed by his friend, Christ reveals (again) that he is the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob; that he is the voice that spoke to Moses; that he is one with the Father and one with the Spirit; he reveals his nature, and in doing so, reveals his purpose: to die on the altar of the cross in sacrifice for the salvation of the world and to rise again into the heavenly tabernacle. If the history of our redemption had ended on Golgotha with the bloody execution of one man to save us all, ours today would a religion of human sacrifice. But our history does not end at the Place of the Skull. In fact, our history doesn't even begin there. The story of our redemption begins at the creatio ex nihilo, the creation of everything from nothing when God breathed His Word across the Void and all things came to be and were made good. The Word of our creation speaks through the Law and the prophets, revealing His will; he speaks through all the things of creation, revealing His design; and he speaks in the voice of one divine person, Jesus Christ, to reveal, finally and uniquely, His merciful love. Dying on the cross, the Christ utters his final sentence, “It is finished.” He is dead. The final sacrifice is complete. His work is done. Now, he is risen by the Spirit and our work in the Spirit has just begun. 

Where do we begin? On Good Friday, we heard Jesus ask his betrayer, “Whom do you seek?” At our vigil last night, we heard Isiah say, “Seek the Lord. . .call him while he is near.” We also heard the man inside tomb say to the women, “You seek Jesus, the crucified.” This morning, we heard Paul, writing to the Colossians, say, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above. . .Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.” We begin the work of bringing to the world the saving Word of God by first seeking that which is above, seeking after the one from whom we receive our salvation. We begin by dying to sin, turning from disobedience and death, picking up the cross we've been given, and following Christ. We begin by setting our hearts and minds to trusting in God's promises to provide for us, to forgive us, and to always love us. We begin by believing that his tomb is empty so that we might come to understand that he is raised in glory to sit at the right hand of the Father, to understand that we too will be raised in glory to eat and drink at His eternal feast. When we seek what is above, our lives are directed toward, aligned with the divine will, the holy purpose encoded into the DNA of creation. When we seek what is above, we come to believe and understand that we were given life to propagate life—the life we now live and the life we hope to live with God forever. As seekers of what is above, we come to believe and understand that all of creation, all of God's creatures, reveal His presence among us, reveal His purpose to us, and direct us along the path to both righteousness and peace. Whom do you seek? Whom do you follow? Who are you here at this feast of the resurrection of the Lord? And who will you be when we lay you in your grave? 

Peter says, “You know what has happened. . .” He then recounts the life and death of Jesus. He ends by reminding the disciples that “he commissioned us to preach to the people and testify that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness, that everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.” You know what has happened. Our Lord is risen. His tomb is empty. Through his resurrection we are made children of the Father and commissioned to preach to the people and testify that Jesus is the long-promised and long-awaited Christ. If we are preachers of his Word, then we are also prophets who bear witness to the guarantee that anyone who believes in him will be forgiven their sins, brought back to righteousness, and gifted with eternal life. To be the preachers and prophets of the Good News of the Father's mercy, we must always seek him who is above, seek him who is beyond, and keep all that we are focused on the holy purpose of our graced lives. In his Easter homily in Rome, our Holy Father, Benedict, said, “Jesus rises from the grave. Life is stronger than death. Good is stronger than evil. Love is stronger than hate. Truth is stronger than lies.” Make your lives a living witness to this fact: not even death itself can contain the glory and power of God!

___________________

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It is done. . .

Just finished the Easter Vigil here at St. Dominic's. . .we received 13 new Catholics into the Church!

Happy Easter !!!
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"It is finished. . ." and begun.

Good Friday 2012
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Our Lord takes a sip of wine and sighs, “It is finished.” Our Lord is dead. Do we mourn? Do we rejoice? His mortal life is finished, and now we. . .what?. . .celebrate/remember/grieve. He is finished; his work is done. And whatever we choose to do with his passing, our pilgrimage to lives eternal is just beginning. The poet, W. H. Auden, chose to dwell at the cross on Good Friday. He writes:

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling in the sky the message 'He is dead'[. . .]

I thought that love would last forever, I was wrong
The stars are not wanted now, put out every one
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood
For nothing now can ever come to any good.*

Mr. Auden was wrong. . .about being wrong. Love does last forever and there is no need to empty creation of its stars and oceans and woods. Come Easter morning—we know—that Christ's tomb is empty and all creation is brought back to Love. But for today, our Lord is dead. And the good he brings seems forever away. Do we mourn? Rejoice? Do we laugh or cry? Whatever we do, we take one step toward eternity. 

* Stop All the Clocks, W. H. Auden, 1937.  This poem was written as lyrics for a play.  The subject of the poem is a deceased politician, not Christ; however, I thought the idea of the poem fit well with Good Friday.  

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Yes, confessions can be heard on Good Friday. . .

Will your pastor open the confessional on Good Friday?

Though celebrating the sacrament is not required, many pastors believe that confession is forbidden on Good Friday.

Due to a bad English translation from the Latin and a desire to dampen any enthusiasm for "pre-Vatican Two" devotional practices, a generation or two of priests have been led to believe that the rubrics for Good Friday forbid confessions being heard today.

Not so!

The 2002 edition of the Roman Missal removes all ambiguity:  "On this and the following day, the Church, from a most ancient tradition, does not at all celebrate the sacraments, except for (the sacraments of) Penance and Anointing of the Sick."  

So, there may be many perfectly good reasons for not offering the sacrament today; however, "The rubrics say we can't have confession on Good Friday" is not one of them.

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BXVI: "Is disobedience a path of renewal for the Church?"

From the BXVI's Holy Thursday homily:

[. . .]

Recently a group of priests from a European country [Austria] issued a summons to disobedience, and at the same time gave concrete examples of the forms this disobedience might take, even to the point of disregarding definitive decisions of the Church’s Magisterium, such as the question of women’s ordination, for which Blessed Pope John Paul II stated irrevocably that the Church has received no authority from the Lord. Is disobedience a path of renewal for the Church? We would like to believe that the authors of this summons are motivated by concern for the Church, that they are convinced that the slow pace of institutions has to be overcome by drastic measures, in order to open up new paths and to bring the Church up to date. But is disobedience really a way to do this? Do we sense here anything of that configuration to Christ which is the precondition for all true renewal, or do we merely sense a desperate push to do something to change the Church in accordance with one’s own preferences and ideas?

[. . .]

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Meditations on Christian Dogma, two excellent books. . .

Two books recommendations for you. . .

Meditations on Christian Dogma, Vol. 1

Meditations on Christian Dogma, Vol. 2

Both volumes were written by The Rt. Rev. James Bellford, D.D. and first published in England in 1898.  The links above will you give the 3rd editions of these volumes published in 1906 and reprinted by St Pius X Press.

Bishop Bellford gives us two excellent volumes of meditations on basic Christian dogma.  Volume One covers God, The Incarnation, and The Blessed Virgin.  Volume Two covers Beatitude, Laws, Grace, Virtue, Human Acts, and The Last Things, among others.  

Three qualities highly recommend these books:  orthodoxy, clarity, and brevity.

First, orthodoxy: these meditations provide thoroughly orthodox insights and explanations of the principle dogmatic truths of the Catholic faith.  Written before modernist and postmodernist innovations infected our theological vocabulary and thought, these volumes lay out the fundamentals of our apostolic traditions as the Church has received them from the beginning.  The Good Bishop was deeply influenced by Aquinas and his books can be read as commentary on the Summa.  Though there is no critical apparatus to link specific meditations to individual articles of the saint's major work, a quick glance at the table of contents will confirm that Bellford has structured his work along a line similar to Aquinas'. 

Second, clarity:  without the gobbledegook of modernist and postmodernist theological language to clutter up his thoughts, Bellford's meditations are strikingly clear.  He relies principally on scripture, conciliar documents, papal decrees, and the Church Father for his images, vocabulary, and tone.  For example, he introduces his meditation on The Last Supper, "In the Last Supper Jesus Christ exhibits His love, and proves Himself to be our best Friend. . ."  He then quotes John 13.1 and continues, "This was the farewell banquet on the last evening of His earthly life; in it He delivered His Testament, His final work of love, and bequeathed as a keepsake and eternal memorial of Himself.  This bequest was not His portrait, not even the most valuable of His created works, not an empty type or figure of Himself; it was Himself under the form of a simple creature, it was His own Body and Blood, it was the food of eternal life for our souls under the appearance of perishable bodily nourishment. . ."  Simple, clear, concise.  Some of the more philosophically complex topics naturally use more sophisticated language, but the overall style of his writing is easily comprehended but nonetheless rich for reflection. 

Third, brevity:  each meditation is exactly two pages long.  This means that he gets to the meat of the matter w/o sputtering on about his feelings or personal experiences.  If you want a book of meditations that touches your emotions, then you will have to look elsewhere. Bellford's books are meant--in their brevity and clarity--to shoot you with the large dose of intelligent insight quickly and cleanly.

I highly recommend these books for Catholics who suffered through the Dark Days of butterflies and rainbows catechesis and who now find themselves grasping for an anchor in the faith.  For new Catholics, these books will give you more than just the basics; they will give a foundation and a solid framework from which to grow in holiness.  For seminarians and clergy, these books will give you a basis from which to access newer theologies and often provide excellent prompts for papers and homilies. 

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Just Say NO to P.C. Foot Washings (repost)

NB.  Fr. Michael has the Holy Thursday Mass tonight, so no homily from me.  I thought I'd repost on the Annual Holy Week Liturgical Question of Foot Washing. . .

Q: Any opinion on the yearly controversy over the rubrics regarding the Holy Thursday liturgy for foot washing?

A: I always dread this question! My iron-clad rule is: Say the black, do the red. In other words, read the prayers as they are written in the liturgical books and follow the rules as they are. Following this rule, the priest will wash the feet of twelve men from his parish.

Now, the controversy revolves around two elements of this liturgy: 1) who washes? and 2) who gets washed? Some say: everyone washes; everyone gets washed! Others follow the rubric requiring the priest to do the washing, but they usually try to mix and match the washee's to accommodate some weird need to use this liturgy to express the "diversity" of the parish (as if just looking around in the pews doesn't demonstrate this well enough).

The B.I.G. issue, of course, is whether or not women can be included as washee's. The rubrics clearly require that the washee's be men, males (viri). In the U.S., bishops are allowed to grant pastors an exception to include women. Most do, I would bet. Fine.

What this debate about rubrics usually misses is the whole point of the rite itself. Jesus washes the feet of his disciples in order to show them that he is not only their Master and friend but their servant as well. He will go to the cross as a servant for them (and for us all). The priest, acting in the person of Christ, washes the feet of twelve men in order to liturgically enact this revelatory moment.

This liturgy is not about diversity or tolerance or discipleship or community-building. This is the moment when Christ--fully God, fully man--begins to empty himself in preparation for his passion and for the cross. In one very important way, this liturgy is about who the priest is for his parish--since he is and acts in the person of Christ as head of the Church, the priest is symbolizing his servant-leadership of the community. To use foot-washing on Holy Thursday for any other purpose is simply perverse.

Some will argue that since Jesus tells his disciples "to go and do likewise" that this is reason enough to turn the liturgy in a podiatrical free-for-all. If this is the case, then let's follow the example of scripture precisely. Celebrate the liturgy as it is written and then "do likewise." In other words, the priest will wash the feet of twelve men and then another part of the liturgy can be devoted to the "doing likewise." Or maybe a foot-washing free-for-all liturgy can be planned for another time of the year, or even regularly scheduled during Lent. Not perfect solutions by any stretch, I know.

What is tiresome about this yearly debate is the constant refrain of prog liturgists that this event needs to "express diversity." No, it doesn't. There is no good reason for this liturgy to do any such thing. Why this liturgy should yield to the demands of liturgical political correctness is beyond me. There's no demand that baptisms reflect the parish's diversity. Diversity in confessions? Will every Latino couple getting married in the parish need to find an Asian couple to get married with in order to celebrate diversity? Can three black guys get ordained to the priesthood at the same time, or do they need to wait until at least one white guy is ready for ordination?

Of course, the other possibility is to simply skip it. It's optional.

2012 Addendum:  One of the stated goals of the Spirit of Vatican Two Revolution is to de-clericalize the Church by opening all liturgical roles to the laity.  Following the rubrics for the Foot Washing gets in the way of this hallowed goal; therefore, the rubrics must be ignored.  Listen carefully to the homilies tonight.  How many preachers note that Holy Thursday is specifically designed to celebrate the institution of the Eucharist and the ordained priesthood?  If your pastor doesn't mention this element of the liturgy, it is probably b/c he's never heard it himself!

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