Preaching in the Deep

 

St. Gregory the Great

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, O

St. Dominic Priory, NOLA

You won't catch a fish big enough to brag about in a pond. A fish worthy of boasting about has to be caught in deeper water. But deeper water comes with a number of hazards – bigger waves, bigger storms, better chance of getting lost, and less chance of getting rescued. Those are the chances you take to enter the world of Big Fish Boasting! What if we take Jesus to be talking about preaching instead of fishing? What does it mean then to “go out into the deep”? Well, if we think of preaching as a pond-side afternoon of dropping a hook and taking a nap – as a hobby, or something to do when we feel like doing nothing –, then “going out into the deep” has to be that sort of preaching that demands planning, preparation, research; a willingness to challenge and be challenged; a deeply seeded desire for adventure; and an openness to the possibility of both getting lost and catching your White Whale. Preaching in the deep like fishing in the deep not only increases the odds of catching more and bigger fish, it also intensifies the thrill of the chase and hones the preacher's skills.

That's the good stuff. What about the dangers of preaching in the deep? Well, you will ride bigger waves – higher highs and lower lows; more turbulence, opposition. You will confront bigger storms – louder noise, frightening headwinds; risk lightening strikes and the threat of going overboard. The chances of getting lost are greater the further out you go, the further away you travel from a safe port, a safe pulpit. And all these combine to make it harder and harder for you to be found and rescued from your apparent folly. Even so, to fill your boat to the point of sinking must be worth the risk. It's what we signed for. As Dominican preachers we didn't sign up to be amateur fishermen napping the afternoon away by the side of a pond. We signed up as pros to compete in the international Deep Water Championship. When the Lord says, “Go out into the deep,” we know he means for us to bring everything we have and everything we are to the sport and ready ourselves for whatever hazards we encounter and whatever rewards we reap. All the fish – big and small – belong to him. So do the fishermen. So, as we prepare for our next trip out, hear him one more time, “Do not be afraid.”

 

 

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Beware False Christs

AUDIO FILE

22^nd Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

OLR, NOLA

Oh, how quickly the mighty fall! Just last week, Jesus crowned Peter “the Rock,” giving him the keys to the Kingdom; making him the Royal Steward, the foundation stone of the Church. Tonight, we hear Jesus call that same Peter “Satan,” accusing him of betrayal and scandal; putting Peter firmly behind him, clearing the way to his cross in Jerusalem. What happened? What happened to Simon Peter's rock-like faith in Christ? He'd suffered no significant losses in the meantime. He'd had no major existential crises; no tragedies of epic proportions. As far as we know, he'd followed along behind Jesus all this time, happily listening to his Master, taking it all in and just being a faithful disciple. Then the Lord shows his students that “he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly [. . .] and be killed and on the third day be raised.” How does Peter's rock-like faith prompt him to respond? Does he leap for joy, knowing that our salvation is at hand? Does he pack his bags, ready to follow Christ to the Cross? No. Instead, he rebukes Jesus, saying, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” Peter's faith meets Peter's fear in battle, and fear wins. 

 

Consider: Peter is first among the disciples. Destined to be the first pope, the first Vicar of Christ on earth. He's set among the other disciples as the one to whom the Father revealed Jesus' identity and mission as the Messiah. The Lord's revelation that he must go to Jerusalem and die for the sins of the world must've shocked Peter to his core. Peter's reaction to this news probably arises out of a genuine love for Jesus and a genuine love for his own skin. Following Christ means following Christ. To Jerusalem. To the Cross. To a sacrificial death. And, eventually, to a resurrection from the grave. But getting to the resurrection part entails suffering through the persecution, torture, and dying parts. Peter's rebuke is understandable from a merely human standpoint. But Jesus isn't seeing his mission and ministry from a merely human standpoint. He's seeing it from all eternity – the whole of the Father's plan for His people. From this view, Peter is an obstacle, a scandal for Christ. He's literally standing in the way, tempting Christ – as Satan did – to abandon his mission in favor of a fully-lived life on earth. Jesus stops this temptation in its tracks and teaches Peter and us how we must proceed: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” IOW, do as I do. 

 

All of our lives as Catholics we've heard the refrain “deny yourself, take up your cross, follow me.” We've turned the phrase “a cross to bear” into a pale platitude, meaning little more than “well, that's a terrible problem to have.” Got arthritis? Your cross to bear. Got unruly teens in the family? Your cross to bear. Got a bad financial situation? Your cross to bear. The cross Jesus bears along the streets of Jerusalem kills him. It is not only a heavy burden but an instrument of execution. And an instrument of salvation. Arthritis, unruly teens, and an empty checkbook can be heavy burdens, but they are not likely to kill you AND save others. The cross you bear is given to you to build up your faith muscles. To stretch your reliance on hope and tone your eagerness to love and love sacrificially. I can't tell you what your cross is. That knowledge comes with prayer and fasting. But I can tell you that your cross will be most unwelcome, painful, and – if you give God thanks for it – for you, a source of eternal joy. Peter rebukes Christ b/c Peter is scared. For Christ, he is afraid. He is also afraid for himself. No one wants to endure pain and suffering. But if we follow Christ, then the comforts of our middle-class, suburban, American Christianity stand in the way. Like Satan in the desert, this comedic version of the Gospel tempts us to hell.

The False Christs we see everyday attempt to lure us away from The Way, the only way. The False Christ of Legalism tells us that our salvation is found in following the rules. The False Christ of Emotionalism tells us that our salvation is found in feeling the right feelings. The False Christ of Scientism tell us that our salvation is found in “believing in science.” The False Christ of Princes tell us all we need do to be saved is support the right politician. We can add to the list the False Christs of More Money, Career, Prestige and Popularity, Wellness, Revolution, Race/Class/Gender, etc. What all the False Christs have in common is Christ w/o the Cross. Christ w/o sacrifice. Christ w/o Divine Love. Peter wants Christ w/o Jerusalem, w/o the Mount of Skulls. What Christ himself offers is the chance to redeem your life by following him in sacrificial love. That's hard. It's a narrow gate. A potentially bloody path. But it's The Way, the only way. Do not be deceived: Christ w/o the Cross is an obstacle, a scandal. It's the way to nothing at all.

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Cold, wet, and scared -- STAY AWAKE!

21^st Week OT (R)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St Dominic Priory, NOLA

One of the symptoms of PTSD is persistent vigilance. Past trauma puts the body and soul on notice that at any moment something horrible can happen. Best to stay vigilant and prepared for anything. Over time the wear and tear of being constantly on alert can lead to psychosis and even heart failure. So, is Jesus asking us to risk mental instability and physical illness when he says, “Stay awake!”? No. Obviously not. But he is asking us to abide deeply and persistently in our faith. This means – at least – riding the storms of this world like unsinkable ships, confident that nothing can take us away from his love. The long pause btw the coming of the H.S. and Thursday, August 27, 2020 has been and is reason enough for some to give up waiting on his return, choosing instead to “eat and drink with drunkards” and beat the Lord's servants. And why not? If the Master isn't coming back anytime soon, why not abuse power; steal from the collection plate; step on others, climbing the church's career ladder; take advantage of the vulnerable sexually; indulge in a little extortion and blackmail; assist kings and princes in unraveling the moral fabric of the nation; or even work against the truth of the Gospel from the pulpit and altar? I mean, it's not like he's coming back anytime soon, right? Jesus says, “You do not know on which day your Lord will come.” I don't hear that as a threat or a promise. Just a statement of fact. We don't know. And knowing that we don't know is reason enough – or should be – to keep us faithful. To keep us riding these worldly storms. Cold, wet, scared; yes – but also absolutely confident that the last victory is his and ours.

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Are you Christ, a Son of the living God?

AUDIO FILE

21^st Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

OLR, NOLA

Christ asks us, “Who do [you] say that the Son of Man is?” Great question. The better question for us now though is, “Who does the Son of Man say that I am?” We have all confessed Christ Jesus as the Son of Man, the long-promised Messiah of the Prophets. But what have we – each one of us – what have we done with this profession of faith? Hearing your profession of faith and looking into the deep places of your life in holiness, Our Lord could answer any number of ways, saying, “You are an heir to the Kingdom.” Or “You are a lukewarm hanger-on.” Or “You never knew me.” Or “I don't know you.” Each of these answers has it own terrifying consequences. But we will be asked the question. From the throne of judgment on the Last Day, the Just Judge will call us forward and look into our faces. What will he see? Rebellion? Obedience? Pride? Humility? Wrath? Temperance? Will he see more of you than he sees of himself? Will he see your faith, hope, and love? Or will he see distrust, despair, and selfishness? On the Last Day, on your last day, who will the Lord say you are?

 

Simon Peter is established as the First Apostle. He's given the keys to heaven, made the steward of Christ, his vicar on earth. He's granted this authority by Christ b/c God has revealed to him that Jesus is the Messiah. Peter the Rock and the rock of his confession form the foundation of the Church and has remained the foundation of the Church for 2,020yrs. This same rock forms the foundation for your membership in this Church. You have professed that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. You have made this profession dozens and dozens of time, and you will make it again tonight. On the Last Day, your last day and mine, we will be asked again to profess the Lordship of Christ. Not by our words in that moment but by showing the Lord the lives we've lived until the last. What will he see? What will he hear? Will he see Philip Powell living his gifted life as Philip Powell? Or will he see me living his life, the Christ-life – imperfect but longing for holiness, striving for perfection? Will he see me loving, hoping, trusting, and forgiving; or, will he see me rebelling; running after acclaim; and seeking vengeance? Will he see the face of an unrepentant sinner; or the bright, shining face of his own reflection? If I will that Christ see his face reflected in my mine on the Last Day, I will build my life now on the rock of his Church – “[Lord,] you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

 

This confession of Jesus' Lordship is the first, necessary step in growing your life in holiness. We need his life in ours if we are to reflect his face on the Last Day. We can build virtuous lives on prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice. We can improve everyday through good works for the poor, the marginalized, the outcast, and those who hate us. We can even become something like a secular saint by fighting for justice and peace in this world. What we can't do on these shaky foundations is become Christ with Christ. Without his divine life pulsing through ours our words and deeds may be virtuous. . .but they cannot be salvific. Without faith, hope, and love, all the other virtues are just good habits for living like a decent human being in the world. And maybe that's enough for you. It's been enough for many. But your goal, our goal is eternal life with Christ. Not just a moral life here on earth. With Simon Peter, the Rock of Christ's Church on earth, we join the saints' parade to holiness by declaring, believing, and putting into daily practice, “[Lord,] you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

The Psalmist gives us one way to go from there. Pray: “Lord, your love is eternal; do not forsake the work of your hands.” This isn't a plea to God. He will not and cannot forsake us. Love is His nature. What this is is a hard reminder to us not to forsake Him. We are the work of His hands. We are creations of His truth, beauty, and goodness. As such, we are granted the possibility of being His vicars, His stewards while we live. When we declare, believe, and enact Christ's Lordship in our lives, we, with Simon Peter, become his “stand in,” his understudy – a disciple. We become imperfect Christs for the salvation of the world. And everyday, every minute of everyday becomes a chance to learn, to grow, to be perfected in him. Everyday, every minute of everyday is a chance to polish his reflection on us so that the world sees him in us, through us. The more we reflect his face – even imperfectly – the brighter and clearer and more detailed his face in us becomes. On that Last Day then, we can stand before the judgment seat and show him his face in ours. And the Lord will look into the deeper places of who you are and say, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” Welcome to His wedding feast!

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Few are chosen

St. Bernard

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Priory, NOLA

It's part of our job as Preaching Friars is to make sure that as many people as possible hear Christ's invitation to join the Wedding Feast. It's SOP nowadays to think of this job as extensions of PC culture's obsession with diversity, inclusion, and tolerance. That's fine as far as it goes. Everyone is to be included in the invitation, w/o remainder. But the parable Jesus tells reveals that there are some less than PC elements to the invitation project. First, potential guests can refuse to attend. No big deal. Except that there are consequences for refusing. Second, the invitation can be ignored. Again, not such a big deal except for the consequences of doing so. Third, fed up with being rejected and ignored, the Lord sends us out to invite anyone who will listen. This gambit fills the banquet hall! But now we are confronted by the man improperly dressed. He accepts the invitation. Arrives at the feast. But does so unprepared. That is, he says he wants to be guest and shows up as a guest, but he doesn't bother to change his clothes. He doesn't bother to change his life. He wants all the benefits of being a guest but none of the responsibilities. He ends up bound and gagged and bounced on the street. 

 

Commenting on this tussle, the Lord, says, “Many are invited, but few are chosen.” This may make us squirm a bit. Our original mission as bearers of the invitation makes us uncomfortable with a guest getting bounced. And that bit about being “chosen” is more disturbing still. Who's chosen? And who does the choosing? Maybe we can take some comfort in the fact that those invited do the choosing. When the Lord's invitation to the Wedding Feast is made, received, and accepted, the guest knows that he/she will be attending a Wedding Feast. He/she has freely chosen then to prepare for the feast and show up properly dressed. When benefits flow, responsibilities accrue. Choosing to take on the latter means taking on the former. Fortunately for us, as Preaching Friars, our job is announcing the invitation. What we can't do is play bouncer or pretend to be the Lord. Nor can we pretend that there won't be those who reject or ignore the invite, or those who will accept and arrive unprepared. What we can do is attend to them and do everything we can to help them be better prepared when next invitation arrives.

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Observe what is right

Audio File

20^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

OLR, NOLA

The Lord warns His prophet, Isaiah, “Observe what is right, do what is just; for my salvation is about to come, my justice, about to be revealed.” It's odd that a promise of salvation and divine justice should sound so threatening. But it does. That phrase “observe what is right, do what is just” gives you the sense that salvation and justice are only available to the righteous, the just. And that is exactly what the Lord means. Only those who observe His commandments and live in His justice can receive the salvation He offers. This shouldn't surprise us. A closed jar cannot receive water. A locked door cannot welcome guests. A heart and mind that rejects the Lord and His mighty works cannot/will not receive His graces. And without those graces there is no salvation or justice. The Lord's warning to Isaiah is a call to repentance. It's a call to hear His revealing Word and see our final end. Not as abstract concepts floating high above us. . .but as real, concrete, everyday realities that form our thoughts, words, and deeds as we live and breathe. What is right and what is just in eyes of the Lord is the Law of Love, a law given human flesh in the divine person of Christ Jesus.

That Law of Love is being tested now more than ever in this country, in this city. You've watched the news. Protests, riots, cities on fire; racial hatred and violence; social and class division; political chaos and economic disruption. NOLA hit 100 murders on June 28^th. LA 157. NYC 227. Philly 247. At the end of July, Chicago hit 440 murders. All dramatic increases over last year. The pandemic is partly to blame. But so is the indoctrination of our young adults in Marxist ideology. And the demonization of law enforcement in the media. A long history of racism adds fuel to the fire. And the upcoming presidential election only gives the teetering situation a push toward total collapse. The solutions being offered for these crises will only make things worse. More racial discrimination to combat racial discrimination is a recipe for more resentment and violence. Defunding the police only hurts those not able to hire private security. Changes to election laws right before an election just look like partisan trickery and will delegitimize whoever is elected. How we understand and address these issues as citizens of the US must be rooted in who we are as heirs to the Kingdom. The Law of Love – given flesh and bone in Christ Jesus – must be our one and only anchor in this storm.

Part of the storm we face as Christians is the temptation to seek permanent solutions outside the Law of Love. Many look to systematic solutions that overturn our long-standing political institutions. Some look to messianic figures, usually politicians, to save us. Others dig around in decades-old, failed economic theories to find a way to justice. And a few just want to watch it all burn after they've set the fire. The temptation for us is to hitch our spiritual wagon to one or more these and give them credibility with our support. That's a quick way to lose sight of our ultimate end and find ourselves used and abused by the world. We are not called to establish justice on the earth. We are called to be just where we are planted. We are not called to force righteousness on the world. We are called to be righteous where we are. We are not called to legislate holiness but to be holy day in and day out. The Law of Love – given flesh and bone in the divine person of Christ Jesus – calls us to sacrifice for the Good of the Other. Not to sacrifice the Other for their own good. Self-righteousness as a political tactic is beyond dangerous; it's suicidal. And we are teetering on the brink.

What's a faithful Catholic to do? Remember who you are: heir to the Kingdom, a child of God; a priest, prophet, and king by baptism. You belong to Christ not to this world. Pray! With the poor mother of the demon-possessed daughter, cry out to God, “Have pity on [us], Lord, Son of David!” Pray we will not suffer the consequences of our sin. Fast and sacrifice. Pick a day and fast. Give that fasting over to the peace of the nation. Make your fasting holy by explicitly giving your denial to God for our good. Read the signs of the times. Stay away from gossip, disinformation, rumors, and lies. Resist the temptation to fall into conspiracy theories and strange plots. You are a rational animal. Use your reason to seek the true, the good, and the beautiful. We are not herd animals like cattle or sheep. Resist the urge to panic and flail about. Lead with your faith in Christ Jesus; don't follow blindly with a need to belong. And finally, attend to your most intimate relationship – your relationship with Christ. That bond needs food and water; exercise and sunshine. Observe what is right, do what is just. Attend to the sacraments and bear witness to his mercy. Live the Law of Love.

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To be a child

18^th Week OT (T)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St Dominic Priory, NOLA

What is it to be like a child? More specifically, what is it to be “a little one”? We might think Christ is talking about innocence here. Purity of heart. Minds unfazed by adult obligations. Spontaneous, playful. Or, maybe he's saying we need to be blissfully ignorant and demanding. Centered squarely on self – my needs. Probably not. Given the context of this passage, it's more likely that Christ is telling us to remain firmly centered in our dependent relationship with the Father; that is, to remain humble. It's one thing to be dependent and quite another to acknowledge this dependence and rely on it. We can easily betray the humility necessary for salvation by making idols of our plans, schedules, goals, and programs. That is, pretty much anything that reaches out to grab control of Divine Providence with merely human effort. Little Ones are taken care of. Little Ones are protected. The Little One who declares his independence from God and wanders off usually ends up lost or in the belly of a wolf. Christ will come looking for his lost sheep. But the lost must want to be found.

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Test your faith not the Lord

 AUDIO FILE

19^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St Anthony/OLR, NOLA

Peter doubts, and Jesus calls him out. With living, breathing evidence right in front of him, evidence that Jesus is the Christ long-promised by the Prophets, Peter doubts. His courage wavers, and he panics, crying out to his Lord for rescue. We can't fault Peter for his moment of weakness. We've all had them. We've all faced people and events that rock the foundations of our faith. Why does Peter doubt? B/c he's human. Like us, he's imperfect; he's frail and afraid in a storm that could kill him. With Christ only inches away, literally, just right there, he does what any of us would do: he cries out for rescue; his desire to live betraying his faith. Jesus saves him. Of course. And he will save us as well when we panic and cry out. We don't know how Peter explains his doubt. His answer, if he gave one, isn't recorded in the Gospels. Not knowing his answer, we are free to ask and answer ourselves: why do I doubt? Why do I fail to trust in the Lord's love and mercy? Why, when people and events shake my world, do I panic and allow myself to sink close to despair? “Take courage, it is I [says the Lord]; do not be afraid.”

We can't help but notice that the Lord connects doubt and fear. Trusting in God's providence is second nature when everything is moving along smoothly; that is, when our lives are unfolding the way we want them to. It's when the comfortable predictability of daily living becomes uncomfortable and unpredictable that we begin to nurture fear. Reaching out in panic to control people and events, we flop around trying to steer our sinking ship; desperately bailing water; and cursing the wind. This is when fear grows. Fear of loss. Fear of injury. Fear of change, of letting go, and maybe even death. This instability, this uncertainty leads us to think and feel that maybe just maybe God isn't watching. He doesn't care. He's not going to help. Maybe I'm being punished. Maybe I'm being taught a lesson. Maybe just maybe there is no God at all. And that's its own terrible fear. At this point, we can continue to flail about, grasping for control; or, we can surrender to God's providence and give Him thanks for the blessings we've received. One reaction feeds fear and doubt. The other builds courage and strengthens faith. Trust is a habit. It take time, patience, and practice. You have to see it at work over and over again. But you will never see it at work if you never put it to work. Surrender and let God take control.

Peter says, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” Jesus replies, “Come.” And Peter is able to walk on the water! Peter's faith in Jesus seems unassailable. But notice something: Peter puts the Lord to the test. IF it is you, command me. IF you are there, Lord, heal me. IF you care, Lord, help me. IF you are who you say you are, Lord, do as I ask. Is that faith? Is that trust? No, it isn't. We know this b/c what happens next tells us that Peter isn't believing; he isn't trusting or faithful. A heavy wind threatens to sink him, and he panics. His request to Jesus is rooted in doubt. IF. IF it is you. Rather than test his faith, Peter tests the Lord. And fails his own test. But, again, we can sympathize with Peter. We understand the need to be in charge, to be the captain of our own boat. We know what it is to feel helpless when we can't choose our own direction or pick our preferred route. It's maddening – giving someone else control of our lives. What if they take me where I don't want to go? What if they get lost or leave me abandoned? What if, what if, what if. . .as if our own grasping at self-determination can give us peace.

Our only source of peace is the peace of Christ. The peace that comes with surrendering ourselves to being made perfect in him. Surrendering attachments – the parasites of this world that leech on our good will and intellect. Surrendering anger, vengeance, jealousy, disappointment, the lust for power and control. Surrendering our desire to become god w/o God – our pride, our arrogance, our entitlement. Surrendering our favorite sins – gossip, fornication, lying, theft, cynicism. Surrendering our habit of worshiping false gods – money, celebrities, politicians, athletes, popularity, and our tribe. Peace – the peace of Christ – comes with ridding ourselves of everything that is not Christ. Emptying ourselves of anything that doesn't honor Divine Love. Anything that doesn't help us to be preachers and teachers of the Word. Anything that stands in the way of our growing in holiness. Peter doesn't recognize Christ on the water, so he dares to test his Lord. Dispose of whatever it is that prevents you from recognizing Christ in your storm. Nothing else and no one else can or will save you when the water gets rough. Courage is being afraid and trusting in Christ to spite your fear. Courage is a heart swollen in faith.

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Choosing not to love

17^th Week OT (R)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St Dominic Priory, NOLA

Our contemporary sensibilities about including some and excluding others has taken a beating this week and last. It's clear from our readings that there is such a thing as a goat, a weed, and a bad fish. The “evil and unfaithful generation” is not an abstraction but a populated reality. Believing this to be true may make us uncomfortable b/c it can be a weapon against those among us whom we'd rather not have around. There's just too much temptation there for sinful man to resist. So, we are tempted instead to pretend that eternal failure is a moral myth, or we interpret it away as a culturally bound artifact of more primitive times. Enlightened now, we reassure ourselves that everyone – ultimately – is a sheep, a fruitful plant, and a good fish. But this more contemporary bit of myth-making does violence to a fundamental truth of our redeemed human nature: it robs us of our freedom and makes all of our moral acts pointless. Why be a saint if being an unrepentant sinner is an equally valid means of growing in holiness and gaining heaven? Why feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick, and seek justice for the oppressed, when not doing any of these things is just as spiritually effective? In fact, starving the hungry, leaving the naked to die, making people sick, and actively oppressing others is “just as good as” spending one's life in faithful service to the least among us. Jesus couldn't be clearer: “The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.” We can be uncomfortable with this image. We can be embarrassed for Jesus that he said something so primitive. We can even have a Blessed Are The Cheese Makers moment, a sort of soothing “what he really means is” take on the reading. But the reality is: if we are to be truly free, we need to understand the consequences of our choices. Jesus isn't threatening us here. He's warning us. Choosing not to love now is choosing not to spend eternity with Love later.

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Flinging the Word

17^th Week OT (M)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St Dominic Priory, NOLA

A mustard seed is tiny. So is a grain of yeast. Both contain a great deal of power. Mustard plants can grow to 9ft tall. And just a pinch of yeast can leaven a lot of flour. Jesus compares his Father's kingdom to these two petite powerhouses of nature, giving us a way to think about our preaching. If we think of our preaching as a means of intervening in the world, as a way of disrupting the spirits of the world, we end up in a fight. How much better would it be to sow the Word like mustard seed and watch the plants flourish where they land. Or dose the flat, unsalted flour of the world with the yeast of the Word and let it all come to life. If our preaching is a kind of sowing, then we aren't all that worried about neat rows, straight lines, or orderly patches. We reach in, grab a handful, and fling! Where the seeds and yeast land may be random or predestined. What matters is the soil. And that the soil is seeded. As preachers of the Word, our job is to give every kind of soil the chance to produce good fruit, to give every bit of flour the opportunity to rise. We do this by diligently and maybe even wildly flinging the Word wherever we go.

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Praying among the weeds

NB. Not preaching today, so here's one from 2017.

 

16^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

OLR, NOLA

In prayer we are “beggars before God.” Having nothing, we ask for everything, and receive what we need. If we cannot quite put words to our needs, “the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings.” Like the rest of creation, we too long to be raised to perfection, to be made complete again in the presence of God. But until we are given the beatific vision, we live and move in this world – needing, asking, receiving, giving; not knowing perfectly what comes next. Not knowing what comes next can be a source of anxiety or a source of freedom. If we trust in God, fully surrendering ourselves to His providence, not knowing what comes next is freeing. How we pray in this freedom is simple: “Lord, your will be done. I receive all You have to give!” Prayer becomes more complicated when we hold back, when we hide away bits of control, little needs to direct and dominate: “Lord, your will be done (if your will is to allow me to do my will), and I receive all You have to give (if what You have to give is what I want)!” This is not the prayer of a beggar. It IS the prayer of a willful child who falsely believes he/she knows perfectly what comes next. We don't know and acting on that not- knowing can kill us. Both physically and spiritually.

 

Jesus proposes to the crowds a parable about the wisdom of not acting in ignorance. He tells them (and us) to allow the weeds to grow among the wheat. We can't always tell the difference btw the weeds and the wheat. Pulling up the weeds might damage the wheat. Let them both grow and the harvesters will separate them – wheat to the barn, weeds to the fire. Full knowledge of which is which comes at the end not the beginning. The same is true for the differences btw our wants and our needs. If I pray in ignorance for what I need, I may be praying for what I want instead. And when I don't get what I think I need, I begin to doubt God's providence. Maybe I stop praying. Maybe I stop believing. Maybe – even – I turn against God b/c He has failed to meet my “needs.” My ignorance – my “not-knowing” – can cause me to stumble along the Way. . .unless. . .I know that I am ignorant and choose instead to surrender myself to God's providence and receive whatever He sends my way. “Lord, your will be done. I receive all You have to give!” The mature pray-er begins and ends in ignorance, allowing the Harvester to separate his wants from his needs, the wheat from the weeds.

 

What are the weeds in prayer? Jesus says, “While everyone was asleep [the farmer's] enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat. . .” Notice that everyone was asleep. They weren't keeping vigil. No one was on watch. And b/c no one was watching, the farmer's enemy was free to sow weeds. When we are not paying attention to our spiritual lives, when we are living life as if God doesn't exist, the Enemy is free to sow his weeds. His favorite weed to sow is the weed we'll call “Self-Sufficiency,” also known as “I Don't Any Help.” This weed tempts us to believe that we already know what the problem is and how to solve it. It tempts us – in our pride – to turn away from God's providence and rely on our own ingenuity. Or to tell God what the problem is and how He ought to fix it. Given enough time to grow this weed produces fruit called, “I Need a Hole Plugged.” God and His providence become little more than an emergency yelp when things go bad. There's a way to render these weeds powerless over your prayer. Don't pull them! Let them grow. But render them powerless by admitting upfront that you don't know what you need, desire God above all else, and receive all the He sends you with praise and thanksgiving. 

 

Paul lays all this bare for us in his letter to the Romans: “The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought. . .” Paul is not suggesting here that we've forgotten the words to our prayers, or that we're praying the wrong prayers. He's telling us that our weakness – our ignorance (for we do not know how to pray as we ought) – is aided by the Spirit. We are strengthened in prayer by the Spirit, guided by the Spirit to struggle with our ignorance and surrender to the providence of God. Prayer is not a matter of overcoming not-knowing or learning all that we ought to know. Prayer is about placing ourselves – freely and generously – in the path of the Spirit so that He may take us up and deliver us – needs and all – into the presence of the One Who loves us. If we are tightly bound by sin, or diverted by disordered passions, or driven away by an ugly pride, we cannot throw ourselves in the path of the Spirit. Nor can we pray. Nor can we receive all that God has to give us. This is why Christ – “the one who searches hearts knows what is the intention of the Spirit” – sits at the right hand of the Father and “intercedes for the holy ones according to God's will.” What we do not know and cannot know about our own needs and about God's will, Christ knows. And he is there to hear us even when all we can do is groan.

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Becoming the soil you need to be

15^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

OLR, NOLA

AUDIO FILE

If the seed is the Word of God – our faith – and the soil is the human person who receives and nurtures the seed, then we can ask ourselves: what kind of soil am I? The essence of this question is fundamental to any examination of conscience. But, let's say, you want to go deeper; you want to explore a way of growing in holiness that goes beyond a quick survey of “how I'm doing.” If that's the case, then the question you want to ask yourself is: how do I become kind of soil I need to be? This question assumes you know what kind of soil you are now, and it prompts you to consider what needs to change in your life and how to make those changes. Keep in mind – the goal here is to become the sort of soil that gives the seed of the Word the best chance of taking root in your life and producing good fruit. What this looks like might not be what the world thinks good soil looks like; or what your family or friends think good soil look like; or even what you think it should look like. That's just part of the surprise and drama of striving for a life of holiness! Sometimes the most disgusting mud grows the most beautiful flowers.

So, you're feeling stuck, thinking that your growth in holiness has stalled. Maybe you are experiencing more anxiety lately. Your prayer life is blah. And God seems farther away everyday. In other words, you are shallow, dry, and thorny soil. It's time to ask yourself: how do I become kind of soil I need to be to nurture the Word and produce good fruit? The first step is a merciless inventory of your sins. Sin is a deliberate act of disobedience; it's a willful, shouted NO! To God that prevents you from receiving His gifts. To be clear: God never stops blessing us. But we can and do stop receiving those blessings. And the principal way we refuse His gifts is through sin. Once that inventory is complete, it's time to head to the confessional and receive His forgiveness through absolution. Think of this step as pulling the weeds from your life, cutting back the thorns, and digging up the stones in your way. If the seed of the Word is going to find a place in your life, it needs space – He needs space. And He's already given you and me everything we need to help us make that space as large and as obstacle-free as we can get it. BUT He's not going to do the work for us. He'll work along with us, but not instead of us. 

 

Once the weeds are pulled and the thorns are burned in the confessional, we can proceed to step two: spreading high-quality fertilizer. What's the best fertilizer for growing in holiness? Small acts of charity, inconspicuous moments where you enact the Good for the Other for no other reason than the Good of the Other. Think of the Widow and her mite. She gives out of her poverty not her surplus. She gives everything she has, not just the little leftover when her bills are paid. These acts of charity don't have to be about money. You can pay attention to someone who's used to being ignored. You can sit with someone who's sick; visit someone who has no one; write letters to prisoners; help out at a homeless shelter or food bank; volunteer with the St. Vincent de Paul Society; tutor kids struggling in school. The object here is to get outside yourself, to move beyond that constantly nagging MeMeMe that demands satisfaction but never seems to be satisfied. It's about coming to see the Christ in yourself by seeing him in others. This is a potent fertilizer for the cultivation of the proper soil of holiness. Every saint in heaven mastered the production and distribution of these small acts of charity, and they are there now, waiting for you and me to call on them for their help.

 

Now that you've cleared your field and fertilized it with charity, it's time to welcome the Sower and his seeds. Two acts best welcome him: gratitude and surrender. Together these two increase your harvest a hundredfold. Gratitude is an expression of humility. You acknowledge that everything you have and are is a gift from God. Nothing you have or are is truly your own. It all comes from Him. This attitude inoculates you against the spiritual disease of entitlement – “I'm owed. I deserve. My life is about Me.” Surrender is a form of gratitude. It sets the heart and mind to receive God's blessings w/o expectation. To receive the seed of the Word as God Himself sows it. Surrender leaves what is God's in God's hands, and it all belongs to God, including you and me. By turning your life to gratitude and surrender, you open yourself to becoming the richest possible soil for growing in holiness. When you close yourself to gratitude and surrender, you cultivate Pride and nothing grows in the sterile dust of Pride but resentment, anger, envy, and violence. What kind of soil do you need to become to produce good fruit? Soil rich in charity, gratitude, surrender, and hope. Nothing less can nurture God's Word.

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The immovable rock of preaching

14^th Week OT (R): Crisis Preaching

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

NDS, NOLA

AUDIO FILE

The Catholic preacher stands on the ancient witness of Scripture; the incarnated revelation of the Father in the divine person of Christ Jesus; and the ordered, intelligible beauty of creation. He stands on God's Self-revelation in the Bible, in Christ, and in creation to accomplish one necessary task: to proclaim the Father's freely offered mercy to sinners. The Catholic preacher gives his voice to the Word of God so that the People of God may know that their Father has forgiven them their sins through Jesus Christ. Knowing that their sins are forgiven, God's people are then exhorted to receive His mercy through the sacraments, thus growing in holiness. And with their growth in holiness, they are charged with going out into the world to bear witness – in word and deed – to the mercy they themselves have received. In season and out, the Catholic preacher preaches one Word, one message, one revelation, one Gospel – Jesus Christ is Lord! From the throne of one's heart, Christ rules. In season and out, in sickness or in health, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, the Church is the eternal bride of the bridegroom. The preacher preaches standing on this immovable rock.

Jesus says to his disciples, his apostles: “'As you go, make this proclamation: The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” The kingdom IS at hand. Not used to be at hand, or will be at hand at some point. But IS at hand. Right here, right now. Whether that right here, right now is a hurricane or a beautiful spring day; an economic depression or record economic growth; a bloody civil war or a nation celebrating its unity in peace – right here, right now – the Kingdom of heaven is at hand, and Jesus Christ is Lord. The tides of history in this world will ebb and flow, will come and go, but the Lordship of Christ for those who follow him never wavers. When confronted by a crisis, some disastrous eruption in the ordinary patterns of daily life, the Christian remembers faith, hope, and charity. He/she remembers to trust in God's divine providence; to expect that God's promises will be fulfilled; and to love sacrificially for the good of the Other. The Catholic preacher will be a personal sign, an embodied symbol of this memory among his people. The proclamation of the presence of the Kingdom is ancient, contemporary, and eschatological. Then, now, and to come. If you will serve the Lord as his priest, you will serve him as a voice crying out into whatever wilderness he sends you.

Our Enemy, the spirit of this age, will tempt you to compromise the Word, to make “prudent adjustments,” to skirt around the Hard Stuff and focus on the Easy Stuff. You will come to think that you are being cooperative when you succumb to this temptation. That you are being a “team player.” After all, there are bigger problems to tackle. Larger issues to consider. There's the parish budget. The diocesan tax. The capital campaign. There's the media to think about and how this will be received in the chancery. If you are being an ass in the pulpit, you should worry about these things. But if you are preaching the Good News that the Father has freely forgiven our sins through Jesus Christ, then you have nothing to worry about. Hurricanes? Your sins are forgiven; receive God's mercy. Record unemployment? Your sins are forgiven; receive God's mercy. Civil war? Riots? Pandemic? Your sins are forgiven; receive God's mercy. Every crisis is a chance for both the Church and her greatest Enemy to preach their respective gospels. For our Enemy, that gospel is: fear, anger, paranoia will keep you safe. For the Church, that gospel is and always will be: your sins are forgiven; receive God's mercy.

Just in case I haven't made myself clear: a crisis changes nothing about the Gospel or its preaching. Preach the Gospel before a crisis, and how you preach the Gospel during and after a crisis should look exactly the same. Did the Roman Imperial persecutions change the Gospel? No. Did the Gnostic nonsense of the Patristic period change the Gospel? No. Did four hundred years of the Arian heresy change the Gospel? No. Did the collapse of the Roman Empire; the invasion of the Moors; the nominalist revolution of Luther; the French Revolution; the rise and fall of Napoleon; the 19^th century modernist scourge; the Bolsheviks, the Nazis, the Maoists, the Sexual Revolution, or the Internet change the Gospel? No. When we preach faith, hope, and charity, and live these virtues well, we participate in the Divine Life. The Divine Life does not change. But we do. We grow in perfection and though the world around us may be falling apart, we endure not b/c we are immune to natural disaster or disease, but b/c our inheritance is the Kingdom. The Catholic preacher preaches standing on this immovable rock.

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Preaching God's Funeral

NB. Spent my day preparing for a formation conference at NDS on Thursday. I ran across this post of mine from 2013. Thought it deserved re-posting.

 

Among the books and articles I'm reading to prepare for the Advanced Preaching Seminar at NDS this spring is an excellent book by Phil Snider, titled, Preaching After God.

The first two chapters of this book lay out what Snider calls "the modern homiletical crisis." Basically, he argues that the liberal/progressive theology of modernist Christianity has left progressive ministers and preachers with little to say about God.

He charts the development of modernist theology through several philosophical veins, including the usual suspects: Kant, Hegel, Fichte, and, of course, Schleiermacher. 

Despite his embrace of progressive theology, Snider laments the "death of God" in liberal Protestant preaching, noting that preaching in the mainline churches has become little more than politically tinged ethical exhortation. 

In theory and practice, Christian progressives have replaced theology with anthropology.*

He writes, "Activism became the rule of the day in modern preaching largely because God was not longer identified as anything other than a projection of the best intentions and ideals of the human spirit, if anything at all, and religion was reduced to activism. . .When one considers the import of Kant and Hegel on liberal theology, it's no coincidence that sermons that fall prey to the modern homiletical crisis (1) place primary emphasis on a Christianity that is boiled down to ethics. . .and (2) lose sight of the infinite qualitative distinction between God (the wholly other) and human beings. When God is just a manifestation or extension of our best selves on our best days, when there is no infinite qualitative distinction between human beings and the 'wholly other,' then God is, for all practical purposes, dead" (66).

To any Catholic who's been paying attention to parochial preaching in the last 40 yrs. this diagnosis of liberal Protestant preaching should sound eerily familiar. 

Having misinterpreted and misapplied the Second Vatican Council's invitation to engage modern culture in dialogue, ecclesial elites have so domesticated the Divine that it is almost impossible for them now to understand the Church as anything other than a social service agency.  

The task of Catholic homiletics in the 21st century is to explore ways of returning a sense of the "infinite qualitative distinction" btw Creator and creature to our preaching w/o portraying God as inaccessible. Part of this project then will be to re-establish the event of the Incarnation as a central theme of Catholic preaching.

* Snider sees some hope for progressives in deconstructionism. My sense is that this is a dead-end for Catholic preaching as a solution. There may be uses for deconstruction as a heuristic but ultimately Catholic preaching cannot jettison metaphysics. 

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Healing the imago Dei

14^th Week OT (T)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Priory, NOLA

One of God's gifts to us – just one among many that marks us out from His creatures as rational animals – is our ability to communicate with one another through the spoken and written word. A philosophy professor of mine, a former Jesuit, used to yell us in class: “If you can't write it, you can't think it! And vice-versa.” So indicative of our rationality is the use of language that some ethicists have proposed that its absence renders one fatally non-human, not a person at all. Catholics won't that far, but it doesn't surprise us that the possessed in our Gospel accounts are all painted as insanely violent or mute or blind, or some combination of the three. Attacking the created imago Dei is exactly what we would expect the demonic to do. When Jesus rebukes the demons, sending them out, he restores to the possessed that which makes them most like God – their intellectual faculties, their ability to think and speak. He does this out of compassion, out of an abundance of love for those for whom he will die on the cross. As Dominican friars, we can ask ourselves, “Does my preaching and teaching bring healing to those who have lost their grip on the reality of who and what they were created and re-created to be?” We are sent as laborers among an abundant harvest, and Christ's compassion for God's people goes with us. To the troubled and abandoned, we can bring freedom and healing, and at the same time, witness ourselves freed and healed.

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