Help Wanted: a humble prophet

NB. Originally preached in 2009 while I was subbing for a friar on vacation. . .

14th Sunday OT
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
Sisters of St Mary of Namur, Forth Worth, TX

Prophets are a cheap and abundant source of nonsense these days. Every sort of weirdo has a theory, a revelation, a scheme, or a vision from Beyond. No wonder, really. Can we say that the fabric of our faith is as tightly knitted as it needs to be to keep us cozy in this winter of spiritual chaos? When the foundations of all that we believe start to throw us about, most any voice in the racket sounds like a voice of authority. Persistent sexual scandals, financial malfeasance, abuse of power, dissent and rebellion—and all of these just within the Church!—all of these potholes on the Way jolt our certainties and sometimes they even bump us into despair. In these moments of upheaval there always seems to be a guru, a savior, or a prophet just outside our purview who's all too willing to speak up and promise to lead us back to whatever it is we think we need to be safe—health, wealth, sanity, wholeness, or holiness. Usually, if we succumb to fear or anger or the need for a show of defiance, and we buy the snake-oil, usually we end up defeated and more beat-up than when we begin. Beware self-anointed prophets bearing pricey prophecy! Being “hard of face and obstinate of heart” is easy. Humility, right reason, and holy obedience is difficult—not impossible!—just very, very difficult.

The prophets that speak to us this morning are well-known and reliable: Ezekiel, Paul, and Christ himself. No doubt they look the part of a prophet, like men who have spent too much time in the deserts of foreign lands. They certainly sound like the prophets we are used to hearing. The self-anointed prophets of postmodern Western culture could be wearing lab coats, three-piece suits, habits or clerics, or even casual sportswear; they could be sporting advanced degrees in physics, medicine, genetics, or theology; they could sound like gurus, even reasonable scientists, hawking new cosmologies, novel technologies, fresh political solutions, or global spiritualities. They can all name our worst fears, our deepest angers, our most pressing anxieties. They can speak a word to calm our stormed tossed spirits. What they cannot and will not name is the Love in our souls. What they do not speak is the Word. They do not and will not say, “Thus says the Lord God...” And these differences make a great deal of difference.

Ezekiel is consumed in the voice of God. Paul is struck blind and pierced by a thorn in his flesh. Jesus is spurned in his own hometown, ridiculed as no one other than “the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon.” Ezekiel is sent to the rebellious Israelites to reteach the Good News of an ancient love. Paul is sent to the Gentiles with the Good News of the Father's mercy. Jesus is sent to the whole of creation as the Good News himself, the very Incarnate Word of divine love and mercy. All three prophets are sent to accomplish one mission: to speak the Word to God's people, and in so doing, bringing them all back into a covenant; reminding, renewing, and revealing the foundational promises of the Creator.

Look closely at what the prophets in scripture actually do and do not do. They do not create. They point to the Creator. They do not invent or innovate. They point to the Inventor, the Innovator Himself. They do not preach revolution and rebellion for the sake of novelty. They call us to revolutionize our hard faces and cold hearts. They rouse us to rebel against the slavery of alien philosophies and foreign gods. They do not urge God's people to abandon His promises of liberation in favor of worldly guarantees, the empty pledges that prop us up with domination, wealth, prestige, violence, and oppression. God's anointed prophets give voice to and work for the least against the most, for the worst against the best, for the lowest against the highest. When the most, the best, and the highest are where they are b/c they have stepped on and broken the least, the worst, and the lowest, God's anointed prophet will speak His Word of justice and demand a righteous revolution. Not something as mundane and temporary as a government program or a social action agency. Not something as ultimately useless as a financial entitlement or a paper-weight patch on the justice system. God's anointed prophet will first demand that the hard face and cold heart of injustice be melted in the overwhelming Love that gave His creation life! Then this prophet will say, “Thus says the Lord God: you will not treat my beloved children as things, as slaves; you will not use my children as disposable means to your selfish ends; you will not love simply for worldly gain, pretend faith for public praise, nor spread hope to hide your oppression. You love b/c I loved you first!”

As men and women baptized into the life, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus, we have vowed to be faithful to God, just to our neighbors, hopeful in crisis, loving to all, joyful even as we weep, and as eager to show mercy as we are to seek mercy. The key to our lives as prophets is not scientific novelty, theological innovation, philosophical nuance, or even spiritual practice. Our prophetic key is humility—the certain and daily-lived knowledge that we are creatures of a loving God, wholly dependent, utterly reliant on the Love that gave us and gives us life. There is no other source of identity for us. No other means of doing what we have vowed our lives to do. Ezekiel is consumed in the voice of God. Paul is plagued by a thorn in his flesh. Jesus himself is rejected by his hometown folks. Their humility fuels a righteous fire for God's justice not a self-righteous grudge against the status-quo. Self-anointed prophets in lab coats, suits, or vestments might tempt us with a genetic or economic or religious utopia, but we know that any prophet who will not and cannot say, “Thus says the Lord God...,” we know that they are false prophets.

Our Father's gifts are sufficient for us, for our power as His prophets is made perfect in humility. 

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Painting: "Take Your Son Isaac"

Take Your Son Isaac

(20x24, wood panel, acrylic, ink)

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12th and 13th Sundays OT Homilies: Audio Files

12th Sunday OT

13th Sunday OT

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Faith heals

13^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

OLR, NOLA

How does faith heal? That is, how does having faith set the stage for being healed? Last Sunday, Jesus rebuked his panicked disciples during a storm, asking them, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” The disciples were freaking out about the possibility of drowning in the storm b/c they did not yet have faith. “Having faith” here is not like having a watch or having a cell phone or having a cold. Faith is not an object that we possess, or a quantity of something that we can gain or lose. Nor is it a condition that we endure. What the disciples lacked – at that point in their training – was a trusting, intimate relationship with their Lord and Savior. Because they did not yet live in the sure hope of the resurrection; because they did not yet see themselves as reflections of the Christ in the world – they feared death. They feared injury and sickness. They feared being cast out. They feared not being seen as prominent men. They feared losing the prestige of being a disciple. They doubt; they worry; they need control. Faith, having a trusting, intimate relationship with Christ, sets the stage for healing.

How does faith heal? Look at the two miracles we have this morning. Jairus' daughter is dying. Jairus runs to find Jesus and begs him to heal her. Jesus, the disciples, and a whole crowd of people head off to Jairus' house. On the way, a woman who's been bleeding for 12yrs touches Jesus' cloak. She is immediately healed. Notice what Jesus says to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you.” He doesn't say, “Touching my clothes has saved you.” Jesus isn't wearing a Magical Healing Cloak. It's her belief, her trust, her surrender to Christ's power that heals her. She puts away worry and fear and pride and just reaches out in submission to the gift of Christ's presence. . .and touches. In the meantime, Jairus' daughter dies. Jesus says to the father, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” When Jesus gets to the house, he asks a question much like the one he asked during the storm, “Why this commotion and weeping?” He orders the girl to rise. And she does. How? Because she had faith? No, obviously not. She was dead. Her father's faith saved her. Her father's belief, trust, and surrender to the presence of Christ saved her. These are miracles of healing and resurrection. Not everyday events. Nonetheless, faith prepares the stage for our healing, our salvation.

We understand faith to be a believing, trusting, intimate relationship with the Father through Christ Jesus. Faith is not an object or a condition or quantity of something to be counted. Faith is the good habit of trusting that God has made good on His promises. Faith is a disposition, an inclination. Faith is the first and last place we go to find our peace and see ourselves settled into the loving routine of becoming Christs for the world. When disease, accident, natural disaster, financial misfortune, death, sin – when any of these almost inevitable events occur, how we respond judges our faith. If you respond with panic, anxiety, worry, fear, violence – well, maybe your relationship with the Father through Christ Jesus isn't as strong as you thought. Maybe your friendship with Christ lacks intimacy, lacks surrender. Maybe you're holding something back – just in case Christ doesn't meet your expectations. How well would a marriage work if you didn't trust your spouse? How well does parenting work if you love your children conditionally? How about that friendship where your friend betrays your confidence on a regular basis? How's that working for you? Think carefully: what am I holding back from Christ? How am I failing to trust him?

We cannot heal ourselves. Sure, we can bandage up cuts and scrapes, but I'm talking about the sort of healing that brings us to eternal life. Salvation. The healing of our relationship with God the Father. Only Christ that heal that wound. Jesus says to the woman, “Your faith has saved you.” Your trusting, believing, intimate surrender to me has gained you salvation. And with salvation gained, with our hearts and minds focused on eternal life, what's a storm, a disease; what's a natural disaster or even a death? Tragic? Yes, absolutely! Do we grieve? Of course we do! But we carry on growing in holiness, surrendering ourselves to being perfected in Christ, and being his ministers in the world. The Enemy wants us to panic, to be worried, to shrink away in fear. He wants us scattered, crying and wailing, hoarding our graces just in case, ya never know. Why? Because he needs us to think we're in control. He needs us to behave as if we're in control. That way, his power grows; his influence increases. We belong to Christ. Not to the world. Faith is how we show the world that we belong to Christ. Show the world that you are healed. Show the world that you have surrendered to Christ.

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What does the sword bring?

Ss. John Fisher & Thomas More

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Dominic Priory, NOLA

Does following Christ bring us peace or conflict? Unity or division? The answer is: Yes. We see a faction in the Church urging us to unity and peace. Don't cause waves. Just be polite and get along. Emphasize mercy. And another faction demanding confrontation and division. Enforce church discipline. Punish the spineless clergy. Emphasize the reality of sin. Which side is Christ on? Again, the answer is: Yes. Jesus warns the disciples, “I have come to bring not peace but the sword.” He also prays that we may be one as he is one with the Father. Following Christ entails separating ourselves from the world. Not abandoning the world but refusing to allow it to form who we are. Following Christ also entails uniting ourselves to one another in the pursuit of holiness in the Spirit. If being polite and getting along were sufficient, we wouldn't have martyrs. If emphasizing sin and enforcing discipline were sufficient, we wouldn't be free. Christ's sword is meant to cut us away from loves that do not begin with him. Loving him first divides us from the world. Loving him first unites us to one another.   

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Show me your faith

12^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

OLR, NOLA

I always tell the seminarians in my philosophy classes – Never start an argument w/o first defining your terms. We can't have a fruitful conversation if we're talking past one another, using the same words to mean different things. Sometimes a word has an ordinary meaning and a technical meaning. One for daily use and another for more specialized occasions. Catholic theology is loaded with words like this – matter, substance, symbol, accident. We know that many of the terms we use to talk about ourselves as Christians can have both ancient and modern meanings. Words like love, hope, and freedom. If we use “freedom” (e.g.) in its modern sense to describe what we are about as Christians, we end up far from what Christ calls us to be. So, when people say to me, “Father, I'm losing my faith” or “My faith isn't strong enough,” I have to ask: what do you mean by faith? How are you using that word? (And, yes, this is the sort of thing you get when you come to a Dominican for spiritual advice! So, be warned!) Jesus, noting his disciples' panic, quiets the storm and asks, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?”

Every time I read this passage I want one of the disciples to ask Jesus, “Lord, what is it to 'have faith'?” Is faith the sort of thing that one has? I have a car. I have a beard. I have creaky knees. Those are the sorts of things that one has. Faith seems like it might be more like something that I do rather than have – an act rather than an object or condition, a verb rather than a noun. But we wouldn't say, “I faith your testimony” or “We faith that you will pay us back.” We would use “believe” or “trust” here. Those are verbs that put faith into action. Listen again to what Jesus says in rebuke: “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” From this, we can see that terror and faith are opposed to one another. That faith is a remedy for fear. That both fear and faith are chosen – why would Jesus ask why unless he expected the disciples to know the answer? And that faith is that sort of thing that can be had and the disciples do not yet have it. Go back to the question I want one of the disciples to ask Jesus: “Lord, what is it to 'have faith'?” Whatever “having faith” means, it means – at least – that if you “have faith” you will not be terrified when the inevitable storms batter your life. It means you possess this something – faith – that prevents or heals the terrors of living in the world while you remain in Christ.

We're getting closer, I promise. If I were to ask you, “Do you have a watch?” you could show me. “Do you have a cell phone?” Same thing. What do you show me when I ask, “Do you have faith?” Scripture tells us that those who have faith can safely drink poison and handle snakes; heal the sick and prophesy. So, if I ask you to show me your faith, you could whip out a rattlesnake and give me a show. Of course, if you do, you'll also need to find a ladder to rescue me from the ceiling! The safer and less frightening option would be to show me your good works – the time, talent, and treasure you've devoted to building up the Body of Christ. You could show me how having faith quells your worrying about tomorrow. You could show me how having faith makes surrendering to the Father's will a joy. You could show me how having faith compels you to spend every minute or every day giving God thanks for His blessings. You could show me how having faith drives you to forgive, to love, and to show mercy. The best way to show me or anyone else that you have faith is to act, think, and speak as much like Christ as you possibly can; to be Christ in the world, imperfect but on your way to perfection. That's “having faith.”

NB. During the violent storm, Jesus is sound asleep. The boat is filling up with water, probably sinking. The disciples freak out, convinced they are all going to die. They scream at Jesus, “Don't you care that we're going to drown!?” Jesus rebukes the wind and sea, calming them both, and then he rebukes the disciples, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” They are terrified b/c they do not have faith. They are not yet in a trusting, believing relationship with Christ. They are not yet on their way to becoming Christs. They know a lot about Jesus. They know the content of his teachings. They can repeat the commandments he's given them. They can tell stories about his miracles and run-in's with the Jewish authorities. They can recognize him on the street. And they know to call on him when they're in trouble. But they do not yet trust themselves as his imperfect reflections in the world. They do not yet see themselves as his hands and feet in the world, abiding in his Spirit and carrying-out his mission and ministry. So, if you are ever asked, “Do you have faith?” be prepared to show that you are Christ – imperfect for now but fully on your way to perfection.

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Pentecost, Holy Trinity, Corpus Christi Audio File

Pentecost 2021

Holy Trinity 2021

Corpus Christi 2021

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Are you disposed to being transubstantiated?

Corpus Christi

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

OLR, NOLA

If you follow Catholic news, you are probably aware that some of our bishops are currently having a very public debate about how to handle Catholic politicians who openly support and promote morally evil acts like abortion and euthanasia. The basic question is whether or not these politicians should be given communion when there's no evidence that they've repented of their rebellion against Church teaching. All of the various issues involved – sacramental, canonical, theological, political – are neatly wrapped up in what's being called “Eucharistic coherence.” Now, since God has mercifully spared me the punishment of being a bishop – and I thank Him for that – I will not weigh on the basic question. But I can't imagine a better time to review the Church's teaching on the Eucharist than the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. In fact, many of the bishops embroiled in the debate on Eucharistic coherence have called for a major push in the U.S. to catechize the faithful on this very subject. So, I will fulfill my duties as Pastor of the 6pm Mass by doing just that! “[Jesus] took bread, said the blessing, broke it, gave it to [his disciples], and said, 'Take it; this is my body.'”

We begin with a four-word sentence: this is my body. Not “this is a symbol of my body,” nor “this is a sign of my body” nor “this is a token of a memory of my body.” This IS my body. Just a moment later, taking a cup of wine, he says, “This is my blood of the covenant. . .” Again, not a symbol of his blood nor a sign nor a token of a memory. This IS my blood. That little two-letter word, IS, has been the focus of centuries of controversy, centuries of theological and philosophical debate. What does it mean to say that the bread and wine at the Eucharist becomes (is) the body and blood of Christ. At the 4^th Lateran Council (1215), the bishops adopted the term “transubstantiation” to describe what happens to the bread and wine at Mass. The substance of the bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ. At the Council of Trent in 1551, the bishops will affirm this teaching: “Under the consecrated species of bread and wine Christ himself, living and glorious, is present in a true, real, and substantial manner: his Body and his Blood, with his soul and his divinity”(CCC 1413). True, real, substantial. We call the presence of Christ in the consecrated bread and wine the Real Presence.

Christ is truly, really, substantially present on the altar under the appearances of bread and wine. What follows from this? After presenting his Body and Blood to the disciples at Passover, Jesus tells them to eat and drink. Eat my body and drink my blood. So firmly did the early Church believe in the Real Presence that her Roman persecutors often accused Christians of being cannibals! Obviously, we are not cannibals. But we do eat and drink Christ's Body and Blood. Why? First, because Christ commands we do it to remember him. Second, because doing so allows us to participate in the eternal sacrifice of the Cross. Third, because we are One Body, the Church, united by the Holy Spirit and a body needs food and drink. Fourth, because doing so strengthens our familial bond as brothers and sisters in the holy family. And, finally, we eat and drink Christ's Body and Blood because we know that we become what we eat. As sons and daughters of the Most High, brothers and sisters to Christ and one another, our goal, our telos is to become Christ for the salvation of the world while we live and perfect union with the Father in heaven after death. Christ must be made truly, really, substantially present under the appearances of Philip, Cathy, Burt, John, Mary, Eddie, Lesley, Patrice, Dorothy, Shelly. . .Christ must be made present in you.

And we have the sacraments to help us achieve this. Every sacrament of the Church offers us Christ. Every sacrament offers us God's transforming gift of love. To properly receive His gift of transforming love, you and I must be disposed, inclined, ready to receive. If we are not properly disposed (unprepared) we cannot receive. We can take. But we cannot receive. Taking is not receiving. Taking a sacrament occurs when we go through the motions, unprepared. The gift is offered, but rather than being gratefully received, it is snatched like something one is entitled to, like a debt one is owed. The gift is not only ineffective as a gift, it can actually be harmful to the snatcher! When the Church teaches us that we should not present ourselves for Communion if we are in mortal sin, she is not trying to punish us for being bad little boys and girls. She is warning us that we risk spiritual damage, maybe even spiritual death, if we attempt to receive unprepared. She is a mother warning her children not to play with fire. To the sinner, God's infinite Love feels like a searing inferno. To the one properly prepared, His Love is a transfiguring breeze. Being properly disposed to receive Divine Love in the sacraments is the primary means we have of becoming Christ for the salvation of the world.

During this Mass this evening, I urge you to open your hearts and minds to the reality of Christ's Real Presence. Yes, it's a mystery. Yes, it's complicated. And yes, it's easily misunderstood. BUT. . .it is nonetheless real. Christ is here in his priest. He's here in you, the baptized. His presence is symbolized by this altar. During the Easter season, he's symbolized by the great Easter candle. Christ is with us always. But he is present to us most immediately and especially in his Body and Blood of this sacrifice. We are offered the chance to touch eternity in this sacrament. To reach up to God as He reaches down to us. To meet Him outside our history and experience a glimpse of the banquet He has waiting for us. He gives us everything we need to become Christ for the salvation of the world. He gives us the strength to persevere. The courage to bear witness. He gives us His Spirit of Love to forgive and to endure. And He gives us an abiding desire to grow in holiness, to grow – perfectly human – out of this world and into His kingdom. 

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Doubt but Worship

Most Holy Trinity

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

OLR, NOLA

One of the strangest sentences in the Bible occurs in the readings this evening: “When [the disciples] all saw [Jesus], they worshiped, but they doubted.” They doubted him, but they worshiped him despite their doubt. I think this sentence strange b/c we moderns usually need to have something like “without a reasonable doubt” before we grant the status of fact to a mere claim. Jesus has made all sorts of bold claims in the disciples' hearing. Now, (at the end of Matthew's Gospel) he's been crucified, dead, buried, resurrected, and is appearing to them, making more claims that sound a little dodgy. Yet. They worship. What does this sequence of events – we doubt yet we worship – teach us? It teaches us that we can have our doubts, we can be not quite sure and still offer to God through Christ our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. To the finite mind only finite knowledge is possible. A plastic gallon jug can only contain a gallon of liquid. It cannot contain two gallons, nor can it contain a bonfire. Nor can we say that that jug contains all the liquid in the world simply b/c it's full. The disciples doubt. But they worship. So, we can say: worship is a means of coming to know.

What we can't come to know through our human reason must be revealed to us. We have to be shown that which we cannot figure out on our own. Jesus reveals in his last commission to the disciples the central mystery of the faith: the Holy Trinity. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. He doesn't explain the mystery. He doesn't give them a handy diagram or a flowchart or a glossary of philosophically useful terms like person, nature, substance, procession. What he does give them is a mission: go out; make disciples of all nations; baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Teach them to observe all I have commanded you. Make disciples through baptism and then teach them. NB. being a baptized disciple comes before the learning. Why? Because whatever the disciple learns must be grounded firmly in faith. For this to happen he must first through baptism receive the gift of faith – the God-given habit of trusting in God's loving-kindness and that He has kept His promises. With faith, the disciple can bring worthy worship to God, offering Him praise and thanksgiving and, as a result, experience the mystery of the Divine Life to the limits of his capacity. With the revelation of the Holy Trinity, Jesus plants a seed and provides a way for that seed to be sown.

At our baptism, we were planted with the seed of the Holy Trinity. Baptism makes us disciples. Learning about Christ, the Church, the Scriptures makes us educated disciples. And faithfully living out Christ's commandments perfects our discipleship, making our sacrifices to God holy and acceptable. None of this would be possible unless we participated in the Divine Life of the Holy Trinity, unless we shared in the one divine nature of the three persons of the Trinity. Since we are finite creatures, our participation in the Trinity is necessarily finite. But we can perfect our finite participation through worship. Grounding ourselves in baptism and discipleship, we approach the altar of God fully aware that we are not worthy of His love, yet He has made us worthy to be loved. And so we are. And b/c we are, we are gifted with the possibilities of coming to know and love Him to the limits of our capacity. If and when we exhaust our capacity to know and love Him, He readily enlarges us, increases our capacity, giving us more and better opportunities to perfect our participation in the Divine Life, to live and love more wholly with the Blessed Trinity.

Our worship is the immediate means of perfecting our participation in the Divine Life of the Trinity. Worship brings the whole person to the task. Body and soul. Intellect and will. Worship gives us ways of encountering the Divine Life that nothing else can. We are together. One Body, one Faith, one Baptism. With one voice we offer thanks and praise to God. With one sacrifice we offer ourselves as an oblation to the Father. With one love we offer ourselves to the Son to become his hands and feet in the world. With one blessing we offer ourselves to the Holy Spirit to be His word and presence to those who cannot yet see or receive His gifts. When you come to the altar bring it all! Bring everything you have collected. Bring your anger, your impatience, your hatred, your need for revenge, your failures. Bring your tribalism, your prejudices, your cramped biases. Bring your legalism, your entitlement, your selfishness. But also, bring your joys, your triumphs, your loves, and your blessings. Bring thanks and praise. You live and move and have your being in the Divine Life of the Blessed Trinity. Bring all you are and all you have and give it to God. Be perfect as He is perfect.

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You are NOT your disease. . .

8^th Week OT (Th)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Dominic Priory, NOLA

Why do the disciples tell Bartimaeus to “take courage” (Θάρσει) when they call him to come to Jesus? Why would he need courage to approach Christ when he – Bartimaeus – was crying out to Jesus in the first place? It's not like he's shy about begging to be healed. Some have translated this phrase as “cheer up” or “take comfort.” But these miss the nuances of the imperative – strengthen your heart; be bold; rid yourself of fear. What does Bartimaeus have to fear in being healed of his blindness? Why would he need courage to have his sight restored? When I worked in drug/alcohol rehab with adults and teens, we often ran into a problem with recovery: the addict's entire life was defined by drugs and alcohol. What would his/her life be w/o these props? Who would they be? The same can be said for Bartimaeus. Without his blindness his entire life would radically change. What would happen to the effectiveness of his begging? How would he live? Being healed is a gift. No doubt. But it's also a direct and serious challenge to how we understand ourselves, esp. if we see ourselves fundamentally defined by our sin, our disease, our disability. Bartimaeus' healing is both physical and spiritual. By accepting Jesus' miracle, he's now in relationship with the Christ, a life-long relationship that will challenge him even more: to bear witness, to tell his story of lifelong blindness and how he came to the promise of eternal life.

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Make it rain!

I'll be 57yo on May 26th, so. . .a birthday fundraiser for my province.

Make it rain!

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Live by the Spirit!

Pentecost Sunday 2021

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

OLR, NOLA

Audio File

The disciples lock themselves away, terrified of being found by the Jewish and Roman authorities. They are heretics, rebels, outcasts. They have not only defied their religious leaders by following Christ, they have also conspired to subvert the political power of the Empire. In the eyes of the Temple and the Imperium they are criminals, deserving nothing less than execution. Their savior is dead, buried, and his body is missing from his tomb. Whatever courage they may have had when Jesus was with them is long gone. So is their trust, their strength, and their desire to carry on. And just as despair begins to eat its way through their final resolve, Jesus appears to them and says, “Peace be with you.” They rejoice when he shows them the wounds on his hands and feet. And he says again, “Peace be with you.” As his peace settles on the once-frightened disciples, Jesus gives them a new identity, a new mission: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” The disciples become apostles, those sent to do his will: to preach his word; to teach his truth; and to accomplish good works that give all the glory to God. Jesus does all this through the breath of the Holy Spirit.

Some fifty days later, the Holy Spirit will descend again on the apostles and on those disciples gathered with them. We mark this day as the birth of the Church. Created by God the Father, Re-created by the sacrificial love of God the Son, and given new life by God the Holy Spirit, the Church bursts out onto the streets of Jerusalem, proclaiming the Good New of Jesus Christ in every tongue spoken by the pilgrims visiting the great city. The crowds were astonished and amazed. Some thought the Christians were drunk. Others thought them possessed. A few may have thought them insane. But none could deny that the Church spoke one Word in many languages, one clear message in a multitude of tongues. The Church proclaimed – so that all may know – the mighty works of God! The covenant is fulfilled. You are free. A slave to sin and death no more. Christ is risen and ascended. And the Holy Spirit is among us. The kingdom of God is here. Repent and believe the Gospel. Your inheritance as a child of God awaits you. Do not allow the Enemy to steal what the Christ died to give you. Take off the flesh and put on the armor of righteousness. Live by the Spirit. And obey the Law of Love.

How do we live by the Spirit? First, what is it to live w/o the Spirit? Paul tells us that the works of the flesh are obvious: “immorality, impurity, lust, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies,” basically, all the things we humans love to do. These works of the flesh have something in common: they are all selfish, self-centered; obsessed with I, me, mine. They are all perversions of the appetites, disordered hungers that take control of the person and drive him/her to sin. When we indulge these disordered hungers we usurp the Holy Spirit from the throne of our hearts and replace Him with the Self. We make the flesh our Savior. And the flesh is temporary, quickly passing away. What use is a Savior that passes away as quickly as it arrives? With a Savior made of flesh, we will inherit the world, which also quickly passes away. If we will live by the Spirit, then we will put away our disordered desires, our perverted appetites, and submit ourselves to the Law of Sacrificial Love. To live by the Spirit is to participate fully in the love that the Father has for the Son and the Son for the Father. IOW, we will produce the fruits of the Spirit.

Paul tells us opposed to the sins of the flesh are the fruits of the Spirit. And they are: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” Notice that each one of these fruits of the Spirit points away from Self and toward the Other. Love is sacrificial. Joy is what happens when we love. Patience defeats the need to control. Kindness always assumes the best. Generosity acknowledges that nothing is my own. Faithfulness submits doubt to trust. Gentleness subdues anger. And self-control proves reason over passion. Each of these fruits of the Spirit pulls us out of the Self and demands that we treat the Other as a person created in the image and likeness of God. And as such, offered the gift of eternal life through the repentance of sin and baptism by water and the Spirit. So, to live by the Holy Spirit, we put aside fear, anxiety, and despair. We take up sacrificial love, the works of mercy, the forgiveness of sins. We bear witness to the workings of the Spirit in our lives, and proclaim the Good News of Christ Jesus wherever we are. To live by the Spirit is to become Christ for Others. To live by the Spirit is live and die as Christ lived and died for us.

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We are gifts

7^th Week of Easter (R)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Dominic Priory, NOLA

Jesus prays to the Father “not only for [the disciples], but also for those who will believe in [him] through their word.” He makes an extraordinary statement while praying, “Father, they are your gift to me.” A gift, properly understood, is freely given and freely received. A gift cannot be requested, earned, borrowed, coerced or stolen. A gift cannot create a debt or an obligation. Nor can something belonging to another be given as a gift. Likewise, receiving a gift cannot be forced or obliged. Giving and receiving a gift – for it to be truly free – must be entirely unattached from any and all conditions that muddle the exchange. When the Lord says that we are a gift to him from the Father, he is saying that we, His creatures, first belonged to the Father. Now, we belong to Christ. If we are now one with Christ in this free exchange, then we also belong to one another as gifts. Our growth in holiness depends in part on the difficult task of being gifts to each other, living daily as freely given and freely received subjects of charity and mercy. As the kids say these days, “The struggle is real.” But the struggle is more than worth the work. 

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Who is truth?

7^th Week of Easter (W)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Dominic Priory, NOLA

Jesus prays to the Father, asking Him to consecrate the disciples in truth. To set them aside for the particular purpose of sending them out to be truth in the world. Pilate's question echoes here: what is truth? Even better: who is truth? Jesus says, “Your word is truth.” And we know that Christ is the Word – the Way, the Truth, and the Life. So, Jesus is praying to the Father to set us aside for the particular purpose of sending us out to be Christ in the world. To accomplish this mission we need to remain in the Father's name, I AM. Or rather, we need to be kept in the Father's name, protected. Why? Because we remain as Christ ascends. And the world is not our home. He will send the Holy Spirit to keep us in his Word, to keep us protected along the Way, in the Truth, for eternal Life. His protection is freely offered, so it must be freely received; and once received, freely given to anyone who asks. Paul warns that savage wolves will come among us, and they will not spare the flock. Neither will they spare the shepherds – as we know all too well! So, we remain in the Truth b/c Christ is Truth, and the Truth sets us free.   

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Loving as Christ loves us

6^th Sunday of Easter

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

OLR, NOLA

AUDIO FILE

Every year on the 6^th Sunday of Easter, I am tempted to put on my philosophy professor's hat and dive into making the proper distinctions among the various kinds of love – caritas, eros, philos, agape. But I remind myself that you did not come to Mass for a philosophy lecture. You came to Mass to hear the Word preached and to participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar. But then it occurred to me that by coming to hear the Word preached and by participating in the Sacrifice of the Mass, you are here to more perfectly receive the Self-Gift of God, who is Love! No, don't worry. Despite this revelation, I'm not going to lecture you with philosophy. What I am going to do is attempt to show you Who God is as Love and how we imperfect receivers of His love often miss the mark when receiving Him. To understand Who God is as Love and how we often miss the mark receiving Him, we can start here: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love.” Christ loves us with the love of his Father. If we will remain in his love, we will keep his commandments. God as Love is our end, our goal, our telos. We miss the mark when we fail to keep His commandments.

So, God is our end, our telos. Commenting on the reading from 1 John, the CCC teaches: “God's very being is love. . .God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange” (221). Who God is is Love. God doesn't love sometimes and not others. He is Love. God doesn't love this and hate that. He doesn't pick and choose who or what gets to participate in His Being as Love. All created things live and move and have their being in God by nature. As human persons – rational animals – we are given the chance by grace to participate here and now in the Divine Life, in the exchange of Divine Love that is the Blessed Trinity. God the Father created us for this. God the Son re-created us for this. And the Holy Spirit ensures that the invitation to share in the Divine Life is always fresh, always new. So, when we say that God is Love we are saying – in part – that God Himself is our ultimate Good. He perfects us. Makes us whole, gives us life eternal. God as Love is our target, our goal, our only objective. He alone is our final design and our perfect destination. Everything we say, do, and think is best done with hearts and minds intensely focused on this Good.

So, how do we get ourselves in trouble, knowing that Divine Love is our ultimate goal? The most common way we get lost along the Way is by confusing human love for Divine Love. Human love has come to be understood as little more than an emotion, a fleeting twinge in the gut, or an infatuation. A soup of neurotransmitters in the brain. We also use human love as a tool of manipulation, or a weapon against our enemies. How often are we told that if we truly loved sinners, we would approve of and applaud their sin? How often do we tell ourselves that if God really loves me, He would approve of and applaud my sin? Merely human love is all about unconditional acceptance and approval of whatever choices we make. Even if those choices are obviously harmful, maybe even deadly. Human love – to be truly loving – participates in Divine Love. God loved us into being. His love holds us in being. So, any real love we experience and share is an imperfect expression of His love. To remain in Christ, to remain in the Father's love, we must obey the Lord's commandments. These are the stones that line the Way and keep us from confusing human love with Divine Love.

Jesus tells his disciples that he is revealing the truth to them so that their joy may be complete: “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.” In the same way that our Lord loves us, we must love one another. Our Lord loved us to the Cross. He died so that our suffering may be turned to joy as we live and die for one another. He died in the Father's love so that we may know the Way of perfection through the pursuit of holiness – living in the world w/o being consumed by the world. We remain in Christ by striving everyday to become more and more Christ-like. To love, sacrifice, and forgive as he loved, sacrificed, and forgave. Being Christ-like is not about dismissing sin as irrelevant to love. Being Christ-like is about recognizing that true love and disobedience cannot co-exist. We do not love ourselves or our neighbors when we pretend that sin is not sin. When we soothe a seared conscience by congratulating ourselves on being tolerant and accepting. We always, always love the person. That's a given. We can never love the lie that takes that person off the Way of Divine Love. Remain in Christ's love. Love as he loves you. And remember: his love found him on the Cross.

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