Squeezing through the Narrow Gate

21^st Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Jesus says the entrance to heaven is a Narrow Gate. This makes me nervous. Ample Friars have difficulty navigating through narrow spaces. Had I been present at this morning's Gospel episode, I might have suggested to the Lord that he use a different image – a bridge. I would've told the Lord about Mrs. Ruby Turpin – Flannery O'Connor's fictional paragon of 1950's Southern white rural middle-class Protestant respectability, – and her revelation of heaven: “[Mrs. Turpin] saw the streak as a vast swinging bridge extending upward from the earth through a field of living fire. Upon it a vast horde of souls were rumbling toward heaven.” Who's crossing this bridge? Mrs. Turpin is shocked to see “whole companies of white-trash, clean for the first time in their lives, and bands of black [folks] in white robes, and battalions of freaks and lunatics shouting and clapping and leaping like frogs.” (I would've quietly added that she saw an Ample Friar as well.) Ruby also sees her own kind, bringing up the rear and alone singing on key. “Yet she could see by their shocked and altered faces that even their virtues were being burned away.” We can imagine that it was a distant relative of Ruby's who asked Jesus, “Lord, will only a few be saved?”

As is his habit, Jesus doesn't answer the question asked. He says instead, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.” He follows this cryptic answer with an image of some being inside and some being outside. Some make it through the gate in time. Some don't. To those left outside, the Master of the House says, “I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!” It almost goes w/o saying that this is not the image of heaven we're used to hearing about. God is love. God wants everyone in heaven. No soul left behind! All true. It is God's will that all men and women return to Him after death. But – as Jesus makes clear – it is also His will that each one of us return to Him freely. It is His will that we choose to enter the Narrow Gate; that we freely receive the grace necessary to dwell with Him in heaven. Jesus says, “Strive to enter through the Narrow Gate.” Those strong enough will make it through. Those w/o the strength will not. So, the crucial question now is: from where or whom do we get this necessary strength?

O'Connor tells us that Mrs. Turpin is shocked to see who makes it across the bridge to heaven. She's shocked b/c all her respectable life she's believed that getting to heaven is about being clean, propertied, responsible, and white. Of course, none of that matters when striving to enter through the Narrow Gate. What matters is the strength of our striving. And your striving – to be effective – must be graced. That is, simply working for heaven never works. Working with God for your salvation does. Any priest who's heard confessions for more than ten minutes can tell you that Catholics tend to believe – even if only unconsciously – that they must earn their salvation. That God will love them more if they kneel more, fast more, pray more, give more money to the Church. They see the Narrow Gate and think that passing through is the struggle. That getting narrow enough to squeeze by is the work. False. The struggle, the striving is all about working to rid ourselves of whatever it is that keeps us from fully receiving God's help, His grace. God will pull us through the NG if we chose to be pulled. So, the question is: who or what – if anyone or anything – is keeping you from choosing to be pulled?

Look at the freaks and lunatics on Mrs. Turpin's bridge. They carry none of the social burdens she herself chooses to carry. They have not loaded themselves down with expectations of purity or virtue or progress or any other burden that stands in the way of choosing heaven. They choose heaven and live accordingly. Mrs. Turpin chooses status, middle-class morals, property, and race as her burdens. And lives accordingly. In His love for her, God sends her a revelation: none of that stuff matters. What matters is loving God with your whole heart, mind, body, and soul. And then living that love in the company of friends, family, and neighbors. Being loved by God and loving Him in turn has practical, everyday effects. You become more virtuous. More humble. More merciful. Holier. In the world but not of it. But when we start with the effects of divine love and only then move toward God, we become self-righteous. We become RT. Sure of our rightness with God. Sure of our salvation. Only to be shocked when our virtues are burned away and we find ourselves outside the NG. Our strength to enter heaven comes from God alone. Our strength to receive His help comes from God alone. Therefore, our daily exercise is freely choosing to be helped in Christ. 

Follow HancAquam or Subscribe ----->

Smacking the prideful

St. Bernard

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Being humble ain't easy. It requires several intellectual and volitional conversions that violate our sense of Self. First, I have to acknowledge that I am not a free-floating individual who creates and sustains his own reality – I am not my own god. Pride says otherwise. Pride says that I am infinitely worthy of self-worship and deserving of every privilege, every gift, every luxury that comes my way. Most of all, Pride tells me that I do not need you or anyone else as I move through this life. I am self-sufficient, wholly self-contained, and perfectly formed just as I am. Everything I say, do, feel, and think is true, good, and beautiful simply b/c I say it, do it, feel it, and think it. I am the measure and the one who measures. And the one who matters most in the measuring is me. In fact, you matter only in relation to me, so your worth is dependent on my wants and needs. Like I said, getting to humility ain't easy. How does a self-created god become humble? He runs across a bigger god who shows him the Light. He encounters God Himself who gives him Light.

Jesus is busy smacking around the scribes and Pharisees – a favorite pastime. Yes, they are hypocrites. Yes, they are puffed up blowhards. Yes, they need smacking. But Jesus' eye is on his followers. He's not smacking the religious-types just to be smacking them. He's smacking them and looking at us, “Do you see what you could become?” You don't have to be ordained or degreed or solemnly professed to need a good smacking by humility. You just have to believe that you don't need God. Or that you don't need God anytime soon. Or that you don't need God right now for this specific problem. We live, move, and have our being in Him. We “be” in His being. We are imperfect beings in His perfect Being. Acknowledging this truth is the first step toward humility. No measure of phylacteries, tassels, cassocks, religious habits, academic degrees, locutions, or apparitions can ever or will ever grant you humility. Jesus says, “The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” That's not a threat; it's a promise. 

Follow HancAquam or Subscribe ----->

Falling, dying, showing mercy

St. Lawrence

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great Priory, Irving

How do we fall to the ground and die and produce good fruit and lose our lives in order to save them and serve the Lord while following him? One way (of many) is to sow mercy so that we may reap mercy in abundance. But we must be careful that we aren't sowing dead seeds! Mercy has nothing to do with excusing sin or dispensing ourselves from the obligations of the moral law. Mercy isn't a shortcut to “you do your thing and I'll do mine and we'll just agree not to bother each other.” Mercy comes after one is convicted of sin. That is, mercy necessarily entails acknowledging one's sin. NB. Before the Confiteor, the priest invites us to “acknowledge our sins.” Not “call to mind” but “acknowledge” – to admit the existence of or truth of our sins. I can “call to mind” hobbits, orcs, unicorns, and even Dominicans who don't like books. But I'm not confessing that any of these mythical creatures actually exist. Mercy doesn't excuse sin. Mercy acknowledges sin and at the same time fuels our growth in holiness. How? Mercy is the time and space we need to see our sin clearly, turn away from it, and get ourselves – with God's help – back on the Narrow Way. None of us is always sinless. Thus everyone needs mercy. One way we can die to self, follow Christ, and produce good fruit is to sow mercy wherever we are planted. If we sow abundant mercy, then abundant mercy will sprout. The harvest will be an occasion of great joy. But if we sparingly sow, the harvest too will be spare, and the weeds of Self will take over. The greatest mercy we can show one another is to bear witness to the Lord's mercy in our own lives. When and where and how did the Lord gift you with the space and time to get things right? When and where and how did he call you out of your sin so that you could grow and flourish in holiness? What you have been freely given, you must freely give.

Follow HancAquam or Subscribe ----->

Denying and following

St. Mary Major

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Yesterday, Peter thoroughly embarrasses himself. He rebukes Christ and gets rebuked in turn. And, in the process, he picks up yet another name, “Satan.” Jesus calls him the Accuser, the Enemy, and rebukes him as the Tempter. What did Peter do? He forgets who he is in Christ and places his Old Self btw himself and Christ. IOW, he affirms himself; puts down his Cross; and follows himself – his preferred image of Christ. We, of course, would never do such a thing! Except that we are asked everyday by our narcissistic individualistic culture to do exactly that – rebuke Christ, affirm our preferences, and worship ourselves as self-made gods. We could call this fault “moral selfishness,” but the cracks go deeper than mere morality. They run all the way into the heart and mind, splitting both body and soul away from our Savior. Is there anything more humbling for a 21^st century American than having to admit that he isn't the master and commander of his life? The humbling truth for followers of Christ is that we are not the master and commander of our lives. Jesus did not die on the Cross to affirm us in our OK-ness. He didn't die on the Cross to help us feel better about our disordered inclinations. He died to kill our fallen human nature and renew it in divine love. He died so that might die with him and rise again toward his perfection. Following him means following him to Jerusalem and his Cross. Following him into death and out again to eternal life. So, deny yourself in Christ. Take up your cross with Christ. And follow Christ even as you are being made holy.         

Follow HancAquam or Subscribe ----->

Remember her

18^th Week OT (W)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Not a good week for the disciples. They've whined about having to feed the 5,000. Peter walks on water, freaks out, and then almost drowns. And today they get annoyed by a pagan woman. Even worse, the annoying woman helps Jesus reveal his mission to his cranky students. What is this revelation? That Jesus' mission and ministry is catholic, universal. The salvation he offers is not limited by race, ethnicity, class, nationality, or any other accidental quality of the created world. The Canaanite woman clearly understands the catholicity of Divine Love, probably b/c she is a mother. In fact, Jesus addresses her as “Woman,” taking us back to Genesis and the Wedding at Cana, reminding us that Eve and the BVM play essential roles in our salvation history. Remember her and her confession of faith if/when you find yourself becoming dismissive of those in need, or prideful about your inclusion in the Church, or maybe a little lazy about giving God thanks for the gifts you've been given. Remember her and her confession of faith in Christ if/when you start to believe that you can become God w/o God.   

Follow HancAquam or Subscribe ----->

Fish & the Eucharist

St. Alphonsus Liguori

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great Priory, Irving

Our Lord bears witness to the power of giving God thanks for all of His gifts. Five thousand are fed with a couple of fish and few loaves of bread. Yes, this event happens in a deserted place. And yes, it happens despite the disciples' sad failure to trust their teacher. Nonetheless, this miraculous meal foreshadows our Eucharist – itself a miracle that occurs daily, everywhere, and whether we trust or not. At the center of the Eucharist is a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. As priests of the Most High, we offer ourselves as an oblation. Why? B/c we are gifts from God who return ourselves to God as gifts. But the return happens only as we pass through the holy exchange of the Eucharist – praying as one Body in Christ, giving God thanks for everything we have and everything we are. Without Him, we are nothing and have nothing; literally, nothing. Not-created. Not-redeemed. Nothing. So, we take everything we have and everything we are, and we bring it all to the altar to make it holy in surrender. Only then do we receive Christ – body, blood, soul, and divinity. Only then are we free to become the Christ we are made to be. 

Follow HancAquam or Subscribe ----->

Yeah, all really is vanity. . .

18^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving, TX

Qoheleth asks, “For what profit comes to man from all the toil and anxiety of heart with which he has labored under the sun?” Then, some 2,300 years later in 1905, the German poet, Rainier Maria Rilke, writes to God about His people: “Lord, the great cities are lost and rotting./Their time is running out…./The people there live harsh and heavy,/crowded together, weary of their own routines. […] Their dying is long/and hard to finish: hard to surrender/what you never received./Their exit has no grace or mystery./It’s a little death, hanging dry and measly/like a fruit inside them that never ripened.”* If Rilke is right, then the answer to Qoheleth's question – what does all our work and anxiety profit us in this life? – the answer is: not much. As followers of Christ, as those who work to become Christ in the world, this answer is encouraging! Given the vows we've made and the sacrifices we are ready to make, this answer strengthens our hope! (Yes, we're an odd bunch.) Paul lays it out for us: “If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above...Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

We have died. Therefore, we are dead. The work, the anxiety, the vanities of the dead are dead. Sure, we breath and metabolize and sleep and eat but we do none of these outside the life Christ. Rilke's dark report to God about His people's plight tells us what our lives look like when we live outside our hiddenness in Christ. When we run after attachments and accomplishments in the world and applause from the world. Or worse, when invite the world into our hiddenness and give it free reign to rule. Paul urges us, “Put to death...the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry.” This isn't a plea for us to adopt priggish, suburban etiquettes or self-righteous manners. It's a how-to instruction on tearing down the deadly idols we worhsip, esp. the deadliest idol of all: Me, the god of ego. The god I made of myself w/o the God Who actually made me. If I have died with Christ, risen with him, and now live a life hidden in him, then there is no Me for me to worship. There is only an imperfect Christ cooperating with God's grace to be perfected. What stands in my way?

Mostly, me. I have seen the enemy and it is me. Not society or genetics or gov't or any other external force. Just me. And that is more terrifying than any foreign army or terrorist cell or politician. Why? Because with authority comes responsibility. I choose. And as a follower of Christ, I choose freely. Blaming culture or science or economics for the consequences of my choices frees me from responsibility. But the truth is – it's pride or wrath or lust or some other deformation of my virtue that makes my life hard. Greed is our lectionary theme this morning. Paul says that greed is a form of idolatry, an adulterous relationship with our desire for more and more. Jesus tells us to guard against greed because we are infinitely more than what we possess, or more precisely, we are more than what possesses us. He shares a parable about a rich farmer who stores up his abundant harvest and then decides to party as if he'll never face famine. When God calls him to account, what good will his bulging barns do him? All that work, all that wealth, and what will it matter in death? Not much. If he had worked for the glory of God and worried after his holiness – his harvest, his treasure would be a fit answer and offering. But he chose greed. He chose more and more and more of nothing that matters.

“If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above...Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” This is our call to holiness. Life in the world but not the life of the world. It's not easy line to walk. The world is greedy for followers, for cattle to herd, and our vow to follow Christ sets us apart. Apart. Not above. Never above. We are not meant to rule in the world but to serve. And so long as we serve knowing our labor is for the glory of God and not the applause of men, then our treasure is stored in heaven. This is why we can hear Qoheleth despair and still smile. Yes, our work is in vain. Our blood, sweat, and tears are all shed in vain. Our wisdom and knowledge and skill – vanity, vanity, vanity. In the light of heaven and the promise of our eternal end, it is all work we must do for God's glory. But by the measure of the world – all is vanity.     

*The Book of Hours

Follow HancAquam or Subscribe ----->

Coffee Cup Browsing: July 26, 2022

If reality is controlled by language, then language is only about power. 

To wit: is science just a social construct?

No, it isn't. . .but it is unduly influenced by gov't $$$.

Rules for Teachers in 1915. . .these don't look so bad given what's going on in public schools these days. 

Brown and Dobbs. . .how we get the result is as important as the result itself.

Why are Midwest public school teachers leaving the classroom?

"We overplayed the vaccines." Now she tells us. 

Prayer: three lessons. . .

This too shall pass. . .the biological clock just keeps on ticking.

Follow HancAquam or Subscribe ----->

Coffee Cup Browsing: July 20, 2022

Things That Should Have Been Shut Down for $400, Alex. 

How we know that they know they are losing. . .

Why men avoid Church. . .

Fake arrest, fake handcuffs, fake all the way down. . .

Eight hits out of ten shots fired. . .

Follow HancAquam or Subscribe ----->

Coffee Cup Browsing: July 19, 2022

Abortion lies. . .there are many. 

Erasing women from the MI Constitution. . .which exposes the lie that abortion was ever about women's rights.

Good Guy with a Gun stops mass shooting.

Anti-Woke TV. . .some good stuff there. I liked The Terminal List.

The insane world of trans ideology. . .

Follow HancAquam or Subscribe ----->

Coffee Cup Browsing: July 16, 2022

Luxury beliefs as marks of cultural capital. . .fascinating.

What does Progress want? The answer is Satantic.

Mass shootings: it's not about the guns. . .

I'm a Legal Fanboy: recent appeals court decisions.

The history, practice, and triumph of Wokeism.

I haven't watched network news (of any flavor) since 2005 or so. It's a liturgical event in religious houses with Boomers in residence.

A little late on this one: St. Kateri

Woke politicians ruined Starbucks in six cities. . .couldn't happen to a better business.

Lots of protesting going on. . .not much reporting though. 

Waiting for ALL the coffee to kick in. . .

Follow HancAquam or Subscribe ----->

Coffee Cup Browsing: July 15, 2022

Politician who supports protesting SC Justices at home and in public, freaks out when she gets protested in public. 

Teachers to Dems: please follow us down the CRT rabbit hole.

God bless these brave nuns!

Strange New World. . .you should be reading this. 

COVID vax doesn't prevent infection. Why is it called a vax then?

The toddler equivalent of genuflecting at the movie theater. . .

I was fascinated with these vids back in the day. . .

Follow HancAquam or Subscribe ----->

Coffee Cup Browsing

I started this blog in 2005 to post my homilies. In 2009, I started Coffee Cup Browsing -- by far the most popular type of post on the blog. I stopped in 2012 b/c I was working full-time at Notre Dame Seminary. Well, I'm unemployed. . .so, here it is again!

Sri Lanka is the Green Revolution's future. 

No, fossil fuels do not contribute to "climate change." 

Black community leaders condemn racist attacks on Justice Thomas.

The DIE ideology has infected corporate America. 

Paulist Fathers booted from OH Newman Center. 

Will the Pontifical Academy for Life betray Humanae Viatae?

The "clicking language" of Africa. Fascinating.

Some clarity after the Dobbs decision.

I watched it in slow-motion and still can't figure out how he does it!

Follow HancAquam or Subscribe ----->

Shrewd Innocence

14th Week OT (F)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St Albert the Great, Irving

Be shrewd. Be simple. Beware. All this week we've been getting lessons from Jesus about how to be holy, about how to survive and thrive in the world w/o being of the world. Today we tells us to be wise, to be astute. Sharp, smart like a serpent but innocent, harmless as a dove. That's quite the unique combo to pull off! So, what does innocent shrewdness look like? At the root of this disposition is agape, sacrificial love – willing the Good for the Other even unto death. IOW, properly using innocent shrewdness (or being shrewdly innocent) is just being Christ in the world. Knowing the Truth, living the Way, and expecting w/o hesitation Eternal Life. Through that lens and within that frame, we adopt the mind of Christ and become Christ even as we compose his Body as members. Because we are his mind and body, we are set aside, consecrated for a holy purpose. That holy purpose is to be an irritant to the world. Like a grain of sand in an oyster. It is also about being a witness, testifying to the mercy of God so that the oyster might produce a pearl. All this irritation and testimony makes us vulnerable to persecution, so Jesus teaches us to get out of his way when the trial begins, “Don't worry about what you will say. The Spirit of the Father will speak through you.” If this seems strange, it shouldn't. You have put on the Mind of Christ. You are a member of his Body. You participate in his Spirit. You eat and drink his body and blood. The whole point of baptism, confirmation, all the sacraments is to give you all you need to be perfected in Christ. So, when the prosecutions come and the trials begin, who else would speak for you but Christ? The trick – if there is one – is to get out of his way. Die to self. Lose your life. Hate the world. Those who are wise understand these things; those who are prudent know them. Straight and narrow are the paths of the Lord, on them the just walk while sinners stumble.

Follow HancAquam or Subscribe ----->

Get out of his way

St. Maria Goretti

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Fall to the ground and die. Lose your life. Hate the world. Not exactly the Hallmark Card affirmations we usually associate with Christian joy. Taken together these admonitions ground a philosophy of living that directly opposes the nihilism we breath in everyday. The 21^st c. American version of nihilism produces entitled, emotion-driven, therapeutic, and narcissistic individuals who cannot imagine a world w/o their unique presence. It is easily the deadliest gas we can breath over time. As followers of Christ, everything we are and do is given in witness to our humility, our total and irrevocable dependence on God. Just being human persons striving for holiness is an incomparable witness to God's mercy. We cannot do it w/o Him. So, when Christ tells us to die to self, lose our lives, and hate the world, he is revealing a truth absolutely foundational to our salvation: I cannot be saved. You cannot saved. Only we can be saved and only then by becoming Christs in Christ. I cannot be both Christ and me at the same time. You cannot be both Christ and you at the same time. But together, we can be Christ – one body, one heart, one mind.

Paul asks, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?” And then he teaches, “Whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.” If we are one body and one spirit with Christ, then we will suffer and triumph as he suffered and triumphed. Both our sufferings and our triumphs occur in the world, but their effects echo in eternity. So, we bear witness to them as sacraments of love – external signs of Christ's mission and ministry to die and live again for the sake of sinners. How do we bear witness to Christ? We get out of his way. We die to Self, surrendering the need to be the Star of a life that was never ours to begin with. 

Follow HancAquam or Subscribe ----->