Just say the Word

1^st Week of Advent (M)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

The Centurion's faith amazes Jesus. No one in Israel has such faith. No one? Not the priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, the Lord's own disciples? This Roman occupier of the Holy City, this worshiper of false gods has faith in an itinerant preacher who claims to be the Son of God? Apparently so. But just what is this faith? What does this Gentile trust in exactly? In refusing Jesus' offer to go to his house and heal his servant, the Centurion says, “...only say the word and my servant will be healed.” He trusts in the power and authority of Christ's word. Just say the word. He doesn't genuflect or light a candle or sacrifice a goat or rattle off a long, convoluted prayer. Just say the word, Lord. Say the word, and he will be healed. He analogizes the power and authority of his own word as a Roman officer to Jesus' power and authority as the Son of God. His orders are carried out. His word is obeyed. And so it is with Christ. The Centurion is acknowledging that Jesus is the author of creation and so has authority over creation's order. Where there is something broken, he can fix it. Where there is disease, he can cure. Where there is sin, he can forgive. Christ has the authority to make right every relationship gone wrong. Father to daughter. Mother to son. Husband to wife. Master to servant. God to Man. In his divine person – out of who he is – Christ can redeem all of creation to its original godly order. The Centurion's trust in his word amazes Jesus. He says, “...in no one in Israel have I found such faith.” If Jesus were to visit Irving, this priory, this 8.00am Mass, could he say the same of you and me? If not, we have 27 days to prepare ourselves to answer the question. We have 27 days to exercise our trust muscles, to prepare for the heavy lifting of his coming again. Will he come again at the end of Advent? We don't know. But we do know that we have this time to work out – to trust, to hope, to love, and to call on his holy name for the right ordering of our lives. If the pagan invader of the Holy City can trust God to heal his servant with a word, then surely you and I can surrender to His will and pray, “Just say the word, Lord. Just say the Word.”  

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Advent: Your Clock is Ticking

1^st Sunday of Advent

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

I am an Advent Nazi. The friars did not know this when they elected me prior. But there it is. No Christmas carols before Dec 24^th. No Christmas trees. No red, green, and white decorations. No little Santa Clauses pushing Advent back towards Thanksgiving. Advent is its own season, one deserving of our respect and attention! So, we wait. We prepare. And we anticipate. Christ is coming, but he's not here yet. What do we need to do while we wait? Isaiah says we are to walk in the light of the Lord. Paul says we must wake from sleep and throw off the works of darkness. And Jesus says we are to stay awake and prepare for his coming again. IOW, Advent is set to test us, to prove our readiness for the Final Judgment. Yes, we are looking forward to Christmas and the birth of the Christ Child. But we are also looking forward to The End, the last day, and our final test before the Just Judge. Are you ready to stand before him, account for your life, and hear his judgment? If not, you have four weeks, just 28 days, to get ready. Make the most of the time you have. Everyone's clock is ticking.

Brothers, sisters: I do not wait well. It is one of my many failings. At Kroger yesterday with Br. Bede, I got frustrated b/c they had one register open. There were four people with stuffed carts in front of us. I moved us over to the self-checkout and got even more frustrated b/c the wretched machine kept booping nonsense at us, requiring a cashier to correct it. After the third time the poor woman had to exorcise the demon-possessed computer, I said, “Y'all can't be making much money with these things.” She smiled nervously, giggled a little, and said nothing. I think she's probably used to impatient customers. So, I do not wait well. And if my ego were bigger or more deranged, I might come to believe that God invented Advent just to provoke me. But my ego isn't that big or deranged, so I'll have to make do with the Church's idea that Advent is a time to contemplate The Last Four Things and prepare for the coming again of Christ. To wit: if you didn't know already, you are going to die. So am I. We are in the world but not of it, just passing through, and we need to be ready to exit. As followers of Christ, our exit is nothing to fear. . .if we are ready. How do we get ready? By observing the 28 days of Advent and then treating the other 337 days of the year as off-season Advents.

We do this by walking in the light of the Lord. By waking from sleep and throwing off the works of darkness. By staying awake and preparing for his coming again. We wait in the light. Keeping ourselves fully exposed in the direct light of our Lord's glory. We shake ourselves away from the lies, the manipulations, the scheming of the Enemy and refuse to do his dirty work. We give no room in our hearts and minds to envy, pride, wrath, or greed. We do not allow ourselves to be seduced by compromise or vanity or selfishness. We treat everything we have and everything we are as God's eternal possessions and only ours for short time. We treat ourselves and one another as embodied instances of divine love, men and women who reveal the truth, goodness, and beauty of the Father just by living and breathing. We remain stubbornly, aggressively faithful to the Gospel handed down to us, and we wear ourselves out bearing witness to His mercy. And when we fail in our preparations, we turn again to Christ and receive his absolution. Yes, we are getting ready for the birth of Christ. Of course, we are! But we are also getting ready for our death. Jesus says, “...had [the master of the house] known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake.” But he didn't. And his house was broken.

Stay awake! Vigilance is exhausting. Always being on guard against the Enemy is exhausting. We need rest and refreshment. That's prayer. Prayer is the time God floods us with everything we need to remain alert. Prayer is the time we open ourselves to receive everything God has to give us. Prayer is our chance to praise Him and give Him thanks for His gifts. Shopping, cooking, decorating, entertaining – all exhausting. By the time Christmas arrives, we just want it over. So, don't start Christmas until Christmas. Take this season of preparation and prepare. Fortify, stock up, repair, and rest. You have 12 days after the 25^th to celebrate Christ's birth. And you have 28 days – more than twice as long – to get right with God and prepare for your birth into eternal life. What I'm say here is this: become an Advent Nazi! Wait joyfully, wait peacefully for the coming of Christ. Then – when the time comes – go rejoicing to the House of the Lord! 

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Become perfect Love

St. Ignatius Delgado OP & Companions

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St Albert the Great, Irving

God owes you nothing. He owes me nothing. He created us and then re-created us in Christ Jesus. Though He owes us nothing, He gives us everything. We were freely made and freely re-made. Everything we have and everything we are is a gift. From the brute fact of our existence as male and female to the complexities of our personalities, we are wholly gratuitous creatures solely dependent on the Father's “plan of sheer goodness”(CCC 1). Understanding and receiving this foundational truth about the nature of reality is called humility. We are dust and divine love given flesh and bone. How we choose in our freedom to respond to this truth, this humility determines how we will live minute to minute until we die. If we choose to live as though we can save ourselves, making idols of ourselves, loving ourselves w/o God, then we will become what we love – merely temporary, passing things that endure in eternal bitterness and regret. If, however, we choose to live in a permanent state of praise and thanksgiving to God, loving ourselves and others b/c He loved us first, then we will become what we love – immortal men and women, abiding in perfect unity with Love Himself. We will become Love perfectly.

The Grateful Samaritan is healed. Along with nine Jews, his body is made well again. The GS returns to give Christ thanks and praise for his healing. Now, his soul is healed as well, his whole person is made new again. The nine Jews do not return to thank Christ. Why? We don't know. Maybe they took their healing as payment for a perceived debt. Maybe they thought they were entitled to the gift. Could be that they were too overwhelmed with joy to consider giving thanks. Whatever the reason, they did not choose to submit themselves in humility before their Healer and give him thanks. Jesus says us nothing about their fate. To the GS he says, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.” Your trust in God has saved you, healed you, brought you back into the household of the Father. Ask yourself: am I the GS, or am I among the ungrateful nine? God doesn't need our gratitude. He doesn't need our praise. We need to give Him thanks and praise simply b/c doing so is our confession of what's Real: we are gratuitous creatures growing in holiness, beings being perfected in the sacrificial love of Christ. 

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The only answer that matters

St. Clement of Rome

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Who do we say that the Son of Man is? Looking around the Church these days, it would appear that we say he's a bureaucrat working for a religiousy social work organization; or a fiery Traddie sporting a bow tie and fedora; or an addict living under a bridge; or a soccer mom running for the school board; or a careerist bishop looking for applause from the media. We say he is a lot of things. Most of which is false. The Enemy tempts us daily, hourly to make Jesus into our own image and deny who he really is. This is a smart strategy. If the Enemy can prod us into re-making Christ into a reflection of our sinful selves, then we can be OK with who we are in our sin. We can say, “Look! We are following Christ. He looks just like us.” Of course, the truth is we've just put Christ on a leash and made him follow us. To help you and me remember that we are his creatures and not his creator, Jesus asks, “Who do you say that I am?” The only correct answer is: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This confession of faith is the only way to salvation. There is no other name, no other job title, no other process or procedure through which we can be saved from sin and death. We can eagerly attach ourselves to political platforms or reform movements or synodal processes or intellectual projects or social justice activities and sincerely believe that we are saving ourselves and the Church with the good works of good intentions. But if we re-create Christ and make him into an idol of our efforts, then he becomes just another mascot, a pet to distract us when our important work gets boring. How do you name and dismiss the Enemy's temptation to re-create Christ? Remind yourself daily that your good works are not your god. That your good intentions are not your god. That your opinions, your politics, your niche ecclesial obsessions, your devotional eccentricities – none of it is your god. Who do you say, who do you think, who do you feel, who do you know the Son of Man to be? “Christ, the Son of the living God” is the only answer that can save you. 

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Do you love God?

St. Margaret of Scotland

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

I've been a priest, confessor, and spiritual director for 17 yrs. I've served as a seminary/university professor and priest-formator for 13 of those yrs. Without hesitation, from my experience, I can tell you that the single most difficult truth for Christians to accept is that God's love is unconditionally, absolutely free. That is, there is literally nothing you and I can do to beg, borrow, steal, or earn God's love. And there is literally nothing we can do to make God cease loving us. Here's why: God is love. He is love by nature. Who He is is Love. God isn't someone above and beyond love Who loves. He isn't a super powerful human-like being Who loves this but not that. To be God is what it is to be love. We cannot beg, borrow, steal, or earn God's love b/c we cannot beg, borrow, steal, or earn God Himself. If God were to cease loving me, I would cease to exist. In fact, all of reality would cease to exist b/c God would cease to be love in failing to love me. So, how do you know – with absolute certainty – that God loves you? Easy. Do you exist? If you say, Yes, then God loves you. Freely, absolutely, unconditionally.

Now that that question is settled, we can move on to the more complicated question: do you love God? God loves b/c He is love. You and I are not love. We participate in His love (b/c we exist), but we are not love itself. IOW, we can sin. We can fail to love as we ought. This is where our problems start. One way of experiencing my sin is to feel or sense that God has stopped loving me. In the presence of Perfect Love, my imperfect love feels like abandonment. It feels like God has set me aside. Then, in my desolation, I start trying to earn back God's love with penances and prayers and weeping and gnashing of teeth. The Enemy cheers on our efforts to win God back b/c all our efforts keep hidden from us the one truth we find hard to accept: God's love for us is absolute, free, and unconditional. Nothing can keep God from us. But we are more than expert at keeping us from God. Our love for Him is almost always relative, bound, and conditional. So, Jesus says, “I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete.” What did he tell us? God is love. He – Christ – is in God's love. And we remain in His love by following His commandments. What is his command? “Love one another as I have loved you.” Freely, sacrificially.

Where's the noise?

33^rd Week OT (M)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Jesus' healing of Bartimaeus – the blind man – isn't a big, dramatic scene. The actual, physical healing of the man's blindness, that is. Jesus doesn't demand allegiance, or question the man's faith, or slap him on the forehead, or anything fun like that. Jesus just says, “What do you want?” Bartimaeus says, “I want to see.” Jesus says, “You can see. Your faith has saved you.” BOOM! He can see! Except there is no boom. No angels' choir. No flock of glowing white doves. No one has to catch Bartimaeus as he is slain in the Spirit. No one has to rush forward to fan his sweating face. The whole miraculous healing is accomplished in 21 words. No gestures. No spit. No mud. Jesus doesn't even touch him. So, where's the action in this scene? Where's the noise? The noise comes before and after the healing. The crowd is noisy, proclaiming Jesus' presence. Bartimaeus is noisy: “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!” The crowd starts yelling at Bartimaeus to be quiet. But he keeps on yelling. Finally, Jesus calls him over. [Insert anticlimactic healing here]. And Bartimaeus starts giving God the glory and the crowd starts praising God. The point of this scene is to show us that persistence is key in calling on the Lord for help. Not b/c we can change his mind with nagging but b/c persistence builds endurance and strengthens our faith. Perhaps a lesser point is that there will be some in our lives who want to shut us up b/c our faith is embarrassing. Our persistence is annoying. It draws attention and disrupts the expected. If you can't see the Lord, but you know he's near, and you want to see him, then you will be noisy, even embarrassing. You'll ignore the shushers and carry on until you meet Christ and receive your sight. This is good for you and the shushers. You get to give God the glory for your healing, and they get to see that persistent faith brings salvation. They also get to grow in holiness by giving God praise. The Lord says to the Church in Ephesus: “I know your works, your labor, and your endurance...you have endurance and have suffered for my name, and you have not grown weary.” When the shushers try to shush your faith; when they try to keep you from the Lord – persist, endure, and never grow weary. Your faith will save you. And when it does, do not fail to him thanks and praise. Give God the glory.  

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Predicting The End

33rd Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

I was introduced to the Bible when I was nine years old. An older friend told me about the Great Tribulation found in the Book of Revelation. I was particularly struck one image he mentioned from chapter 14: “. . .the angel swung his sickle over the earth and cut the earth’s vintage...blood poured out...to the height of a horse’s bridle for two hundred miles.” Being an imaginative kid, I had no trouble seeing in my mind's eye the angel, the sickle, the wine press, and the great ocean of blood. I rushed home to read the rest of Revelation and found myself hooked on the fantastic images and language of the End Times. For the next decade, I worried about the apocalypse and my place in it. Are the signs showing us the end? When will the Lord return? Will I be among those raptured into heaven? These were the years when Evangelical Protestantism dominated religious programming on TV: Jimmy Swaggart, Jim and Tammy Faye Baker, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell. Their best fundraising pitches always revolved around matching current events to the signs and symbols from the prophet Daniel and the BoR. Their biblical numerology was mesmerizing. Still, I wanted to know: when, Lord? When will you come again? I wanted to be ready! But the signs were unclear. Unfortunately, Jesus gave me no answers.

He does prophesy the destruction of the Jerusalem temple. His listeners want to know when this will happen. Of course, he doesn't give them a date, a day and time. Tues., March 3^rd at 4:15pm seven years from now. That's the answer we want. That way we can be ready! Or more likely, so we know exactly how long we have to party before the end. What he gives them instead is a string of cryptic “signs” that could apply to any day of the week or week of the year. Wars, rebellions, plagues, earthquakes, famines, “awesome sights and mighty signs [coming] from the sky.” Had I been among his listeners, I might have yelled out: “But those happen all the time!” And Jesus would have pointed at me and said, “Exactly! So, be ready!” The Nine Year Old Me and the televangelists wanted the signs and wonders of the BoR to match up neatly with current events so we could calculate the exact timing of Christ's return. We didn't consider the possibility that Christ could come again at any moment. That we ought to be always ready. Some forty years after Jesus' prophecy, in 70AD, the Romans destroyed the temple. I wonder if any of those who heard his prediction were there to see the temple pulled down and remembered. . .

We can be frustrated with Jesus' answer. And we can continue to run after apparitions and biblical numerology and seers and visions in a quest to understand the day and time of his return. Or, we can take him at his word and simply listen. What he is describing is the past and future history of the Church living in the world. Creation is fallen. Earthquakes, floods, plagues, and wars are everyday events in a fallen world. In a fallen world, men will claim to be the Messiah. I found a list of about 40 claimants btw 1830 and 2022. In a fallen world, teachers will teach false doctrine. Some of those teachers are ordained. Some have PhD's and others wear miters. In a fallen world, the world will persecute the Church. 360 million Christians live in parts of the world where following Christ will get them killed. Our persecutors can be religious – mostly extremist forms of Islam. Or atheistic – mostly forms of left-wing political ideology, e.g., Chinese communism and woke progressivism. In a fallen world, those who follow Christ serve as an irritant to the comfort of those who serve the world. Our allegiance belongs to Christ not the princes, politicians, and prophets of this Age. Our citizenship is in His Kingdom. We're just passing through.

Jesus assures us: “You will be hated by all because of my name...” OK. So, where's our hope? Where do we find our strength? He continues: “...but not a hair on your head will be destroyed.” Alright. Good to know. But what do we do in the meantime? “By your perseverance you will secure your lives.” By persevering we will be victorious. Persevering in what, exactly? Persevering in trust. Persevering in hope. Persevering in loving one another. Persevering with the Body of Christ in the Body of Christ to live wholly and only for Christ until he comes again. How do we persevere? Obedience to the Spirit. Not just compliance but truly listening to the Spirit as He speaks to the Church and by consecrating ourselves – setting ourselves aside – in His service. The Spirit has spoken, is speaking, and will continue to speak. And He has said, is saying, and will continue to say just one word: Christ. He says nothing new. Nothing contrary. And nothing contradictory. False Messiahs, teachers, and prophets will tell us that the Spirit is doing something or saying something new, something completely novel. No. The Spirit is the love between the Father and the Son. That love is eternal. And there is nothing new in eternity. Our NO to the novelty of the Age puts us in conflict with the world. And this conflict is what Jesus is describing to us this morning. Our persistent, persevering NO to the world is also a persistent, persevering YES to Christ. The temple was destroyed as he prophesied. When will he return? Any minute now. Any day now. My job, your job is to be ready.  

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Nagging God into submission

St. Josaphat

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

So, according to Jesus, the key to getting God to give us what we want is constant Nagging? He politely calls it “praying without ceasing,” but the parable he tells clearly indicates that God will relent to our demands only if we nag Him into submission. This sounds absurd – and it is – but it's the lesson too many take from the story of the Persistent Widow. So, why is this reading of the parable absurd? It presupposes that we can change God's mind. It presupposes that anything we can do or say has some effect on God's will. If I pray enough, fast enough, give enough money to the Church, God will say, “Fine! Have it your way!” and alter His plan for the universe. Now, we may not think about prayer in these exact terms, but I'm will to bet that many of us live as though prayer works exactly this way. We pray as though we do not have all that we need to flourish and pester God relentlessly to give us what we think we need. But here's the problem with that practice: we don't know what we need b/c we don't know what God has in store for us. Sure, we know generally that He has only good things planned for us, but are we capable of seeing those good things as good things? If not, then we can spend a lot of time asking for things that go against His will for us. Rather than ask for particular gifts, we should follow the Widow's example and persistently ask instead for the strength and courage to see God's will at work. Rather than ask for specific gifts, we should persistently pray to receive whatever it is that God has willed for us from all eternity. Rather than foolishly assume that we fully understand the arc of the divine will in history, we should cooperate with the Father's will and make ourselves into finely tuned receivers for all He sends our way. Jesus tells us not to pray like the pagans do. How did they pray? They treated their gods like super powerful humans who needed persuading with bribes of sacrifice and gold; promises of service; and magical rites. They made deals with the gods for favors. They tried to force the gods into doing their will. Our pray to the Father is nothing like this. Our pray is: Lord, I receive your will so that I may do your will. You have no need of my thanks, but You give me the desire to give you thanks and praise so that I may draw closer to You. Perfect in me what is imperfect. Finely tune the gifts I have received from You. Make me persistent.     

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Say it and be free

32^nd Week OT (M)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Why is it so difficult to forgive someone who's sinned against me? Jesus plainly says that I should forgive. Even seven times in one day! That's a lot to ask. What if forgiving the sinner leads him to believe that his sin is really not a sin? Or that the sin didn't hurt me? What if he sees my forgiveness as a sign of weakness and decides to take advantage of me? Or he's encouraged to sin against someone else in the same way? I've forgiven him, but I don't feel like I've forgiven him. What if I'm still angry about the sin? What if I can't move on? What if. . .what if. . .what if. All day long. . .what if. Jesus says, “If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.” He says nothing about how we ought to feel about forgiving the sinner. He sins. You rebuke. He repents. You forgive. End of scene. Jesus says nothing about about how forgiveness might prevent future sins. Or how forgiveness might change the nature of sin. He says, “If he sins seven times in one day and repents seven times, then you should forgive him seven times.” All of the what if's change nothing about sin or forgiveness. For the sake of your peace and his, it must be done.

Now, the what if's don't go away simply b/c you've followed Jesus' orders. They hang around and needle you with worry. Of course they do! The Enemy isn't happy about all this forgiveness flying around willy-nilly. So, there's the temptation to brood over the sin; to wallow in the hurt the sin caused; to nurse the anger and a need for revenge; to question motives and suspect plots. Before you know it, you've sinned; the cycle starts all over. And the Enemy smiles. Here's how to wipe that smile off his face. You control nothing beyond how you choose to react to someone sinning against you. You cannot control how the sinner receives your forgiveness. You cannot control whether or not he sins again. The only thing you can do is determine how you will react to the sinner. Forgiveness frees you both. Why would you want to cling to his offense? Why would you choose to fall into disobedience along side him? The what if's and whatabout's are irrelevant. How you feel about forgiving him is irrelevant. How much the sin cost you is irrelevant. The most freeing sentence in the English language is: “I forgive you.” Say it and enjoy your freedom. 

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You CANNOT serve two Masters. . .

31^st Week OT (S)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

We cannot serve two Masters. Jesus doesn't say, “You may not serve two Masters.” He says, “You cannot serve two Masters.” Serving a Master is an exclusive gig. You serve, or you don't. If you are serving Jack and Jill, then you are actually serving neither. Jesus' point here is that you are serving God or you aren't. There is no in-between. Loyalty divided is no loyalty at all. This absolutist choice is imposed by the nature of the Enemy. Evil is the absence of the Good. Evil is nothing. And nothing is absolute. It's no-thing. As such, no compromise is tolerated. No accommodation with God is possible. The best we can say about evil is that when – in moments of weakness – we choose to serve evil, we're telling ourselves that we are doing Good. We're doing something that we think is Good. In that moment, we cannot serve God. So, we make a choice from the start, to serve God and Him alone. This means that we put on the mind of Christ, follow him, and stick as close as we can to one another in the Church. When we inevitably fall, we return as fast as possible to God's service, admitting our sin and receiving His mercy. What we don't do is assume that our mistaken view of the Good is the truly Good and demand that the other members of the Body accept our foolishness as true. At that point, we are serving the Enemy. If we consistently choose to see Evil as Good, we become servants of Folly. We become fools. For the sake of our eternal lives, it is far better to become fools for Christ and serve the Father as the Son served us. 

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Why be generous?

31^st Week OT (M)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Why are we called to be generous to those who cannot or will not return our generosity? Why – for example – go out of your way to help a neighbor who's lost everything in a house fire? Or help a family in another state who's never had much of anything to begin with? Right at the very bottom of the virtue of generosity is a simple truth that is too easily ignored: nothing belongs to you, nothing belongs to me. WE BELONG TO CHRIST! If you and I have taken on the mind of Christ; died and rose again in his death and resurrection; and now we lay claim to our inheritance to the Kingdom, then everything we are and everything we have belongs to God. Everything we have and are is for our use, sure. But it all belongs to God first. He gives it all to us, and we receive it all as a gift. This includes material stuff, talents, challenges, and even life itself. Christian generosity then, properly understood, is best practiced as a radical detachment from the things we use. In religious life, we call this poverty. And poverty, like generosity, is a spiritual exercise that develops our awareness of how deeply and permanently we are dependent on God. So, why are we called to be generous to those who cannot or will not return our generosity? Because doing so is evidence that we know and understand that we are who we are and that we have what we have only b/c God has chosen to love us into existence and to bring us back to Him when this pilgrimage is done.   

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Details matter: so repent!

31^st Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

I spent most of my early adult years teaching literature to college students. When it came to teaching them how to read poetry, esp. modern and contemporary poetry, I usually failed miserably. Eliot, Stevens, Lowell, and Levertov are acquired tastes, admittedly. But teaching short stories was always a hit. Plot, characters, action, dialogue. These the students understood and loved. A good story does a lot of work. And when read in full, so does the reader. But when the reader reads a story with a lesson already in mind, or reads the story in order to prove a point . . .well, then the story is no longer doing its work. This is why I told my students back in the day: details matter. Pay attention to the details not just the broad strokes of the narrative. Case in point, the Story of Zacchaeus. The broad stroke here is that Jesus invites himself to stay at the house of a wealthy tax collector, a traitorous sinner. The finger-wagging moralists in the crowd condemn Jesus for staying with a sinner. The moral of the story is: Jesus ate with a sinner, therefore, the sinner's sin is not really a sin and moralists are horrible people for noting that sin is sin. Not quite. Remember: details matter. And the missing detail here is that Zacchaeus repents and does penance.

Not only does Zacchaeus repent and do penance, he actively, eagerly seeks the Lord out, going so far as to climb a tree to see him. (More on that tree later. Details matter.). Jesus sees Zacchaeus in the tree. What causes the Lord to notice him? The story doesn't say. Zacchaeus doesn't shout or wave. Luke write, “When he reached the place, Jesus looked up. . .” Maybe Jesus felt Zacchaeus' eagerness to see him. Maybe he just spotted a grown man sitting in a tree and thought, “I need to meet that guy.” But notice – details matter – Jesus calls him by name. Jesus already knows who and what Zacchaeus is. And calls him down from the tree by name. Knowing himself that he's a sinner and knowing now that Jesus knows he's a sinner, we might expect Zacchaeus to reluctantly climb down and slink over to Jesus dejectedly. Instead, “[Zacchaeus] came down quickly and received [Jesus] with joy.” Why is Zacchaeus joyful? Does he think Jesus is going to affirm him in his sin, giving him a thumbs-up b/c he steals from his own people? Tell him to keep on stealing b/c stealing is a legitimate lifestyle choice? No. Zacchaeus is joyful b/c joy is an effect of love. And Christ is the embodiment of divine love.

This is the detail the finger-wagging moralists in the crowd misses. They are scandalized b/c they see a rabbi polluting himself by visiting with a sinner. What they don't yet get is that Jesus is no ordinary rabbi. He cannot be made unclean by associating with sinners. In fact, he makes the unclean clean again. All he needs is for the unclean to want to be clean. And Zacchaeus radiates the desire to be made clean again. His desire to be made clean is so intense that he pledges to donate half his wealth to the poor and repay any extorted taxes four-times over! How does Jesus respond to this act of contrition? Details matter! He says, “Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham.” IOW, Z. has shown himself to be a true son of the Covenant through repentance and sacrifice. Jesus continues, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.” Jesus seeks out the lost and saves those who want to be saved. If no one is lost, then no one needs to be found. Zacchaeus is lost in his sin; he seeks out the Lord; the Lord sees a sinner and calls him to himself. Zacchaeus repents and now he is saved.

Details matter. So, we need to talk about that tree. This is perhaps the only gospel story where a plant aids in the salvation of a sinner. Zacchaeus climbs the sycamore to escape the crushing crowd and watch Jesus pass by. But this is no ordinary tree. The sycamore is a species of fig. It has heart-shaped leaves; grows only in rich soil; and produces fruit year-round. The ancient Egyptians called it the “Tree of Life” and used its timber for royal coffins. It was a measure of wealth and prestige. Ancient readers of this gospel story would know all this, so they would smile and nod knowingly at the symbolism. Zacchaeus climbs the Tree of Life to seek out the Son of God. The sycamore points us to the tree in the Garden of Eden; the building of the ark; the wood of the Cross; and the timber to be used in the making our own coffins. Zacchaeus wants to live in Christ, to be redeemed in the Covenant, so he takes refuge in the Tree of Life, and is found there by his Savior. Details matter. First, he saw Jesus. Then Jesus saw him and called to him. Then came joy from love, repentance of sin, and recompense for sin. The details of characters, setting, etc. might change, but the plot of our salvation story never changes.   

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Competing for glory

30^th Week OT (S)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Competing for the highest seat of honor at the table is evidence that you may be entertaining the sin of vainglory. Now, contemporary American dining etiquette doesn't recognize “seats of honor” at the table. So, we might think about this parable in terms of competing for unmerited attention in class, or showing off in an attempt to make our co-workers look bad. Closer to home, we might think about it in terms of the temptation to “out religious” our brothers and sisters at Church – kneeling longer, genuflecting more deeply, perfecting our Pious Face; the sort of religious theatrics that not only lead others to think of us as holy but also ward off any close scrutiny of our sinfulness. How many of us have taken communion in a state of mortal sin b/c we didn't want our friends to think we were. . .in a state of mortal sin!? We'd rather commit an additional mortal sin than be seen as anything but saintly. That's vainglory. The problem with vainglory is that it is a lie; that is, it's seeking glory for oneself based on a falsehood. The falsehood that lies at the bottom of vainglory is that my gifts, my talents, everything that makes me special is My Doing. My achievement. All of my successes – academic, athletic, romantic, economic, spiritual – are solely due to my intelligence, my diligence, and my physical prowess. This is a lie. And this lie, Aquinas tells us, leads to a host of other sins – “disobedience, boastfulness, hypocrisy, contention, obstinacy, discord, and love of novelties” (ST.II.II.132.5). Jesus teaches us to combat vainglory with humility. Seek the lowest seat. He's not saying pretend that you aren't gifted, or don't use your gifts publicly. He's saying don't take credit for creating your gifts. Don't seek praise for yourself b/c of your gifts. Instead, give glory to the One Who gave you your gifts. God alone assigns seats at the Wedding Feast. So, competing for the best seat is not only pointless, but it also causes chaos in your spiritual life. In effect, loving praise and seeking it out is a form of idolatry, a form of self-worship: I deserve this praise. Not God. I'm entitled to this attention. Not God. That is a surefire way of rejecting your invitation to the Wedding Feast, a guaranteed way of getting many opportunities to practice gnashing your teeth and rending your garments. Seek the glory of God. Give glory to God. And Him alone.

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"Meh. I've got work to do."

30^th Week OT (Th)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Jesus is busy healing, casting out demons, and preaching the coming of his Father's Kingdom. IOW, he's doing what he was sent to do. His words and his works draw the attention of this world's powers, and he's warned that those powers are both curious and threatened. Nothing new here. He's freeing those trapped in spiritual poverty from the bonds of sin and death. So, of course, the worldly powers see him as a dangerous man. They would have us forever dependent on merely human wisdom and works for our survival, always helpless and easily controlled. But Jesus' mission and ministry is to show us that we can be sons and daughters of the Most High, heirs to His Kingdom, and free from the misery of an imperfectible Law. The consummation of his mission and ministry must take place in Jerusalem – the unrepentant city where God's prophets go to die. Thus, when warned that Herod wants to kill him, Jesus says, in essence, “Meh. I've got work to do.” Today, tomorrow, the next day, he has work to do. So do we. Unsurprisingly, it's the same work that Christ did – showing those enslaved in spiritual poverty that they do not have to live on the scraps tossed to them by their “Betters.” They are invited to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. But before they can attend the feast, they will need new garments; a new heart and mind; a renewed spirit of courage. They will need to be recreated in the image and likeness of him who is fully human and fully divine – Christ Jesus. They will also need to know and understand that becoming Christ has its consequences. There is the peace of his constant presence. And the constant presence of opposition and trial. There is always A Herod out there wanting to kill them. Or to put them back into slavery. Or to silence them for good. But none of that matters ultimately b/c they will be free. What matters ultimately is that they are free. Free to rejoice, to preach, to love, to forgive, to bless. Free to thrive in the Spirit and grow in holiness. Free to shout, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” And free to mourn at the foot of the Cross on Calvary. No longer mired in the spiritual poverty of the world, we are free to be who and what we were recreated to be – ministers and missionaries of the one sent to set us free.

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Wide Sin, Narrow Gate

30^th Week OT (W)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

I've fallen off the ship into the icy sea. The crew throws me a life jacket. I say, “No, thank you.” And drown. You're diagnosed with an easily treatable form of cancer. Your doctor offers you a cure. You say, “No, thank you.” And die. We are sinners. As such, we are destined to an eternal death after death. God throws us a life jacket in the form of His Son. He offers us a guaranteed cure for our disease. But we say, “No, thank you.” The wailing and the gnashing of teeth begins. Who killed me, you, us? The sailors, the doctors, God? No. I did. You did. We did. Jesus is asked, how many will be saved? Only a few? A great multitude? Will everyone be saved? The answer is: as many as choose to be saved. Yes, the gate is narrow. And we need to be strong to pass through. But think of it this way: the size of the gate is inversely proportional to the size of our accumulated sin. The wider our sin, the narrower the gate. Souls who have chosen pride, anger, injustice, violence, and disobedience will find a paper-thin opening. Souls who have chosen freedom in Christ, freedom from sin and death will find a gate as wide as the Father's love for His children. He wills that we all be saved. He also wills that we choose – freely choose – to be saved. Choosing to be saved entails a conversion of heart and mind, choosing to turn back to God, and living lives bearing witness in word and deed to the mercy and love we've been given. When the sailors haul me back on deck, I say, “Thank you.” When the doctors save your life from cancer, you say, “Thank you.” When we find ourselves at the Wedding Feast, having chosen Christ, sitting beside the angels and saints, we say, “Thank you.” Our rescue, our cure, our salvation is not an entitlement nor is it a contest. It's a gift. Freely given, freely received.    

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