When the Shepherd becomes a Wolf

16^th Sunday OT
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

OLR, NOLA

Why does Jesus begin teaching the crowd gathered in front of him? The great medieval teacher of the faith, Thomas Aquinas, argues that knowledge is received by the hungry mind according to its hunger. How and what we eat depends on what we are hungry for. So, if you are hungry for a fervent, fiery lesson in the truth of Christ, then pursue his truth with fervor and fire. If you long for the meat and potato facts of the faith, then ask for the facts of the faith! If, however, you want spiritual junk food, then just go hang around on the corner for a while, a teacher who speaks falsely will be along soon enough. And he or she will be more than delighted to feed you your fill. Those in the crowd – the one chasing Jesus around – they do not know the truth. They have no teacher to teach them the truth. So, Jesus takes pity on these shepherdless sheep and teaches them. These days – with cable TV, the internet, social media, movies – teachers abound. All sorts of lessons are being taught to children and adults alike. What's worse is that some of these false teachers are shepherds. And some of the lessons they teach are not of Christ.

Listen again to what Jeremiah says about false shepherds, “Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture. . .You have scattered my sheep and driven them away. You have not cared for them, but I will take care to punish your evil deeds.” How does a false shepherd mislead his flock? How does the flock become scattered? There are as many ways to mislead God's people as there are those who mislead. And as many ways for God's people to be scattered. One prominent method for misleading the flock is to fail to set an example of holiness. What's the saying? The fish rots from the head down. If the shepherd doesn't pursue holiness, why would the flock? Another method to mislead God's people is to preach and teach the Zeitgeist; that is, to ignore the Holy Spirit of God and proclaim the Spirit of the Age. Fail to preach and teach Scripture. Focus on politics or pop-psychology or whatever secular cause is trending right now. Perhaps the most common trap for the shepherd is set by a perverse understanding of his own job description – become aloof, distant, detached from the flock; lord authority over the flock like a weapon, seek privilege and prestige, look out for opportunities to climb the ecclesial ladder; ignore the lost and stolen. The flock scatters when the shepherd becomes a wolf.

Thanks be to God that our Shepherd is the Good Shepherd, Christ Jesus! Popes, cardinals, bishops, priests, deacons, and religious will fail us. We've known this most vividly since 2002. Those appointed our shepherds are men and women – fragile, wounded, subject to temptation and familiar with sin – are no different now than they were 100 years ago, 500 years ago, 2,000 years ago. Men and women fail us. Mothers and fathers, pastors and teachers, popes and politicians. But Christ and his Bride, the Church, cannot fail us. The Good News cannot fail us. The cross and the resurrection cannot fail us. Another scandal involving a cardinal. Another priest arrested. A deacon credibly accused. And Christ stands untouched. Christ stands unshaken; he stands with us, teaching us the truth. And that truth is that God the Father freely offers His infinite mercy to all repentant sinners. Christ made this universal offer on the cross with his body and his blood. No evil shepherd can change that. Do not be misled by scandal – “In Christ Jesus you who once were far off have become near by the blood of Christ. . .He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.”

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Making idols of things

15^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic/OLR

When I received my letter of admission into the Dominican novitiate back in Feb of 1999, I rejoiced. . .and then I panicked. I was 34yo at the time, and I had most of what most 34yo men had: lots of stuff – suits for work, furniture for a house, a house, a car, about 300 CD's, kitchen equipment, a desktop computer, and boxes and boxes of junk that seem to travel around with me wherever I go. The letter from the Order made it clear that my room in the novitiate was small, very small, and that I was to bring the absolute minimum with me. I got rid of everything but the computer, some pants, a couple of dress shirts, and a two pairs of shoes. My room was a 10x12ft cell in a renovated Incarnate Word sisters' convent. Turns out: I'd brought too much! Since I joined the Order 19yrs ago, I've moved six times; lived in ten different priories in five provinces of the Order. The longest I've been in one house is six years – right here at St Dominic's. Our Lord knows what we often forget: the things of this world can weigh us down, keep us paralyzed, and eventually suffocate us. To do the work we've vowed to do, we must be truly free, unattached from the world and wholly, completely attached to him.

Way back in the 13^th century there was a heated debate between the two begging Orders – the Franciscans and the Dominicans. Both Orders required their friars to take live out the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Early on in the history of the Order, the Dominicans friars realized the necessity of owning property in order to survive. We adopted a communal property notion of poverty – we own nothing individually but the community owns what is necessary to carry out our mission. The Franciscans – as they are wont – went to the extreme, claiming that poverty must be understood as destitution and that this kind of poverty was necessary for salvation! So radical was this definition of poverty that the Franciscans split into two groups and some members of the more extreme group were declared heretics in the 14^th century.* The point of this brief history lesson is this: detachment from things is not about not owning and using the things we need; it's about knowing the difference between owning and using things and allowing those things to own and use us. Our Lord's instructions to his disciples are meant to free them from the necessities of owning and using things that they do not need.

 

We could call this view of poverty “simplicity” – live simply, humbly, detached from luxury and excess, owning and using nothing more than you absolutely need to do your work in Christ. But there's a danger here, one the Enemy recognizes and exploits. If simplicity is used as a means to an end, all is well. However, if simplicity becomes the end, simplicity for simplicity's sake, then you end up with a new attachment, new idol to worship. An example, how many of you here recycle? Recycling is a good thing. It's a good means to a good end. But if recycling becomes for you a Sign of Righteousness, a Badge of Goodness and Purity then you've elevated it to an idol. IOW, if recycling (or going to the gym or driving a Prius or wearing a veil at Mass) become your sole touchstone for being holy, then you've attached yourself to a creature, a created thing. There's nothing wrong with any of these activities in themselves. The question is: do you use them, or do they use you? Jesus wants his disciples – and us – to know how the world tempts us to attachment, tempts us to entangle ourselves in the things of the world to create little gods that we think we can control. Thus his admonition to “take nothing for the journey but a walking stick – no food, no sack, no money in their belts.”

What we are made and remade in Christ to be and do is bear witness to the mercy of God to sinners. Whatever we need to accomplish this singular task is good and holy. But the things we need are means not ends. Our end is eternal life with the Father. Every single thing in our lives must be measured against that end. Christ frees to us to complete his work. And we cannot do his work if we are consumed with tending to the needs of our things.

*This is a ridiculously truncated history, of course.

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Till He come to rain down justice

St. Benedict

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Church, NOLA

The prophet Hosea prophesies to a nation in chaos. The northern kingdom of Israel has become prosperous and corrupt. Ruled by a succession of six Assyrian puppet-kings in just 26 years, the people have long since forgotten their duty to God. And b/c they have forgotten who and what they are, God will allow the Assyrian Empire to crush them. Hosea prophesies, “Their heart is false, now they pay for their guilt; God shall break down their altars and destroy their sacred pillars.” A people who lack gratitude, who lack a proper sense of religious duty have no use for altars or sacred pillars. What about a king to quell the chaos? Will the Lord send a king to ensure their safety? Hosea says, “Since they do not fear the Lord, what can the king do for them?” A king is only as good as the people's faith in God. No kingdom can replace the covenant. No king can replace the Lord. When a nation suffers the consequences of its collective sin, its failure to honor God, “it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain down justice upon you.” 

 

Whatever measure of peace and prosperity we enjoy now or later we must see as gifts from God and God alone. Of course, there are natural mechanisms that work out a good national economy or ensure the end of wars and violence. But it is the Spirit of God that moves the hearts of men and women to seek out the common good and work toward just ends. It is God who pours out His enduring Love and seduces us to do better, to be better when we are tempted with self-serving means and unjust ends. When we receive His love, we are better, we do better and b/c we are so blessed, He deserves our gratitude. Not b/c He needs us to be thankful but b/c being thankful only increases our humility, making it possible for us to receive more and more of His good graces. A people who have turned their backs on God cannot make wise decisions, nor can they prosper, nor can they long survive as a people under His care. No politician or Supreme Court Justice or Pope can save a nation that refuses to acknowledge the source of its material and spiritual wealth. The disastrous consequences of this refusal aren't a punishment from God on the people; it's God allowing these people to be who they want to be: a tribe cut off from His blessings, a nation grown sick with ingratitude. 

 

When a nation suffers the consequences of its collective sin, its failure to honor God, Hosea tells us that “it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain down justice upon you.”

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