Repent & Hold Fast to the Faith

29^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

OLR, NOLA

I've been amazed these last few months at how directly the Sunday Mass readings have addressed the on-going crisis in the Church. It seems that every Sunday we are being given the Word of God as a way of seeing into the diseases that afflict the Body of Christ. Though this is surprising, it really shouldn't be. Scripture is the faithful record of how God's people have struggled through the most basic problems that all of us confront daily. Life, death, illness, accident, natural disaster, loss of faith, betrayal, commitment, war, marriage, children, poverty and riches. Three-thousand years ago or just yesterday, men, women, and children are fundamentally the same. We want to live, thrive, love, and see our families and friends do the same. Our sins haven't changed much either. How we choose against God's will and our own redeemed human nature isn't all that different. That some seek rank and power through corruption and deceit is not new. That others abuse their power and wealth for personal gain isn't new. That a few in the Church live day-to-day to corrupt, undermine, and eventually destroy the Body of Christ isn't new. What is new – what is always new – is the Good News of the Father's mercy to sinners – the reality of forgiveness through the repentance of sin.

More times than I can count I've been asked how ordinary Catholics can hang on to their faith while the Church implodes around them. The author of Hebrews gives us an answer: hold fast to your profession of faith b/c you have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. In other words, because Christ Jesus now sits at the right hand of the Father, having risen from the grave and ascended to heaven, grip and hold tight to your trust in the Father's promises. No doubt this is an act of courage! It might even be seen as an act of foolishness. But if it is foolishness to believe firmly in all that the Father has promised, then count me among the fools. Christ Jesus has entered the heavenly temple and there he intercedes for us with the Father. So, with confidence, we can approach the throne of grace and receive His mercy to help us endure the temptation to despair. Nothing done here on Earth can shake Christ's love for us. If we are to follow him, our love must be unshakable, unbroken, and always freely given in service to those who need Christ's love.

The Sons of Zebedee, James and John, show us how NOT to seek to serve the Lord. They ask Jesus for a favored place in the Kingdom. They want recognition. They want power and influence. Wealth and rank. Believing Christ's kingdom to be a worldly kingdom, a kingdom of property, money, slaves, and armies, the Sons of Zebedee see their relationship with the Lord as a golden opportunity to cash in. Despite everything the Lord has said up to this point, despite his persistent teaching about having a faith like a little child, despite his encounter with the rich young man, these two still think that Christ has come to establish a political kingdom in Israel. Jesus sets them straight, again: “. . .whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.” We don't know how James and John reacted to this teaching. Did they take it seriously? Did they wink at Jesus and says, “Sure, Jesus, sure. We hear you.” If they didn't believe his words, maybe they believed his actions. He goes willingly to the cross and dies for their sins. That's what it means to be a slave of all – to die a slave's death so that others might live.

How do we do that in our current mess? For the sake of your souls, I urge you to turn your anger, disappointment, despair, and disgust toward holy service. The Devil wants you to dwell on the sins of cardinals, bishops, priests, and deacons. He wants you to fill yourself with righteousness indignation. And then, he wants you to stew in those passions until you are ready to say “Enough!” and walk away from the faith forever. What he doesn't want you to do is to turn your legitimate anger and disgust toward repairing the Church. He doesn't want you looking for ways in your parish to empower your prayer life. He doesn't want you going out of your way to offer others the love of Christ they need. And the absolute last thing the Devil wants is for us to spend some time alone with God looking carefully at our own sin and coming to repentance and forgiveness. With our faith firmly in hand, gripped tightly and holding on, we can be absolutely confident that this crisis has a resolution: repent and believe the Gospel! Only then can we as members of the Body of Christ begin to love as we ought and bring about the justice so many need.

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How to Inherit Eternal Life

28^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

Lay Carmelites, MCA

What starts out sounding like a step-by-step multiple ingredient recipe for “getting saved” ends up being a two-step dance between the human person and God. The rich young man asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus gives him the answer he's expecting. Follow the Law. A good Jewish answer. The young man says, “Check. Done that.” Jesus says that he must do more. Sell everything you possess. Give the money to the poor. Then follow me. The young man walks away from this multi-step process b/c he's rich. He possesses a lot of stuff. Jesus amazes his disciples when he tells them that rich people will have a difficult time entering the kingdom of God. Why? Why is it difficult for the rich to inherit the kingdom? Jesus doesn't say. Nonetheless, the disciples are exceedingly astonished by this revelation and wonder aloud who then can be saved. Jesus introduces the two-step dance of salvation. Step One: nothing we can do can save us. Step Two: only God Himself can bring us to heaven. Like the young man, we expect there to be a process to salvation, a method or a procedure. Some sort of instructions or script for us to follow. But God alone saves us. And that's been the plan all along.

God offers us His mercy. And we receive Him as grace. This reception of God's mercy as grace is salvific and sanctifying. It saves and makes holy all who receive it. So, the question the young man should've asked is: how do I receive the inheritance of eternal life? Jesus actually answers this question. Remove from yourself – your body and soul – all attachments that prevent you from seeing and hearing the Word of God spoken to you through the Law and the prophets, and through the Word Made Flesh. Attachments to the things of this world interfere with our reception of God's mercy. Salvation is not about “following a procedure” to get the results we want. That's impossible for us. What is possible for us – with God's grace – is to detach ourselves from anything and anyone that prevents us from fully receiving God's mercy for our sin. He has willed from the moment of creation that we return to Him and that we return to Him freely in love. Therefore, to love anything or anyone above God is to attach ourselves to the things of this world. Love God first, then everything and everyone you love becomes a source of grace.

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Cultural Catholicism is Dead. Good.

The current crisis in the Church proves that Cultural Catholicism is dead. Good. About time.

What sustained the Church – at least in the U.S. – was the cultural habit of “being a Catholic.” Whatever that means in the end, “being Catholic” was simply a matter of dropping into the scripted practices and attitudes of what one's community required in order to be considered a member. No sacrifice required. No surrender. No commitment. And we were told over and over again that we could be good Catholics while dissenting from the fundamentals of the faith. Contraception. Abortion. Same-sex “marriage,” the fatherhood of God Himself.

The rot that set in and metastasized post-VC2 is the result of our Church leaders (clergy and lay theologians) abandoning the apostolic faith in favor of a modernist view of the human person and God that leaves us bereft of any transcendental hope. The human person is a near-infinitely malleable creature defined wholly by the will of individual (Nietzsche), and God is a Cosmic Therapist who affirms us in our choices and rewards us for being “true to ourselves” (Moralistic Therapeutic Deism).

According to this view, we are merely “thinking animals,” looking for acceptance and community. To be accepting and communal is what it means to be pastoral. We are forbidden – by the Modernist Orthodoxy – to question personal choices, evaluate behavior according to objective standards, or in any way note that rational creatures have a designed end in God that requires repentance. What matters is an “open mind” and an “accepting heart” for whatever choices we make.

This is nothing more than an ego-stroking ideology that makes us feel good about our own sin, and inoculates us against the necessity of repentance and the reality of Divine Mercy.

This is NOT the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Nor is it the apostolic faith handed on to the Church.

Cultural Catholicism has made us complacent and weak. It has led us to compromise, accommodate, and otherwise adopt the standards of the Age, and we are no longer able to evangelize the world from a position of true humility or love. Without an objective, transcendental referent the Church is nothing more than a charitable relief organization in ecclesiastical drag.

The Son became Man and died on the Cross so that he might reveal in word and deed how God the Father loves us. Not to affirm us in our choices but to point us to the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Our true home is the Beatific Vision. And for this reason, God loves us to change us.

The death of Cultural Catholicism is a gift straight from the Holy Spirit!

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