WWJD. . .with my October calendar?

Fr. Philip Neri, OP stares at his calendar for October and is reminded of this meme:

Got tables?
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Who dares to ration Love?

24th Week OT (W)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Paul writes to the Corinthians, “Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts. But I shall show you a still more excellent way.” Seeking out and finding “the greatest spiritual gifts” is a good way to holiness but not the best way, so he intends to reveal to them and to us “a still more excellent way” to holiness. One question: in the pursuit of holiness, what could be better, more excellent than striving eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts? How about striving for these gift, obtaining them, and then using them for the benefit of others? That's the context of this chapter of 1st Corinthians: using our individual spiritual gifts in the Body of Christ for the benefit of the Church and the whole world. But Paul wants to make it absolutely clear to them and to us that the use of our spiritual gifts is largely worthless unless we use them along with a vital virtue, one fundamental habit that transforms an otherwise natural gift into a supernatural force. That vital virtue, that one fundamental habit is, of course, Love; that is, God Himself as He gives Himself to each one of us so that we might be perfect as He is perfect. The most excellent way to holiness is love. 

Paul makes this point by setting up several contrasts. Without love, human and angelic voices are simply resounding gongs and clashing cymbals. Without love, the gift of prophecy; an understanding of the mysteries; and all the knowledge there is to know are all worthless gifts. Without love, faith enough to shift a mountain is useless; it's nothing. He writes, “If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.” We gain nothing from our spiritual gifts if we fail to use them with love. We do not progress toward perfect holiness unless we call upon Love Himself to transform our work into His Work. Paul assures us, “Love never fails.” Love cannot fail. And when we pursue the greatest spiritual gifts, obtain them, and use them in love, we cannot fail. Why? Because we become love-like, Christ-like: patient, kind, humble, selfless, even-tempered, forgiving, and rejoicers in the truth. We bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, and endure all things because it is strength of the whole Body that sustains us; it is God Himself who permeates our work for His glory, and fortifies our vision of holiness and our resolve to achieve perfection. 

In what we might call "The Parable of the Spoiled Brats," Jesus gives us an insight into why we might fail to love as we ought, why we might be failing to grow in holiness. He compares his own generation to children in the street who refuse to play b/c no one will play by their preferred rules. Jesus and John the Baptist play by the Father's rules and the spoiled brats—the Pharisees, the scribes, many of the common people—refuse to accept the Good News of His mercy b/c they don't like the rules of the game. There is only one rule: Love. Love God, love self, love neighbor, and in doing so, you will grow in love and holiness. But love cannot be done begrudgingly, or with pre-conditions, or as a reward, or a wage, or a loan; love cannot be tit-for-tat—love me first, then I'll love you. God is the source and summit of the Love. We are freely gifted with His Love. Who would dare to ration it out like a spoiled brat and then expect His spiritual gifts to freely flow? Jesus says, “. . .wisdom is vindicated by all her children.” God's wisdom is revealed to those to play by His single, universal rule. “For we know imperfectly and we prophesy imperfectly, but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away.” 

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Know his truth, accept his authority

24th Week OT (M)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

 Authority. It has become one of the most maligned words in our Catholic vocabulary since the Council ended in 1965. Some Catholics, believing (falsely) that the Council Fathers revolutionized the Church into a participatory democracy, have grown increasingly disappointed that the reforms of the Council have failed to materialize. The villains in this alleged plot to thwart the will of the Council are branded with various unflattering labels. Regardless of the label, the central complaint of the disappointed is always the same, “The Roman hierarchy will not surrender its authority over the Church.” Setting aside the absurd idea that the Council Fathers ever intended to re-establish the Church as a democracy, the real problem for these Catholics seems to be the very notion of authority itself. The exercise of authority implies that the truth can be known. That can be dispute settled or a question answered decisively. Since Christ himself is the Way, the Truth, and the Life for the world, he is rightly recognized one possessing auctoritas; that is, the decisive weight of authority. By his word alone, we are healed. 

 The centurion in today's gospel immediately recognizes Jesus' authority over disease and disability. Drawing a comparison btw his own authority as a military commander and Jesus' authority as the Son of God, the centurion declares his faith in Jesus' ability to command that his servant be healed. Not only is he acknowledging Jesus' authority to heal, he's also confessing that he believes that Jesus can heal his servant w/o seeing him or touching him: “. . .but say the word and let my servant be healed.” Jesus' response to the man's faith is telling. He is amazed, and says to the gathered crowd, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” While those who should be flocking to Jesus—the priests, the scribes, all the people of the Covenant—instead question, argue, and ridicule him, here is a Roman solider, a pagan invader, and occupier among God's own people who sees and hears the truth that Christ is sent to reveal. The centurion sees in Christ the truth of his divine mission, the truth of his purpose, and so he accepts the authority that this truth wields in the man Jesus. There is no way to distinguish or separate Christ's truth from his authority. If we accept the truth that Jesus is the Christ, then we also accept his authority as our Lord. Would he be amazed at our faith, our obedience? 

After Jesus expresses his amazement at the centurion's faith, the messengers sent to intercept Jesus return to the soldier’s home. There they find that the man's servant has been healed. We are that once-sick and now-healed servant. With the healing word of Christ spoken over our afflictions, our divisions, our contentions, we are healed from the distance of heaven and by this offering at the altar of the cross. Everything we do and say here this evening—our prayers, our gestures; our offer of sacrifice, everything—is worthless w/o the authority of Christ's healing word to make it worthy. We participate—take part in—our own healing by losing ourselves in this sacrifice, by surrendering all that we fear most to lose: pride, control, esteem, a stubborn will; our disordered passions, our disabling vices. Christ will not heal the unwilling, nor can he heal the unbelieving. Like the centurion who confesses the truth and submits himself to the authority of Christ, we too must welcome into our households, into our lives, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and proclaim that Christ is Lord of all. By his word alone, we may be healed. 

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Deny Self. . .Follow Christ!

24th Sunday OT
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Audio file

Jesus tells the disciples his fate: rejection, death, resurrection. Peter becomes distraught at this news and rebukes his Master. Does Peter lack faith? Is he lacking in reason? Surely, we can say that even as he rebukes Jesus, Peter is a rational believer. He believes that Jesus is the promised Christ. After hearing Jesus describe his fate at the hands of his enemies, Peters reasons that it would be better for Jesus not to go to Jerusalem. And why wouldn't he make this argument?! Peter loves Jesus, and does not want to see him killed. If all this is true, then why does Jesus rebuke Peter, naming him “Satan”? Peter is not listening; he's hearing, but he is not listening. Peter's love fails him in a crucial way: he has carved his fidelity to Jesus into an idol. Out of his faith, he has carved an idol of Christ that cannot do what Christ came to do. Horrified at the prospect of his seeing his faith upended, Peter rushes to prop up his idol, thinking as men do and not as God does. Jesus teaches Peter and the other disciples how to move from fidelity to Christ to fidelity with Christ: deny yourself. Lest we betray our Lord's mission, we must be faithful along with him, faithful with his divine purpose rather than merely faithful to him as a praiseworthy idol of our love. 

Jesus rightly accuses Peter of thinking as men do and not as God does. Peter can be forgiven this lapse b/c he is a man and not God. However, his misunderstanding of Christ's mission is still worthy of a rebuke b/c he has—right in front of him—God's final revelation to humankind: Jesus himself. Jesus himself reveals to the disciples the Father's plan for our salvation—rejection, death, resurrection. But Peter still finds the gumption to chastise his Master! Peter is thinking like any friend would, like any loyal student would. You cannot go to Jerusalem to die! Jesus turns on him and calls him “Satan”! Betrayer, Schemer, Tempter. Jesus knows that Peter loves him, but the disciple's rebuke is a temptation for Jesus, a temptation for him to abandon his divine mission out of love for his friends. As the final revelation of God, Jesus knows that he must sacrifice the love of his friends in order to bring about the salvation of the whole world through sacrificial love on the Cross. Peter is a faithful friend to Christ, but he is not yet a faithful apostle with Christ's mission. Jesus' rebuke is meant to move Peter from selfishness to self-denial. He must be prepared to lose Christ for the sake of the world. 

So, where are we going with all this? Simply put: we cannot cling to Christ as Master and friend if we are to be his missionaries to the world. Jesus cannot be an idol of love for us to worship from a distance—a sentimental painting, a plaster statue, a vague metaphysical concept, or ethical imperative. Making idols of the gods is one way that we humans use to tame and control the gods. We carve them and paint them. We house them in their temples. Set them just right on their pedestals. We offer sacrifices—candles, flowers, money. They don't see or hear; they don't breath. They never make demands. Never rebuke or punish. They're always there to tell us what we want to hear. To reflect perfectly our own mirrored image, our own desires. But they always disappoint. Why? Because they are dead. Lifeless objects upon which we foist all our disordered passions, raw emotions, and hopeless expectations. Idols have no mission, no purpose; there is nothing in them but what we want to be in them. Peter loves Jesus. And Jesus loves Peter. But Peter's love is idolatrous. He loves Jesus for himself alone and not for divine purpose. This is why Jesus says, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” 

Deny yourself. Take up your cross. And follow Christ. What must I deny? Where is my cross? And how exactly do I follow Christ? To deny oneself is to lose oneself with Christ and his mission. If I am truly lost in Christ, then there can be no “I” who is faithful to Christ. I become Christ, and wholly lost in him, I am faithful with Christ rather than to Christ. Being a finite creature, the degree to which I am lost in Christ is measured by my obedience, my eagerness to listen to him, and seek his direction. Like Isaiah, I must pray for my ears to be opened. The more I shed Faith as a thing to possess, an idol to worship, and embrace being faithful with Christ, the more I listen, think, and act with the mind of Christ. The clarity of obedience rings true in a soul lost in faith with Christ. The cross I bear is the one thing most difficult for me to lose, the one thing I cling to most stubbornly. Jesus says, “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.” Perhaps my cross—your cross—is the life we live for Self. Christ died for others, for us. He died so that we might live and live eternally. Are you prepared to die for others in Christ's name? 

Surely, this is the truest test of being faithful with Christ. What else can he mean by “follow me” than “follow me to the cross and die a sacrificial death for others”? “Follow me” cannot mean “think of me fondly” or “direct prayerful words toward” or “hang a picture of me and kiss it everyday.” There's nothing wrong with thinking fondly of Christ or praying to him or kissing his picture. That is, there's nothing wrong with any these if we also deny ourselves and carry our cross; if we also place ourselves wholly within his divine mission, lose ourselves in his purpose, and bear up under the one thing most difficult for us to surrender. The ever-present danger, the temptation that Peter voices, is that we make of our faith an idol. Christ becomes a star, a figure for distant admiration. We begin to treat him like we would treat Drew Brees or Tim Tebow. A celebrity, a two-dimensional poster boy for good works and tribal bumper stickers. Or a politician, forming a cult around a big personality or a catchy philosophy. Christ is not a star or a politician. Our faith is not a cult of personality. When we are with Christ on his mission we are sacrificial people, a nation of priests wholly given over to the goal of bringing the world into holiness, to giving the gift of creation back to its Creator. Christ died for us so that we might be holy. If we follow him, we too must die for the holiness of the world. 

 How do we begin to die in Christ? It starts small, small steps. James writes, “. . .faith of itself is dead, if it does not have works.” He also teaches us that good works done without the motivation of faith are empty. Here's a small test for you. While you are doing a good work, ask yourself, “Who would Christ say that I am?” Ask yourself, “Am I doing this good so that Christ may be better known?” To what degree are we willing to submerge the Self in doing good and lift up God for His greater glory? The Selfish man will die from lack of attention; he will be transformed into a true priest if he offers his work as a sacrifice for the mission of making this world holy. Deny yourself. Take up your cross. Follow Christ. Follow Christ all the way to Jerusalem and the Cross. To do anything less than this is make an idol of the faith. And like all idols, this one will fall when struck. The Good News is that none of us, not one of us, is charged to transform the world alone. We are a nation of priests, a holy people, the tribe of a loving God. We can do nothing good without Him. 

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New Deacons!

Congrats and Blessings on the Order's newest deacons! Ordained yesterday by 

Archbishop Robert J. Carlson, D.D. in St. Louis, MO 

 L to R: fra. Nick Monco, OP; Archbishop Carlson; fra. Augustine DeArmond, OP; 

fra. Thomas Schaefgen, OP

NB. The Rev. Br. Monco is a friar of the Central Dominican Province.  The Rev. Brs. DeArmond and Schaefgen are friars of the Southern Dominican Province.  Fra. DeArmond is a local boy.  His family lives in Springfield, LA just outside Ponchatoula, LA.  Fra. Schaefgen is from Memphis and a graduate of Tulane Univ.  Both the SDP friars were novices when I lived in the senior community in Irving, TX.  

They're all grown up!  (sniffsniff)

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Saber rattling in the Persian Gulf

Time for some serious prayer, folks!

Things are getting sticky. . .errr. . .stickier in the Middle East, and we have the Apologizer-in-Chief in the White House, and the one who lost to him in the State Dept.

Armada of British/US/Saudi ships amassing near the Strait of Hormuz in anticipation of an Israel-Iran war. 

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3 yrs in Rome not a waste

Finally!  I'm going to get to put those three years in Rome to good use. . .

. . .teaching Intro to Modern Philosophy at Notre Dame Seminary in the spring.

And yes, I'm going to sneak in a bit of philosophy of science too.  Sssshhhhhhh. . .
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Condoms not food?

Her response, "That's right.  There's too many of you and you might use up the resources I need for my vac-cay on the Riveria."

from:  Catholic Memes
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Corded, wooden, 20 decade rosary???

[NB.  Thank you all for the suggestions.  I believe I've found my replacement rosary.]

Snagged my habit rosary on my desk and broke the cord!  It's reparable and being repaired, but a backup rosary would be prudent. . .

Anyone know where (online) I can get a 20 decade corded olive wood rosary?

I've seen places where custom made rosaries are available, but they're too expensive ($120 +).

Any suggestions?

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Mother of Sorrows: she knows the Way

Our Lady of Sorrows
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

The day after we exalt the Holy Cross—that Roman device for torture and death—we remember Mary's sorrow. She stands at the foot of the cross while her only son bleeds away his life, and Simeon's prophecy made many years earlier is fulfilled, “. . .you yourself a sword will pierce. . .” The image of Mary's heart pierced with a sword is the image of a mother's grief, the image of any mother's sorrow at the suffering of her child. Simeon's prophecy—delivered in the temple when Jesus was just a boy—must have seemed strange to Mary at the time. Even stranger is the reason he gives for her sorrow. Your heart will be pierced, Mary, “so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” She must've wondered, “How can my grief reveal what's in the hearts of others?” Jesus answers this question from the cross when he says to his mother about the beloved disciple, “Woman, behold, your son.” And to his disciple, “Behold, your mother.” The sword that pierces Mary's heart is the sin of the world, the rejection of her son and his sacrifice on the altar of the cross. Her grief is a mother's grief for the suffering of all her children. 

The Blessed Mother has long served as a template for the Church in the world; that is, when we hear her say to Gabriel, “May it be done to me according to your word;” when we witness the strength of her resolve in the face of opposition to her son's mission; when we see her motherly devotion at the foot of the cross; and the honors given to her by the Father, we see how the Church best lives and works in the world. Mary is more than just a model for the Church. She gave birth to the human body of the Christ 2,000 yrs ago, and the Church is his human body 2,000 yrs later. Mary is the mother of the Christ and his Church. She is my mother and yours. While she mourns the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross, she also mourns the sins of his disciples; she mourns for him and his Church as we are persecuted, ridiculed, and rejected; and she mourns for those who will not see, will not hear his Father's offer of mercy. Our Lady of Sorrows could well be called Our Lady of Compassion b/c her pierced heart loves all those who have separated themselves from God and those who have received His mercy and yet remain disobedient. Her compassion shows us our sin, shows us where we have strayed from the faithful way. 

If Mary is the Mother of the Church and our model for faithful service, then the Church too must be compassionate toward those who have separated themselves from God. She must also show compassion for those of us who have been adopted into God's family and yet remain disobedient still. We could see this necessary compassion as a weakness, an indulgence of an entitled child's willfulness. But we must remember that the Via Dolorosa, the sorrowful way, is not an easy path for most of us. Jesus is unrelenting in warning those who would follow after him that the powers of this world would stop at nothing to divert, distract, and destroy our progress along the way. In fact, by the world's standards, Jesus is a total failure. He was executed as a criminal, a heretic. And now those who follow him live as signs of an absurd contradiction: they stand for the possibility of redemption from sin and against the inevitable victory of darkness. Like our Mother, the Church's heart is pierced with compassion and mercy so that she might be a living sign, a sacrament of salvation, for all those who suffer, all those who remain in sin. Ask Our Lady of Sorrows to reveal what's in your heart. Ask her to show you the way to the altar of the cross. She's been there. . .many times. She knows the Way. 

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Coffee Cup Browsing

Pay close attention to para. 10. . .it reveals why B.O. threw the American video-maker under the terrorist bus and why the media have contorted themselves to distract the public with an Attack Romney Sideshow.

Fr. Dismas Sayre, OP achieves apotheosis as the first Religious Cyborg. Congrats.

A brief review of Dinesh D’Souza’s, 2016: Obama’s America.  I've not seen the movie, but I basically agree with Reno's assessment of B.O.'s ideological commitments.

. . .but how do you know we're not really just a computer simulation?  This used to be an undergrad bull session question.  Now?  Not so much.

Incite hatred of Christians:  Free speech.  Incite hatred of Muslims: Hate speech.  Why?  Incited Christians don't blow the haters to smithereens.

Just so we're clear:  those embassy attacks were planned long before that goofy anti-Islam Youtube vid appeared.

Archbishop Gomez cleans house in L.A. . .well, it's a start.
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Is there a seraph serpent in your life?

Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

At the center of our faith, at the root of the Church stands an absurdity: the Cross. Used for centuries by the Romans to execute the scum of the Empire, the cross is an instrument of suffering and death. That we exalt such a bloody tool of oppression is peculiar. But what makes the cross truly absurd for us is that it is not only a gruesome torture device but it is also our only means of salvation. Much like a scalpel cuts the flesh to remove a tumor and exacts a price in blood to heal the patient, the Cross too exacts its price to save the sinner. For us, for all of God's creatures, that price was paid in full by the blood of Christ. We are healed free of charge, and so we gather this evening to honor the cross of our salvation and to give God thanks for His abundant mercy. Our Lord says, “. . .just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” We believe. And we lift him up, trusting in his promise of life eternal! 

God's people begin to gripe and moan in the desert, "Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!” They've forgotten their lives in slavery under Pharaoh and they've forgotten that the Lord rescued them. He sends serpents among them. Many are bitten and many die. They repent and Moses intervenes on their behalf. God offers them healing through an image of the very thing He used to punish them: the serpent. When those who are bitten look at the image of the serpent, they are healed. Thus is set in the minds of God's people the memory that an instrument of punishment can also be a tool for redemption. And thus are we shown that pain, suffering, and death—so obviously useless to the world—can be a way back to God if we travel The Way with repentance in faith. We have been rescued by Christ from slavery to sin. And the way across the desert to perfection is long, hard, and dry; often w/o much nourishment; without much shelter; or a chance to rest. And we are all prone to some whining, a little “woe is me.” And when our complaining gets to be too shrill or too a bit too self-pitying, we might find the occasional seraph serpent waiting for us, ready to bite. A reminder that so long as we have something, anything to lose, we have yet to surrender wholly to God. 

Paul's magnificent hymn on the Incarnation in his letter to the Philippians is a catalog of all that the Son of God surrendered for us so that we might free of sin: “He emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, . . .he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.” If God can love us so fully, so completely that He sends His only Son to pay the price for our salvation; and if His Son can love us so fully, so completely that he willingly empties himself out, makes himself obedient to the laws of death and dying, and then dies on the cross for us, then can we—the sole beneficiaries of his death—lay claim to anything as our own, most especially our very lives? We belong to Christ as his brothers and sisters and as his servants. Everything is his and his alone. If there is a seraph serpent in your life, a biting temptation, or poisonous sin waiting to strike you down, this might be b/c you have failed to enjoy the absurdity of the cross and cling still to something or someone who belongs to Christ. Empty yourselves in surrender so that Christ might fill you with his own thanksgiving. On this most absurd of feasts, look upon the cross and give God thanks for your salvation! 

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Lift High the Cross (A Sunday Homily)

[A Sunday homily for the Exaltation of the Holy Cross from 2008. . .this one has never been preached.  Our Sunday Masses in Rome were celebrated in Italian, so I never presided at one or preached at one.]

Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
Convento SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

Go out, come back. Leave and return. Go out, come back. Exit and enter. Egress, ingress. Exitus, reditus. We are made, and we return to our Maker. How? The Cross. The cross of Christ Crucified is the via media, the middle way from God and the middle way back to God. From God: creation. Back to God: re-creation. Being made and lost, we cannot return to God without God. He set in history—human events, the human story—the means for our return to Him: Christ on the Cross, crucified as one of us, fully human and fully divine—a bridge from here to there. Jesus says to Nicodemus: “No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.” And Paul writes: “Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, […] emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, […] he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.” Now, we should hear the familiar refrain of our salvation: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” And so we are saved from the eternal return to nothing from nothing; we are made perfect as our Father is perfect; “being merciful, [He] forgave [our] sin and destroyed [us] not.” 

We say: amen. Or do we? If we accept this gift, we say: amen. And then what? Carry on as before? Do we as please? Live in constant regret that we killed God? Try to make a sacrifice worthy of the gift? The poet, Christian Wiman, in a poem titled, “Hard Night,” asks the same question this way: “What words or harder gift/does the light require of me/carving from the dark/this difficult tree?” What words or gifts does the Cross require of us? Paul writes that the coming of the Christ and his obedient death on the Cross, moved God to exalt His Son and to “bestow on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend […] and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord…” No other words. Let your tongue confess. There is no harder gift to give than the gift given on the Cross. Bow your knees at his name. And then what? It’s not so certain, is it? Once we have confessed the Lordship of the Christ and bent our knees to his rule, what we do next is no certain thing. With the Gift of the Cross in hand, we might worship it, take it around in procession, put it to work for our health and wealth; we might be embarrassed by its necessity or feel imposed upon to react with faint gratitude. Have you ever thought that there had to be a better way? Another way to achieve your eternal life? Something less bloody, something not quite so gruesome? Have you ever been angry with Pilate, the Jewish leadership, the mob that shouted, “Crucify him!”? Perhaps praying before a crucifix, you felt a dangerous rise of bile and wanted nothing more to do with the cruelty of a god who needs blood to love? Or perhaps you felt a dark fear that once we settled in your heart the gift of a bloody sacrifice, you would never be the same again? 

Yet another poet, John Ashbery, writes, “…all was certain on the Via Negativa/except the certainty of return, return/to the approximate.” If we are afraid of the Cross, this is what we fear most: to walk the via media of Christ’s crucifixion means accepting the inevitably of joining him on the Cross. Peter, in a fit of fear and false love, denied the inevitability of Christ’s defeat and, in turn, pushed against the necessity of his own crucifixion. Jesus, knowing the certainty of his Father’s Via Negativa, pushed back, “Get behind me, Satan!” Even then, he was empty, obedient to death, and ready to die on the Cross. Perhaps we show our deepest gratitude to Christ by emptying ourselves, being obedient to death, and preparing ourselves to die in his name. Perhaps. But what does this mean for tomorrow? For today? Sitting in a room, cases packed, shoes neatly tied, waiting for martyrdom? Nothing so quietistic as all that! Paul says that we should bend our knees and confess Jesus as Lord. Walking this path of worshipful praise cannot be good exercise if we fail to do what Christ himself did: feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick. Add to this preach the Good News of God’s mercy and teach what Christ himself taught and we have beginning for our gratitude, just the barest start to what must be a life given over wholly to the path of righteousness. That’s a lot to fear. Especially when you know that the one you used to be will not be found again. At most you might think to “the return to the approximate.” But why? 

Look at Moses and God’s people in the desert. “With their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses…” Not only are we made and made to return to our Maker, but we are rescued from death by the death of Christ on the Cross and expected then to prepare ourselves for following him to the Cross, obedient to death, bending the knee, confessing his name, and waiting, waiting, waiting for his return to us so we can return to Him. Has our patience worn out from this journey? Do we complain against God and His Church? Our desert is not getting smaller or cooler or less arid. Our days are no shorter. Our nights no brighter. Moses wanders and we follow. And our patience, already silk-thin, rubs even thinner, waiting on the fulfillment of the promise the Cross made in God’s name. While waiting, what do we do? Some of us persevere, walking the Way. Some of us withdraw to wait. Others walk off alone. Still others erect idols to new gods and find hope in different, alien promises. Some let the serpents bite and thrill in the poisonous moment before death. Perhaps most who were with us at first perish from hearts stiffened by apathy, what love they had exhausted by the tiresome demands of an obedience they never fully heard. Not all the seeds will fall on smooth, fertile earth. If those who walked away or surrendered or succumbed to attacks on the heart, if they are out there and not here with us, what hope do we have of going forward, of continuing on to our own crosses in the city’s trash heap? We exalt the Cross. And they are not lost. Never, finally, lost. Unless they choose not to be found. 

We exalt the Cross. Lifted high enough and waved around vigorously enough, even those lost will find it. Even those who, for now, do not want to be found, may see it and be healed, if they will. But they will not see what they must to be healed if those of us who claim to walk the Way do so shyly, timidly, quietly. The Way of Christ to the Cross is not a rice paper path that we must tip-toe across so as not to tear it. Or a shaky jungle bridge over a ravine that we must not sway for fear of falling. Or a bed of burning coals that we must hop across quickly so as to avoid blistering our feet. The Way of Christ to the Cross has been made smooth, straight, and downhill all the way but nonetheless dangerous for its ease. There’s still the jeering mob, the scourge, the spit and the garbage, and there’s still the three nails waiting at the end. But this is what we signed up for, right? It’s what we promised to do, to be. Our help is in the name of the Lord. Bend the knee. Confess his name. Do so loudly, proudly and do so while doing what Christ himself did. Otherwise, who will find us among the jeering crowd, the spitting mob; who will see the Cross if we fail to lift it high?

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"Sorry. . .people of America!"

At this moment. . .it is vitally important for Americans to remember that the terrorists who kill in the name of Islam do not represent every Muslim.   The loons of Westboro Baptist Church do not represent all Christians.  The LCWR does not represent all religious women in the U.S. nor do they speak for every Catholic.  Nor do the Occupiers represent 99% of Americans.

Every identifiable group--religious, racial, political, etc.--has its loose screws, its hot-heads, its fringe elements.   These outliers cannot be allowed to control our response to the group as a whole.

This isn't wimpy liberalism; it's simple rationality and charity. 

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Suffer well to be holy

23rd Week OT (W)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

We easily recognize Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. This is Luke's version, the version where the blessed are starkly contrasted with the cursed. “Blessed are you” vs. “Woe to you.” No serious follower of Christ hopes to be among the cursed, and no one lands in their company by accident or through ignorance. Jesus preaches his famous sermon from the mount—probably many times in many places—so that no one may later claim, “But Lord! I didn't know that I was suppose to be holy! I thought just being a nice guy was enough.” In logical terms, being nice is necessary but not sufficient when pursuing holiness. The Lord's invitation to each of us to begin a pilgrimage toward a holy life is given a more modern translation by the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council. From their document, Lumen gentium, we read, “Fortified by so many and such powerful means of salvation—[the sacraments],—all the faithful, whatever their condition or state, are called by the Lord, each in his own way, to that perfect holiness whereby the Father Himself is perfect”(11). Thus we are called; thus we are warned. 

Let's be clear in our own minds what it means to be holy. Holiness is not about piety; that is, you can behave piously and remain comfortably among the accursed. Who was it that described the Pharisees, in all their pious finery, as “white-washed tombs”? Nor is being holy about morality; that is, you can successfully avoid every immoral thought, word, and deed that tempts you and still remain entrenched among the accursed. Does Jesus ever bless a good moral act in his sermon on blessedness? Nor is being holy about assenting to the truth of dogma or doctrine; that is, you can memorize the Catechism and the Bible, recite them both w/o error in front of the Holy Father, swear you believe every word, and still find yourself playing among the accursed. Even the Devil can quote scripture. Having said all that, being pious, morally good, and orthodox are all necessary to growing in holiness but none of them (nor all of them together) is what it means to be holy. Holiness (blessedness) is principally about how we choose to suffer—that is, how we choose to understand and act on the pain and deprivation we experience while separated from our Father. Who does Jesus say is blessed? The poor, the hungry, those who mourn, and those who suffer for the sake of his Name. 

And why are these folks blessed? What's so holy about being poor, hungry, mournful, and persecuted? There's nothing especially holy about any of these conditions as such. What's special about being poor, hungry, etc. is that each of these states in life offers the ones who endure them the chance to see beyond their earthly limitations and rely completely on the loving-care of God. They are given a clearer vision of what it means to be humble before the Lord than those who might rely on their wealth and good name for comfort. The Council Fathers note that we are all called to holiness regardless of our state in life or the condition of our lives. Any one of us might choose to suffer poorly and attach ourselves to the bottle, the casino, the needle, or some other false god. Or we might choose to avoid pain and deprivation by causing others pain and depriving them of their due. True holiness entails genuine piety, righteous words and deeds, and right belief about the faith. But the next step beyond these necessities is choosing to throw ourselves completely and w/o hesitation on the loving-care of God. We call this abandonment to divine providence humility. The truly humble are already among the blessed. 

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Diagnosing our fears

Besides sweating away several gallons of fluid during the Issac power outage, I spent some time re-reading William Barrett's Irrational Man.  

May I suggest that faithful Catholics do the same?  (At least parts one and two)

Why?

Barrett traces the roots of the West's existential crisis and identifies nihilism* as the source of our deepest personal and cultural anxieties.  B.O.'s 2008 campaign directly addressed these anxieties with an appeal to superficial Hope & Change.  And we bought it.  Well, most of us did anyway.

I'm not suggesting that you read Barrett as a matter of political science but as a plausible diagnosis of what's happening to us as a freedom-loving nation and God-fearing culture.

Many of the political developments in the last half-century arose out of our collective fear of personal annihilation (physical and spiritual), a need for security now that we've sequestered God away from the public square.  The academy's assault on the intelligibility of truth and the rise of the National Security Nanny State push us further and further along the road to serfdom.

I'm not suggesting that philosophical existentialism gives us a solution to our cultural anxieties.  Far from it.  Historically, existentialism served as a diagnostic tool not a treatment regime.  

The only well-documented treatment for the crippling fear of nothingness is God.  While the Nanny State has always failed--will always fail--God does not and cannot fail. 

*Existential nihilism is the philosophical theory that life has no intrinsic meaning or value. With respect to the universe, existential nihilism posits that a single human or even the entire human species is insignificant, without purpose and unlikely to change in the totality of existence. According to the theory, each individual is an isolated being "thrown" into the universe, barred from knowing "why", yet compelled to invent meaning.  The inherent meaninglessness of life is largely explored in the philosophical school of existentialism, where one can potentially create his or her own subjective "meaning" or "purpose". Of all types of nihilism, existential nihilism gets the most literary and philosophical attention. 

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Coffee Cup Browsing

And our descent into the Abyss continues. . .can't say we weren't warned!

Coming to the U.S.: your job or your faith.  Your choice.

An alternative remedy to curing dissident clergy/religious:  sue them for fiduciary malpractice.

ObamaCare described in one (long) sentence.

Rare photo of one of my fav poets, Emily Dickinson.  NB.  Ignore the intentionally provocative headline.  It's a product of 90's feminists inventing history to push an agenda.

This looks oddly familiar. . .didn't something like this happen when Jimmy was Prez?

Russian female choir sings "By the Waters of Babylon" (Ps 137). . .Beautiful!

Religion is an inherently public practice.
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Novena for Religous Liberty

Fr. Frederick L. Miller, Professor of Systematic Theology at Mount St. Mary Seminary in MD has written and published. . .

A Novena to the Mother of God for the Nation

The novena addresses our Blessed Mother and begs her to intervene with her Son for the protection of our God-given religious liberties.

You can download the novena in pamphlet form and print it out.

By Sept 29th (the first day of the novena) I hope I will no longer be this awful Envy-Green color!

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On not forgetting that we have an Enemy

A 9/11 note from Instapundit:

And here’s a passage from Lee Harris’s Civilization And Its Enemies.

Forgetfulness occurs when those who have been long inured to civilized order can no longer remember a time in which they had to wonder whether their crops would grow to maturity without being stolen or their children sold into slavery by a victorious foe …

They forget that in time of danger, in the face of the Enemy, they must trust and confide in each other, or perish.

They forget, in short, that there has ever been a category of human experience called the Enemy. And that, before 9/11, was what had happened to us. The very concept of the Enemy had been banished from our moral and political vocabulary. An enemy was just a friend we hadn’t done enough for — yet. Or perhaps there had been a misunderstanding, or an oversight on our part — something that we could correct. And this means that that our first task is that we must try to grasp what the concept of the Enemy really means.

The Enemy is someone who is willing to die in order to kill you. And while it is true that the Enemy always hates us for a reason — it is his reason, and not ours.

I would add:  When a society loses the ability to remember its past--discards its grounding in history--and lives its God-given freedom as an entitlement, that society has put a loaded gun to its head.  The 9/11 terrorists pulled the trigger. And we're still cleaning up the mess.

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Interpreting the Bible

In our Intro to the Old Testament class this morning, we'll be reading and discussing the 1994 document of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, "The Interpretation of the Bible."

This means I get to use my favorite $15 theological word, hermeneutics.

Ya know, it's the small things in life. . .

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Love is always a public act

23rd Week OT (M)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Our English translation of this gospel really doesn't capture an important element of the event it describes. What at first reads like a standard “Jesus vs. the Pharisees in the synagogue” story is actually much more complex. This complexity is brushed over by the way the translators chose to translate the manner in which the Pharisees observe Jesus and the man with the withered hand interacting. Our version reads, “the Pharisees watched him closely.” Older versions do a better job: they were “spying.” To describe their behavior as “spying” helps us to understand the question Jesus asks of them, “. . .is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” Jesus will do good on the Sabbath by healing the man's hand; while the Pharisees do evil on the Sabbath by spying and plotting evil. Jesus will save the man's life; while the Pharisees conspire to take Jesus' life. The more fundamental contrast here btw Jesus and his enemies is the contrast btw secrecy and publicity. When following the first commandment of love, Jesus holds himself (and us) to a higher standard of public behavior. Loving or failing to love are always public events. 

The basic theological difference btw Jesus and the Pharisees comes down to how they answer the question: how do we become righteous?; that is, by what means do we enter into a right relationship with God? The Pharisees teach that entering into a right relationship with God requires that we studiously observe the Law. Jesus doesn't disagree. But he does teach that “observing the Law” requires much more than simply “following the rules.” In order to observe the Law faithfully, we must go underneath the Law, seek out what motivates its rule and regulations, and align ourselves with the living spirit of the Law. What's the one commandment that grounds all the others? The originating rule that motivates all the rules? Love God, self, and neighbor first; then, all the other commandments may be properly observed and righteousness obtained. In fact, love first and then observing all the other commandments comes naturally! And note: there is no way to follow the first commandment of love secretly or privately. Loving God, self, and neighbor is always public, always a public testimony to one's righteousness. 

If following the first commandment of love always entails public acts that witness to your right relationship with God, then your public behavior must be worthy of the one who died to make that relationship possible. Paul writes to the Corinthians about a man in their church who's taken up with his father's wife. It's not clear if this woman is the man's mother or step-mother; regardless, it's an incestuous relationship—a sin that even the pagans of the day condemned. Paul urges the church to toss this guy out so that he might repent and be saved. By tossing him out of the church, the church will also prevent his sin from corrupting the whole body. This is a medicinal move, a cure meant to spare the man and the church from eternal death. The man's public behavior does not give testimony to his right relationship with God; in fact, it does just the opposite: it bears witness to the fact that he is not aligned with Love and threatens—by example—to leaven the church with “malice and wickedness.” Keeping his sin private might stall public scandal, but an injury to a part of the Body is an injury to whole Body. Heal one part, the whole is healed. 

Jesus publicly violates the Law of the Sabbath in order to obey the Law of Love, thus teaching the Pharisees and us that the rules flow from Love as a means for us to love publicly. Just as the Pharisees fail to love when they plot evil on the Sabbath, so the man in Corinth fails to love by sinning. The cure—for the Pharisees, the man, and for each of us—is repentance, confession, penance, and the healing word of God's mercy. 

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Jesuits Bully Archbishop (not exactly!)

Way back in the late 80's I discovered that I'm dyslexic.  By this time, I'd earned a B.A. in philosophy and history and a M.A. in English.  Apparently, I'd found ways to cope.

In case you're wondering what dyslexia looks like to the dyslexic, here' an example. . .

I saw this headline on a Catholic news aggregate site:

"Jesuit university to buy Philly archbishop's residence"

My response, "How does a Jesuit university bully an archbishop's residence?!"

So, then my overactive imagination takes over and I start running scenarios through my head where a black-cassocked university building shoves a purple-surpliced mansion into his locker and gives him a wedgie.

Yea.  That's how my brain "works."  Go figure.

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Stand Strong & Do Not Fear!

23rd Sunday OT
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Audio File

Hear God's promise. If your heart is weary and your mind confused: Stand strong; do not be afraid! Here is your God! The Lord, He comes to our defense. With justice, with divine restitution, He comes to heal all our afflictions, rescue us from all our foes. Then, will the eyes of the blind see and the ears of the deaf hear. Then, will the beaten and bruised find shelter and the hungry recline to feast. Then, will the tongue of the mute sing and the innocent find protection. Rivers will freely flow in the wastelands, and springs will water the deserts. Thus says the Lord to His prophet, Isaiah. And thus, do we—the adopted children of God the Father; brothers and sisters in His Son; and heirs to the Kingdom through His Holy Spirit—lay claim to this promise and bear faithful witness: the Lord God fulfills His promises and has done so in Christ Jesus. Our ears are open and our tongues set free. We see clearly and speak the truth. Nothing and no one frightens us. As the one body of Christ—living in the world but not of it—we are servants of God and stewards of His mysteries. So, if your heart is weary and your mind confused: Stand strong and do not be afraid! 

We need to this reminder of God's promise of salvation b/c underneath Isaiah's prophesy of renewal is a potentially crippling reality: fear and confusion—if left to fester—will deafen us to the Lord's word and still our tongues in speaking His truth. That Isaiah is given this prophecy is evidence enough that God's people are edging toward spiritual deafness and silence. And it's fear that's pushing them. Amidst every human failure and flaw we can list—war, famine, poverty, political and religious oppression—right in the center of every disaster writhes the dark spirit of fear. Fear drains away hope and attacks faith; it lifts up disorder and discord as the exclusive and inevitable finish-line for being alive. What does the spirit of fear want us to believe about ourselves and our world? To thrive in the hearts and minds of God's creatures, fear must convince us that we are wholly subject to the random workings of a universe w/o purpose; that we are nothing more than the most highly evolved animals currently occupying a delicate fly-speck planet in a fly-speck galaxy; that even as we live and move among six billion other highly evolved animals, we are, in the end, completely alone. And more than all of these combined, fear must convince us that in our aloneness, we are nothing. 

We need Isaiah's reminder of God's promise of salvation b/c fear does its best work when we surrender to the lie that we are nothing. Our philosophers and theologians have given this lie a name, Nihilism. Nihil is the spirit of nothingness, a devil that can possess a single soul, a family, a nation; and it drives one and all to embrace existence w/o meaning or purpose. French novelist and philosopher, Albert Camus, asks the ultimate nihilist question, “Why not commit suicide?” If you are a random genetic accident, an animal who just happens to think, and your life is nothing more than pain and suffering, why not skip to the inevitable end and kill yourself? Nihil speaks the language of despair fluently and sometimes persuasively. In fact, if you close your ears to God's word and refuse to speak His truth, you begin the process of learning Nihil's preferred way of speaking, phrases like “product of conception,” “termination of pregnancy,” “painless expiration,” “acceptable collateral damage,” and “capital justice.”* When you become comfortable using Nihil's voice, you have been emptied of hope, and bereft of faith. Love—God's own life-giving presence in each of us and among us—is abandoned. And what do we get in exchange? Not hate. Not anger. We get Fear. 

He couldn't hear, couldn't speak. Jesus takes him away from the crowd and ministers to his closed ears and his locked up tongue. “Be opened!” And the man hears and speaks, and the crowd is exceedingly astonished. Jesus orders them to keep quiet about the miracle, but the more he insists on their silence, the more they witness to his power, “He has done all things well.” They could not be silent about this miracle of hope. They would not be silent about the awesome power of a loving God. Nor can we. Our silence now is a vanity, a luxury. We cannot afford to pretend that we do not hear God's promise to Isaiah, “Here is your God, He comes with vindication!” We cannot afford the social privileges and cultural power that our collective silence buys us. We cannot hide behind modesty, “tolerance,” or the dubious benefits of accommodation. Jesus frees the poor man's ears so that he might hear. And he frees his tongue so that he might speak. Whether or not he will listen and speak, whether or not he will put these gifts to work for the sake of Christ is his choice. Nihil is at work on him already, encouraging the man's disobedience and silence. And he is constantly at work on us as well. 

Thus, we hear Isaiah prophesy, “Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he comes with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you.” And we hear Jesus say to the man who cannot hear or speak, “Be opened!” And we hear the Psalmist sing, “Praise the Lord, my soul!/The God of Jacob keeps faith forever; He secures justice for the oppressed. . .” We heard and we hear. But do we listen, and do we speak? Through all the white noise and violence at us thrown by Nihil and his servant, Fear, do we listen and do we speak? If our hearts are frightened and our minds confused, then listening is not only difficult but probably impossible. If we do not listen to God's word, how can we speak His word? And if we are unwilling to speak, to give witness to His power in our own lives, how will anyone else hear Him speak? God says to us, “Be strong and do not fear!” It's not our own strength that we rely upon. It's not our own words that move hearts and minds toward Him. In that moment of crisis—physical or spiritual—that instant of emergency, it is the Holy Spirit who stands us up and gives us the words we need to speak. This is why there is nothing and no one for us to fear. 

So, how do we conquer fear and clear our minds? A good start to answering this question is to remember God's promise and keep our eyes squarely focused on where we are headed. Of course, we must pay attention to where we are at the moment, but everything we say and do in the moment is given its meaning, its purpose by our final destination. Nihil would have us believe that our end is nothingness. Fear pushes us to panic and passion. As the world around us swirls the bowl, we swirl along with it: we're in it but not of it. With our hearts and minds wholly owned and operated by the Holy Spirit, we believe—we know—that nothingness is not our end. Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilled in the coming of the Christ. And we are his brothers and sisters. Not random collections of thinking genetic material. Not cosmic accidents just eating and breathing 'til we drop dead. But children of a loving God who promises a restoration, a renewal in His mercy. That's the Good News that we must share and share often. Therefore, stand strong and do not be afraid!

* A very attentive parishioner brought to my attention that this sentence appears to draw a moral equivalence btw abortion and capital punishment.  I disagree.  The plain language of the sentence indicates that I am talking about how nihilism encourages us to use sterile, medical, or high-minded terms for what is basically killing.  There is no mention of the relative moral status of the related acts described.  My point is that nihilists' want us to use language that strips killing of all teleological sense.   Besides, there is no moral equivalence btw abortion and capital punishment.

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Stewards & Fools

22nd Week OT (F): Votive Mass of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Paul has spent this week surprising us with his take on the difference btw being “wise in the world” and “foolish for God.” Just yesterday he told us, “If anyone among you considers himself wise in this age, let him become a fool, so as to become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of God.” For the followers of Christ, salvation depends on becoming increasingly foolish—as the world sees it. And looking around the internet and cable news, it's clear that the world sees us as Big Fools Only Getting Bigger. From their perspective—atheist, materialist, secular, nihilistic—it's easy to see why Christians in the 21st century would look foolish. We believe all sorts of bizarre things: the existence of angels, saints, miracles, God; the efficacy of sacraments; the intelligibility of truth; objective moral standards; the natural law. Just weird stuff like that. This is why Paul's description of Christ's 1st century followers in Corinth should ring particularly true for us today: “Brothers and sisters: we should be regarded as the servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.” 

We know what it means to be “servants of Christ.” Serving Christ means serving the least among his people, both the materially poor and the spiritually poor. As we have already heard this week: proclaiming the Gospel is doing the Gospel. Word and deed, faith and works. Done for the greater glory of God, there is no difference btw the two. But what does it mean for us to be “stewards of God's mysteries”? In Paul's day, stewards were usually slaves, educated slaves who managed the household of his owner. He was in charge of the other slaves; responsible for shopping, accounts, payroll. In the absence of the owner, the steward was the de facto Head of Household. When Jesus gives the keys to the kingdom of heaven to Peter, he is making Peter his steward, his vicar. Peter and his successors become the ones who manage, administer Christ's Church on earth until he returns. More than anything else in the Church, Christ's steward “manages” the mysteries that bring us closer to God, the sacraments. But what does it mean for you to be a steward of the mysteries? This is where we become better fools for God. 

While the Church has her ordained ministers to manage the sacraments, what mysteries do her lay members manage? The first and greatest mystery that needs careful lay management is one's faith. Faith is the good habit of trusting in God's providence, His loving-care. For a habit to remain a habit, it must be exercised, worked-out—vigorously. This means setting aside, willfully pushing aside, all anxiety about the future. It means setting free the obsessive need to control people and events, to make sure that you get your way. It also means believing w/o empirical evidence, or persuasive argument. Faith never utters the phrases, “Show me” or “Prove it” when it comes to the will of God. In this world, faith is pure foolishness, the greatest foolishness. We are an evidence-based, outcomes-driven culture that demands empirical, verifiable, repeatable results. Faith sees and hears the world with the mind of Christ. The world's wisdom teaches us that we are nothing but our bodies. Faith teaches us—through the dual lenses of enduring hope and sacrificial love—that we are made perfect (body and soul) in Christ. The world fears its limits, loathes its finitude, and works tirelessly to gather to itself any and everything it can to stall annihilation. Faith knows that nothing gathered here will last, nothing won here will bring final victory. As the wise of the world wail against our foolishness, remember: we are stewards of the mysteries of God, His faithful servants, His hard-headed slaves.

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Coffee Cup Browsing (en breve)

Dem convention officials refuse non-political gift baskets from local churches.  These people really just don't get it do they?

Court Prophetess tells the screaming pro-abort mob exactly what it wants to hear. 

"All chair, no substance." Something Really Important and Unprecedented was suppose to happen last night.  [crickets]

Is the Church 200 yrs "out of date"?  Probably.  But the Gospel is eternal and therefore dateless!

When you've tried everything else. . .pray.  (Hint:  you probably shouldn't pray for a schism though).

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Go Out into the Deep! (Homily audio file)

Homily for 22nd Week OT (Wed):  Go Out in the Deep!












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Scary: We are co-workers with God. . .

22nd Week OT (W)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Paul writes to the Corinthians, revealing to them one of the scariest truths I've ever heard, “. . .we are God's co-workers; [. . .] God's building. . . .” Upon being reminded of this scary truth, my first thought is, “No, no. I'm one of His more difficult building projects. Over budget, behind schedule, and poorly maintained.” But then it dawns on me that God will not build me w/o me; He will not remove my freedom to participate willingly in my own construction. When and where I fail, I fail to work with God's divine blueprint. How do I get back on schedule, on budget, and well-maintained? Jesus cures Simon's mother-in-law. Others with various illnesses came to him and “he laid his hands on each of them and cured them.” So impressed were the crowds that “they tried to prevent him from leaving them.” But Jesus was sent for another reason. He says to them, "To the other towns also I must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God. . .” When did he proclaim the Good News in this town? He didn't preach or teach. There were no reported debates. So, how exactly did he proclaim the Good News? “He laid his hands on each of them and cured them.” 

If you too are over budget, behind schedule, and poorly maintained as a building project of the Lord, let me suggest a possible reason for your decrepitude: you have made too much of the difference btw “proclaiming the Good News” and “doing the Good News.” I mean, you have either placed Being a Christian over Working as Christian or Working as a Christian over Being a Christian. Simply being as a Christian is well and good. But where are your works? What legacy of charitable action do you leave behind? How much real, living hope have you sown? Simply working as a Christian is well and good also. But where do you place your trust? Why are you working so hard for the poor, the oppressed, the sick? Are you more than a religiousy social worker? In our gospel this evening, Jesus shows us that proclaiming the Good News is doing the Good News. Not simply saying stuff about the gospel but actually working in mercy, charity, and hope. And none of this is possible if we do not acknowledge and celebrate the Christ as our Lord, One to Whom we are obedient. The foundational motivation for all gospel labor must be to give glory to God so that His mercy to sinners may be made evident, plain as day. Every act of gospel labor is precisely an act of gospel labor b/c it is done for the sake for Christ. 

If you are a faithful soul, a thoroughly convicted believer in the Gospel and you are still struggling with persistent sin, dry in prayer, consider this: you aren't working with God to build a better you. If you are a zealous defender of the oppressed, a totally committed activist for justice and you still find yourself frustrated, angry, depressed by failure, consider this: you aren't trusting God, not giving Him the glory through Christ. Catholics can rattle off the phrase “word and deed” faster than most of us can blink. But do we hear what we are saying? The revelation of God in Christ Jesus is given to us in and through his words and in and through his deeds.* Not one OR the other. Both. With ears to hear, we listen to his teaching. With eyes to see, we watch his behavior. What does Jesus say? What does Jesus do? Being a follower of Christ and working as a follower of Christ is always, always about the gospel word-deed. An act done with God. With God an act done. More than His projects, we are fellow project managers. We are co-workers with God for His glory. 

* "This plan of revelation is realized by deeds and words having in inner unity: the deeds wrought by God in the history of salvation manifest and confirm the teaching and realities signified by the words, while the words proclaim the deeds and clarify the mystery contained in them. By this revelation then, the deepest truth about God and the salvation of man shines out for our sake in Christ, who is both the mediator and the fullness of all revelation" (Dei verbum 2).

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Coffee Cup Browsing

Taxpayer funded abortion on-demand, same-sex "marriage," and God deleted.  Dems are off to a great start!

Oh, and we belong to the Gov't.  Had no idea.

An atheist schism?  Well, fundamentalists are known for splitting off into factions.

B.O.'s definition of sin.  Wow.  You can't get more Baby Boomer than that.

Just how Pro-Life is Mitt?

Self-anointed "Messiah" dies.   Or did he. . .?  Hmmmmmm. . .

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Follow HancAquam and visit the Kindle Wish List and the Books & Things Wish List

Click on St. Martin and donate to the Dominicans! ----->