Grace is not for sale

3^rd Sunday of Lent

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

OLR, NOLA

Audio File

I saw a meme on FB once. It read: “When someone asks you WWJD, remember: freaking out, flipping tables, and using a whip are all legitimate options.” Not the comfortable picture we usually conjure when thinking about what Jesus would do. Nonetheless, he did it. And he had good reason. His Father's house of prayer had been turned into a house of thieving merchants. We could erroneously conclude from this episode that Jesus is upset with capitalism in general and merchants in particular. That he's upset b/c buying and selling for a profit is somehow evil. But that's not what he's upset about. Jesus is upset b/c the presence of the merchants and the money changers in the temple courtyard turn the faith into an accounting exercise, an exchange of goods. Buy two doves for sacrifice and get your minor sins forgiven. Buy a goat for sacrifice and get one major sin forgiven. That these sacrifices also make a profit for the merchants makes the violation of the temple worse. Literally, the merchants and money changers were profiting from sin! God's generously and freely offered mercy is not for sale. His grace is a gift not a product for purchase.

Some of our ways of thinking about sin and forgiveness can sometimes look a lot like a marketplace exchange. Especially during Lent. We're focused on repentance and conversion; we're focused on being prepared for Easter – praying, fasting, and giving alms. These Lenten disciplines can (and often do) become deals, bargaining tools, maybe even outright quid pro quo exchanges with God. Lord, I'll fast once a week, and you'll agree to cure my sister's cancer. Lord, I'll pray an extra rosary everyday, and you'll agree to bring my grandchildren back into the Church. Lord, I'll throw an extra fiver in the plate every Sunday, and you'll make sure I pass my mid-terms. Enter Jesus. Whip in hand. Kicking over tables. Scattering the money changers and merchants of grace. This is not how our faith works. Your Father's house is not a marketplace! Treating prayer, fasting, and alms giving as a way to get on God's good side so that He'll grant your wishes is superstitious and pagan. We don't have to do anything for God to give us every good thing we need. He always gives us every good thing we need. What we need to do is receive all that He gives. That's what our Lenten disciplines are about. Praying, fasting, and giving alms so that we are best prepared to receive all that God has to give.

After Jesus trashes the temple courtyard, the crowd demands that he show them a sign. They want to know by what authority he presumes to clear the merchants away. He tells them that if they destroy the temple he will rebuild it in three days. He's talking about himself, of course. And that is exactly what happens. They destroy the temple of his body and in three days he rebuilds it in the resurrection. This is the sign they demand – and it will be persuasive, if they remember he prophesied it. Some do. Most don't. The disciples are among those who do remember. And b/c they do, they come to believe on Easter morning. As he continues preaching and teaching, many others see the signs of who and what he is. But Jesus doesn't trust himself to them. Why? B/c he understands human nature all too well. Jesus knows what it is to be human. He knows that faith in him and his mission cannot be rooted in signs and wonders. The fascination we humans have for the spectacular, the unusual, and the miraculous is fleeting. Once the showy show is over, we're right back to our very human ways. What's required is a deep-down conversion, a turning-around of our nature at a fundamental level. What we need is Christ. And him crucified.

If the mercantile exchange of goods and services for grace is pagan and superstitious; and chasing after miracles, apparitions, locutions; signs and wonders is fleeting, then what keeps us grounded in Christ during Lent. Easy. Prayer. Fasting. Alms giving. These are the practical, down-to-earth, ordinary means of making ourselves ready to receive all that God has to give us. Nothing fancy. Nothing showy or weird. Nothing excessive or extravagant. Just plain ole prayer, fasting, and alms giving. Each one of these disciplines – properly understood – will tune us up to run smoothly. Pray with praise and thanksgiving for everything you have and everything you are. Fast to acknowledge your total dependence on God for everything, including your very existence. Give alms to expand your capacity to receive His blessings. Generosity is contagious; it's a force multiplier. God's grace is not for sale. Or exchanging or refunding or borrowing. Nor is our faith rooted in signs and wonders. Trust in God is a gift we nurture in humility with praise and thanksgiving. You have what you need. Use it!

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Only the Lord endures

2^nd Week of Lent (Th)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Dominic Priory, NOLA

It would seem that trusting in the strength of the flesh is the way to go. In a purely material world, where things aid or obstruct our progress, being strong – physically strong – is an advantage. But Jeremiah tells us that the man who trusts in the strength of his flesh is cursed. How so? Well, the things that aid or obstruct our progress are temporary. Ephemeral. They are passing away as everything created passes away. Physical strength may be well and good now. But tomorrow it may be gone. What endures? The Lord endures. Our trust in the Lord endures if we have the strength – the spiritual strength – to endure the temptations of the flesh. These temptations tempt us to invest in the temporary, the passing-away of things. Grain rots. Property depreciates. Even the stones wear away. What seems absolutely certain today is doubtful tomorrow. But the Lord endures. We sit here during Lent, preparing ourselves for the singular event of the Resurrection – the historical event that has and will change everything we love and everything we hope for. If that's not enough to feed our strength to endure, then even the witness of Moses himself is not enough to move us from our obstinate ignorance. If knowing that Christ has risen from the tomb is not enough, then there's nothing and no one left to challenge our despair. We are lost, and not even a flood water from the netherworld will soothe our sore and aching souls. 

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Freely Choose Obedience

Audio File

2^nd Sunday of Lent

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

OLR, NOLA

Here we are starting the second week of Lent and Jesus is taking Peter, James, and John up a mountain and transfiguring before them. Why? I mean, we're fasting and praying and giving alms, preparing ourselves for Easter, and we get the Gospel reading for the Transfiguration. Shouldn't we be hearing something about sacrifice or persecution or maybe even going out into the wilderness to be alone with God right about now? Where's the encouragement to persevere in our Lenten disciplines? Where's the exhortation to shed the Old Self in the desert and put on Christ at Easter? Where're the warnings not to succumb to the Devil's temptations? Yes, for the 2^nd Sunday of Lent, we get the gospel for the Transfiguration and the story of Abraham and Isaac. Odd pairing. Unless you read them in light of the Father keeping His promises to His people. And what better encouragement can we get during Lent than two accounts of the Father's kept promises? Two accounts of how it all ends for His faithful? For his obedience, Abraham is given “descendants as countless as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore,” and the disciples are shown – in the transfigured Christ – what the faithful will be after their death and resurrection: glorified by God, utterly changed in His eternal presence. All in all, excellent readings for Lent!

What is the essential habit to practice to have a spiritually fruitful Lent? I can think of several good candidates: perseverance, fortitude, patience, hope. All of these require a certain amount of self-control and the virtue of happy-waiting. Maybe: prudence, selflessness, certainly humility. These bring us closer to God by denying the Self what it thinks is its central place in the universe. Also helpful: gratitude, surrender, and courage. All essential elements in our striving to grow in holiness. All good answers. But I think our OT and Gospel readings are pointing us toward a more fundamental habit necessary for a productive Lent; namely, obedience. Now, to most 21^st c. American ears obedience sounds harsh, oppressive, freedom-denying, even fascistic. Robots and slaves are obedient. Tyrants want obedient subjects. We've spent the better part of the last 400 years in the West redefining concepts like freedom, liberty, choice so that they mean precisely what we need to mean. We've redefined obedience into an ugly external imposition on our ability to choose whatever we want. Obedience prevents us from becoming who we choose to be. With faith in God, trusting absolutely in His promises, and working toward our supernatural end with the HS – to be with Him eternally – obedience is the key to flourishing in this Lenten desert.

Abraham and Isaac go up Mt. Moriah. Jesus and the disciples go up Mt. Tabor. God has ordered Abraham under obedience to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. Jesus, soon to be sacrificed on the Cross in obedience to his Father, reveals his glorified body to Peter, James, and John. Every one of these men is moved to obey b/c of their trust in God's promises. Abraham's obedience is rewarded with descendants as numerous as the stars. The disciples are rewarded with a vision of God's glory in heaven. Notice: they obey w/o knowing that their obedience will be rewarded. They freely choose to obey; that is, knowing that they each have a purpose to fulfill, they each willingly move themselves toward the Good, the Best for themselves – obeying God to be closer to God. Their obedience requires a host of helping-virtues: courage, patience, humility, surrender. But none of these will move them closer to God than obedience. Why? B/c moving ourselves as God wills requires us to trust Him, to hold firm in our hearts and minds that He will not will anything directly harmful or hurtful for us. Even though we cannot see the full consequences of our obedience to God's will, we trust that He will make the best possible Good flourish from our actions. We know that God is Love and that He wills only Love. Knowing this, believing this, obeying His will for us can only produce the love we need to thrive.

And we need to thrive during these Lenten days. If we choose to see our Lenten disciplines as movements toward God in trust, then how much better will they be for our growth in holiness? Rather than seeing fasting, prayer, and alms giving as punishments for sin or as deprivations from good things, choose to see them as ways of showing your trust in God's will for your good. We could spend days talking about how each of these disciplines is good for us. But it is far more productive to simply lay your trust on the altar and give it to God; place your faith at His feet and place yourself in His hands. This is not obedience out of fear. Obedience from coercion. Or obedience for reward. This is listening closely to the Word. Discerning your supernatural purpose in the Word. And moving your body and soul toward the Best our Father has waiting for you. At the end of Lent, obeying God as a loving son or daughter, you can emerge unburdened, freer than you have ever been, cleansed of all attachments, and struck in wonder at the freedom of it all. Easter is the ultimate fulfillment of God's promises. Make your Lent a daily exercise in obedience. Freely choose to take on His most holy will.

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Video: My Lenten Mission talks at OLR

I recently gave a series of mission talks at Our Lady of the Rosary Church here in NOLA.

The title: "The Eucharist: Real Presence, Source/Summit, Healing and Mercy."

OLR pastor, Fr. Jonathan Hemelt, livestreamed the talks on FB. He's put them on YT.

Check it out!

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Teach me, Lord!

Audio File

1^st Sunday of Lent

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

OLR, NOLA

I've been teaching in one form or another since I was 22yo. This May I will turn 57. It took a while, but I finally figured out that the best teachers never stop being good students. The best teachers know what they know, and they know what they don't know. More importantly, they aren't afraid to keep on learning right along with their students. Same goes for the Christian. Perfection in holiness doesn't happen for us in an instant of flashy enlightenment, or one emotional outburst after conversion. Neither does it come with hours of study or advanced academic degrees. Holiness is learned and practiced by the diligent student. It's taught and demonstrated by the accomplished teacher. What does any of this have to do with the 1^st Sunday of Lent? Think of these 40 days of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving as an intense, short-course in growing in holiness. Christ is our professor. And here's the first homework assignment: get up every morning and pray, “Make your ways known to me, O Lord; teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me.” Go to bed every night, praying: “Thank you, Lord, for making your ways known to me; for teaching me your paths; and for guiding me in your truth.” Holiness begins in humility and is made perfect in gratitude.

So, how do we cultivate humility and gratitude during Lent? We have the three traditional Lenten practices to help us – fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. All three of these practices draw our attention to the poverty of our human condition. I don't mean poverty as in being financially poor. I mean poverty in the sense that we are totally, utterly dependent on God for everything we have and everything we are. We are impoverished in the sense that nothing we have is really ours and nothing we are is really our doing. Everything we have and are is a gift from God. Everything! Knowing this truth and living this truth in the world is what we call humility. I own nothing. I know nothing. I am nothing. . .except that I own, know, and am who and what God has given to me for my use. Returning everything I have and everything I am to God with praise and thanksgiving is what we call sacrifice, making holy by surrender, leaving nothing as our own. Fasting, prayer, and almsgiving put humility into daily practice. “Teach me your paths, O Lord; guide me in your truth and teach me” to fast, pray, and give alms.

Fasting can be as simple as eating just one meal a day. But eating just one meal a day can also be called dieting. What distinguishes fasting from dieting? Ask yourself: what's my goal in eating just one meal a day? Why am I doing this? If you are doing it to lose weight so you can fit into your Easter dress or your Easter suit, then you're dieting. If you are skipping meals to prepare yourself to receive the graces of Christ's Passion on Good Friday and the Resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday, then you're fasting. You are acknowledging and putting into practice the humility necessary to grow in holiness. You are saying, in word and deed, “I am ALL yours, Lord! I am getting myself ready to receive all you have to give me!” Fasting and abstinence from meat on the Fridays of Lent is a requirement of the Church, an ancient practice long known to promote holiness. But why is it required? We are members of the Body. Each one of us contributes to the Body. Your holiness makes the whole Body holier. Your humility and gratitude makes the whole Body more humble and grateful. The holier the Body as a whole, the holier the members are individually. “Teach me your paths, O Lord; guide me in your truth and teach me.”

So, you have 40 days to take an intense, short-course on holiness. Who will be your teacher? Who will you turn to for help when things go sideways? Who will you look to as an example? Well, who's your teacher during the rest of the year? Who do you invite into your life, your family, your home, your job every day to show you how to be holy?Are you learning to be a holy Christian from social media? Politicians? Actors? Athletes? Maybe you're learning from Celebrity Priests and self-appointed Popes on the internet. If so, I urge you to drop those classes and enroll in Prof. Jesus' class. He shows us how it's done. He shows us how to live lives of loving sacrifice. He shows us how to fast and how to pray. And on the Cross, he shows us how to give, how to give everything. There is no better teacher. He's not going to scratch your itchy ears with what you want to hear. He's going to teach you that he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Not b/c he needs to teach but b/c we need to be taught. His way is The Way. His truth is The Truth. His life is The Life, the life we all need to flourish and grow in holiness. “Make your ways known to me, O Lord; guide me in your truth and teach me.”

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We start with a choice

Thursday after Ash Wednesday

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Priory, NOLA

Life is complicated. There are no black/white choices. Just big gray areas. Truth is what we make it, what works. These are all standard, American slogans that we've probably heard all our lives. And there is some truth in them. But, if there are no B/W choices, then we have to allow for the possibility that, in some cases, B/W choices are all we have (cf. self-referential incoherence). Here enters Moses, saying to God's people: “Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom.” Love God. Obey God. Walk with Him, keeping His commandments and you will live and prosper. Deny God. Love alien gods. Walk away from Him, disobeying His commandments and you will surely die and wither in the land. “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.” That's pretty B/W. This is what Lent is about. Making that fundamental choice btw life and death eternal. Jesus says we must lose our life to save it. We must choose our cross. The gray moral areas, the complications, the practicalities that torture reason and logic will come. They always do. But at the foundation of these complexities is a B/W choice that each one of us must make: do I want eternal life or eternal dying? Do I want to prosper or wither away? Do I want God's blessing or His curse? Life is complicated. But we don't start with a problem. We start with a choice. 

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What/Who do you have to lose?

6^th Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

OLR, NOLA

Here's the thing. . .the thing you must, must understand: the Lord always and everywhere, without exception or condition, always and everywhere, wants to make you clean. It is never the case – NEVER – that the Lord doesn't want to make you clean. It should never enter your mind: does the Lord want to make me to clean? The answer is always yes. Don't even ask the question. Why? Because the answer is always yes. If you already know the answer, don't ask the question. The leper asks the question because he's not sure. He's not convinced that Lord wants to make him clean. Why should he think the Lord doesn't want him to be clean? He's got no good reason to think he does. Leviticus is clear that lepers are outcasts. They have to dress like mourners for the dead. They have to shout “unclean” wherever they go. There were bells and signs around their neck, announcing their infectious disease. Not to mention the stench and obvious oozing scabs. This leper has no good reason to believe that Jesus wants him to be clean. You, on the other hand, have every reason to believe, to know that Jesus not only wants you to be clean but that he can actually make you clean. This isn't about Jesus and what he wants, it's about you and what you want.

The leper wants to be clean. But he has no good reason to believe that Jesus will make him clean. But he asks anyway, “If you wish you can make me clean.” Notice the difference between what Jesus can do and what he wishes to do. The leper has heard about Jesus and his healing miracles. The leper knows that Jesus can heal him. The question is whether or not Jesus wants to heal him. Jesus resolves the mystery: “I do will it. Be made clean.” And the leper is made clean. Here's where we have an advantage over the leper. We know that Jesus wants/wills us to be clean. Our disease isn't leprosy. Our disease isn't being run out of town for having oozing, scabby sores. Our diseases are much less physically dramatic but far more deadly. Our diseases unsettle not just the body but the soul. Our diseases infect and damage our person – who we are as children of God and heirs to the Kingdom. Our diseases are freely chosen rebellion and willful disobedience. Am I talking about COVID and cancer and Alzheimer's? No. I'm about those thoughts, words, and deeds that we select, that we favor in direct opposition to the will of the Father for our flourishing. I'm talking about sin.

And even as I talk about sin, I am confident that Jesus wants to heal us. He wants to make us clean. Not only can he makes us clean, he wants to make us clean. And not only does he want to make us clean, he became Man and suffered painfully and died on the Cross and rose from the grave and ascended into heaven. . .why?. . .So that we can be clean. There is no question there. He wants/wills/desires us to be clean. The question is: do we – you and I – want to be made clean? The leper is tired of yelling “unclean” everywhere he goes. He's tired of being beaten, run out of town, spat on. He's tired of being a pariah. He's tired of being the monster moms use to scare their kids into obedience. He's tired of being sick and tired. So, what does he do? In faith, with fear and trembling, he approaches the Lord, the one he's heard about in the streets, and he says, with faint confidence and a little bravado, “If you wish you can make me clean.” What's he got to lose? What? Jesus will rebuke him for daring to ask for a miracle? He might get smacked by one of the disciples for impudence? He's got nothing to lose. He's got nothing to lose. . .but his disease. That's what we call a Winning Hand.

The secret of the Gospel – if there is one – is that you have nothing to lose. You belong to Christ. You and everything you have. Your spouse, your kids, your property, the stuff that fills your property. You have nothing to lose in asking Christ to make you clean. You don't even have to gamble. The leper gambles because he's not sure about Jesus' intentions. You and I have 2.000 years of knowing and living the Apostolic Faith, so we know that Christ's intention in becoming Man, dying on the Cross, rising from the grave, and ascending into Heaven is that you and I can be healed. . .IF. . .we want to be healed, if we want to be clean. Do you want to be clean? Do you want to be healed? Think carefully before you answer this question: what do you have to lose? Your answer to that question reveals precisely who or what it is that's keeping you from asking our Lord to heal you. Your answer to that question is the name of the god you serve. And it is the name of the disease that owns you. The leper chooses Christ. And he is healed b/c Christ wills him to be healed. Choose Christ. In your disease, your anxiety, your despair, your sin. . .choose Christ. He has always said, is saying now, and will always say, “Be made clean.”

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On going unnoticed

5^th Week OT (Th)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Dominic Priory, NOLA

He could not escape notice. Even when he didn't want anyone to know where he was – he could not escape notice. And it's no wonder. He's been traveling around the region performing healing miracles and casting out unclean spirits. That sort of thing gets noticed! More impressive than miracles and exorcisms – at least to the Jews – is that he's one who teaches with authority, i.e. not like the scribes. The scribes repeat the teachings of others. They record, repeat, rehash, and quibble over minutiae. Jesus is the author of his teaching – the source and medium of the revelation he bears. Sure, he reveals the Father to the Jews. That's his mission. But he also brings that same mission to the Gentiles – the dogs who eat the children's scraps. Our Greek mother knows who he is and says so. She calls him “Lord.” And b/c she places herself and her daughter under his dominion, the unclean spirit flees. The scribes, bickering over jots and tittles, rule all the, well, all the jots and tittles. While Jesus, who cannot escape notice, bears an astonishing revelation and wields authority over both clean and unclean spirits. He teaches a Truth no one else can: place yourself and yours under his rule and find a peace, a Life along the Way – a way to live free of despair, violence, oppression, or slavery to sin. Christ could not escape notice for good reason. Everywhere he went he revived the God-gifted desire to be free.   

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