Incredulous for joy

Thursday of the Easter Octave

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Dominic Priory, NOLA

The disciples move from being startled, troubled, and terrified to being incredulous, joyful, and amazed. What moves them such a long emotional distance in so short a time? Jesus answers their fear with an imperative, “Touch me and see.” We might say that this is the sacramental, the incarnational response to human fear and doubt. We might say that Jesus – knowing human nature so intimately – knows that his frightened, dispirited friends need something more than an argument, a mystical vision, or a visit from an angel – they need him. Up close and personal, viscerally real – they need him. And they get him. Flesh, bones, wounds, and appetite. Fears allayed, they are ready. Christ opens their minds to show them how he has fulfilled Scripture and how they are witnesses to his fulfillment. While not yet set on fire by the H.S., they are nonetheless fortified in their mission with two truths: first, Christ Jesus was and is who he claimed and claims to be; and, second, they are the living, breathing recorders of how he revealed himself to the world. We are heirs to these truths and instruments of their proclamation. What fears and doubts we might have are defeated sacramentally and incarnationally: “Touch me and see.” What lingering hesitation we might have in preaching and teaching the fullness of his Good News is burned away by the H.S. Are we, are you, am I – like the disciples – living our lives “incredulous for joy”? 

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What matters is the resurrection

Easter Sunday 2021

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Dominic Priory, NOLA

What do we expect from the world? Acceptance? Tolerance? Approval? They tortured and executed our Savior for sedition. . .really for little more than inconveniencing the Narrative. And now we're expected to what. . .accept it? Tolerate it? Approve it? Why would they expect us to do anything but rage against the injustice? That's easy. That's all we've done for some five, six, seven hundred years now. We've knuckled under, bowed our heads, and flowed with the flow. They have every reason to believe that this Easter will be no different. What we know – but don't boast about – is that the Risen Christ has freed us from their expectations. His resurrection from the tomb has freed us from sin and death, and, therefore, the world – in all its myriad fascination with sin and death – has no power over us. Of course, it never did. But we pretended that it did. To our demise. We pretended that politicians matter. That policies matter. That declarations, resolutions, legislation, and regulations matter. We've pretended that credentials, test scores, rulings, and findings matter. They don't. What matters is the resurrection. And that you and I are dead in Christ and live again in his glory.

What the world fears most is not being taken seriously. That is, what the world fears most is being mocked for its ephemeral nature, for its swift and inevitable passing. The powers of the world dreadfully fear the ticking and tocking of the clock. Why? B/c what power and authority it has over us is fleeting – on an eternal scale, really, nothing at all. This is what defeat looks like: knowing your worst enemies are easily defeated in this world and then watching them rise again into eternity. . .while you languish in time and space, damned to repeat your pathetic struggle for accolades and empty victories. Like all false gods, History disappoints. When History is your God you should expect that you will end when history does. However, if Christ is your God, you should expect to rise to eternity even though you might suffer while traveling through. Christ did. That's what the Triduum is all about. Why would his followers expect anything different? What he shows us is that pain, despair, longing, abandonment. . .all of these are fleeting. . .if we offer them in sacrifice to God. In the world, these can grant you power and influence as a victim. Until the age ends and you find yourself yoked to pain and despair permanently. For heaven, these prepare you for sainthood. And that's the end of any proper supernatural life.

As the darkness consumes history – as it always does – find yourself firmly among those who have given themselves to the only one who has defeated sin and death. Find yourself stubbornly planted in the field that will produce the good fruits of eternal joy. Being “on the right side of history” is great for sixty or seventy years. You'll get your promotion, your raise, your trophies. But when the Angel of Death comes for your soul, you'll wonder: what good did I do in servicing the world? Won't the world reward me? Yes, it will. Or rather, it already has. And your reward is as temporary as your service. No more than a breath, dust on the scales. When the world passes, so do all its rewards. Stand up and stand firm for the Way, the Truth, and the Life – the eternal Life – that Christ alone offers and guarantees. Yes, you will suffer. For a while. Some more than others. You will suffer. Look again at the body of Christ on the Cross. Look again at his mother's pierced heart. Look again at your expectations. And ask yourself: am I a passing shadow, an absence of light; or, am I a light to the nations? A bonfire for Christ's love?

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Video of London Police ordering Catholics to end Good Friday

London Police interrupt a parish's Good Friday's liturgy and order everyone to leave. 

Please share this!

This is a Polish parish. I'm sure these folks are used to cops in black uniforms storming into their churches and ordering them to disperse.

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A week of Thanks and Praise!

Palm Sunday

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

OLR, NOLA

Jesus rides into Jerusalem, knowing he will die. Between today and next Sunday we will hear again and again how Christ emptied himself out for our sake. How he took on the form of a slave for us. How he “humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Palm Sunday remembers the day he entered Jerusalem in triumph, hailed as a conquering king. What a difference one week can make. From King to Criminal, from Conqueror to Crook. He will be celebrated and honored, betrayed and falsely accused, wrongly convicted and executed. . .all this week. . .and for no other reason than to free you and me from the bonds from sin and death. He goes to Jerusalem – knowing he will die – he goes to Jerusalem b/c it is in Jerusalem that every righteous sacrifice for sin must be made. He dies in this one place so that every place from then on will be made right for offering the Father worthy praise and thanksgiving. I challenge you to spend this week before Christ's death on the cross giving God thanks and praise for His mercy. For making His Son the means of your freedom from the darkness of sin and death. Give Him thanks and praise for making us His children again.

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On being greatly troubled

Annunciation of the Lord

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Dominic Priory, NOLA

It is no easy thing to know and do the Father's will. Jesus had the advantage of being the Word Made Flesh, so he knows the divine will intimately. Mary too has an advantage – Gabriel announces the Father's will to her. But even in knowing His will both Jesus and Mary find themselves terrified, anxious. Jesus, near despair, will cry out on the cross, “Why have you abandoned me?” Mary, “greatly troubled,” contemplates Gabriel's strange message. Both know the Father's will and both will do the Father's will. But only Mary is comforted in her fear. Why? Jesus goes to the cross as a Victim, a sacrifice. He makes holy, surrendering to the Father, every human sin so that we might be free of sin. To accomplish this, he must take on our sin and die fully human/fully divine – as he is. Mary is a human girl, perfectly free of sin from her conception. And though she is afraid, she is also faithful and obedient to the Word. She says Yes b/c she knows the Lord is with her. When we come to know the Father's will and resolve to do His will, we too can be afraid, troubled, anxious, terrified. But if we say Yes – in faithful obedience – we can bring His Word into the world when and where we are. We may not hear Gabriel say to us, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” Nonetheless, we can be consoled in knowing that we are indeed servants of the Lord.

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Killing the Self

5^th Sunday of Lent

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

OLR, NOLA

Audio File

Last Sunday we celebrated Laetare Sunday. In Advent, we celebrate Gaudete Sunday. Rejoice! Rejoice Sundays! Priests wear the distinctive rose vestments on these solemnities to signal that we are taking time away from our penitential preparations for a little liturgical partying. This Sunday, we should be wearing black instead of violet vestments b/c today could be properly called Morere Sunday, or Die Sunday. Jesus says, “...unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” Dying is the seed of living. Dying is the way to eternal life. Without death to this world, there is no life in the next. For Americans living in the 21^st century there is probably no more difficult teaching in all the Gospels. Here and now self is god. Self is All. Self is the Way, the means, and the end of being alive. Self is the living center, the source and the summit; Self is King, councilor, and minister. Self is the teacher, the student, and the subject to study. Self is the priest and the altar but never the sacrifice. Whoever wants to live must die. Whoever wants to live eternally must die to Self.

We could reduce “dying to Self” to “don't be selfish.” The sort of thing parents and teachers say to kids when they don't want to share their toys or candy. “Don't be selfish” means “sharing is caring” or “think of others sometimes.” As far as it goes, it's fine. Nothing wrong with encouraging kids to develop a habit of sharing. But what happens when that habit fails to develop into sacrificial love? What happens when sharing is taken to be enough to achieve eternal life? I'm still a Self doling out what's rightfully Mine to Others. Even if I'm sharing what's Mine willingly and gladly, I'm still thinking: It's Mine. Me. I. Myself. Mine. And is it sharing if I'm doing it b/c mom and dad said I have to? Is is sharing if my teacher made me do it? Or if the Church or my boss or the gov't made it mandatory? Maybe I'm motivated to share – or to be seen sharing – b/c I think my business will benefit; or b/c I'm running for office, and I need some good PR; or my therapist said that sharing helps me combat my narcissism. Sharing may be caring. Sharing might combat selfishness. But sharing isn't dying to Self. And sharing isn't the Way to eternal life. Whoever wants to live must die. Whoever wants to live eternally must die to Self.

Why is dying to Self so difficult? I said earlier: Here and now self is god. Self is All. Self is the Way, the means, and the end of being alive. Self is the living center, the source and the summit of the modern Unholy Trinity: Me, Myself, and I. Since the dawn of the western modern age in the 16^th c. the Self has been the sole focus of all our human works. In philosophy, the Self is the inerrant subject. In theology, the Self is the source of truth. In psychology and medicine, the Self is both the patient and the doctor. In law, the Self is the autonomous legislator. In literature, the Self is the author, the main character, and the plot. What we have forgotten is the spiritual art of humility and the necessity of sacrifice for the Other. What we have forgotten is how to be Christ for one another; how to see and believe that nothing is truly ours; that nothing truly belongs to you, including you. Nothing truly belongs to me, including me. If you will have eternal life, you must come to terms with the fact that you are wholly owned and operated by Christ Jesus. We all are. Belonging to Christ is not a cultural identity or social statement or a family legacy. You choose to belong. And when you do, you become a new creation, a new man, a new woman. . .AND. . .you die to Self.

Are you dead to the world and alive in Christ? How can you tell? Watch and listen during your day. Who or what moves you to act? Are you moved by the movers of the world – TV, talk shows, internet influencers, celebrities, politicians? – or are you moved by the Word of God? Who or what shapes how you see and understand the world you live in? Do you see other people as little more than competing stomachs and mouths? Are they just “in your way”? Do you see political power as a means of achieving true justice in this world? Are you worshiping a politician, an athlete, an actor, some created thing as your god? Perhaps your favorite sin is being celebrated by the world as a sign of liberation! And now you think that God must surely change His mind and celebrate with you? Perhaps you think your opposition to the world celebrating the favorite sins of others gets you off the hook for committing your own favorite sins! Mote, meet eye. Eye, meet plank. Do you think loving another in Christ means the unconditional acceptance and approval of anything they feel is right for them? Do you expect unconditional acceptance and approval for any and all of your choices? And play victim when you don't get it? Are you dead to the world or alive in Christ?

Whoever wants to live must die. Whoever wants to live eternally must die to Self. We die to Self by drowning the Self in the waters of baptism and rising up a new creation. You were given a clean white gown at your baptism and told to bring that gown fresh and bright to your judgment at the end of the age. Maybe your gown is little tattered. I know mine is! Maybe its smudged, stained, frayed in a few places. Perhaps your gown looks like you wore in a Wrestle Mania match in the bayou! Doesn't matter. Anytime that Deadly Self re-emerges and tries to take your eternal life from you, you have recourse to the Church and the boundless graces of Christ's sacrificial love in the confessional. Yes. Dying to Self is difficult b/c the very air we breathe rewards us for thinking and acting as though the Self is the only thing that matters. But dying to Self is made easy by Christ, his Church, and your supernatural desire to find your place at the right hand of the Father. Deep down you know you long for Christ and his mercy. Don't let another day pass w/o coming to him and allowing him to give you eternal life.

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Those who will not believe. . .

4^th Week of Lent (Th)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Dominic Priory, NOLA

God says to Moses, “I see how stiff-necked [my people are],” and Jesus says to the Jewish leaders, “. . .you do not want to come to me to have life.” Despite all that God has done for His people in the desert and despite all Jesus has done to confirm his identity in word and deed, there are those who simply refuse to believe. What's preventing them from believing? Jesus gives us a partial answer when he accuses the Jewish leaders: “How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God?” Those who refuse to believe do so b/c they have convinced themselves that it is more important to be of one heart and mind with their peers than to be aligned with the Father. For them, God is safely abstract, distant, and easily ignored. But the benefits of being a well-respected member of the in-crowd are immediate and tangible. Dismissing the testimony of miracles and eye-witnesses comes easily when believing them will cost an in-crowd award, a place of honor, or a hefty donation. If miracles, testimony from witnesses, ancient prophecy, and the spoken Word of God Himself is not enough to convince the unbelievers, what will? Logical arguments? Scientific investigation? Probably not. Pride blinds and deafens. Pride makes it impossible to believe that there is Someone larger, more fundamental to me than my own ego. All we can do here is continue to bear witness in our preaching; doing good works that glorify the Lord; and teaching the Truth given to us by the Apostles. All we can do is struggle to be Christ for others and leave the door always open. 

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Sin and mercy

NB. Archbishop Aymond has asked that we preach on the Penitential Rite this Sunday. 

4^th Sunday of Lent

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

OLR, NOLA

I'm told by old-timers in the Church that sermons used to be all about sin, the need for repentance, and the fires of hell for those who don't repent in time. They tell me that it was pretty much “repent or burn in hell” every Sunday. Sunday after Sunday. The faith itself was all about the law, rules/regulations, the legal minutiae of what counts as a sin and just far you could go before you committed a sin. They say the Church was sort of like an accounting firm doing a sin audit. Sometime after the VC2 all that changed and sin seemed to just disappear overnight. Now it's all about love and mercy and forgiveness and just being nice to everybody. Homilies nowadays (I'm told) are mostly diabetes-inducing Hallmark cards; or, partisan political ads; or, slick bureaucratic HR Dept memos. Pre-VC2 sermons may have ignored mercy. And post-VC2 homilies may ignore sin. But the truth of the faith is that both sin and mercy are realities. Sin and mercy are really-real in this world we live in. To forget one in favor of the other is to cripple the faith and leave ourselves open to being co-opted by the darkening spirits that want to ruin us. So, how do we acknowledge the realities of sin and mercy?

First, we notice, name, and number our sins. For our mortal or more serious sins, we have the sacrament of confession, of reconciliation. We go to confession to receive the mercy God has always, already given us. We name and number our sins. Make an act of contrition. Listen to our penance. And then receive absolution from the priest. For our venial or less serious sins, we have the Penitential Rite of the Mass. At the beginning of every Mass – after the greeting – we are prompted to acknowledge our sins so that we may prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries – the rites of the Mass. NB. we no longer simply “call to mind” our sins; we acknowledge our sins as sins. We acknowledge, confess, recognize that even in small ways we have been disobedient to God. All this is done in the silence of one's heart, alone with God. We allow Him to show us how we have failed; how we have lost contact with Him; how we've stepped off the Way and lived a lie. We ask Him to shine His light into our darkest corners and reveal the truth of our waywardness. Once these sins have been brought to the light privately, we can confess them publicly and receive our absolution.

The next step is the Confiteor, the act of contrition. We confess to God and to one another, the Church, that we have sinned. Confessing to God seems like an obvious step, but confessing “to you, my brothers and sisters” may seem less obvious. We confess to one another b/c every sin – large and small alike – damages the Church. We are all members of one Body. Every sin damages the Body and needs to be healed so that the Body as a whole may be healed. We confess that we have sinned in our thoughts and in our words and in what we have done and left undone. Sins we've committed and good deeds we've failed to do. The next part of the Confiteor is vital. Mea culpa, mea culpa, maxima mea culpa! Why vital? B/c we live in a world where taking personal responsibility for bad acts is seen as a dumb move, a rookie mistake, something no one in their right mind does. Blame society, parenting, junk food, genetics; blame anyone or anything but the bad actor. My sin is my fault, my fault, my most grievous fault. And your sin is your fault. We have to confess this if we hope to be healed. Sin is deliberately chosen. We do not sin in ignorance or by accident. So, if it's a sin, it's chosen. Deliberately picked. And the one doing the choosing is at fault. The one at fault needs to be healed.

And b/c I need to be healed, I ask you, my brothers and sisters, the BVM, all the angels and saints to pray for me. IOW, I've sinned against the whole of the Church, so my healing will come with the prayers of the whole Church. Once we've acknowledged our sins, admitted our fault, asked for the prayers of the Church, the priest prays the prayer of absolution: “May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life.” NB. the prayer uses “us” not “you.” Even the priest needs this absolution. Now, we are absolved and ready to celebrate the sacred mysteries. But first we ask God for His mercy. Not b/c He needs us to ask. But b/c we need to ask. In humility and with praise and thanksgiving, we need to ask: Lord, have mercy! Christ, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! The Penitential Rite of the Mass shows us the proper way to understand sin and mercy. Both are real. Both are part of who and what we are in this world. Sin separates us from God, and His mercy brings us back. Sin is deliberately chosen, and mercy humbly requested. Sin wounds the Body, and mercy heals all wounds. All of us, me included, sin and all of us live in the mercy of Christ. 

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