Are you lost?

2^nd Week of Advent (T)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Back in 2014, I went to the March for Life in DC. I was the chaperone for 36 Catholic high school students. Anytime we got back on the bus after an event, I counted my chickens. 36. Imagine if we returned to NOLA with only 35 students, and when confronted with the fact that one student was missing, I responded, “Hey! I got 35 of them back. What's one lost student out of 36?! 35 and 1 is a great record.” Well, you can just imagine the uproar. I'm using this analogy to explain Jesus' parable b/c it's likely we're thinking what the Pharisees and scribes were thinking: the 99 sheep are more important than one lost sheep. For the scribes and Pharisees, uncleanliness is infectious; cleanliness is not. IOW, the one lost sheep is lost b/c he is unclean, and it's better that he remain outside the flock. Rabbis like Jesus shouldn't be associating with the unclean. They will get dirty. Jesus is teaching his opponents that their beliefs about cleanliness and uncleanliness are exactly backwards. Sin is not infectious; grace is. Merely sitting in the presence of a prostitute doesn't make one a prostitute. However, when a person living in grace sits with a prostitute, the shepherd is finding his one lost sheep. The Enemy tempts us to think that associating with sinners is a sign of faithlessness, a sign that we are considering participating in their sin. This is a brilliant move on the Enemy's part b/c it keeps us away from those who most need to be found. We might get dirty. Well, finding and rescuing lost sheep is dirty work. It's hard work too b/c the Enemy also tempts us to rescue sinners by telling them that their sin isn't really a sin. We may think we're being loving here, but all we are really doing is enabling their sin and throwing ourselves into uncleanliness. Thus the shepherd needs to grasp two unshakable truths to do the his job in faith: 1). the lost sheep is priceless and worthy of rescue; and 2). the lost sheep is lost b/c he has chosen to get lost. If I can't or won't admit that I am lost and in trouble, then I cannot be found and rescued. If the shepherd is telling me that I'm not lost nor am I in trouble, then why is he bothering me about rejoining the flock? When we are shepherds, we love the sinner and admonish the sin. When we are lost, we confess that we are lost and desperately in need of rescue. And we always remember – whether we are the shepherd or the sinner – grace is infectious; sin is not.  

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Are you glorifying God?

2^nd Week of Advent (M)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Does the paralyzed man want to be healed? We don't know. Does he believe that Jesus is the Messiah? We don't know that either. In most of the healing stories from the NT, the person healed wants to be healed, or believes in Jesus, or both. But the paralyzed man is silent. We do know that his friends want him to be healed and that they believe Jesus can heal him. But they too are silent. For Jesus, that's enough. Their determination, ingenuity, and hard work are enough. Before and during his healing, the paralyzed man remains silent. But he receives his healing as a gift, and that's enough. After his healing, the words flow. Luke tells us, “...[he] picked up what he had been lying on, and went home, glorifying God.” We are rational animals, body and soul. What hurts the body, hurts the soul and vice-versa. Jesus makes this clear when he says to the ever-vigilant Pharisees, “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?” IOW, to forgive sin is to heal the whole person, body and soul. And the healed man's response to his healing is gratitude, giving the glory to God so that others may come to know the power of God to forgive and heal. Jesus doesn't just return a man's physical mobility and spiritual purity, he creates an apostle, one sent out out to bear witness to God's power. Imagine: the soul you are is loaded down with failures, flaws, and sin, and the body you are is exhausted from carrying all that weight. You're tired, can't sleep, angry, depressed, anxious. You go to the Lord in confession for healing. You hand all that damaging weight to Christ through his priest, and the priest – acting in the person of Christ – says to you, “I absolve you...” You are healed. The burden is gone. You are no longer paralyzed. You can walk, run, dance, and you can give the glory to God. Here's the question: do you? Do you give God the glory? Do you tell others about your healing?In healing you, Christ makes an apostle, one sent out to proclaim the power of God so that others may come to know His mercy. You perfect your healing by bearing witness to the miracle of forgiveness. Are you astonished? Do your friends and family see you and say, “We have seen incredible things today.” No? Well, they can't see what you don't show them.

 

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Hark, the Heralds Angel sing: Repent!

2^nd Sunday of Advent

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Here we are on the second Sunday of Advent, talking about deserts, locusts, wild honey, camel's hair, and vagrant prophet named John. We're only 21 days from Christmas. Shouldn't we be talking about Santa Claus and reindeer and elves and presents under the tree? We're hearing hymns like the “Dies Iræ,” – “Days of Wrath” – and “Go Labor On.” When we should be listening to “Jingle Bells” and “Frosty the Snowman.” The Gospel is all broods of vipers and repentance from sin and divine anger and winnowing chafe and unquenchable fire! We could be forgiven for thinking that the Church is being a Grinch or a Scrooge for throwing cold water on our Christmas Spirit. AND. . .we'd be right for thinking so if we were in the Christmas season. But we're not. We're in the season of waiting for Christmas, waiting for the birth of Christ and his second coming at the end of the age. The locusts and vipers and deserts and days of wrath are here to prod us into being ready for the Just Judge and the trial we all face after death. So, John the Baptist, crying out in the wilderness, preaches: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

Just yesterday, a UD student asked me what “repentance” means. I said, “It means to turn around, to return to God.” The Greek word in the NT is metanoia, meaning “to change one's mind,” to alter one's plans or purpose. When we put ourselves on a path, believing we are taking the best route to our goal, and it becomes clear that that path is taking us into darkness, we are urged to metanoia, to turn around, to repent. There's a time limit on our ability to repent. We call that limit “my life time.” Each one of us has exactly as long as we will live to turn around. At death, an eternally binding decision is made: to live with God, or without Him. He will honor our decision either way. Of course, He wills that we return to Him in love. However, love requires that we return to Him freely. John the Baptist is sent to sound the alarm: time is running out; the Kingdom is at hand; repent! Leave the path toward darkness and death and return to the Father. That's what Advent is all about – getting ourselves ready for the coming of the Just Judge, the One who will listen to our eternal choice and honor it. Santa Claus, reindeer, elves, and Christmas trees are wonderful signs for the proper season. Right now, however, we are in a season of repentance and anticipation.

Thus, the violet vestments and alarming hymns. And I know it all sounds so old-fashioned – repentance and judgment and days of wrath. But “old-fashioned” cannot be applied to the Gospel. The Word is eternal, so it is true now, back then, and tomorrow. It has always been true and will always be true. Pretending that we're too mature or sophisticated or modern to worry about sin and salvation is Pride writ large. Calling our sins “mistakes” or “struggles” doesn't dilute their affect on our immortal souls. Our moment before the Just Judge will not a “check in” with our Cosmic Therapist. He's not there to affirm our OK-ness, or hand us a salvation participation trophy. He'll be there to hear our choice. What do you choose? Eternal life or eternal death? And we need to be clear here: we don't make this choice after death; we make it everyday, every hour, every minute. Any time we think, speak, or act, we are making that eternal choice. We are saying to God: I want to be with You, or I can get along w/o You. Spend these next 21 days examining your choices. Spend them pondering how you have loved; how you have shown mercy; how you have been generous with everything God has given you. And if you start to think you're a hopeless sinner. . .well, repent! God always, always welcomes a sinner.

And if all this contemplation of your sin depresses your Christmas Spirit. . .good. It should. It's not Christmas yet. It will be. But not yet. Paul calls us to a life of hope, a life of endurance and encouragement. We've been given a spirit of courage not cowardice. So, we are more than able to be honest with both our sin and God's mercy. And we don't have to wear animal skins or eat bugs in the desert to find our peace. All we have to do is bring ourselves to God in confession and ask Him to show us our sins. In the presence of His perfect love, the marks of our disobedience, the times we have chosen not to love, will glow like fire. And all we have to do is take responsibility for our failures. We will receive His eternally-given forgiveness and turn again toward our perfecting end. Then we go back out with the words of John the Baptist ringing in our ears, “Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.” Now, we start again as imperfect Christs showing the world what the mercy of God can do with sinners like us. 

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Just say the Word

1^st Week of Advent (M)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

The Centurion's faith amazes Jesus. No one in Israel has such faith. No one? Not the priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, the Lord's own disciples? This Roman occupier of the Holy City, this worshiper of false gods has faith in an itinerant preacher who claims to be the Son of God? Apparently so. But just what is this faith? What does this Gentile trust in exactly? In refusing Jesus' offer to go to his house and heal his servant, the Centurion says, “...only say the word and my servant will be healed.” He trusts in the power and authority of Christ's word. Just say the word. He doesn't genuflect or light a candle or sacrifice a goat or rattle off a long, convoluted prayer. Just say the word, Lord. Say the word, and he will be healed. He analogizes the power and authority of his own word as a Roman officer to Jesus' power and authority as the Son of God. His orders are carried out. His word is obeyed. And so it is with Christ. The Centurion is acknowledging that Jesus is the author of creation and so has authority over creation's order. Where there is something broken, he can fix it. Where there is disease, he can cure. Where there is sin, he can forgive. Christ has the authority to make right every relationship gone wrong. Father to daughter. Mother to son. Husband to wife. Master to servant. God to Man. In his divine person – out of who he is – Christ can redeem all of creation to its original godly order. The Centurion's trust in his word amazes Jesus. He says, “...in no one in Israel have I found such faith.” If Jesus were to visit Irving, this priory, this 8.00am Mass, could he say the same of you and me? If not, we have 27 days to prepare ourselves to answer the question. We have 27 days to exercise our trust muscles, to prepare for the heavy lifting of his coming again. Will he come again at the end of Advent? We don't know. But we do know that we have this time to work out – to trust, to hope, to love, and to call on his holy name for the right ordering of our lives. If the pagan invader of the Holy City can trust God to heal his servant with a word, then surely you and I can surrender to His will and pray, “Just say the word, Lord. Just say the Word.”  

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Advent: Your Clock is Ticking

1^st Sunday of Advent

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

I am an Advent Nazi. The friars did not know this when they elected me prior. But there it is. No Christmas carols before Dec 24^th. No Christmas trees. No red, green, and white decorations. No little Santa Clauses pushing Advent back towards Thanksgiving. Advent is its own season, one deserving of our respect and attention! So, we wait. We prepare. And we anticipate. Christ is coming, but he's not here yet. What do we need to do while we wait? Isaiah says we are to walk in the light of the Lord. Paul says we must wake from sleep and throw off the works of darkness. And Jesus says we are to stay awake and prepare for his coming again. IOW, Advent is set to test us, to prove our readiness for the Final Judgment. Yes, we are looking forward to Christmas and the birth of the Christ Child. But we are also looking forward to The End, the last day, and our final test before the Just Judge. Are you ready to stand before him, account for your life, and hear his judgment? If not, you have four weeks, just 28 days, to get ready. Make the most of the time you have. Everyone's clock is ticking.

Brothers, sisters: I do not wait well. It is one of my many failings. At Kroger yesterday with Br. Bede, I got frustrated b/c they had one register open. There were four people with stuffed carts in front of us. I moved us over to the self-checkout and got even more frustrated b/c the wretched machine kept booping nonsense at us, requiring a cashier to correct it. After the third time the poor woman had to exorcise the demon-possessed computer, I said, “Y'all can't be making much money with these things.” She smiled nervously, giggled a little, and said nothing. I think she's probably used to impatient customers. So, I do not wait well. And if my ego were bigger or more deranged, I might come to believe that God invented Advent just to provoke me. But my ego isn't that big or deranged, so I'll have to make do with the Church's idea that Advent is a time to contemplate The Last Four Things and prepare for the coming again of Christ. To wit: if you didn't know already, you are going to die. So am I. We are in the world but not of it, just passing through, and we need to be ready to exit. As followers of Christ, our exit is nothing to fear. . .if we are ready. How do we get ready? By observing the 28 days of Advent and then treating the other 337 days of the year as off-season Advents.

We do this by walking in the light of the Lord. By waking from sleep and throwing off the works of darkness. By staying awake and preparing for his coming again. We wait in the light. Keeping ourselves fully exposed in the direct light of our Lord's glory. We shake ourselves away from the lies, the manipulations, the scheming of the Enemy and refuse to do his dirty work. We give no room in our hearts and minds to envy, pride, wrath, or greed. We do not allow ourselves to be seduced by compromise or vanity or selfishness. We treat everything we have and everything we are as God's eternal possessions and only ours for short time. We treat ourselves and one another as embodied instances of divine love, men and women who reveal the truth, goodness, and beauty of the Father just by living and breathing. We remain stubbornly, aggressively faithful to the Gospel handed down to us, and we wear ourselves out bearing witness to His mercy. And when we fail in our preparations, we turn again to Christ and receive his absolution. Yes, we are getting ready for the birth of Christ. Of course, we are! But we are also getting ready for our death. Jesus says, “...had [the master of the house] known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake.” But he didn't. And his house was broken.

Stay awake! Vigilance is exhausting. Always being on guard against the Enemy is exhausting. We need rest and refreshment. That's prayer. Prayer is the time God floods us with everything we need to remain alert. Prayer is the time we open ourselves to receive everything God has to give us. Prayer is our chance to praise Him and give Him thanks for His gifts. Shopping, cooking, decorating, entertaining – all exhausting. By the time Christmas arrives, we just want it over. So, don't start Christmas until Christmas. Take this season of preparation and prepare. Fortify, stock up, repair, and rest. You have 12 days after the 25^th to celebrate Christ's birth. And you have 28 days – more than twice as long – to get right with God and prepare for your birth into eternal life. What I'm say here is this: become an Advent Nazi! Wait joyfully, wait peacefully for the coming of Christ. Then – when the time comes – go rejoicing to the House of the Lord! 

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Become perfect Love

St. Ignatius Delgado OP & Companions

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St Albert the Great, Irving

God owes you nothing. He owes me nothing. He created us and then re-created us in Christ Jesus. Though He owes us nothing, He gives us everything. We were freely made and freely re-made. Everything we have and everything we are is a gift. From the brute fact of our existence as male and female to the complexities of our personalities, we are wholly gratuitous creatures solely dependent on the Father's “plan of sheer goodness”(CCC 1). Understanding and receiving this foundational truth about the nature of reality is called humility. We are dust and divine love given flesh and bone. How we choose in our freedom to respond to this truth, this humility determines how we will live minute to minute until we die. If we choose to live as though we can save ourselves, making idols of ourselves, loving ourselves w/o God, then we will become what we love – merely temporary, passing things that endure in eternal bitterness and regret. If, however, we choose to live in a permanent state of praise and thanksgiving to God, loving ourselves and others b/c He loved us first, then we will become what we love – immortal men and women, abiding in perfect unity with Love Himself. We will become Love perfectly.

The Grateful Samaritan is healed. Along with nine Jews, his body is made well again. The GS returns to give Christ thanks and praise for his healing. Now, his soul is healed as well, his whole person is made new again. The nine Jews do not return to thank Christ. Why? We don't know. Maybe they took their healing as payment for a perceived debt. Maybe they thought they were entitled to the gift. Could be that they were too overwhelmed with joy to consider giving thanks. Whatever the reason, they did not choose to submit themselves in humility before their Healer and give him thanks. Jesus says us nothing about their fate. To the GS he says, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.” Your trust in God has saved you, healed you, brought you back into the household of the Father. Ask yourself: am I the GS, or am I among the ungrateful nine? God doesn't need our gratitude. He doesn't need our praise. We need to give Him thanks and praise simply b/c doing so is our confession of what's Real: we are gratuitous creatures growing in holiness, beings being perfected in the sacrificial love of Christ. 

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The only answer that matters

St. Clement of Rome

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Who do we say that the Son of Man is? Looking around the Church these days, it would appear that we say he's a bureaucrat working for a religiousy social work organization; or a fiery Traddie sporting a bow tie and fedora; or an addict living under a bridge; or a soccer mom running for the school board; or a careerist bishop looking for applause from the media. We say he is a lot of things. Most of which is false. The Enemy tempts us daily, hourly to make Jesus into our own image and deny who he really is. This is a smart strategy. If the Enemy can prod us into re-making Christ into a reflection of our sinful selves, then we can be OK with who we are in our sin. We can say, “Look! We are following Christ. He looks just like us.” Of course, the truth is we've just put Christ on a leash and made him follow us. To help you and me remember that we are his creatures and not his creator, Jesus asks, “Who do you say that I am?” The only correct answer is: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This confession of faith is the only way to salvation. There is no other name, no other job title, no other process or procedure through which we can be saved from sin and death. We can eagerly attach ourselves to political platforms or reform movements or synodal processes or intellectual projects or social justice activities and sincerely believe that we are saving ourselves and the Church with the good works of good intentions. But if we re-create Christ and make him into an idol of our efforts, then he becomes just another mascot, a pet to distract us when our important work gets boring. How do you name and dismiss the Enemy's temptation to re-create Christ? Remind yourself daily that your good works are not your god. That your good intentions are not your god. That your opinions, your politics, your niche ecclesial obsessions, your devotional eccentricities – none of it is your god. Who do you say, who do you think, who do you feel, who do you know the Son of Man to be? “Christ, the Son of the living God” is the only answer that can save you. 

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Do you love God?

St. Margaret of Scotland

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

I've been a priest, confessor, and spiritual director for 17 yrs. I've served as a seminary/university professor and priest-formator for 13 of those yrs. Without hesitation, from my experience, I can tell you that the single most difficult truth for Christians to accept is that God's love is unconditionally, absolutely free. That is, there is literally nothing you and I can do to beg, borrow, steal, or earn God's love. And there is literally nothing we can do to make God cease loving us. Here's why: God is love. He is love by nature. Who He is is Love. God isn't someone above and beyond love Who loves. He isn't a super powerful human-like being Who loves this but not that. To be God is what it is to be love. We cannot beg, borrow, steal, or earn God's love b/c we cannot beg, borrow, steal, or earn God Himself. If God were to cease loving me, I would cease to exist. In fact, all of reality would cease to exist b/c God would cease to be love in failing to love me. So, how do you know – with absolute certainty – that God loves you? Easy. Do you exist? If you say, Yes, then God loves you. Freely, absolutely, unconditionally.

Now that that question is settled, we can move on to the more complicated question: do you love God? God loves b/c He is love. You and I are not love. We participate in His love (b/c we exist), but we are not love itself. IOW, we can sin. We can fail to love as we ought. This is where our problems start. One way of experiencing my sin is to feel or sense that God has stopped loving me. In the presence of Perfect Love, my imperfect love feels like abandonment. It feels like God has set me aside. Then, in my desolation, I start trying to earn back God's love with penances and prayers and weeping and gnashing of teeth. The Enemy cheers on our efforts to win God back b/c all our efforts keep hidden from us the one truth we find hard to accept: God's love for us is absolute, free, and unconditional. Nothing can keep God from us. But we are more than expert at keeping us from God. Our love for Him is almost always relative, bound, and conditional. So, Jesus says, “I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete.” What did he tell us? God is love. He – Christ – is in God's love. And we remain in His love by following His commandments. What is his command? “Love one another as I have loved you.” Freely, sacrificially.