Time to be contagious

5^th Week OT (W)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Getting Catholic holiness right in a libertine world can be a challenge. For e.g., picking out the Catholics at an office Christmas party or 4^th of July cookout with co-workers could be a betting game. Are the Catholics the ones not drinking? Not necessarily. Not smoking or dancing? Maybe. But that's no sure-fire indicator. Dressed modestly? Who knows? You can't tell much about someone's holiness from their casual behavior, clothing choices, or venial habits. They would have to be out, loud, and proud about their holiness for you to notice. . .and then they could be accused of hypocrisy! Holiness is never in-your-face aggressively proud. It's never a display for public consumption, or carnival act for an adoring crowd. Holiness is simply being Christ where you are to the limits of your capacity. Jesus speaks of holiness in terms of cleanliness and uncleanliness. These are terms defined by the Mosaic Law. What you eat, touch, associate with, or even go near decide your level of clean. You become unclean through contact with something or someone unclean. Your uncleanliness is then a source of infection for others. And so on. Being unclean is contagious.

Jesus wants his holiness – our holiness – to be contagious. So, he says that what goes in cannot make us unclean. What goes in – food, drink – cannot determine moral worth or ritual purity. It all ends up in the sewer anyway. If holiness can be measured, it's measured by what comes from the heart and mind in word and deed. What's said and done by a heart and mind given over to Christ signals holiness. And fruitful holiness is always humble. Never loud, out, and proud. Humility is the honey to self-righteousness' vinegar. We might prefer that the Rules of Holiness specify permitted and forbidden behaviors. Like children who need enumerated rules, we find it easier not to have to guess about what is good and evil. But hearts and minds vowed to Christ already know that love comes first. Willing the Best, who is God, comes first. And then forgiveness, mercy, faith, hope. Surrender and thanksgiving. None of these go into the body to make it clean. All of them, however, come out of the body and soul – immediately contagious, ready to propagate. Think of yourself as Jesus' Patient Zero. And go infect someone with Divine Love!   

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More sitting, less worrying

St. Scholastica

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

The Devil rejoices when you worry. He wants you to be anxious. Why? If he can convince you that your worrying can actually change things in the real world, then he can keep you focused on trying to be God. While you're trying to be God – changing the world with your magical worry – you will fail to recognize that you have become your own idol. Worry, spiritual anxiety is the liturgy we use to worship Self. For e.g., Martha is fretting about Mary while Mary is contemplating Christ. Martha is wasting time and energy trying to control Mary, trying to will her into helping her with the chores. Jesus tells Martha that Mary has chosen the better part. Now, we could conclude from this that sitting in silent contemplation of the Lord is objectively better than being up and about doing stuff for the household. But notice that the issue here is not contemplation vs. action. The issue here is Martha's anxiety. Could Martha serenely contemplate the Lord while serving? Could Mary be in the throes of worry while sitting quietly next to Jesus? Yes to both. But the Enemy has convinced Martha that whining to the Lord is a good way to control Mary. And controlling Mary is a good way for Martha to worship herself. In the real world, Martha isn't serving the Lord; she's serving herself, her true god. That she is “worried and anxious about many things” is evidence of her idolatry. Now, before we conclude that Martha is some sort of horrible person – keep in mind – Martha loves Jesus. She has acknowledged him as her Lord. And she believes that bustling around fetching him tea and biscuits is evidence of her devotion. Notice what's missing. She is focused on service as service. She is focused on doing just for the sake of doing. She has forgotten why she serves. Could Martha serenely contemplate the Lord while serving? Of course she could. Why doesn't she? Because she sees her service as an end in itself. The point of service – for her – is to serve. She has forgotten that loving the Lord is the point of service, loving Christ and giving him the glory is the goal. When Jesus tells Martha that Mary has chosen the “better part,” he is not telling her that active service is inferior to contemplation. He's telling her that being at peace in his love is better than worshiping the Self with anxiety. So, if you find yourself “worrying about many things,” try handing those things over to Christ and sitting at his feet instead. IOW, choose the better part.

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I belong to Christ

St. Agatha

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Everything word you just heard read is foolishness. And Jesus sounds the fool for speaking them. At least, that's how the world hears him. The world wants to hear that the things it loves – self, wealth, popularity, power – that the things of the world ultimately matter. And if there is nothing beyond death, then the world is right. If there is nothing more to being a rational animal than genetic survival and a chance at social standing then, again, the world is right. And Jesus is a fool for saying otherwise. However, if there is something more, something more fundamental to being a human person, to being a creature made in the image and likeness of God, then it's the world that's foolish, and Jesus is a prophet. Paul writes to the Corinthians, “God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world...to reduce to nothing those who are something...” God chooses the foolish, the weak, the lowly, and the despised to show the wise, the strong, the lofty, and the adored that everything they treasure is – in the end – dust. Set against eternity, everything made is temporary. Only a fool trusts what can pass away.

So Jesus teaches a better way. Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow him. As easy as that sounds, we know it isn't. Even if we are determined to be fools for Christ, the way is difficult. We're flesh and blood. This means we're dependent on the things of world to survive. We're social animals. We need family and friends. We're intelligent and curious by nature, so we explore and learn. We make things, use them to make other things, and it is too easy to become attached to the things we make. It's even easier to think of ourselves as the things we make. We can become idols who make other idols. Little gods worshiping ourselves. So, Jesus says again, “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.” Just three seemingly simple commands to turn us toward the eternal and away from the temporary. To turn us back to the One Who made us and remade us in Christ Jesus. When the temptation comes to make this world your temple, as yourself, “What profit is there for [me] to gain the whole world yet lose [myself]?” Then answer: I belong to Christ.

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Do whatever he tells you

2^nd Sunday OT

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Jesus transforms what we need to live into what we need to live well. Water into wine. Why? He does this to announce – in word and deed – the beginning of his public ministry. He lays claim to his divine Sonship. He shows the wedding guests and all of us that he comes to change survival into celebration, to change “just getting by” into thriving on God's abundance. In the next three years, Jesus transforms the Law of stone into the Law of love; he transforms the sacrifices of the temple into the one sacrifice of the cross; he transforms suffering and death into joy and everlasting life. The Wedding at Cana is transformed from just another nuptial celebration into the unique sign of Christ's Sonship and serves as the beginning of his wedded life to the church! The physical miracle of water changing into wine is also a sacramental sign, evidence of God's grace working in the world to seduce us and draw us into the life of the Spirit, a life of holiness. Why does Jesus do as his Mother asks? Simple: the wedding guests need wine for the celebration. And we need his body and blood to live and thrive. Are we, are you ready to be transformed – sinner to saint – by the power of Christ's healing touch?

Jesus' first move into public ministry happens at a wedding? Off choice. But if we take the miracle at the wedding feast of Cana as a sign that God wants us to celebrate and thrive and not just get by and survive, we come closer to understanding the nature of the Church as Bride. Where do we find the bond of love and self-sacrifice? Where do we find the clearest declaration of God's intention to bring us back to Him? Where do we go to receive His blessings and to give Him thanks and praise? The one Body, the Church, His Bride. We find all these – love, self-sacrifice, blessing – we find them all here. . .among brothers and sisters, among the worst and least of God's children, among the best and greatest of His saints. Jesus doesn't reveal himself as the divine Son to a clique, or a secret society; nor does he hoard his power and dole it out sparingly. He spends it. . .extravagantly, at a party. He creates a luxury and helps the guests enjoy God's abundance. Think of Mary Magdalen and the expensive perfume oil she pours out on Jesus' feet. Think of the 5,000 who feast on a few fish and a few loaves of bread. Think of the hundred-fold harvest reaped from a single seed. Think of the Cross and the expense of your redemption, Christ's blood poured out. For his Bride, the Bridegroom desires joy, peace, prosperity. And above all, holiness.

Jesus transforms what we need to live into what we need to live well. Water into wine. He transforms who we are right now into who we were always made to be. Sinners into saints. His public ministry starts at Cana. With a miracle. It ends – apparently – on a bloodied cross. With an execution. But the miracles do not end there. They continue for another 2,025 years. Yearly, daily, even hourly. Right up until [time] on Sunday, January 19, 2025 at St. Albert the Great Priory, Irving, TX. And they will continue so long as you and I “do whatever he says.” And what does he say? “Fill the jars with water.” A practical task, easily done. Literally. But as a sign, a sign of his Sonship, “fill the jars with water” is much, much more than an order to perform a job. It's an order to prepare that which will be transformed. It's an order to set the stage; to get ready; to provide your life to become everything God created you to be. He will not transform you w/o you. He will not make you into Someone Holy w/o your cooperation. He will wait until your jar is filled.

Ordinary Time – ordered time – is all about filling your jar. It's about the daily, mundane work of getting ourselves ready to go from ordinary water to extraordinary wine. From sinner to saint. This is the time we perfect our obedience. When we do whatever he tells us. When we speak to the Father, giving Him thanks and praise. When we bear witness in word and deed to His mercy. When we love, forgive, deny the self, take up our cross, and follow him. This is the time when we set aside the need for control, the need to be right, the need to dominate. And instead admit that we need to surrender, to unclench a heart and mind pinched with anxiety and worry. We need to celebrate our victory in Christ and walk away from the fight we were never meant to fight, a fight that ended with the Empty Tomb. Are you, are we ready to be transformed? If not, there's time. Fill your jar. With fervent prayer. Daily acts of mercy and kindness. Moments of intense surrender to the Father's loving care. And...do whatever he tells you.

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Hey, you asked!

St Anthony, abbot
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St. Albert the Great, Irving

I'm one of those “bottom-line” types of people. Just tell me straight up what I need to know. Save the polite preface, skip the weasel words, and just Say It, whatever It is. When I'm teaching, I like discussion and what-if's and not really knowing exactly where we're going. But in everything else, especially things like practical problems to be solved and questions to be answered, I want concision, clarity, and precision. I appreciate the RYM for asking the question he wants answered, “Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?” Jesus, not known for his crystal clarity, answers in a typically teacherly fashion, “Why do you ask me about the good?” Great. Here we go. Answering a question with a question. Making me think. Making me question my assumptions. Just tell me the answer so I can repeat it on the exam at the Last Judgment! Then, he does, “If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” Now we're getting somewhere! A concrete answer. Something to do. Then comes the spiritual nuke: “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor...Then come, follow me.” Hey, buddy, you asked.

The RYM seems to be in a hurry. He asks Jesus the question he wants answered. Jesus answers, “Keep the commandments.” The RYM asks another question: “Which ones?” This question translates into: OK stop with the philosophical muttering and weird religious speculation and just give me the formula, the prayer, the sacrifice, or the whatever it is that gets me into heaven because I'm a bottom line kinda guy and your cryptic zen puzzles are annoying me and making me think and I just wanna know how not to go to hell so please, Jesus, tell me what's going to be on the Test at the End so I can spit it back up and get my eternal A+. Jesus, being a good teacher, tells him which of the commandments he must observe and the RYM says (in effect), “Been there, done those. What else?” Jesus, ever the one for surprise and difficult demands says, (in effect), “Sell all of your stuff, give the money to the poor, then come, follow me. This is just how you start on your perfection.”

Not a good answer for the RYM b/c, well, he’s rich and young. So he goes away sad. And then Jesus tells his disciples that it is hard for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. Why? Probably b/c riches incline one to cling to them, making it difficult to follow Christ in a life of poverty. It’s not the having that’s the problem; it’s the clinging. Remember: you become what you love. Cling to temporary things and you become a temporary thing. Easily bought and sold, easily lost. Cling to Christ and his work and you become Christ to do his work.

The temptation, of course, is the path of least resistance. Just tell me, Father, what I need to do! Bottom-line it for me, padre! The truth is: holiness is work, hard work and there are no shortcuts. I could tell you to throw on scapular or pray a novena or sing a litany to St. Jude and all of those would be fruitful. But none of them will substitute for following Christ in his work – healing, feeding, clothing, visiting those in need, those who need our help and want our company. There’s no magic spell to holiness, no Instant Win scratch-off card that guarantees you heaven. If you want to be perfect, unclench your heart, move your feet on Christ’s way, lift your hands in prayer, attach yourself to nothing temporary, rather, give yourself to eternity. And listen again to Jesus: “Give what you have to poor, come, follow me.”

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Epiphany: what has been made known?

Epiphany of the Lord

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

OLR, NOLA

What has been made known? That's what an epiphany is – the event, the moment when the unknown is made known. When the obscured is clarified. The Magi find the Christ Child in Bethlehem; pay him homage as their King; and gift him with treasures proper to his station. What do their visit and their gifts make known to us? Paul shares the Magi's revelation with the Ephesians: “...the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” He adds, “[This mystery] was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed...” For centuries, the Jews waited for the arrival of the Messiah. He was their Savior, their long-promised salvation from sin and death. Even after Christ's birth and the start of his public ministry, even after his sacrifice on the cross and resurrection from the dead, some still held to the cherished belief that the Messiah came to save the Jews and them alone. The Magi – priests and astrologers from the East, Gentiles to their bones – reveal a different mission for the Christ Child: he comes to save us all. Gentiles and Jews alike.

The Magi – knowing who and what the Christ Child is – prostrate themselves and open their treasures to him. Having submitted themselves to his kingly rule, they depart, leaving Herod to wonder where his potential rival for royal authority rests. Now, with Baby Jesus napping in Bethlehem and Herod fuming in Jerusalem, all of humanity is thrown into the daily existential drama of choosing a King. To whom do we submit? A prince of this world? Or the Prince of Peace? A temporary king in a temporary kingdom? Or the eternal King of the whole universe? Herod will go on to reveal the corruption at the heart of his kingdom. He will order the slaughter of all male children two years old and younger. He will sacrifice the lives of babies for his power but move not one inch to sacrifice himself for the sake of another. Christ too will go on to reveal the majesty and power of his Father's Kingdom. He will sacrifice himself for our sake, giving his life – human and divine – on the Cross for the salvation of his people. The epiphany shows us that Gentile and Jew alike can be saved by the Christ. It also shows us how to live in a world ruled by Herods. What must we do?

Remember who you are! You are members of the Body of Christ. You are coheirs to the Father's Kingdom. You are partners in the mission and ministry of Christ Jesus. Two thousand years ago, the Word became flesh and lived and moved among us. At your baptism, you too became the Word made flesh. You live and move and have your being in the Word. Who you are is the Word. Incorporated into the Body, you inherit a kingdom and become a partner in that kingdom's rule. You have chosen Christ as your King. Yet! Herod rules the world. And we know that we cannot serve two Masters. So, we live in the rule of a Herod but under the rule of Christ. To accomplish this exhausting task, we are given – weekly, even daily – the Body and Blood of our King to sustain us. We are given him who saves us, strengthens us, blesses us, and brings us to our perfection in him. Remember who you are. And remember what you have vowed to do. The Magi revealed the Christ to us. Now it's our turn to reveal the Christ to the world. With every thought, word, and deed, wherever you happen to be, whatever you happen to be doing – reveal Christ as your King. Show his mercy. Show his love. Repeat his offer of salvation from sin and death. Make him known. You are given the strength and courage to accomplish this. Do it!

This Mass will end like every other Mass you've ever attended – with a final blessing and a dismissal. These two small bits of liturgical action signal to most that it's almost time to head home for lunch/dinner and catch a football game on TV. But if you pay attention, you'll hear and experience something more profound than an ending. You'll hear and experience a beginning. The final blessing grants you God's favor and lifts you up in your pursuit of holiness. It sets you apart from the world, consecrating you to a specific purpose: to be Christ in the world. So consecrated, you are dismissed, sent out. You are given a charge, an order for your work as a Christ. The last words you hear exhort you take what you have received in this Mass and share it with the world. We find comfort in the regularity of the liturgy – the predictability of the responses; the order of the rites. We find strength and courage in the readings and in knowing that Christ is truly present on the altar. We may even enjoy the fellowship we find here. But we were not saved from sin and death to live comfortable lives in a church building. We were saved to be sent out. We were saved to be bearers of the Good News.

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Are you ready?

4^th Sunday of Advent

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Just three days from now, we will celebrate the 2,024^th anniversary of the coming of the Son of God into human history as a child. Just three days to finish up our preparations. Just three more days of waiting. Are you ready? I don't mean here: are you ready for all the Christmas events you've got on your calendar? I don't mean: have all the gifts been bought, wrapped, and put under the tree? I don't mean: have you purchased your Honey Baked Ham and soaked your Christmas pudding? I mean: are you ready for the coming of Christ into the world? His coming as the Christ Child and as the Just Judge? Set aside for a moment the Christmas-y elements of December's end and consider the end for which you were made by the Father and remade in Christ Jesus. Are you ready? If not, you have today and two more days to get ready. What do you have left to prepare? What's left undone? Perhaps you're missing out on the joy of Christ's birth and return. Maybe – unlike John in his mother's womb – you're anxious, fretful, or just plain blah. Now's the time to remember that joy is an effect of love and godly joy is an effect of divine love!

This Christmas will be my 60^th Christmas. Like most grown up kids I love the gift-giving, the feasting, the extra fancy liturgies. But I do miss gathering with my mom's huge Mississippi Delta family. All 50 something of us. And the quiet Christmas Eves with my dad's mom and dad. Just the six of us at home. I've celebrated Christmas in several US states and three foreign countries. My favorite presents over the years: a kid's doctor bag, complete with stethoscope and syringe. An LED digital watch. A check for tuition. A Jerusalem Bible. And my grandfather's annual one-size-fits-all gift of a crisp $100 bill. I miss taking my mom shopping for the family's gifts. She hated shopping, and it was my job to keep her on task. It was also my job to keep the Christmas Eve menu under seven dishes. Left alone, she'd cook enough food for four Christmases! At 60yo, and mom passed away, my job now is to sit back with my dad and watch my four great-nephews – all under 5yo – tear my brother's house apart. And laugh. The pics we take year to year all look the same year to year. Well, we get fatter, grayer, and the boys get taller and louder. Nothing else seems to change. I wouldn't have it any other way.

But that's Christmas. What did I do to prepare? And what do I have left to do? Being a Dominican friar means I've spent the last three weeks praying the Advent Offices and celebrating Advent Masses. All the language is about the arrival of Christ; preparing for Christ; waiting, anticipating, expecting. Scripture points out the ancient prophecies of his identity and his mission and how he will come again. If we've been paying attention, we know just how extraordinary the Incarnation really is. How unique in human history it is for God to take on human flesh and bone. If we've been taking in the Spirit of divine love, we know the joy of his arrival. We know the relief of being freed from sin and death. We know what it is to be remade in the image and likeness of the Christ. To be offered the Father's mercy and adopted into His holy family. We feel the charge of being Christ in the world for the salvation of the world. And we can work and rest and pray knowing that our labor is always made light and smooth in the presence of the one who died for us. If you're not ready, don't worry. Getting ready is a matter of a moment.

Today and two more days. When the family gathers, give God thanks for his holy family and their fidelity to the Word. When the Christmas feast comes out of the kitchen, give God thanks for the feast of the Eucharist and the Wedding Feast in heaven. When the Christmas gifts get handed out, give God thanks for the gifts of the Magi to the Christ Child and his gift to us on the altar. When the children tear into their presents, give God thanks for John's joyful and rambunctious witness to Jesus from his mother's womb. And when everything is eaten and unwrapped, and everyone is stuffed and ready to sleep, give God thanks for sending His Son among us so that we might join Him at the end of the age. If you're not ready, there's time. His birth, life, death, and resurrection serves human history from all eternity. He is always being born, always living, always dying, and always rising. So, it's never to late to jump for joy!       

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Birth and return

3^rd Week of Advent (W)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

During our monthly lector's meeting last night, the friars discussed two articles about the physical and spiritual effects of social media on the brain. To boil it down: social media leaves us reactive and isolated. “Reactive” in that we come to expect a “frictionless achievement of gratification” by sacrificing depth of knowledge for superficial information. And “isolated” in that we sacrifice real person-to-person relationships with “transitory and stylized transactions severed from...belonging.” IOW, social media leaves us anxious and frustrated with the day-today realities of just getting along with other embodied souls. If we struggle to just “get along,” how much more difficult – if not impossible – is it to actually love one another in a culture founded on digital ephemera? Advent is all about waiting on the birth of the Christ Child and the return of the Just Judge. The key words here being birth and return. Coming into the world through another person and coming back into the world as a person. The Real World of Real People, Places, and Things. Not the pixelated imaginary of two-dimensional space. Jesus was conceived, born, lived, and died. He is Emmanuel, God-is-with-us.

Matthew gives us Jesus' genealogy. He has a long family history. 42 generations. He has distant relatives with names and histories of their own. He was born in a real place. To a real woman. Who is betrothed to a real man. And all of this is prophesied by Isaiah 800 years before the Nativity. The early Church fought against an army of heresies that denied the reality of Jesus' humanity. For close to 500 years we weren't convinced that Jesus was a real person – flesh and bone and blood. And even after we settled on an orthodox Christology, vast segments of the Church held tightly – for another 500 yrs. – to the error that Jesus couldn't really be “like us in all things but sin.” Or that he was exactly like us – a creature of the Father. This might all seem like an academic exercise best left for the classroom, but how we understand the person of Christ grounds how we understand ourselves as persons who are becoming Christs. If Christ was just a god, then there's no hope for us. We are not gods. But if he's just a man, then we are perfect as we are being merely human. Advent teaches us to wait for the birth of God-is-with-us. Emmanuel.

And if God-is-with-us, then we are with one another in Him. Never alone. Never isolated. Our prayer, our worship is never “transitory and stylized transactions severed from...belonging.” And the wisdom we inherit from our ancestors in faith is never just the “frictionless achievement of gratification.” We do not and cannot surrender deep knowledge of God for superficial information about God. Advent teaches us that remaking ourselves in the image of what we ourselves have made is the stupidest form of idolatry. Christ is born. And he will return. Until he does, he is with us.

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