04 August 2012

Standing with Truth

St. John Vianney
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Please bear with me. I want to take a shot at explaining why those who proclaim God's truth often end up decorating silver platters with their heads; or, to be a little more up-to-date, find themselves the target of protests, hate mail, death threats, and demonization by the media. Back in John the Baptist's day the evolution from prophet to corpse is a bit easier to explain. It shouldn't surprise you that you land in jail after you tell the king—you know, the guy who commands an army—that it's illegal for him to marry his brother's wife. Add to the mix a party, a beautiful dancing girl, a spiteful mother, and a foolish vow, and you get a how-to manual on getting a prophet's head on a platter. Explaining how truth-tellers in our own day find themselves drowning in manufactured outrage and media scrutiny is more difficult. The circumstances are certainly different now—we have 24 hr news, blogs, twitter, Youtube. We also live a democratic culture where political speech is free of gov't interference. What's not so different is that those who seek to punish truth-tellers (then and now) do so for the same reason: those with darkened hearts lust after power and the light of truth can enlighten even the darkest heart. Hearts given to Christ know that worldly power is trap. 

By the early 20th c. it was clear to Antonio Gramsci that his beloved Marxism was an economic and political failure. No industrialized nation had undergone the workers' revolution that Marx had predicted. What went wrong? He concluded that orthodox Marxism fails to address the basic human need for cultural and spiritual expression. He admired the Church for her success in achieving cultural dominance in Europe through art, music, and literature. But this dominance was unacceptable b/c it kept the capitalist middle-class in power. The workers needed their own culture, a secular culture. To achieve this, Gramsci argued that force and coercion had failed to bring about the workers' paradise, so the machines of culture—the press, educational institutions—needed to be revolutionized to serve the working-class. The principle target for this revolution was language. Traditionally, language is used to describe reality. Words match things in the real world. Gramsci argued that this theory made it impossible for the working class to overthrow the capitalists b/c the capitalists attached their moral and political values to reality. Institutions such as marriage, family, the Church all worked against the working-class. How to undermine their influence? Detach language from reality and make language the creator of reality. 

I know this sounds crazy, but this is exactly what has happened in our pop-culture—the media, the academy, even some churches. Two generations of Americans have been trained in the art of constructing their own realities by manipulating language. For these folks, words no long describe a reality independent of the mind. If I want the word “marriage” to refer to a relationship btw two people of the same-sex and you say that this is an impossibility, I can accuse you of oppressing me with your hatred. Reality is nothing more than what I choose it to be, so how dare you deprive me of my right to choose my reality! Off with your head! When we stand up to proclaim the truth of the Gospel and all that it entails for our culture, we make ourselves a target for those who have darkened their hearts. For them, this is a battle about power, about who gets to control the construction of reality. For us, this is a mission to tell the truth about God's creation and how His creatures can be freed from darkness and brought to His light. There is nothing new about this mission, nothing at all novel about this battle. The ancient Enemy thrives in lies and chaos. Our task, our prophetic duty is to stand with Christ and shine with the Spirit's fire, proclaiming over and over again: the truth will set you free! 
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03 August 2012

Shame the Devil

17th Week OT (F)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Jesus' neighbors openly question his credentials as a prophet b/c he's a local boy. If we focus on this part of the story, we risk overlooking a truly puzzling step in their reaction. We have to smash together two sentences to see this puzzle clearly. Here they are: “Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds?. . .And they took offense at him.” Do you see the puzzle? Jesus' neighbors confess that he is teaching wisdom and doing mighty deeds. And this offends them! Rather than be grateful for his imparted wisdom and his healing miracles, they choose to be offended that a local boy would come home and. . .do what? Show them up as rubes? Flash his divine power around? Demonstrate how much he's learned? What are they upset about? On what grounds are they offended? It would seem that they are unconvinced that Jesus is who he says he is. It would seem that they are put off by what they see as his boasting. But there's more here than that. What if they are offended b/c they know he's the Real Deal and having the Son of God as a long-lost neighbor and a current visitor is deeply, deeply unsettling? 

Sometimes it's easier to find a natural explanation for a miracle. Sometimes it's just simpler to write off a bit of uttered wisdom b/c the one uttering it is probably crazy. Sometimes it is more comforting to look for hidden motives or psychological explanations to dismiss a friend's conversion or a relative's experience of the divine. Familiarity, they say, breeds contempt. Knowing someone well often tempts us into quickly discounting a real change in that person. Oh, he's just having a streak of bad luck, so prayer is the only thing he's got left. She's a Jesus freak now b/c her husband left her, and Jesus is the only one who'll have her. He just wants to be a priest b/c he doesn't want to work for a living. Could it be, just possibly, that a streak of bad luck has served to show this guy how necessary it is to stay in touch with God? Could it be that this poor woman is giving her grief to Christ as a sacrifice? Could it be that that young man is truly called to serve the Church as a priest? Of course, it is! But if we allow familiarity to breed and nurture contempt, we risk rejecting two very real possibilities: 1). that God can and will move us to repentance and contrition; and 2). we can find ourselves so moved, and radically changed. Do we really want to gamble against God and His will that we be converted? 

What happens when contempt prevents us from trusting in God and His promises? Matthew tell us, “[Jesus] did not work many mighty deeds [in Nazareth] because of their lack of faith.” No faith, no mighty deeds. So, not only does contempt for God and His works demean those upon whom He chooses to work His mighty deeds, it also prevents the rest of us from receiving the inevitable graces of those deeds. Will contempt and scorn feed us, heal us, or free us? Doubtful. In fact, we can just about count on hearing this day's prophet proclaim, “I will. . .make this the city to which all the nations of the earth shall refer when cursing another.” When we strain ourselves looking for the answer that allows us to dismiss God's work, or confirms us in our current rebellion, we are straining against the tide of God's will for us; we're rowing against the flow of His desire to see us reconciled in Christ. If you witness a mighty deed of the Lord, or hear His gracious wisdom uttered, stop and give Him thanks. Look for no other explanation than the only one that matters to your eternal goals. And even if you were right to show contempt for a fraud, you will have shamed the Devil with an act of love. 
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02 August 2012

Fav Southernism???

Headed home for a two week vacation in Mississippi on Monday.

Yes. . .reading with the squirrels!

Going home always provokes in me memories of my fav "Southernism's."

Once, in the studium at table with a few of the student brothers and our student master, I commented on the epidemic of friar's coming to Office with astonishingly foul breath.  

Our student master, Fr. Michael Mascari, said, "Philip! Basta!"  

I finished with: "OK. But their breath could scare a buzzard off a carcass. . ."  

The milk Father was drinking shot out of his nose.

What's your fav Southernism?
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Weed or flower, sheep or goat?

[NB. An edited repost from 2009.]

17th Week OT (Th)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St Dominic Church, NOLA

Generally speaking, Dominicans prefer to teach folks into heaven rather than scaring them away from Hell. We would rather persuade than cajole, influence rather than frighten. It is better to touch a rational soul with the Light of Christ than it is to scare the snot out of a sinner with visions of Hell. But sometimes the rational soul of a sinner might need to be shown a scene or two of eternal life without God. Doesn't a soul twisted in folly, unable to choose the Good and come to God deserve the mercy of wisdom's most immediate remedy? Jesus, the Master Philosopher, knows that even a mind deeply dedicated to right reason but steeped in sin may need a hot-shock, a whack upside the head in order to see through foolish to wisdom. The “fiery furnace” he refers to so often in Matthew's gospel is just that jolt of reality we sometimes need. It's not pretty, but it sure is helpful. 

As helpful as images of Hell may be, we tend to shy away from preaching about eternal damnation these days. Too 1950's fundamentalist. Very “pre-Vatican Two.” But if we are going to preach the gospel, there is simply no way to avoid the subject given the lectionary readings! These last two weeks alone Jesus has separated the goats from the sheep; pulled the weeds from among the flowers; culled the good fish from the bad; and his angels have set the midden-heap of pruned branches ablaze. So, let's not mince words; let's study the truth as Jesus presents it to us: make a choice—goat or sheep, flower or weed, good fish or bad, fertile soil or barren dirt. All you need to do is make the right choice. The consequences of making the wrong choice are—shall we say—extremely unpleasant! Our choices and their consequences really are just this stark. Few of us, however, experience the choices in such stark terms. 

So why is Jesus presenting the choices in such glaring black and white terms? Why the threat of eternal punishment in the fiery furnace for making the wrong choice? Jesus is a Master Philosopher and a Master Psychologist. Think about how Jesus preaches and teaches. He uses parables, scriptural allusions, conversation, examples, even miracles. Sometimes he interrogates and cajoles. Rarely does he argue like a Greek philosopher or a Pharisee. The people in the crowds respond to him b/c he sparks to life their intuitions about what is true and good and beautiful about being well-loved creatures. He knows that his very presence jump-starts that nagging desire for God that we are born with and strive to satisfy in this life. And he knows that without God's help we will consistently fail to reach high enough when reaching for our happiness. Settling for imitation happiness, faux-joy but it takes the real-deal to enter the kingdom. And if Jesus has to scare the snot out of us to get us to pay attention to our eternal choices, then get the hankie ready—here comes the scare! 

If you were frightened into the faith, you might not be particularly proud of the fact. It would be more embarrassing, however, to remain faithful out of fear, to remain a believer because the fiery furnace looms large in the imagination. The threat of the furnace is meant to scald a foolish soul into seeing the light of reason, to awake a sleepy desire for God. Clearly, Hell is a very real option for anyone who chooses to live without God for eternity. But Hell is not the be-all and end-all of the gospel. Once the furnace-option has been rejected and we have joined the flowers, the sheep, the good fish, and the fertile soil, Hell might linger as a whiff of smoke to remind us of our wise choice, but the daily life of a Christian is not dominated by the fear of an already and always defeated enemy. We chose to receive the extravagant graces poured out from the cross and the empty tomb. Though the heat of the furnace may have turned us from its punishing flames, setting us on the right course, we stay the course for Christ b/c nothing else, no one else can bring us home. For us, no one else is home.
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01 August 2012

Chick-fil-A & the PC Police


 Hmmmmm. . .b/c the P.C. Police, their professional whiner-goons, and everybody else in the world knew that B.O. was lying about opposing same sex "marriage"?
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Prophets whining to God

St Alphonsus Liguori
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

WANTED: One prophet to serve as Mouthpiece for the Lord. Adventurous individual who is not afraid of causing trouble; willing to speak up against wickedness, injustice; eager to call out sinners in My Name; must be repentant, humble, obedient, not easily dissuaded by ridicule or mob violence; persuasive public speaker; able/willing to relocate at the Lord's command. Sackcloth/ashes provided. Salary: one pearl of great price. No self-starters, please. You won't find this want-ad in The Times-Picayune. And you probably can't imagine many jumping at the chance to be a Mouthpiece for the Lord. If Jeremiah is typical, it's easy enough to see why being a prophet is not exactly a growth industry. Even in an economy as bad as this one, a job that requires you to wander around the city yelling at sinners to repent seems less than attractive. But the salary sounds good: one pearl of great price. And then again, Jeremiah reports in his first HR review: “Woe to me, mother, that you gave me birth! I'm a man of strife and contention to all the land!” Is being a prophet worth the trouble?

Before we answer that question, we need to be reminded of a potentially inconvenient truth: whether we know it or not, whether we like it or not, we are all prophets. What? You don't remember sending the Lord your resume? You didn't apply for the job? When did that I become a prophet, you ask? We were all made prophets the moment we were baptized. Becoming a member of the Body of Christ entails being made a prophet. You can't be a Christian and not be a prophet as well. So, let's dispense with the idea that the job of prophet is found only in the Old Testament; that it's a job given to someone else. It's our job. And it's time to punch the clock! 

 Now that we're on the clock, what are we supposed to be doing? If Jeremiah is our guide, we're supposed to be sitting alone with our indignation; bent over by the curses of our neighbors; and in continuous pain from our many wounds. Is being a prophet worth the trouble? Sure doesn't sound like it. One minute we're living our sinful lives and the next we're telling God that His words are our joy and our happiness. Then He calls us to be His prophets and we obey. Our sinful lives are suddenly set against His Word and all that we've been seems small, mean, incredibly trivial. Set against His Word, our own words and deeds are made to seem futile, selfish; they are whispers lost in His whirlwind, gestures unnoticed in His glory. And we would be right to shrink away from the prophet's mission if we went out without His blessing. What does the Lord say to Jeremiah in his despair? “If you repent, so that I restore you, in my presence you shall stand. . .I am with you, to deliver and rescue you.” Well, that's good to know, but what have we done as prophets that requires God to rescue us? First, no prophet can do his/her job as an unrepentant sinner. If we despair as prophets, it's b/c we preach repentance but do not ourselves repent. Second, who enjoys hearing that they are sinners? It's not an announcement that many are going to welcome. But repentance brings us the Kingdom, that pearl of great price. 

By word and deed, by what we say and do, we prophesy for Christ; we announce his Good News to the world and attract those who most need his mercy. Prophets are magnets, drawing in all those who feel the emptiness of sin and long to be filled with the freedom God's mercy bestows. Whether we know it or not, whether we like it or not, by our words and deeds, we attract/repel those whom God sends to us. Prophets always prophesy to themselves first. 
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31 July 2012

Coffee Cup Browsing

WHAT!?  Holder's DOJ lied to someone?!

The Olympics. . .yawn.

More outrageous outrage-hypocrisy on the whole Chick-fil-A nonsense.

Teachers' union helps to protect child molesters.  Imagine the headlines if this were about the Church!


Episcopal bishop spends a lot of pixels trying to justify her job.  The Zeitgeist is an adulterous harlot and there is no future in wedding her.

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30 July 2012

Even the smallest seed. . .

17th Week OT (M)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Poor Jeremiah! Because the people of Judah are a “wicked people who refuse to obey [God's] words,” poor Jeremiah is ordered by God to buy a loincloth, travel to Parath, bury the garment under a rock, and then travel back to Parath to fetch the loincloth, which, by this time, is rotted, and good for nothing! All this to make a point: God's people have become an adulterous mob, a people “who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts, and follow strange gods to serve and adore them. . .” Poor Jeremiah! He is given the task of going to God's people and telling them what they already know—that they are no longer an obedient nation; they are no longer thriving with the grace of their God. They are rotten and good for nothing. In their disobedience—their refusal to listen to the Word of God—they have grown stubborn and idolatrous. How will they be punished for their disobedience? God will simply allow their preferred condition to follow its natural course. Their pride, their integrity as a nation will be allowed to rot. The Lord will not rescue a people who refuse to be rescued. He will not cut away the rot from an uncooperative patient. However, even the smallest seed of faith can leaven a nation. 

What have the covenanted nations of Judah and Israel lost in their disobedience? God says to Jeremiah, “. . .as close as the loincloth clings to a man's loins, so had I made [them] cling to me; to be my people, my renown, my praise, my beauty.” And now they wallow in stubbornness and the worship of alien gods. How does the rot begin? It begins in disobedience—the failure, the refusal to listen to God's Word. At the root of this failure is yet another failure: to trust that God pours out His goodness and truth for the long-term benefit of the nation. We could call this “spiritual short-sightedness,” but it could just as easily be called “self-destructive pride.” It's the moment that we as individuals, as a nation, or a Church decide that God's promises, His Word to us, is no longer sufficient for our daily thriving, no longer necessary for our struggle to become perfectly human. It's the moment we decide to give our allegiance, our worship to a more pliable god, a less demanding god. When we choose to walk in the stubbornness of our hearts by giving thanks and praise to this permissive deity, the rot begins. But to rot we must first be dead. 

What kills us as a nation, as a people? If disobedience, stubbornness, and idolatry are the rot that comes after death, what kills us? The loincloth is the sign of Judah's covenant with God, the sign of His people's faith in Him. God tells Jeremiah not to wash it, then to bury it, to put it out of sight. Under the rock, the filthy linen rots. When we fail to keep the faith clean, when we fail to keep our trust in God pure, and then bury the evidence of our faithlessness, we die. And the rot begins. Our faith in God is not a spectacle to be observed, a theatrical display. Neither is our trust in God a shameful habit to be buried under polite indifference or hidden away as an embarrassing cultural leftover for ages past. Only a living seed can grow into a thriving plant; only living yeast can leaven flour into bread. Our faith, our love, and our hope must be living, breathing habits of the heart and mind put into action, taken into the world so that God's glory in our lives might draw in all those we seek His mercy. There are more pliable gods—science, politics, business—but none of these will say to us, “Come! Be my people, my renown, my praise, my beauty!” None of these can save us from ourselves. And all of them would watch us rot. 
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29 July 2012

Thanks

A kind and generous soul sent me a volume of poetry from the Wish List!

There was no packing slip, so I can't thank you by name. . .

Thanks & God Bless, Fr. Philip
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Coffee Cup Browsing

Someone is threatening The WalMart.  Prolly an Occutard.

Tolerance?  I don't think you know what the word means?

How draconian are the gun laws in Chicago?

Couldn't care less about the Olympics if I tried.  The opening ceremony was a Leftist propaganda-fest?  Well, I guess I actually can care less about the Olympics.

Atheist poet finds Christ in the Church!

Nothing those Jesuits do surprises me anymore. . .well, OK, this did.

Stuff Catholic Guys Say. . .

Queen Michelle Antoinette Obama says, "Let them wear off the rack!"  Yes, $6,800 for a jacket.

An unexpected--though welcomed!--post from Crdl. Roger Mahony on Chick-fil-A hatred.

"Diversity is our greatest strength," so let's ban/demonize/boycott all those who disagree with us!
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28 July 2012

All that we need to come to Him in love. . .

17th Sunday OT
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Audio File (Wow. . .my southern accent really shines in this one!)

Let's talk about divine providence. That's what our readings this morning/evening prompt us to reflect upon. Here's a definition that pretty much says it all: “Providence is God Himself considered in that act by which in His wisdom He so orders all events within the universe that the end for which it was created may be realized. That end is that all creatures should manifest the glory of God, and in particular that man should glorify Him, recognizing in nature the work of His hand, serving Him in obedience and love, and thereby attaining to the full development of his nature and to eternal happiness in God.”* Did you get all that? I hope so. There's going to be a quiz at the end of this homily. Should I repeat it for you? No? OK then. That's a complex definition for a fairly simple idea: God takes care of us so that we might come to Him in love and live with Him eternally. When it comes to providing for His people our God is never stingy, never thrifty. By nature, He is always generous, abundantly gracious, even extravagant. But here's the thing. . .He provides in copious amounts all that we need to come to Him in love. What God knows we need to thrive is not always what we think we need to survive. Our daily challenge is ask for and receive all that we truly need and not worry about the stuff that cannot bring us closer to God. 

 How do we begin to tackle this daunting challenge? How do we effectively separate what we truly need from what we desperately want? One way to do this is to think about The Basics for Survival. Ask yourself: what can I not live without? Literally, not live without. Meaning, if I didn't have this, I would die. Food and water come to mind. Some sort of shelter from the elements. Clothing would be good. For some of us, we could add this or that medication. With access to these things we could keep body and soul together. That's a good start but our goal here is not mere survival. Yes, we need to be alive in order to get closer to God in this life but just getting by isn't the same as thriving under His care. We need more than the material necessities to fulfill our goal, our end. Remember the purpose of creation is “that all creatures should manifest the glory of God” and for us in particular it is to attain “the full development of [our human] nature and to eternal happiness in God.” What do we need on a daily basis to assist us in fully developing our human nature so that we might attain eternal happiness in God? The one thing we need more than anything else is God Himself. We cannot become the men and women we were made to be w/o Him. And we certainly cannot attain eternal happiness w/o the source of that happiness working in our lives. 

If you knew this already, then you know that merely surviving as an intelligent animal is not your reason for being. If you didn't know this, then hear it again: we need God not only to exist, to survive as we are, we also need Him to thrive, to grow, and to become perfectly human, perfectly happy as Christ himself was perfectly human and perfectly happy. God's providence, His loving-care for us, comes to us as graces, gifts, freely given. The long definition I quoted to you earlier makes it clear that “Providence is God Himself,” God gives Himself to us for our spiritual provision. He gives Himself to us in our existence—that we exist at all is His gift. He gives Himself to us in our ability to love one another—that we are capable of loving is His gift. He gives Himself to us in our desire to return to Him—that we long for happiness, peace, consolation is His gift. He gives Himself to us in His sacraments, His Church, His Word—that we are one Body in Christ is His gift. He gives Himself to us in faith, hope, charity—that we are able to trust Him and His promises is a gift. All we need to flourish and grow toward happiness is provided; freely, abundantly, extravagantly given. Why then do we find ourselves so often wallowing in unhappiness? It's not for lack for divine provision. It's b/c we have yet to find a workable way of separating what we truly need from we desperately want. When we are unhappy, we are dwelling on what we do not have. We have locked ourselves in the prison of scarcity, a self-made spiritual illusion. 

Paul is in prison—a real prison—for preaching the Good News. He writes a letter to the Church in Ephesus, urging them “to live in a manner worthy of the call [they] have received. . .” What call have they received? They were called to Christ by Paul to live lives of repentance and sacrificial love. This sort of life must be lived with “all humility and gentleness, with patience. . .” There's no mention here of a new car, a better paying job, a better-looking spouse, smarter kids, the latest electronic gadget, or an off-shore tax shelter. Humility, gentleness, and patience. All divinely provided free of charge. Have you received these gifts so that you might be happy? If you have received them, do you use them? How should we live together? Paul writes that living lives worthy of our call means “bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace.” No mention of liking one another; agreeing with one another politically; being thrilled to bump into one another at Wal-Mart; or going to the movies together. Bear with one another in love; strive to be one in the spirit b/c we all want peace. Also, all divinely provided. Have you received these gifts and do you use them if you have? From the prison-cell of scarcity, all we will ever see is what we do not have. Wanting is not needing. If we need it to grow in holiness, it has already been given to you. 

Look at the 5,000 who gather around Jesus to hear him preach and watch him heal. When Jesus sees the crowd, he wants to feed them. He turns to his disciples and asks a perfectly reasonable question: can we afford to feed this many with what we have? Philip, avoiding the question, anxiously notes that even if they spent the wages earned over 200 days, they wouldn’t have enough food. Andrew pushes forward a boy who has some food, but gloomily notes that the little he has won’t be enough for the crowd. Can’t you hear and see Jesus sigh and roll of the eyes!? At this late date, these two still don’t get it! Philip and Andrew see only scarcity; they see only what they don't have or how little they have. Jesus doesn’t berate them. He teaches them: “Have the people recline.” Have the people prepare to feast. And they do. And afterward Jesus tells his disciples to pay attention to the excesses of the feast, what’s leftover, the abundant remainder of what they could only see at first as scarcity. Is this a lesson about how to stretch a meal on a budget? No. Jesus feeds us with the bread of eternal life—all that we need to attain perfect happiness. Philip and Andrew do not see the possibilities packed into the bread Christ offers the crowd. Not only is there enough for everyone, there's an abundance of leftovers. In other words, there is mercy and love and trust enough for everyone to attain their happiness and leftovers besides. God provides in copious amounts all that we need to come to Him in love. What He knows we need to thrive is not always what we think we need to survive. Our daily challenge is ask for and receive all that we truly need and not worry about the stuff that cannot bring us closer to God. We are free from the prison of sin; do not lock yourself up in the prison-cell of scarcity. Receive what God has given you—all that you truly need—and thrive onto eternal happiness in Him! 

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Coffee Cup Browsing

Heh. Boston's Dem mayor:  Chick-fil-A BAD. . .Nation of Islam GOOD

Well, OK then. . .as long as your Christian beliefs are deeply held.

The lesson here?  Ban knives and require everyone to carry a handgun.

Why we can't trust the Left when it comes to the 2nd Amendment. . .

First legal win for Christians against ObamaCare condom mandate! 

In the absence of Reason & Truth, only Power matters. . ."Tolerance" is all about Power.

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27 July 2012

3 seeds, 3 soils

16th Week OT (F)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Our Lord says that the seed of his Word falls on various kinds of soil. Each kind of soil presents it own difficulties in the nurture and growth of his Word. Like all of Jesus' parables, this one lends itself to multiple interpretations, depending on how you choose to identify the different elements. We could say, for example, that the various kinds of soil represent different sorts of people; or, different sorts of situations; or even, different stages in just one person's growth in holiness. Regardless of how we choose to interpret these elements, the difficulties remain the same. Let's focus on what prevents the seed of the Word from doing its job and think about how these difficulties might be overcome. 

The first seed fails to take root b/c it is sown on a path. Jesus tells us that this means that the hearer of his Word fails to understand what he is teaching. Because he fails to understand, the Evil One comes along and steals it away. This tells us that one way to prevent the devil from stealing what Christ sows in us is to make sure that we understand what Christ is teaching. As baptized Christians who are vowed to a life of holiness and charity, we are morally obligated to know and understand all that Jesus taught and all that the Church teaches. Yes, all of it. This means time and energy spent actually learning all that we claim to believe as Christians. Not just memorizing the Creed, the Mass responses, and devotional prayers, but coming to “stand under” Christ's teachings and allowing them to filter to us everyday, all day our waking experiences and moral choices. Get a Bible; get a copy of the Catechism; and learn all that you can about the faith you profess! 

The second seed is joyfully received but quickly lost at the first sign of trial or tribulation. We're told here that joy alone is not sufficiently deep to grow strong roots. Of course, there's joy in receiving the Word! But receiving the Word while living in the world almost always brings trouble. Is your initial joy deep enough to grow strong roots? Roots strong enough to endure persecution? It can be if your joy is strengthened over time with knowledge and tempered by wisdom. However, if your joy remains nothing more than a purely emotional response, then you will likely find yourself searching for thrilling religious experiences—the churchy version of going to see an action movie or riding a roller-coaster. A joy deep enough to allow the Word to take root is achieved only by the commission of radical acts of charity. 

The third seed is choked by the thorns of worldly anxieties and the lure of riches. Though Jesus doesn't show us a link btw anxiety and riches, there is one that will choke the seed of his Word. The more attached we are to the world, the more concerned we are about losing what we have. This isn't a warning about having too much stuff. It's about the strength of our spiritual attachment to the stuff we have. Think of it this way: the more attached you are to the things of this world, the more thorns you have to avoid to seize Christ's Word. Can you lose everything you have and everyone you love and still find a deep joy in being an adopted child of the Father? If not, here's a warning for you: you will become what you love most. If you love temporary things, you yourself will become a temporary thing. 

So, how do we cultivate a soil—a heart and mind—deep enough, rich enough to receive, nurture, and grow Christ's teachings in our lives? First, we must understand what it is that we profess to believe. We don't have to be another Augustine or Aquinas or BXVI. But we do have to understand to the limit of our ability to understand. Second, our joy in being Christians must be deepened by radical acts of charity—acts of sacrificial love that give witness to God's mercy. Third, we must love God first and foremost so that we might become Him Whom we love. 
___________________

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Ecclesial earthquake in SanFran

B.O.O.M!

The Holy Father has appointed Bishop Salvatore Cordileone as the new archbishop of San Francisco.  I can hear the wailing and gnashing of Prog teeth here in Nawlins'!

From Whispers in the Loggia:

After a half-century of occupants accused by conservatives of soft-pedaling church teaching in favor of a more conciliatory approach toward constituencies ranging from gays and lesbians to Nancy Pelosi -- a group of prelates among which even the recently-retired lead guardian of church doctrine, Cardinal William Levada, was not exempt from stinging criticism -- the move delivers the long-desired "Holy Grail" of the American Catholic Right firmly into the faction's hands, in the form of a prelate already known widely both for his forcefulness and a stringent doctrinal cred almost unequaled among his confreres on the national bench. 

For liberal Catholics, meanwhile, the appointment is likely to be received as something akin to the city's Great Earthquake of 1906, or even more apocalyptic events. In a nutshell, an appointment of this dramatic, potentially explosive nature is enough to make even last year's blockbuster move in the States -- likewise a final US move of the Curia's annual work-cycle -- appear almost mild by comparison. 

It's time to start praying and fasting for Bishop Cordileone!  
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26 July 2012

Report: Boxes O'Books

Been busy unpacking boxes o'books. . .just four more to go. . .but no room left for them.  

Seeing all these books again reminds me that I need to say. . .

THANK YOU!

. . .to all my Book Benefactors.  Please know:  I pray for all my benefactors daily. . .at Office and at Mass.  You are all well-prayed-for.

I'd say 90% of my library comes from the Wish List and other contributions from you guys.

The sweetest box o'books opened this morning:  about 10 vols. on the history and practice of Catholic preaching from the Church Fathers to post-Vatican Two.  Sweet. . .indeed.
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25 July 2012

My boxes and me. . .

Just got back into New Orleans and unloaded my boxes. . .all 22 of them!!!

I remember storing around 12 boxes.  Do boxes of books reproduce? 

Thanks for the prayers. . .everything went off without a hitch.

Fr. Philip
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23 July 2012

Fr. INTJ, or not all astrologers see stars

In what seems like a life-time ago, I took a personality test.  Yes, I have a personality.  And it has been tested.  In fact, it's been tested quite often.  One of my grad school roommates was a psych doctoral student, and he used me as practice for his Measures and Diagnosis seminar.  I've also been through two psych evals during the application process for religious life.

Anyway, this personality test--the Myers-Briggs--indicated that my personality is best described by the initials INTJ.  That stands for something or another that I'm authoritatively told is an unusual type.  

Never paid it much attention until someone recently asked me if I had ever taken the Myers-Briggs.  She wanted to know my type.  I told her.  She giggled (yes, giggled!) and said that she could've won a bet b/c she would've guessed that I am an INTJ.

Needless to say, I had to find out what was so giggle-worthy about INTJ's.  So, to Google I went!

And found among the detritus of the intertubes lots of info on INTJ's.  Apparently, we are a rare breed of arrogant jerks who spend most of our time wandering around inside our heads entertaining ourselves and mostly ignoring social norms.  

My take on all this info is that it's much like a Zodiac sign, though spruced up with psycho-babble and the "astrologers" have Ph.D.'s.  Though I have to say that most of what I found applies to me: loves ideas, books, the Big Picture, averse to displays of emotion, aloof, introverted, low tolerance for B.S., etc.  The negative stuff is pretty true too: blunt, argumentative, hyper-critical, sarcastic, bordering on cynical, etc.  The one thing that doesn't fit me at all:  INTJ's are supposed to be obsessively orderly.  Not me, bubba.

This post really made me laugh b/c so much of it is true for me!  Of course, being a priest, I've learned to temper a lot of the more publicly negative aspects of my personality.  Thank you, Jesus. If I was called into the student master's office it was almost always b/c I had spouted off at table in some ridiculously pompous fashion and one of the sensitive friars took me seriously.  Yes, it was his fault for not having a sense of humor.  (See.  That's how a real INTJ works!).  :-)

BTW, I'm a Gemini in the western Zodiac and a Dragon in the Chinese Zodiac, which means I'm a schizophrenic big mouth who breathes fire.  HA!

BTW2, yes, I'm procrastinating b/c there's packing/unpacking to be done.  Blech.
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Audio file for St. Bridget (homily)

Tried preaching w/o a text this evening.

Meh.

I prefer preaching from a text.  There were several points I wanted to make but didn't b/c I was too busy trying to remember them.
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An unexpected surprise. . .

I'm one of the Kool Kids now!

All last week, Catholics bloggers were taunting the rest of us poor schmucks with the fact that they'd received a review copy of Sherry A. Weddell's new book, Forming Intentional Disciples.  I'm looking at you and your ginormous facial hair, Mark Shea!

I'll confess. . .yes, I was just a tiny bit envious.  But, I reasoned, even though Sherry works with Dominican friars and I'd met her once in Irving, TX. . .that was no reason for her to send me a copy of her book.  

Besides, it's only $12. . .

THEN! In the mail today. . .neatly wrapped. . .and lovingly signed by Sherry Herself. . .a copy of the very book I'd been coveting!


So, now that I'm one of the Kool Kids. . .I can suggest that you join Our Cadre by getting a copy of the book that's got everyone who's anyone in the Catholic blogosphere talking.  :-)

Oh, and thanks, Sherry!
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Road trip!

Taking a two day roadtrip to Irving, TX tomorrow and Wed.  Going to get the boxes that I stored there before going to Rome in 2008.  

Lots of books, clothes, and other useless but sentimental junk!

Pray for a safe trip, please.
___________________

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21 July 2012

Are you ready to do a great deed?


[NB.  The deacons are preaching at St Dominic's this weekend.  I'm celebrating the vigil Mass today at Our Lady Star of the Sea.  This parish, I'm told, is used to slightly longer homilies.  So. . .]

16th Sunday OT
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
Our Lady Star of the Sea, NOLA

Brothers and sisters, it will come as no surprise to you to hear it said, though being reminded of the fact never hurts, that God has done great things for us. He has done great things to us. And—if only if we will—He will also do great things with us! This bit of Good News is not news to us b/c we have long lived in the light Christ. No, not always perfectly, for sure, but living in his light most of the time is always better than living in the darkness all the time. And if, on those occasions when we are all too ready to listen to the enemy whisper, and if, when we listen, we hear what we want to hear, and do what we want to do, Christ's light always shines through that darkness to show us a smooth and level path back to the righteousness that is ours as heirs as the Father's kingdom. But you know this already. None of this is surprising. None of this is news to those who walk the way of love, behind the Lord, carrying a cross, looking forward, looking upward, looking beyond, beyond this world to the peace that passes all understanding in the world to come. If we know all this already, why do we need to hear it announced again? Well, the Good News of Jesus Christ might not be news to you. But it might be news to somebody, and that somebody is waiting to hear from you that he or she is profoundly loved, sacrificially loved, redemptively loved by the same God Who spoke the Word of Love into nothingness, and established by His love everything that is, everyone who is; and that same God holds by His love everything that is, everyone who is in being. Do not say—b/c you cannot say—that the Creator and Sustainer of all that is does not love you. He abandoned His Son to death for you, so that you might have life and have it abundantly, eternally. God has done great things for us. He has done great things to us. And—if only if we will—He will also do great things with us! Paul reminds the Ephesians of one great deed accomplished in the flesh of Christ. Christ, Paul says, is our peace. He made Jew and Gentile one, breaking down the walls of hatred and hostility, and abolishing the law with its divisive commandments. Why? So “that he might create in himself one new person in place of the two,” thus establishing peace, reconciling both Jew and Gentile with God, in his body and through the cross, putting that ancient enmity to death by his death. Is this a great deed we are prepared to imitate? To put an end to hatred and hostility through the faithful practice of sacrificial love? 

Let me be frank with you. Maybe even a little blunt. If you found the courage once upon a time to lay claim to your inheritance as an adopted child of the Father, and you found the time and energy to reap the benefits of God's abundant graces and His mercy, and you found the strength to walk this far along the crucified way, then you have the courage, the time, the energy, and the strength to present to this fallen world a mind and body formed in the likeness of Christ; a ready voice to speak the Word of Mercy and Truth to sinners; and the hospitality necessary to welcome into this family every leper, every tax collector, every prostitute, every politician, every Pharisee and scribe that crosses your path. You have everything—b/c it has been given to you—everything you need to live and die in love for the sinner, announcing the Good News of Jesus Christ to anyone with ears to hear, and—most importantly—you possess the power to grant mercy to all those who have offended you, showing them and reminding yourself that you too are a sinner in desperate need of receiving God's forgiveness. Anyone here w/o sin throw a stone, a hymnal, a shoe. Who isn't in need of mercy? Someone out there falsely believes that their loving Father, their Creator, does not love them, and they are angry, hateful, hostile, driven by despair, and quite possibly armed to the teeth. Can this lost soul look to me, to you, to all of us and see the face of Christ shining back at him, shining out the love that saved us from a darkness that never ends? If not, you and I, the whole Church have failed, miserably failed to be who and what we were re-created to be. We are a den of liars and thieves, deceiving ourselves and stealing from God souls that rightfully belong to Him alone. We cannot fault the world for its hatred and violence if we harbor in our own hearts the despair that feeds hatred and violence. If there is room in the soul of the Church for nurturing despair, disobedience, dissent, then there can be no room for Christ. We must be empty so that Christ might fill us up. We must be empty so that God's love fits perfectly, fully, and overflows and overflows and overflows. We must ask ourselves as individuals and as a Church: what takes up space in our hearts and minds that deprives us of the room we need for Christ? Truly, honestly can we pray with the Psalmist, “The Lord is my shepherd; there is NOTHING I shall want”? If we are busy wanting what has not been given, then we are too busy to love as we ought. 

You have heard it said: God has done great things for us. He has done great things to us. And—if only if we will—He will also do great things with us! The apostle Mark tells us in his gospel account that Jesus and the disciples are overwhelmed by the crowds and decide to jump a boat and escape across the sea. When they arrive on the other side, they discover that the crowd has followed them. Jesus surveys the masses before him and, Mark tells us, “[Jesus'] heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.” Note well the connection Jesus himself makes btw “lost sheep” and the need for instruction. Note well that it is compassion that motivates our Lord to teach these lost sheep “many things.” Out of his loving-kindness for the lost souls who follow him around yearning to know his truth, Jesus teaches them all that they need to know to live righteous lives; he teaches them all that they need to know to live in peace with one another and to live with justice for the least among them. We might want to ask here: what exactly does he teach them? To answer that we would need to spend several hours reading all four gospels! Or, we could look again at Paul's letter to the Ephesians and recall that Christ creates in himself one new person to replace both Gentile and Jew, thus establishing peace, thus placing the divine order over the natural order, thus dissolving the hardened hearts of accidental neighbors, so that both Gentile and Jew are reconciled with God, in his body, through the cross, and finally putting to death an ancient enmity that benefits no one but the Enemy and his legions. All that Christ teaches the lost sheep that day on the beach is tightly packed into one tiny word: love. No, not romance. Not being sweet like your mama said to be. Not indifference or passion or overwrought emotion. Rather, agape. Charity. Caritas. That Love Who spoke His creating word over the void and yanked into being all existing things. That Love Who spoke to the patriarch Moses and inscribed His commandments in stone. That Love Who spoke to Abram and made an everlasting covenant with a people not yet born. That Love Who spoke to His covenant-nation through the prophets and called them back to fidelity. That Love—agape, caritas—Who sent His holy spirit to the virgin, Mary, and gave to His creation a savior, a Son, to fulfill the obligations of the old covenant and establish a new covenant with a universal nation, a universal people. 

When Christ teaches the crowd on the beach, he says much and more but he exudes in his person and mission just one word: love. Packed tightly into that one little word is the salvation of man, the redemption of creation, and the whole promise of the Old Covenant: you are My people and I AM your God. When we do and say and think as we have vowed to do, say, and think, we too exude in our person and mission the healing power of Christ love. And nothing—not hatred, violence, anger, oppression, greed—nothing vile, nothing that abides in darkness or feeds on despair can withstand the creating and re-creating majesty of Holy Love! God will do great deeds with us. He will accomplish through us works mightier than the princes of this world will allow. When I fall, you continue on. When you fail, I will try all the harder. When both of us stumble—and we will—there will be brothers and sisters there to pick us up and move us along. We are one Body, reconciled in his flesh and blood, so that the Good News of God's love will always have the hands, the feet, the mouths, the hearts and minds of a holy people, a nation renewed to speak the Word of Truth and accomplish the righteous deed. Jesus tells the disciples to come away and rest for awhile. Well, break-time is over. There are lost souls out there and possibly in here that need to see and hear us acting and speaking in love. So, I will ask again: are you, are we prepared to submit ourselves in obedience to the law of love and put an end to hatred and hostility in our families, our parish, our ward, our city, our Church? Are we ready—through the faithful practice of sacrificial love—to forfeit the demands of pride and surrender the need for vengeance? If those of us sworn to love one another cannot/will not readily agree to reconciliation in the Body, how will those souls already swimming in hatred and violence ever see the light for rescue? The Church, the Body of Christ, demands nothing more from us than everything we are—the whole person, all that God has given us for his greater glory. We grow tired. But that's why we are here. We grow frustrated with our own failures. But that why we're here. We aggravate one another like siblings do. But that's why we are here. Take all that you receive here and go out there. Take Christ, the first Son of Love, take him out there and show the lost, the lonely, the hateful, the hostile, show them all that he has done for you and yours. Show them his light, show them a way home.
___________________

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With a text, or without? That is the question!

At 5.30 this morning the USCCB lectionary webpage indicated that today is the memorial of Mary Magdalene.  

I prepared a homily on the proper readings for the memorial.

When I got to the Missal in church, I realized that the USCCB webpage was wrong.  So, my homily was useless.

Tossing aside the text of the prepared homily, I solidered on with an improvised homily on what it means to say "Christ has fulfilled the words of the prophet."

After Mass, four different parishioners told me that it was my best homily ever.  One, a literary sort like myself, very excitedly said, "Father, I'm praying that your printer breaks down, or you spill remoulade sauce on your keyboard!"    

From all this, I take it that some would rather have an off-the-cuff homily than a prepared text.

So, there may be some experimentation in my homiletic future!
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20 July 2012

Mercy IS a Sacrifice

[NB.  Feeling puny today. . .so, I'm borrowing from myself for today's homily.]
 
St. Appollnarius
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Like the sniping political operatives that they are, the Pharisees attack Jesus and his merry band for violating the Sabbath Law. Their crime? Some of the disciples absentmindedly pick grains of wheat and snack on them during a lesson. When the Pharisees pounce, Jesus—ever the scholar of Jewish history and the scriptures—remind them that David and his friends went into the temple and ate the bread of offering. Then he lowers the boom: “If you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned these innocent men.” This is a triple accusation. The Pharisees do not know their own history. They do not understand mercy or sacrifice. And they have condemned innocent men. Of course, their most egregious error is their failure to recognize Jesus as the promised Messiah. Had they done so, they would have known that the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath, thus making their condemnation of the disciples into a chance to show mercy. So, what does this scene tell us about the relationship btw mercy and sacrifice?

We might be inclined to conclude that the two are opposed. Jesus says that he prefers one to the other, therefore, we can either show mercy or offer sacrifice. The Law requires sacrifice, but Christ requires mercy. The two are incompatible. But this can't be right since Christ is the fulfillment of the Law. In the City of God, Augustine clears it all up for us. When Jesus quotes Hosea, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice,” Augustine writes, “. . .nothing else is meant than that one sacrifice is preferred to another. . .mercy is the true sacrifice. . .All the divine ordinances. . . concerning the sacrifices in the service of the tabernacle or the temple, we are to refer to the love of God and our neighbor” (X.5). In other words, every act of mercy is a sacrifice, an embodiment of the love God has for us and a demonstration that we love Him in turn. To set aside judgment and condemnation in favor of mercy is the sacrifice God desires from us. 

What might be confusing here is that we seem to be using the term “sacrifice” in two different senses. When Jesus says, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice,” he uses “sacrifice” to mean “the ritualistic slaughter of an animal in the temple by a priest according to the Law.” This is not the sort of sacrifice the Lord desires. Augustine gives the term “sacrifice” its contemporary meaning in the context of Christ's fulfillment of the ritual Law of animal slaughter. That is, he goes to the root of the word and discovers that sacrifice is what we do when we love the sinner and show him/her mercy. For Augustine, following Christ, without love, the sacrificing priest is just a butcher and his sacrifice is just killing. What makes “showing mercy” a sacrifice is our giving up on the prideful need to sit in the Lord's place as judge and executioner of His justice. When we show mercy to a sinner, we first acknowledge our own sinfulness and confess the need to be forgiven. None of this means that we're to be “soft on sin” or make a habit of excusing disobedience! It means just the opposite. Only a sinner needs mercy. Only a sinner can be called to repentance. 

Jesus tells the Pharisees that they are in the presence of something greater than the temple, something more fundamental, more vital than the Law. They are in the presence of Love Himself, mercy-made-flesh. Had they acknowledged this truth, their desire for sacrifice would have turned to pleas for mercy. And their accusations to songs of praise.
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Say NO to a Grand Bargain on Marriage!

Brilliant essay by Robert George of Princeton on the "inevitability/right side of history" rhetoric used by same-sex "marriage" pushers to pressure the rest of us into believing that we are cultural neanderthals for opposing their radical social experimentation.

[. . .]

The fundamental error made by some supporters of conjugal marriage was and is, I believe, to imagine that a grand bargain could be struck with their opponents: “We will accept the legal redefinition of marriage; you will respect our right to act on our consciences without penalty, discrimination, or civil disabilities of any type. Same-sex partners will get marriage licenses, but no one will be forced for any reason to recognize those marriages or suffer discrimination or disabilities for declining to recognize them.” There was never any hope of such a bargain being accepted. Perhaps parts of such a bargain would be accepted by liberal forces temporarily for strategic or tactical reasons, as part of the political project of getting marriage redefined; but guarantees of religious liberty and non-discrimination for people who cannot in conscience accept same-sex marriage could then be eroded and eventually removed. After all, “full equality” requires that no quarter be given to the “bigots” who want to engage in “discrimination” (people with a “separate but equal” mindset) in the name of their retrograde religious beliefs. “Dignitarian” harm must be opposed as resolutely as more palpable forms of harm.

As legal scholar Robert Vischer has observed, “The tension between religious liberty and gay rights is a thorny problem that will continue to crop up in our policy debates for the foreseeable future. Dismissing religious liberty concerns as the progeny of a ‘separate but equal’ mindset does not bode well for the future course of those debates.” But there is, in my opinion, no chance—no chance—of persuading champions of sexual liberation (and it should be clear by now that this is the cause they serve), that they should respect, or permit the law to respect, the conscience rights of those with whom they disagree. Look at it from their point of view: Why should we permit “full equality” to be trumped by bigotry? Why should we respect religions and religious institutions that are “incubators of homophobia”? Bigotry, religiously based or not, must be smashed and eradicated. The law should certainly not give it recognition or lend it any standing or dignity.

The lesson, it seems to me, for those of us who believe that the conjugal conception of marriage is true and good, and who wish to protect the rights of our faithful and of our institutions to honor that belief in carrying out their vocations and missions, is that there is no alternative to winning the battle in the public square over the legal definition of marriage. The “grand bargain” is an illusion we should dismiss from our minds.

[. . .]

George makes an excellent observation: early 20th century eugenics programs and abortion "rights" were framed by the Left as "inevitable evolutions" in science and reason.  Eugenics has been soundly defeated and abortion is well on its way to becoming a stinking political albatross gracing the throat of every Leftist in America.  

Please! Read the whole thing and share it.
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19 July 2012

On being a mule for Jesus

15th Week OT (Th)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Isaiah prays, “The way of the just is smooth, O Lord; the path of the just you make level.” By following Christ, we have chosen to walk the way of the just and our path is scraped smooth, made level by the Lord. For us, he fills the potholes; he flattens out the hills so that our pilgrimage along behind him is no burden, nothing and no one stands in our way. Can any one of us claim that our journey along the way has been free of bumps and bruises, free of aches and pains, and the occasional head-on collision? Can any of us claim that we have never encountered a nearly insurmountable obstacle along the way? The Lord has smoothed and leveled the way to Him, but the ways we must travel through this world remain as potholed, as steep, and as dangerous as ever. So, Jesus makes this invitation: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. . .For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” When we choose to become beasts of burden in the fields of Christ, we do the work but he leads the way. And if we follow his lead, we learn all we need to learn to make this world's steep climbs and potholes level and smooth. 

The first thing we must notice about becoming beasts of burden for Christ is that we choose this way of life. No one sells us into slavery to Christ. We are not born as yoked pilgrims. Even if our parents gave us to Christ as children, at some point along the way, we deliberately choose to stay yoked and working. Having freely chosen the burden of working for Christ and with him, we are obligated to learn all that he has to teach us. And like all students everywhere, we sometimes see our instruction as an intrusion, something to be rebelled against, thrown off. It's a beautiful day. There's fun to be had. Friends call for our attention. And here we are: yoked, strapped in, and following behind the Master, pulling a wagon for Jesus! But we chose this yoke. We freely elected to be yoked. Why? Maybe we believed Jesus when he said that his yoke is easy and his burden light. Maybe we calculated the cost/benefit of being easily and lightly yoked and decided that the benefits outweigh the costs. Or, maybe, we recognized in Christ our only chance to live just and holy lives and jumped at his offer to become his beasts of burden. Regardless of our motivations, we chose this. We sold ourselves to the Lord and now we serve as wagon mules for Jesus! 

Before us, all the way to the Lord, the way is level and smooth. No potholes to dodge, no hills to climb. Behind us, a light load and a patient driver. The yoke we wear doesn't chafe. And yet, all too often for our own good, we feel bound and restricted, locked-in, and oppressed by our work. We know this road. We know every inch, every pebble, every stray blade of grass. The view never changes—always forward, toward another weigh station. How did go from sinners who gladly accepted the yoke of Christ to Christians who balk at the kindest command from our driver? When Jesus invited us to take on his easy yoke, he made it perfectly clear that his yoke is a tool for learning, an instrument for teaching us to be just and holy. If the way appears potholed and steep, it's b/c we have stopped learning, closed ourselves to being taught. Like a stubborn mule needing bridle and bit, we have rebelled against our freely chosen yoke and decided that being a sinner freed to sin is easier, lighter. Have we learned all that Christ has to teach us? Have we graduated from his school of virtue? When are we just enough, holy enough to liberate ourselves from his yoke and walk alone? If we sometimes see the way as potholed and steep, it's b/c we no long choose to learn from Christ. With Christ, as his beast of burden, his student, nothing stands in our way. No road is too rough, no hill to steep. Without him, we are just stubborn mules. 

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18 July 2012

The saving power of a childlike faith

15th Week OT (W)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Our Lord declares to his apostles and to us that he comes among us to slash the bonds of sin and bring peace btw heaven and earth, btw God the Father and His fallen creatures. With the bonds of sin forever cut, those who claim their freedom in Christ will find themselves uncomfortably set apart from those who choose to remain slaves to disobedience. The peace he establishes btw heaven and earth disrupts whatever temporary, worldly peace we might hope for in this life. Christ's explosive entrance into human history as a squalling baby and his bloody exit as an executed criminal uncovers a divine plan for creation's redemption. That plan can only be revealed. It cannot be deduced from evidence, discovered by exploration, or guessed at by chance. What God has hidden, no man may find. . .unless God Himself shows the way. In the presence of his apostles, Jesus praises the Father, saying, “. . .for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.” The sword Christ wields against the bonds of sin creates another division: those who trust their own judgment and those who trust the way of the Lord. 

We might rightly wonder why learning and worldly wisdom prevents us from seeing and following the way to God's hidden truths. Knowing is not trusting. If you tell me that you trust your spouse's fidelity b/c your private detective lets you know what he/she is doing all day, every day, I would say to you that you might know that your spouse is being faithful but you do not trust his/her faithfulness. If you tell me that you trust in God b/c scientists now know that the laws of nature have an intelligent designer, I would say to you that you might know that there is an intelligent designer but you do not trust him. Knowing is not trusting; knowledge is not faith. Faith is freely invested, freely endowed. Faith is recklessly given, surrendered. Trust that results from evidence, experiment, exploration is not trust. At most, it's a feeling of confidence, a provisional grant that assures you. If your faith is based on the testimony of miracles, apparitions, locutions, based on anything other than the apostolic witness of the Church and your own experience with the power of Christ's sword to sever the bonds of sin, then your trust is not trust; it's knowledge. And knowing is not trusting. Knowledge is not faith. 

Does this mean that knowledge has no place in the life of faith? Absolutely not! It means that all that we come to know we know as those who have given their trust to God. It means that we begin with faith, a childlike trust in God, and then we walk His way to a more profound Truth, to those truths that take us behind and beyond the knowledge that reason alone acquires. Worldly learning and wisdom cannot reveal God's truth, but they can both supplement, lend strength to all that God has revealed. The trap we must avoid is the belief that knowing all there is to know about creation tells us all there is to know about the Creator. If—in some possible future—we come to know the most fundamental elements and operations of the universe, exhaust every scientific tool we have in the exploration of matter, energy, force, motion, space, and time, and uncover the unifying law of nature, we have learned no more about trusting God than a child learns by loving his mom and dad. Loving God is knowing God. If you will know God, then love Him and love all that He has created. No matter how much we might learn, how wise we might become, nothing can replace the saving power of faith. 
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Praising the Idols of Death


What do you get when you cross narcissism, postmodern nihilism, elitist feminism, and the worship of the idols of the Culture of Death?

You get this woman:

Since I was 12 I’ve had an unappealing, didactic distrust of people with the extreme will to live. My father’s parents were Holocaust survivors, and in grade school I received the de rigueur exposure to the horror—visiting geriatric men and women with numbers tattooed on their arms, completing assigned reading like The Diary of Anne Frank and Night. But the more information I received, the less sympathy the survivors elicited from me. Each time we clapped for the old Hungarian lady who spoke about Dachau, each time Elie Wiesel threw another anonymous anecdote of betrayal onto a page, I eyed it askance, thinking What did you do that you’re not talking about? I had the gut instinct that these were villains masquerading as victims who, solely by virtue of surviving (very likely by any means necessary), felt that they had earned the right to be heroes, their basic, animal self-interest dressed up with glorified phrases like “triumph of the human spirit.”

I wondered if anyone had alerted Hitler that in the event that the final solution didn’t pan out, only the handful of Jews who actually fulfilled the stereotype of the Judenscheisse (because every group has a few) would remain to carry on the Jewish race—conniving, indestructible, taking and taking. My grandparents were not excluded from this suspicion. The same year, during a family dinner conversation about Terri Schiavo, my father made the serious request that should he fall into a vegetative state, he would like for us to keep him on life support indefinitely. Today he and I are estranged for a number of other reasons that are all somehow the same reason. 

The ONLY redeeming element of this woman's post is the combox feedback.  There, my confidence in the goodness of humanity is restored.

H/T: MCJ
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16 July 2012

Fr. Hollywood may not ad-lib. . .


Many liturgical ad-libbers and revolutionaries invoke the ever-malleable "Spirit of Vatican Two" to justify editing the text of the Mass to suit their personal whims.  

What do the actual texts of the Second Vatican Council say about ad-libbing the liturgy?

From The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum concilium):

III. The Reform of the Sacred Liturgy

[. . .]

A. General Norms
22. 

1.  Regulation of the sacred liturgy depends solely on the authority of the Church, that is, on the Apostolic See and, as laws may determine, on the bishop.

2.  In virtue of power conceded by the law, the regulation of the liturgy within certain defined limits belongs also to various kinds of competent territorial bodies of bishops legitimately established.

3.  Therefore no other person, even if he be a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority.

Therefore, no priest has the authority to ad-lib a liturgical text.  The Fathers of the Council make no exceptions for "pastoral concerns" or "cultural adaptations."  

Add.: One of the things I find interesting about the whole "Spirit of Vatican Two" excuse is that it seems that the Spirit inspired the Council Fathers to write X in the council documents but now inspires interpreters of those texts to believe that He really meant not-X. 
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The bloodied tool of mercy

15th Week OT (M)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

If Christ makes us worthy to preach his Good News, he also prepares us for the consequences of doing so. Sending the apostles into the world to spread the Word of his Father's mercy, Jesus lays bare the most painful effect of taking on his apostolic mission, “For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother. . .and one's enemies will be those of his household.” Such division is not the purpose of his coming, but it is the inevitable consequence of cutting the bonds of sin. He says, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword.” With the sword of salvation, the Christ severs us from our ancient servitude to sin and brings a peace that surpasses all understanding, a peace between the Father and His adopted children. With such a peace between heaven and earth firmly established, conflicts among those we love most can become pitched battles, bloody wars of attrition. Thus, fairly warned, we set our eyes on the victory Christ won on the Cross and work to merit the unearned trust he invests in us to see his mission accomplished. 

Why does taking up one's cross and following Christ turn a father against his sons, a mother against her daughters? Why does becoming an apostle of the Good News threaten to undermine friendships and make us an enemy in our households? Jesus not only warns us about this possibility, he tells us why it will happen, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. . .” How often do we hear challenges to the faith that sound something like this, “If you really loved me, you would accept me as I am”? “If you were truly my friend, you wouldn't call me out for doing this”? “If you were serious about having a good workplace environment, you would just shut up about religious stuff”? How often are we called upon—in the name of love—to cease our apostolic mission and submit to the world's idea of peace? How often are we lectured about the divisiveness of our “black and white morality” and told to just accept that life is really “all about the gray areas”? How often are we threatened with exile from polite society, family, friends if we stand firm against the prevailing winds of cultural decay, political corruption, and religious persecution? The peace Christ establishes btw heaven and earth inevitably brings conflict btw those who are vowed to his mission and those who see themselves as targets of that mission.

Can we preach the Good News without a fight? It seems that we are fated to fight the rulers of this world if we will preach the Good News. Refusing to concede that Christ has already won the war on the Cross, the angels of rebellion and corruption believe that they still have a chance of winning. We know better. They lost the moment they rebelled against their Creator, so there's no saving a spirit lost to perdition. However, no man is lost while he still lives. Where a human will still holds sway, we have a chance to be heard and seen. What must we say and do to be convincing? Always and everywhere, without concession or hesitation, we must speak the Word of truth, that God's mercy is eagerly, freely available to anyone who will receive it. Always and everywhere, without concession or hesitation, we must show that Word of truth, that God's mercy is eagerly, freely given to anyone who needs it. It is not enough to proclaim free access to mercy. Mercy must be shown. We cannot fight on the world's terms. We do not belong to the world. We belong to Christ. The Cross he carried is the Cross we carry: a weapon of mass redemption, the bloodied tool of mercy. 

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15 July 2012

Audio file: 15th Sundy OT

Here's the audio link to today's homily, "Not one of us is ready."
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