07 February 2013

How must we be poor?

4th Week of OT (Th)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Jesus spends a lot of his time with the disciples teaching them the basic truths of the Good News. None of what he teaches them could be called “systematic theology” or “philosophical theology.” If we just have to have a label to apply, we could use “biblical theology” or “biblical wisdom.” At his arrival among us as the Word made flesh, Jesus fulfills all of the Old Covenant's obligations and promises. So, the content of his teaching is basically The How of how he fulfills these obligations and promises. How does he teach this? Word and deed. He preaches and acts as the Messiah. Truly, all he needs to do is travel around letting folks know that his Father's kingdom is coming and that they all need to repent of their sins and receive His mercy. Jesus is ever the practical teacher, ever mindful of his students and how they learn. He preaches parables not lectures; he performs miracles not arguments; he lives the Good News. His instructions to the disciples in this evening's gospel reading bear all this out. He gives them practical wisdom for spreading the Good but-not-so-easily received News. 

When Jesus sends his disciples out into the world two by two to preach the Good News, he sends them out with next to nothing: “no food, no sack, no money in their belts.” They could take sandals, a walking stick, and one tunic. Nothing else. They were to follow local guest customs; cast out unclean spirits; anoint the sick; and preach repentance in preparation for the coming of the Kingdom. What's striking about these instructions is the paucity of possessions they are allow to take. Some have argued that apostolic poverty is a condition for preaching the Gospel. You must be truly materially poor—imitating our Lord—in order to preach with authority. Others have argued that apostolic poverty is simply a means to an end. Less stuff, fewer worries on the road; fewer worries, more time to preach and minister. Historically, the Franciscans see true poverty as an end in itself. Dominicans, however, see poverty as a means, a tool for evangelization. We could say that whether the poverty Jesus requires of his disciples is a means or an end, what counts is the result of the preaching. His practical wisdom is both practical and wise. Just as Jesus himself is the Good News, his apostles (then and now) share in his mission and ministry and embody the virtues of the biblical wisdom he teaches. 

How we present ourselves as apostles while preaching the Good News is vital to the message. Yes, less stuff on the road equals fewer worries and leaves more time to minister. And, yes, being truly poor can deepen one's humility, one's dependence on God's providence. But how does the practice of apostolic poverty among Christ's 21st century disciples help spread the Good News? Few of us practice the kind of apostolic poverty that Jesus requires of his 1st century disciples. That kind of poverty won't get us far in a capitalist culture dominated by a Protestant work ethic. A culture where “being poor” is thought to result from laziness. Our poverty will need to be a different sort. In order to successfully preach the Good News in postmodern America, we must be impoverished of despair and rich in hope; poor in apathy and rich in love; profoundly broke in mistrust, greed, anger and rich in faith, generosity, and hospitality. In other words, we must adopt and live-out the poverty of Self that Christ himself lived for others. We have nothing to be despairing about; nothing to be angry about; nothing that is our own to hoard; and we have everything we have from God to give and see multiplied in the giving. Like Christ, we give it all and receive it all back in ridiculous abundance! 
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06 February 2013

That no one may be deprived

St. Paul Miki & Companions
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Our Lord leaves his hometown amazed by the lack of faith among his neighbors. They doubt his claim to be the Messiah; they doubt his power to heal; they doubt his prophetic wisdom. Their doubt leaves Jesus amazed and their town bereft of miracles. When doubt amounts to nothing more than a willful refusal to believe for the sake of not believing, it amounts to a sin. Not all doubting is sinful; in fact, a healthy skepticism is often an excellent ally in our growth toward perfect holiness. What distinguishes Sinful Doubt from Healthy Doubt is the intent of the doubter; that is, how you answer the question “Why are you doubting?” is vital. The people of Nazareth doubt Jesus for no other reason than that he is a hometown boy. They know his mama and daddy. They remember him as a kid. And now here he is acting like a prophet sent from God Almighty! Their obstinate pride obstructs their belief, and they suffer for it. Had they set aside their contempt for familiarity and taken the time to listen and observe, they would've heard the Father's wisdom and witnessed His holy power. Had they disciplined their hearts and minds to seeking out the truth, they would've flourished in miracles. 

Nowadays, the practice of any sort of discipline would be miraculous in itself. We live a culture where opinion is fact; illusion is reality; and the news is stage-managed by partisan spin-doctors. Seeking out the truth among the ruins of our postmodern landscape takes more than just a steely discipline; it requires a willingness to be martyred for the sake of the search. It requires a heroic struggle against that most basic of human vices: pride. That dark, primal instinct to think of oneself as entirely self-sufficient, entirely autonomous, and liberated from both God and man. Searching for the truth—and its siblings, goodness and beauty—is a humble discipline; or more precisely, the discipline of humility. That bright, alien virtue of thinking of oneself as entirely dependent, wholly needful of divine assistance and the companionship of others. Being disciplined by humility in the search for truth is a dangerous adventure, especially when the truth one seeks points to Christ. Just ask any Christian martyr, any witness to the mercy of God who's bled as a testimony to that truth. As the ruins of our culture are ground to dust, who among us will embrace the discipline of humility and give witness to the truth that Christ died to reveal? 

The Nazarenes doubt their native son and fail to receive the revelation he came to give them. They defend their ignorance with pride, and so, their miracles are given to those who humble themselves and ask for the truth. Maybe they see the consequences of knowing Christ. Maybe they understand that humility in the service of divine love means committing oneself to the spread and nurturing of that love. And maybe they suspected that spreading and nurturing divine love among the prideful would result in violence and death. Hebrews admonishes them and us, “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood. . .Endure your trials as 'discipline'. . .” In our struggles against the sins of personal and cultural pride, have we resisted to the point of shedding blood, our blood? Have we stood up for truth, Christ's truth, and bled to share his revelation of God's mercy to sinners? Have we shed pride, arrogance, ignorance, and shame and testified to the truth of God's unconditional offer of forgiveness? Have we endured the trials that come with following Christ, gladly receiving his discipline and sharing the lesson? If not, hear again the admonishment from Hebrews, “See to it that no one be deprived of the grace of God. . .” 
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Evangelical Catholicism

Kathryn Lopez of NRO interviews George Weigel about his new book, Evangelical Catholicism.

Here's one excerpt: 

LOPEZ: Why do “twenty-first century Christophobes” fear Christ? 

WEIGEL: The secular Christophobes of the West fear Christ because they imagine him to be an enemy of autonomy, which they define as the highest of human values. But this rather misses the point: autonomy for what? The sandbox of solipsism, the playpen of self-absorption, can get rather lonely after awhile. When honest secularists recognize that loneliness in themselves, the hand of Christ will be there to lift them out of the sandbox or playpen and into a maturity and happiness built, not from “autonomy,” but from living a commitment to truth and with compassion for others. And that hand of Christ will be extended by the people of the Church, who are, in Pius XII’s wonderful image, Christ’s “mystical body” in the world. 

Read the whole thing. . .it is WELL worth your time!
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05 February 2013

Coffee Cup Browsing

A headline to give an OP friar a fright! (clutching chest/wiping brow)

Wow.  Something goes right in P.C. infested Canada

Good news! Nobel Peace Prize winner says killing Americans with drones is just dandy!

Note to Cardinal Mahony: Bishops are shepherds of souls, not therapists.

Psychoanalyzing the Left. . .fascinating article.

Mass delayed for 2hrs. . .laity refuse to bring up the gifts!
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04 February 2013

Chained among the dead no longer

4th Week OT (M)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Jesus exorcises a man possessed by demons, sending the unclean spirits into a herd of swine. For your growth in holiness, it makes no real difference how you choose to think about that Legion of unclean spirits. You can think of them in 1st century terms: they are fallen angels sent to rule the earth and tempt men and women away from righteousness. Or 21th century terms: they are manifestations of our animal impulses toward violence, passion, and the survival instinct, lingering in the unconscious to keep us uncivilized. It doesn't really matter how we think about the unclean spirits b/c whether we see them as fallen angels or animal impulses, their influence on our growth in holiness is always the same. Like the man possessed by Legion, these unclean spirits, if allowed free reign in our hearts and minds, keep us living among the tombs, dwelling among the corpses, and rotting right along side them. God did not create us to die and rot. He created us and holds us in being so that we might live an eternal life with him. His only Son comes to wash us clean of our unclean spirits so that all righteousness with Him is fulfilled. What unclean spirits—fallen angels or animal impulses—chain you among the dead? 

For reasons both sociological and ideological, it has been theologically unfashionable for the last 50 yrs or so to talk much about unclean spirits, demons, angels, and most especially, sin. But it's more than a little difficult to preach the Good News of God's freely given mercy to sinners if we can't talk about sin. And to talk about sin we need to be able to talk about temptation, disobedience, and what it means to participate in the New Covenant with Christ. One reason that sin has fallen out of fashion is that too often in the past we failed to make the proper distinction btw The Sin and The Sinner, leading some to judge and condemn the sinner along with the sin. Making the distinction btw Sin and Sinner is not an excuse to be “holier than thou” w/o appearing to be—it's a real distinction made to mark a real difference. Sinners are always persons first and last. Sin attaches to the person through the deliberate choice to be disobedient. A person can become deformed spiritually through sin but only a person—created in the image and likeness of God—can sin in the first place. IOW, before a sin can stain the person, there must be a human person to stain. And the human person is sacred regardless of his/her spiritual condition. 

This brings us back to my original question: What unclean spirits—fallen angels or animal impulses—chain us among the dead? We could list them: pride, anger, vengeance, lust, greed—all the classics. We could add a few more contemporary demons: porn, drugs, artificial contraception, entitlement, co-habitation. The names of the unclean spirits that make up Legion may change over time but their purpose never does. They are charged with the nefarious task of tempting God's children to degrade, demean, and destroy the one divine gift that makes us perfectible in Christ: the imago Dei, the image and likeness of God that we all share with Him. Every sin we commit is a deliberate strike against the imago Dei of the human person. And since each one of us is a member of the Body of Christ, each sin is a strike against the imago Christi of the Church. Legion's mission never changes. Neither does the Good News. All of our obligations under the Old Covenant have been fulfilled in Christ, so we are no longer chained to sin, bound among the tombs. We are free. Freed to pursue holiness using all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, freed to live abundantly, cleanly, in love, and without fear. 
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03 February 2013

So God made a farmer. . .



Not a community organizer, or an activist, or a politician, or a union worker. . .but a FARMER!
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BXVI bustin' out The Truth


“Let us ask the Lord to give each of us a spirit of courage and wisdom, so that in our words and actions, we may proclaim the saving truth of God’s love with boldness, humility and coherence. . .” 

“Jesus did not come to seek the consent of men, but to give testimony to the truth. . .” 

“The true prophet does not obey anyone other than God and places himself at the service of truth, ready to pay in person. . .”
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Love's gotta hurt. . .sometimes

NB.  The deacons are preaching this weekend, so here's a Roman homily from 2010 that I never got to preach.
 
4th Sunday OT
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

Jesus, once again, riles people up! He's good at that. Like prophets before him, he tells people what they don't want to hear. By proclaiming that Isaiah's prophecy of the coming of the Messiah has been fulfilled in their hearing, Jesus challenges those gathered in the temple to step up and believe that he embodies God's promise of salvation. Instead, assuming that the authority of a majority is sufficient to determine truth, the crowd runs him out of town and tries to lynch him. He walks unharmed through the riot and leaves town. Why do the temple-goers reject Jesus' claim to be the fulfillment of God's promise to send a Messiah? Two reasons: 1) Jesus is a local boy, and we all know that “no prophet is accepted in his native place;” and 2) Jesus' use of proverb, “Physician, cure yourself,” indicates his refusal to perform a showy miracle to confirm his identity. What does he do instead? He does exactly what pastors and preachers are taught in seminary not to do when parishioners get twitchy. He throws down a challenge and a rebuke. In essence, he says, “God's own people have always rejected His prophets, and look at the results. He graces Gentiles before Jews and you people never learn.” Ouch. If Jesus had had a bishop, His Excellency's phone would be ringing off the hook! Remember how often we are told that Jesus is a uniter not a divider, a peace-bringer not a controversialist. He's all about harmony and consensus and living within the tensions of difference. Well, tell that to the screaming lynch mob. They might disagree. Obviously, Jesus lacked the cultured pastoral touch of a postmodern bishop. So, should we look to him and his prophetic style as a model for preaching his gospel?

Confrontation has its place in preaching. The prophets of the Old Testament were known and feared for their unwavering commitment to speaking God's message even in the face of torture and execution. Kings dodged them when possible, summoning them to court to answer for their traitorous speech only when necessary. Prophets were notoriously stubborn, self-righteous, and usually disreputably attired. Any one of these three characteristics was enough to warrant royal and public dismissal. Add to the scene the fact that prophets tended to be well-known local boys and you have the makings of a courtly farce. Is it any wonder then that the prophets of old resorted to confrontation when dealing with the cold-hearts and closed-minds of a nation's rulers? Sometimes you have to smash through a wall when the door is barred. Sometimes the shock of hearing the truth spoken aloud is enough to cure the deafness of the worst sinner. And sometimes it isn't. On these occasions, it's wise to get as far away from the condemned nation as possible. Why? Because quite possibly the scariest thing a prophet can say is: “Behold, you will suffer the consequences of your hard heart!” It's time to run.

Unfortunately, these days, it seems that every corner, every cable channel, every church/mosque/temple has its own prophet proclaiming the coming apocalypse. Like a flock of squawking crows, these folks fly around the world squeaking and squealing warning us of imminent local destruction and the inevitability of global disaster if we don't change our ways. They have adopted the confrontational rhetoric of the wildest biblical prophet. Do we listen? Some certainly do. Most don't. Confrontation oft repeated quickly devolves into annoying harassment. Those ominous crows start to look and sound like Chicken Little's. What's missing from their squealy prophesying is Godly love, a sincere concern for the good of the whole beyond the immediate personal benefits of power and prestige. What's missing is the divine authority that Jesus himself uses in the temple to announce his arrival as the Messiah. His authority is the power and glory of the most excellent way, the way of sacrificial love.

This leads us to the big question of the day: can sacrificial love be confrontational? Anyone who has ever marched in a pro-life demonstration or prayed outside an abortion clinic will tell you that the counter-protesters and the escorts are demonically vicious. For them this isn't just about freedom of choice and left/right politics. They hate us. Passionately hate us. You can expect that groups on opposite ends of the political spectrum to get feisty, maybe even a little rowdy, in the midst of a march. But the bile and venom spewed by pro-abortion activists at pro-life folks goes well beyond the kind of anger that normal politics generates. Why? The choice to have an abortion is intensely personal; it goes to the very core what most Americans think of us their untouchable autonomy in deciding what's best for them. An unwanted pregnancy attaches unwanted responsibilities and necessarily limits a woman's choice of options. But even more than this, pregnancy places a woman in the natural mode of motherhood and all that that implies. At the very core of motherhood is sacrificial love, giving oneself wholly to another. When pro-life marchers remind abortion advocates that the fetus is a person, a being deserving of love, those who would call the killing of this person a moral good react with unadulterated rage. They know the Church is right. And they must cultivate a self-righteous wrath in order to drown out their guilt. The gospel message of love used by the pro-life movement to stubbornly resist compromising with the culture of death shames them into hatred. Denied a convenient salve for their seared consciences, the venom flows and they fall more securely into demonic hands.

It should be shockingly clear to the Church by now that our best witness to the culture of death is sacrificial love. Paul writes, “Love is patient, love is kind. . .it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” With some we can reason. With others we can demonstrate. But some we must simply love. Bearing up under the burden of hatred, believing solely in the power of mercy, hoping in the promises of the Father, and enduring insult, persecution, and trial, the Church must not be satisfied with merely presenting the truth of the gospel, flashing cue cards and murmuring sound bites. What will heal a seared conscience cannot be logically deduced and crammed onto a bumper sticker. Slogans on placards are easily refuted by other slogans on placards. What cannot be refuted is an act of love done in sacrifice, a willing act of surrender done so that another might be see the truth. Paul reminds us what we know by faith, “Love never fails.” Even as the prophet feels the sword cut into his flesh, he knows that he has succeeded in touching a conscience burned by hatred and malice. His persistence in telling the truth is not ended by death but rather vindicated by it, shown to be the undeniably divine power it truly is.

When he proclaims to the people in the temple that Isaiah's messanic prophecy has been fulfilled in their hearing and subsequently chastises the crowd for their unbelief, Jesus causes a riot. He holds up before the people their dishonesty, their faithlessness, their charred consciences. He shows them that they know he is telling the truth and yet still refuse to hear it spoken. For them to believe such a proclamation changes everything-- uproots centuries of tradition and belief, revolutionizes everyday life, forces them to make a choice and live by it. Rather than surrender, they riot and pour out the hatred and malice of those who have seen the corrupted state of their souls. How does Jesus respond? He dies on the cross for them. If we will be his Church, we must be prepared to do nothing less. The march for life is a march to the cross. . .not for ourselves but for those who will not see, will not hear.
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02 February 2013

Refiner's fire, fuller's lye

Presentation of the Lord
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

With the baby Jesus—just 40 days old—Joseph and Mary travel to the temple in Jerusalem to fulfill the requirements of the Mosaic Law. Since the birth of the Christ Child, the Blessed Mother has been considered legally “unclean,” that is, she has been deemed impure for the purpose of worship in the temple and restricted from touching anything considered sacred to the Lord. We must note here that her impurity is not moral or physical but legal. There is nothing morally or physically wrong about being a mother. The Law set this requirement—think of it as a 40 day fast—in order to emphasize the importance of offering a firstborn son to the Lord as a “first fruits sacrifice.” In the temple, Mary and Joseph meet Simeon, a devout and righteous man, and Anna, a prophetess. Both recognize Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah and acclaim him as the Savior. With Christ's presentation in the temple, we recall Malachi's prophetic questions: “Who will endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears?” Are we prepared for the refiner's fire and the fuller's lye? 

Where Mary was required by the Law to seek legal purification by offering her first born son in the temple, and thereby regaining access to the holy of holies, we are granted access to God by the “once for all” sacrifice of her son on the Cross. Some thirty years after Mary and Joseph present the Christ Child in the temple, Jesus offers himself—as both priest and victim—for the salvation of the whole world. The Christ's birth and death as one of us brings all of us to the threshold of the heavenly temple and invites us to step into the holy of holies, to follow his excellent Way, and submit ourselves to what the prophet Malachi calls “refiner's fire,” “the fuller's lye.” To be purified of all impurities, to be bleached of every stain: so that we may be presented to the Lord as spotless sacrifices on His altar. What do we sacrifice? Nothing and everything. Nothing we have and nothing we are is ours to give. And everything we have and everything we are is given. Because Christ the Lamb precedes us to the altar, our sacrifices are his and his are ours. . .IF, if we follow his excellent Way and submit ourselves to a life- long fast in love: surrendering hatred, anger, vengeance, greed, lust, jealousy, and pride. Are you prepared for the refiner's fire and the fuller's lye? 

Please forgive me this image, but it is more than apt. Have you ever been prepared for a colonoscopy, or some other sort of gastro-intestinal diagnostic procedure? The doctor can't do his best work if you are—shall we say?—“unclean.” It is necessary to spend some time purging the impurities from your system before a proper examination can be done. Think of your sins, all your vices—great and small alike—and imagine them poisoning your soul, imagine them clogging your spiritual system, restricting your access to the Lord's blessings. What we need is a way to flush those impurities, a way to wash away all those habits of mind and body that prevent us from absorbing the divine nutrients of God's graces. In the same way that we can be prepared physically for a medical exam, we can be prepared spiritually for the final exam of our soul. We call this the sacrament of confession. 

Mary endures 40 days of fasting from the temple and all things holy so that she might exult in presenting her son to the Lord. Because Christ presented himself to the Father on the Cross as a once-for-all sacrifice for us, we do not have to endure 40 days of fasting from the altar, or from His graces. We have immediate and unlimited access. There is no good reason for us live with the impurities that sicken us. Step into the refiner's fire and the fuller's lye. . .and be made clean! 
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01 February 2013

Big Faith not required

32rd Week OT (M)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
Our Lady of the Rosary/St Dominic Church, NOLA

I was ordained to the priesthood in 2005 at St Peter's Church in Memphis, TN. Home of Elvis Presley's Graceland mansion. My first priestly assignment took me to Dallas, TX. Home of big oil, the Cowboys, and the Ewings. Big cars, big houses, big swimming pools, and, of course, big meals! Even living with Christ in TX was big. Megachurches and Christian theme parks. Christians in the south in general tend to live a large faith, an all-consuming preoccupation with the Bible and Jesus. But like the super-sized meals we love, a super-sized faith can be dangerous, especially when that faith is measured in terms of quantity. You can hear preachers telling the sick that they will be healed if only they have “enough faith.” Or that a new job or a real estate deal will come if you just “believe enough.” This idea that our faith is about quantity seems to be reinforced by this morning's gospel. From Mark, we hear Jesus tell the apostles that the Kingdom is like a mustard seed: small but packed with the potential to grow into “the largest of plants.” However, when it comes to our faith, our trust in God's promises, size doesn't matter. 

Now, you might say here, “Well, if faith the size of a mustard seed can grow into the Kingdom of God, then surely even the tiniest bit of faith could cure cancer and restore sight!” You could say that, but you would be missing the point entirely. In Luke's version of the Mustard Seed Parable, the apostles ask Jesus to increase their faith so that they can accomplish a seemingly impossible task, i.e. forgiving an offending brother every time he asks to be forgiven. Jesus' answer to this request tells us plainly that it is not the size or amount of our faith that matters, but the intensity, the integrity with which we exercise it. A bigger hammer is not necessarily a better tool if it is improperly used. A smaller hammer expertly used can be an excellent tool. So, the question is not “how big is your faith?” but rather “with what degree of strength and skill do you wield your faith?” In the same way that good tools must be sharpened, oiled, cleaned, and properly stored, so our faith must be expertly honed and maintained. We have on hand the expertise of the Church Fathers, the saints, the sacraments, the magisterium, and we have one another. All of these are specifically designed to assist us in keeping our trust in the Father's promises brightly polished, razor sharp, and squeaky clean. When we make full use of them, use them regularly, sincerely, and with an eye toward our ultimate end, our faith can only be strengthen. The tallest tower can collapse with time. The biggest monument can erode away. But our faith—even faith the size of a mustard seed—is invincible, indestructible if we take care to use every godly gift we have been given. 

A finely honed and well-polished faith is also a good tool to use in building our confidence. In the Letter to the Hebrews we read, “Remember the days past when. . .you endured a great contest of suffering. . .you were publicly exposed to abuse and affliction. . .You even joined in the sufferings of those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, knowing that you had a better and lasting possession.” That better and lasting possession is eternal life through your faith in Christ. That faith—even the tiniest seed of faith—sustains, nourishes, and strengthens us when it's time for us to suffer persecution. “Therefore, do not throw away your confidence. . .You need endurance to do the will of God and receive what he has promised.” 

Living large with Christ doesn't require a Big Faith. Even the tiniest seed of faith can sprout into the Kingdom of God. 
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31 January 2013

The Church is not a slave to fashion!

The Holy Father's Household Theologian, Fr. Wojciech Giertych, OP explains the impossibility of ordaining women to the priesthood and responds to several common objections made against this reality. Good job, fra. Wojciech!


Hat Tip: Fr. Z.
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30 January 2013

A ghost in my library?

Around 2.30 this morning I was awakened by a soft thump near my bed. 

I "heard" the thump as books falling from a nearby shelf.
 
Having a vivid imagination and a theological mind, I went back to sleep thinking that a demon/poltergeist/ghost was messing around with my library, trying to frighten me.

These sleepy ruminations turned into a dream where I awoke at my usual 4.30am to discover all of my books piled up in neat stacks on the floor.

When I actually awoke at 4.30am, I fully expected to see my bookshelves bare and my floor covered by teetering towers of books!

After a few seconds to get my glasses on, I saw three books on the floor, face down.  One written by BXVI on preaching; on written by de Lubac on interpreting scripture; and a third by Pelikan on the history of the BVM.

So. . .what's the demon/poltergeist/ghost trying to tell me?
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Dangerous and inefficient

3rd Week OT (W)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Sitting in a boat at sea, Jesus teaches a crowd gathered on the shore. Instead of giving them a five-point lecture with a PowerPoint presentation, he “teaches them at length in parables.” Now, as we all know, parables are a terrible way to teach. They're vague. Easily misinterpreted. Often padded with useless information. And b/c they are basically just stories, the story itself sometimes obscures the lesson. Jesus would have done just as well (or even better!) if he had written out his lessons in a verse form like terza rima or a sonnet. Of course, storytelling was The Mode of instruction for teaching a largely uneducated audience at the time. Parables are memorable and the details are easily adapted to your listeners. But still. Highly inefficient and dangerous. This begs us to ask: why parables? Why use such an uneconomical and dodgy literary form to teach universal truths? Jesus understands that moving the human soul is all about moving the whole person not just the mind. Convicting the person—the whole person—of a truth requires providing food for both feeling and thought. So, Jesus says, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.” Do you have ears to hear?

When he finishes telling the parable of the Sower, Jesus says that those with ears to hear ought to hear. He makes it sound as though there will be some in the crowd who understand the parable and some who won't. Those who understand will be saved and those who don't understand will be lost. Well, that hardly seems fair! If understanding the lesson he's teaching is so vital to salvation, then he ought to teach in a way that everyone can understand. You can't let souls be lost just b/c you prefer one method of teaching over another. You'd think that an educational expert in the crowd would point this out. To make things even worse, he pulls his brown-nosing teacher's pets aside and whispers the meaning of the Sower's parable to them. Why are they so special? Why not just tell the whole crowd your secret, Jesus? He answers, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.” Whoever listens with faithful ears will hear the truth; whoever has ears obedient to God will hear the Word, nurture it, and harvest abundant fruit. 

The Sower's parable is a parable about listening to parables; that is, the Sower sows parables among the various kinds of souls. Some souls will hear but not listen. Others will hear and listen but not understand. Some will hear and listen, but they will also allow the thorns of sin to choke their understanding. And still others will hear, listen, and understand only to starve the sprouts of truth through prideful neglect. Jesus leaves the truth of his gospel hidden in parables in part to confuse his enemies. Those with ears to hear are those who understand that his arrival among us marks the coming of his Father's kingdom. We hear his parables and know their meaning b/c we listen with faithful ears. Good for us. Now what? If we hear, listen, and understand, do we then go on to cultivate, nurture, and harvest the fruits of his Word? Or do we allow the thorns of rebellion and disobedience choke his truth? If the seeds of sacrificial love, abundant mercy, and reckless hope fall on our souls, what do we do with them? Feed them to the birds? Starve them through neglect? Or do we expend ourselves making sure that love, mercy, and hope flourish, making sure that they always produce new seeds, new fruit, and new harvests? Parables are dangerous and inefficient. So is the Gospel. But wild and fierce is God's love for us, and His forgiveness will destroy generations of willful neglect and water the driest soul. 
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28 January 2013

God, Being, and Mark

What are we discussing in class tomorrow (Tues), you ask. . .?

Well, we'll be delving into Anselm's Proslogion and the ontological argument for the existence of God. . .

And the Gospel of Mark.
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Angelic Thanks!

On this Glorious Feast Day of the Angelic Doctor, St Thomas Aquinas, my deepest Dominican thanks go out to M.R. for sending me Goest and The Problem of Knowledge from the Wish List.

What better way for a Dominican to celebrate this feast than to cozy up to a Kantian critique modern science and a volume of postmodern poetry?

God bless, Fr. Philip
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