09 July 2011

What sort of soil are you?

15th Sunday OT
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
Church of the Incarnation/Prince of Peace

Jesus sits in a boat. A crowd gathers on the shore of the lake. He preaches to them in parables. He preaches the parable of the Sower of the Seeds. We know it well. Seeds sown by the Sower fall on all sorts of soil—rocky, thorny, shallow. Birds eat some of the seeds. The sun withers the delicate roots of others. A few of the precious seeds are planted firmly in rich soil and they germinate to produce healthy plants, which, in turn, produce abundant fruit. The people in the crowd must understand the parable. They are farmers. They understand that not all the seeds they plant survive the planting, not all the seeds that survive will sprout healthy plants, and not all those plants will produce good fruit. What they probably don't know is that as he's preaching his parable about the Sower, the seeds, and the soils, Jesus is discerning the hearts and minds of his listeners, delving into their spirits, learning who each of them is and why they are there with him on the shore. He sees a thorny mind and a barren heart over there. There a scorched soul and there a shallow spirit. Two or three rich souls are ready now to bear the burden of growing the seeds of his Word. Four or five are prepared to do the work necessary to become rich souls. To these, to those with hearts and minds poised to receive his Word, to these he says, “Whoever has ears ought to hear.” 

And what is it that they ought to hear? To Isaiah, the Lord says, “Just as the rain and snow come down from the heavens and do not return until they have watered the earth, so my word will not return to me empty, but it will do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.” The Lord sends rain and snow, making the earth “fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats.” His Word is sent as seed to be sown. For those with ears to hear: the Word is sown, the earth watered. Now, what sort of soil are you? Are you shallow like the soil on a well-worn path? Thin, easily blown this way and that? Shallow enough that the birds of every new idea, new trend, new philosophy can come along and eat the seeds you've been given? Perhaps you are rocky soil, hard in places, soft in others. Difficult to till, impossible to tend. Lots of stones, lots of gravel: Regrets, enemies, hatreds, worries. No where for the tender roots of your seeds to sprout? Maybe your soil is choked by thorns. The deadly bush and brambles of habitual sin, cold-heartedness, or a steadfast refusal to find joy? Those thorns will dry up the water of the Lord's grace and starve your seeds. Of course, it is always possible, maybe even probable, that the soil you present for sowing is rich, well-tilled, perfectly watered, and ready for planting! You are ready for conversion, eager even to get down to the risky business of nurturing the seed of God's Word, and verging on impatience to be bear the good fruits of the Holy Spirit! 

So, what sort of soil are you? 

If you're like me, like most of us, I daresay, you are probably thorny on Monday and Tuesday; rocky on Wednesday; shallow on Thursday and Friday; Saturday is a toss up between too hot and too dry; and Sunday is usually just rich enough to receive a few seeds and have them survive past midnight! Even when we have ears to hear the Word, we don't always hear it all nor do we always listen to what we are hearing. If we had been on that beach with the crowd, listening to Jesus, he probably delved into our hearts and minds and found a tangled mess of worries, joys, plans, memories, half-forgotten lessons, and few unpleasant thoughts about our neighbors. Had he lingered for more than a minute, he would have been treated to a rapid-fire montage of resentments, broken promises, gloats, successes, and a lot of static around thoughts of what comes next. Had he stayed with us for a day or two, he would have watched as we flipped from dedicated servants to selfish ingrates to sniveling crybabies to triumphant conquerors, changing almost as fast and as often as we change the stations on our 500 channel cable box. In there somewhere, he would have seen us get a grip on our self-pity and our sense of failure and strangle it with the more powerful conviction that we are masters of our universe. Nothing and no one rules me! And then, later that same day, that megalomaniac would have to be strangled. By what? Humility? Reality? Maybe a little of both? Watching us from the distance of his boat, floating on the sea, our Lord would see us as if we were riding a carousel, flashing by one moment a faithful disciples, the next a desperate child, the next a self-sufficient individual, the next a lonely heart and a cold mind. We are never just one sort of soil.

If it's true that we are never just one sort of soil, then how do we properly receive the seed of God's Word? How do we make sure that we are rich, well-tilled, and perfectly watered when he comes around to sow the seed? One way is quite simple: never be anything but richly nourished, well-tilled, and perfectly watered. But we've covered the improbability of that scenario. It's not impossible, of course. We are finite creatures, prone to the ebb and flow of circumstance, open to injury and insult, given to fits of disobedience, bouts of lacking in trust. All these make being Always Prepared difficult. . .but not impossible. The other option is to be Always Prepared to be Made Ready; that is, since being always prepared seems improbable, always be open to being given everything you need to get ready. At the very least, this means watching for any opportunity to turn yourself around to face God, to repent. Waiting for every chance to forgive and be forgiven, to bless and be blessed, to show mercy, gratitude, trust. It means being eager to step up in the face of gross injustice; to defend the truth of the Good News; to give witness to the goodness that the Lord has shown you; to suffer for another, to love sacrificially. It means remembering, calling to heart and mind, that you are a creature loved by Love Himself, created and re-created to live perfectly in His presence forever. And when you remember this fundamental truth of the faith, when you recall it, you live right then as if you are with Him—face-to-face—at the moment, right that second. Then, you will always be prepared to be made ready to receive the seed of His Word. 

Paul teaches the Romans that “creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God.” Why? “. . .in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.” Our glorious freedom is the freedom from sin's constraint, freedom from sin's limitations. We are never freer, more at liberty than when we are prepared to be made ready to receive God's Word. This is edge of our cooperation with His grace: we do all we can do with His help to be the best possible sort of soil and then we go one step more. We surrender. Just give up. Give up worry, anxiety, control, the need to achieve, and then we are ready. In full surrender to the working of His grace, we are best prepared to bear the best fruits. Sixty, seventy, one-hundred-fold. We are ready.


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New arrival. . .

A Mille Grazie to the anonymous Book Benefactor who sent me Epiphanies of Darkness: Deconstruction in Theology. . .it arrived this afternoon. 

I spent the better part of the morning in the priory's self-storage locker opening boxes that haven't seen the light of day sent June of 2008. Since I was only able to ship a few boxes of books to Rome, most of my library had to be stored. Opening those boxes was like Christmas! 

Two items made me tear up a little. One was the very first poetry anthology I ever purchased. Bought it in 1982 at Oxford Square Books when I was a freshmen. The second was a 1987 letter from my paternal grandmother who died from cancer in 1991. I had to leave that one unopened b/c I would've never finished the job had I opened it. 

Anyway! As always. . .I am very, very grateful to my many Book Benefactors. You guys are always at the top of my daily prayer list b/c you have made my life as a Dominican friar all the more exciting and useful by your generosity!

08 July 2011

Enduring Questions, Perfect Answers?

Lovers and Defenders of the western literary/philosophical/theological tradition often point to The Enduring Question of Life as touchstones for all of our humane, liberal studies.  Answering these questions is tantamount to Living Life Well.  I recently ran across an article in a small magazine that attempts to formulate these questions for a postmodern audience; that is, an audience deeply suspicious of Big Narratives like God, Religion, Law, Reason, Purpose, etc., an audience trained in the modernist art of irony, cynicism, and nihilism.  The author's version of the questions precluded answers that Catholics and other Lovers and Defenders would find satisfactory.

Being a Lover and Defender of the Western Tradition and a reader of and thinker about postmodern culture, I thought I'd take a stab at reformulating these same questions w/o the irony, cynicism, etc.

Traditional:  What is man's relationship to God?
PoMo:  What is the relationship between the human person and the divine/transcendent?

Traditional:  What duties are worthy of our commitment to fulfill them?
PoMo:  What are we willing to commit ourselves to wholeheartedly?

Traditional:  What do the lives of heroes teach us about nobility and villainy?
PoMo:  What do the lives of Saints & Sinners teach us about love and mercy?

Traditional:  What does history teach us about liberty and order?
PoMo:  What history teach us about freedom and constraint, responsibility and rights?

Traditional:  What does history teach us about civilization and its decline?
PoMo:  What does history teach us about culture and barbarism, about progress and regress?

My versions aren't all that different from the traditional versions, but I think they open the questions up a bit more and allow a little more room for broader answers.  

Of course, as a Lover and Defender of the Western Tradition, my inclination is to believe that we will find the best answers to these questions in the literature of our ancestors.  Not dogma or formula but rather narratives of how honest men and women dealt with the problems of being human in a world that constantly challenges our innate need for growth toward perfection. 

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Wolves, sheep, doves, & snakes

N.B.  OK.  Here's my excuse for this homily.  Unbeknownst to me. . .my little 10 y.o. travel hardened alarm clock died in the night.  I came-to around 6am!!!  That's TWO hrs later than I usually wake up.  Lauds/Mass begin at 7.45am.  So, by the time the 'puter booted up and the coffee booted me up. . .well, there just wasn't much time.  Therefore:

14 Week OT (F)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St Albert the Great Priory

Wolves. Sheep. Serpents. And doves. That's quite a zoo living in Jesus' imagination this morning! In the wolf, we see a predator's singular focus on his prey and the cold cruelty of instinct. In the sheep, we have docility, innocence, and the need to be protected. Serpents are cunning, calculating, and dangerously patient. And doves are gentle and pure. Jesus says that he is sending us as prey among the predators, so we must learn to be both shrewd and gentle, both cunning and pure. How do we manage that? Our Lord assures us that when we are handed over to be prosecuted for treason or heresy, we need not worry about what we will say in our defense, “You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” But if we will be given what to say in our own defense at the moment of greatest need, then what is the purpose of learning to be both a serpent and a dove while living as sheep among the wolves? Before we can speak, we must listen.

Sheep are stupid animals. Too stupid to learn much of anything. Wolves are much, much more intelligent but they are largely driven by predatory instinct and not very obedient. So, Jesus is sending us to live as stupid animals among intelligent predators. But we are to be shrewd and gentle. OK. Serpents have a rep for being sly, patient, manipulative, so they would probably make good students but dangerous friends. Doves don't exactly inspire wonder with their smarts, but they are beautiful and they have a history of showing up at just the right time. Since the Spirit of the Father will be given to us when we need Him, our serpentine cunning and dove-like gentleness aren't really meant to be primary defenses against the wolves. Our primary defense is the Holy Spirit! Shrewdness and gentleness prepare us to receive the Spirit of the Father and to speak His Word. To receive His Spirit requires docility, and to speak His Word in the Spirit requires ingenuity. To receive His Spirit requires the peace of obedience, and to speak His Word in the Spirit requires the determination of a predator hunting his prey. 

Wolves will never fear sheep. Nor stop hunting them. And sheep will always need a shepherd to protect them. The Holy Spirit is our protector, and if we will hear Him speak to us, we will grow in obedience, docility, and trust. We will also strengthen our resolve to be preachers of the truth; to be wily promoters of God's justice and glowing examples of His mercy.  The Spirit of the Father will not speak with the voice of a hungry wolf or a sneaky snake. He chooses His sheep—sheep who are prepared (with His abundant help) to speak His Word and see It done. That is how we will endure.

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07 July 2011

Father, where are you preaching. . .?

Mass/Preaching schedule this weekend:

Sat., July 9:  Church of the Incarnation (U.D., Irving)  5.00pm

Sun., July 10:  Church of the Incarnation (U.D., Irving)  9.00am

Sun., July 10:  Prince of Peace (Plano)  5.00pm

This schedule will be updated.

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05 July 2011

What young men considering the priesthood want. . .

Fr. Z. has a post up listing 10 things that young men considering the priesthood are looking for in their future vocation (red).  Since I can't resist a list, my (cranky) comments follow:

1. Prospective priests (Religious or Diocesan) are not looking primarily for community life, as we live it. They are looking for a Church-related mission that they believe in.

Not entirely sure what this means.  If "as we live it" means "not living it," then I understand.  Community life is extraordinarily difficult and living community life with a group of priests who are working in full-time ministry is nearly impossible.  In every situation where I've lived in a community attached to a parish, the parish schedule rules the priory schedule and we risk becoming diocesan priests living in the same building.

2. Prospective priests want to know what the Pope teaches, not what the U.N. teaches.

Nor do they care a fig for what the "social justice" bureaucrats of the order/diocese say they ought to be worried about.  Most are fine with recycling, just immigration laws, ending human trafficking, etc. but they also want to hear about justice issues from perspectives other than just the Religious Left.

3. Prospective priests do not want to sit around with older “veterans” and listen to the latter whine about the Pope, Rome and the bishops.

Nor do they want to listen to these same vets applaud pro-abortion, pro-SSM, etc. politicians during recreation time in front of the TV or at table.  

4. Prospective priests are not in favor of women’s ordination. Period.

A view they had best keep quiet about until after ordination!  The "Spirit of Vatican Two" cadre of theological revolutionaries will not go out w/o a fight.  Smile.  Tell them what they want to hear.  Get through.  I know, I know. . .hardly seems honest.  Think of it as "learning stress-coping skills" for your future ministry. 

5. Prospective priests do not want to attend Masses that resemble hootenannies, Quaker meetings, or Presbyterian services.

Nor--I hope--are they inordinately focused/obsessed with prissy liturgical ornamentation, mechanized rubrical obedience, and clerical fashion.  The habit/collar does not make the friar/priest.  Never has, never will. 

6. Prospective priests are not ashamed of the Pro-life movement, they’re for it.

And they are just as ready and willing to help women who have had abortions recover from their mistake.

7. Prospective priests do not want to hear their brothers mock the Pope and gripe about liturgical norms.

Nor do they want--I hope--tedious lectures on the liturgical arcana of the Extraordinary Form as it was celebrated in 16th century Italy. 

8. Prospective priests do not want to study at theological unions/seminaries that are embarrassed by Catholic teaching.

And they are tired of the feminist identity politics, the hermeneutics of suspicion, the historical-critical method, "the pastoral solution," inculturation of the liturgy, pantheistic spirituality, and the bullying that comes with the triumphalist lay-empowerment movement (i.e., Lay = Good, Clergy = Bad).

9. Prospective priests know that Vatican II was not the only, or even the most important, Ecumenical Council.

And they also know to ask their professors, "Dr. Jones, where is that in the documents of the council, please?"  Oh, they have a copy of the documents in Latin so they can check the (often dubious) English translation.
10. Prospective priests are not embarrassed by Marian devotion, and are seen praying the Rosary.

But they are not so enamored by Marian devotion that they forget our Blessed Mother's proper place in salvation history as the human vehicle for bring forth the Word Made Flesh, i.e. she's not the fourth member of the Trinity.

Missing from the list is:  "Prospective priests want instruction on how to preach courageously to a contemporary congregation w/o offending or alienating half their people or pandering to the lowest common denominator."

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04 July 2011

Coffee Cup Browsing

Gaza Flotilla (a.k.a. "Ridiculous Leftist P.R. Stunt of the Week") is stopped by the Greek gov't.  Who knew the Greek gov't had that much sense?

B.O.'s own economics team reports that the "stimulus" costs $278,000/job "created or saved." 


Christian preacher battered and abused by a largely Muslim crowd. . .in Iran?  Yemen?  No.  Dearborn, MI. 

Episcopal parish comes home to Rome.  Watch for more of this as the E.C. continues its slow suicide.

Like ancient Rome, the postmodern West is increasingly "polytheistic, proud, anti-Christian, sexually confused, with rampant infanticide, frequent wars, incivility and cruelty, and a general breakdown of family loyalties."  Are we prepared for martyrdom? 

Three ways to declare your independence from the federal/state Nannies. . .


Big brothers are the same across species.


Oh, that explains it. . .

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03 July 2011

Ambushed in the Bookstore

Went to Half-Priced Books this afternoon to browse the philosophy and poetry selections.

While looking through the poetry anthologies, a young man walked behind and said something I didn't quite catch.   

--Sorry.  I didn't hear you.

--What church do you go to?

I thought he must recognize me from Mass, or maybe from U.D.  He seemed harmless, if a little addled.

--What church do I go to?

--Yes.  

--Well, I go to the priory.

--OK.  Do you family and friends go to church?

By this time I've figured out that this is a Religious Ambush, and I ain't playin'.

--Yes.  They all do.

--Good.  What's the priory?

--It's where I live.  I'm a Catholic priest and a Dominican friar.

--Oh. . .(long pause with an anxious look). . .have you read Revelations 17 lately?

--Lately?  No, can't say I have.

--Do you know the name of the city in that chapter?

--Let me guess:  Rome?

--Yes.  Now that you are old enough to make your own choice, you should re-read that chapter.

My brain is whirling now.  I'm trying to decide if I really wanna do this.  Do I want to confront this guy with his historically illiterate fundamentalism and challenge him on his anti-Catholic bigotry?  He doesn't strike me as being very open to discussion and the last thing I want is a public shouting match. 

I chicken out. . .

--OK.  I will.

He nods and walks off.

What would you have done?

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01 July 2011

Love is a person

Most Sacred Heart
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St Albert the Great Priory

John uses the word “love” eighteen times in this morning's selection from his first letter. We might conclude from the frequency of its occurrence and the confidence John shows in its use, that love is a word that picks out a clearly formed idea, a concept sharply distinguished from similar but imprecise notions. This means that we should be able to read John's letter and answer with a great deal of confidence the question, “What is love?” But this is exactly the wrong question to ask. Asked this way, the question leads us to a woefully impoverished answer. The better answer comes with the question, “Who is love?” And to this question, John answers, “God is love.” Lest we think that this too is an imprecise definition, hear what our Holy Father, Pope Benedict, has to say about what it means to acknowledge and accept this fundamental truth, “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” Love is an event, a person. Still too sterile, maybe too abstract? I believe Yeats can help us here. Following the Magi in his imagination, Yeats goes to Bethlehem and finds “the uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor.” In the flesh and bone of a child, the uncontrollable mystery of love wiggles and cries. Meeting this child, loving this child is to know, to love God.

When did we start to think of love as a concept rather than a person? When did we start to define love in terms of pure emotion, or describe it with the language of biology? When did love become a game piece in the battles of politics and economics? Love has become a libertine passion, a criminal excuse, a political talking-point, an ideological hot-button. It's a reason to demolish, to fight, to build, to save, to heal. In the name of love, we feed thousands and slaughter just as many; for love, we marry and destroy marriage; we rescue and condemn. Is this what Yeats means when he describes the child Jesus as an “uncontrollable mystery”? Released into the world, divine love is untamed and untamable—a mystery to be met, to be accepted or rejected but never properly trained. If God is love, then Love is uncontrollable; at the very least, Love is uncontrollable by those who claim to love.

We do not tame divine love. Rather we are tamed by Him who is Love. Jesus tells us to take on his yoke and take direction. Put on his harness and be driven. The “uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor” dares us to risk life and limb in his care, to place ourselves ahead of him in the field but yoked to a task—the work of giving his Father's love hands and feet, minds and voices. This is not only what he dares us to do, it is what we have vowed to do. If love has become so plastic, so malleable as to mean anything, to be anything, then those of us who claim to love must demonstrate—unambiguously demonstrate—that Love is a person, and that He abides with those who abide with Him. His yoke is our witness. And the work we do in his name must bear the fruit of His love for all.


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30 June 2011

Coffee Cup Browsing

TIME editor gets the Constitution wrong. . .fourteen times!  Fortunately, no one reads TIME anymore.

Five Easy Steps to Cultural Destruction

"Infamous liberal outpost". . .Washington Theological Union to close in 2013.  The "Spirit of Vatican Two" has left the building!

Every rapist in Norway in 2010 was a Muslim??? 

More hilarity at the U.N.:  North Korea put in charge of nuclear disarmament

On the effects of WI's budget repair. . .

Fishing with Moses


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28 June 2011

Update

Yes!  I'm still out here. . .

Reading/preparing for the two classes I'm teaching this summer is keeping me unusually busy.

The 20th Century Literature course is particularly time-consuming given that we've been reading several large modernist novels.  Now that we've moved into modernist poetry difficulty has replaced length as the principal challenge. . .though the novels pose their own difficulties.

I'm celebrating/preaching the Friday Mass at the priory.  So far, no invitations to celebrate a Sunday Mass have arrived.  

Next term will be much less hectic. . .at the very least, Coffee Bowl Browsing will return as a regular feature.

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25 June 2011

The best Catholic Books

Brandon Vogt provides the Catholic cyberworld with an invaluable service!  



I'm just a little embarrassed by how few of these books I've read. . .too many years studying modernist literature. . .hmmmmm. . .

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On books rec'd and not. . .(Updated)

Time for a few Mille Grazie's to my kind and generous Book Benefactors. . .

. . .to Robert B. for The Road to Serfdom. . .

. . .to Fr. Matthew G. for Theology Remixed. . .

. . .to C.J. & Kitty D. for Recent Catholic Philosophy, vol 2. . .

. . .to Blaine H. for Recent Catholic Philosophy, vol. 1. . .

and Anon for Bright of the Sky. . .this is the one I thought has been purchased as a Kindle Book.

Though they were purchased back in March, I haven't yet received:

Opening Up the Scriptures or Rediscovering Aquinas and the Sacraments. . .maybe they went to Rome ahead of me.  

Mille grazie!  Book Benefactors are always in my daily prayers!

P.S.  How could I forget!?  Thanks to Jeff M. for the Kindle Book, The Gypsy Morph.

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24 June 2011

What?! What!? I can't hear you!

Last week I noticed a significant decline in the acuity of the hearing in my right ear.  If I closed my left ear, I was completely deaf.   Beginning Thursday, the hearing started to improve a bit.

So, this morning I went to the ENT doc and he told me--after several tests, etc.--that I have Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss. . .to the tune of a 20% loss in my right ear.  The most likely cause is inflammation around the cochlear nerve (I think that's what he called it, anyway), so he's giving me a month's course of steroids.  

I asked him, "Doc, you're telling me that my ear nerve isn't working b/c my brain is swelling?"  He said, "Well, that's a rough summary."  I said, "Brain swelling.  I blame philosophy."

Please pray for my Ear Nerve!  Who's the patron saint of hearing???

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Two classes for 2nd summer term at U.D.

I will be teaching two classes at the Univ of Dallas second summer term: American literature and a poetry writing workshop. 
The workshop will focus on critical reading and the creative process in writing poetry.  We will be reading L.O.T.S. of contemporary poetry!
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Will you lose your head for Jesus?

Nativity of John the Baptist
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St Albert the Great Priory

When the angel Gabriel announces to Zechariah that his wife Elizabeth will give birth to a son, a son who will go one to announce the coming of the long-promised Messiah, Zechariah gives voice to the doubts of his heart and asks, "How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years." A perfectly reasonable question, one anyone of us might ask! Zechariah's question earns a stern rebuke and a punishment. He's struck speechless and will remain so until his son is born. Once John is born and Zechariah confirms in writing the infant's non-traditional name, his tongue is loosed and he sings a hymn of praise to God. The unusual events surrounding the conception and birth of John lead the people to ask, “What, then, will this child be?” This child will grow into a herald of the Lord, not only announcing the arrival of the Messiah but baptizing him as well, standing in witness at the Jordan when the Holy Spirit descends to confirm the Sonship of Jesus. John the Baptizer runs before the Christ, proclaiming the imminent fulfillment of God's promise to send among His people one who will restore all of creation to righteousness. For Christ, John is a forerunner, a harbinger; for us, he is an example, a model of joyful obedience to the Word once and always spoken. 

John baptizes Jesus and hears the voice of the Father speak, “This is my son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.” John's ministry for all the years leading up to this moment has been a ministry of obedience, of listening to the Word being spoken. Conceived for a single purpose and born to give voice to God's promise of a Messiah, John roams as a prophet among the people, baptizing them with water, preparing them in repentance for the arrival of the Christ. Determined, maybe a little obstinate, certainly faithful, John's obedience to God's Word costs him his freedom on more than one occasion and eventually head—a price he no doubt willing paid. As our example of faithfulness, we have to ask: are we prepared to follow John into prison, all the way to the executioner's block? To answer this question, we have to answer another one first: what is our purpose as followers of the Christ?

Daily we called upon to distinguish between the means and the end of our baptismal vows; that is, we are called upon to remember the difference between what we have vowed to be and do and how we have vowed to accomplished these goals. Being baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ makes us imperfect Christs and sets us on the way to becoming holy as God Himself is holy. To become Christs for others. That's our end as followers of Christ. The means we use to reach this perfected end flow out of our cooperation with God's gifts to each of us: we feed the hungry, visit the imprisoned, heal the sick, clothe the naked, bury the dead, announce mercy to the sinner, and love our enemies in the face of their hatred for us. Each of these can be a means to our end; they are not the end itself. If our end is to become Christ, then we can say with certainty –even if tinged with a little trepidation—that Yes we will follow John to prison and on to the executioner's block if necessary. Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, etc. does not require the kind of obedience to God's Word that John exemplified. However, becoming Christ requires just such obedience and more. Becoming Christ requires the clear, unambiguous commitment of the heart and mind, our whole person, to the single clarion truth that there is nothing more important, nothing more vital to our lives as creatures of a loving God than our undivided love for Him. Listening to His Word, His Word made flesh, and acting accordingly is the very center of our lives. Though this truth costs us nothing to acquire, it might cost us our lives to share. If so, we remember what the people said of John, “For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.” And He is with us as well.

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21 June 2011

Coffee Bowl Browsing

On the failure of liberal Catholicism:  Part One and Part Two


Passive-aggressive, manipulative, self-aggrandizing?  Fr. Corapi's adieu to his priesthood.

Evangelists for the Church of Global Warming caught fudging the data. . .again.  You're entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts.

In 2009, ten companies a week on average left CA for more business-friendly states.  Today, that number is fifty-four. [Link Fixed]


B.O.'s USDA wants "heterosexism" (i.e. support for traditional marriage) equated with racism.  Let the re-education regime commence!

Just say NO!!!! to sudsy water.

Southwest Airlines implements a new and more humiliating seating procedure.

"This ole thing?  Just something I saw in the window and had to have." 

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19 June 2011

OP Novices approved for vows

Just received word that our Southern Province novices have been approved for Simple Vows!

Congrats, brothers!!


Brs. Juan and Thomas More, first and second from the left.

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Two for the Three-in-One

Two homilies for Trinity Sunday:

O Lord, do come along (2008)

Suffering for mystery (2009)

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18 June 2011

Yes to Jenny; no to kung-fu (A Wedding Homily)

Jennifer-Patrick Wedding
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Catherine of Siena Church

It's August 1, 2008 and I am sweating away my obedient life in Rome. Having just discovered that the language school I am enrolled in doesn't hold classes in August b/c of the traditional Roman summer Ferie, and having no A/C or internet access in my 16th century convent cell, I am precariously perched on a rented stool in a dodgy internet cafe on the Street of Snakes. Why “dodgy,” you ask? Well, it's on the Street of Snakes. And the whole time I am there a steady stream of early twenty-something Italian guys come and go holding what look like smallish bricks of heroin tightly wrapped in tissue paper. How do I know it's heroin? I don't. I'm a writer, a literature professor, and, most importantly, a southerner. . .so wild exaggeration and outright lying in the pursuit of a good story are sacred duties. It turns out that the internet cafe was a front for a pub crawl business and all those packages were actually bundles of coupons for handing out to tourists. Though I'm sure you are relieved to know that I wasn't in any danger of being kidnapped by Roman drug lords and forced into spending my life as a heroin mule for the gypsy syndicates, you have to be asking yourself at this point: what does any of this have to do with Jenny and Patrick getting married? Good question. You see, while I sat delicately planted on my rented stool in that internet cafe, watching the scuzzy Italian couriers rush in and out with their faux heroin bricks, and wiping Rome's oppressive August humidity from my brow, I received an email from Patrick. Like most emails from Patrick, it was long, a bit convoluted, and contained two questions. First, should I marry Jenny? And, second, should I become a kung-fu master? There it is: August 1, 2008. . .the beginning of something larger than Patrick's capacity to ask annoying questions: the first hint that Patrick is thinking about Jenny “in that way.” So, yes, Patrick, you should marry Jenny. And, no, Grasshopper, you should not become a kung-fu master. 

When Patrick and Jenny asked me more than a year ago to preside at their wedding Mass, I was just a bit apprehensive. Knowing both of these U.D. alums quite well and remembering the first time I laid eyes on Jenny during Charity Week walking up the mall in D&D drag, I was afraid that these two were planning a Star Trek wedding or a Princess Bride wedding or some other uber-dorky ceremony that would require me to wear a period costume or some sort of ridiculous hat. I could just see me processing down the aisle dressed as a 37th Level Chaotic Good Drow Elf Cleric named Pleiades the Ample. Thanks be to God and all His Saints, they wanted a normal, Catholic wedding with a normal Catholic wedding homily. . .so, without further falsehood or exaggeration, here it is:

Paul, inspired, and no doubt telling the truth, assures us, “Love never fails.” Though we are certainly happy to hear this bit of wisdom and grateful to Paul for its timely delivery, we should not be accused of thick-headedness if we were to ask, “Never fails what? Or never fails whom?” OK. Love never fails us. Love never fails to heal, to reconcile, to forgive, to hope. Love never fails when all else does; when the last chance passes untaken; when there's no one left and no one coming. Love never fails to flourish: to tell the truth and all the truth, to ohhh at the beautiful, and to demand the good. Love has never failed. Will not fail. In fact, Love cannot fail; it is the most excellent way.

Love is fundamental, elemental, if you will; it is the primal and pervasive way. Without love, Paul writes, both human and angelic tongues are nothing more than clanging noises. Without love, all knowledge, all prophecy, all mystery are empty. Without love, a faith that moves mountains cannot move mountains and the self-sacrifice of body, mind, and spirit gain us nothing. Love gives a tongue its words. Gives knowledge, prophecy, and mystery their intelligibility. Love gives faith its power; gives sacrifice its reason for holiness. Primitively, primally, “[Love] bears all things, [Love] believes all things, [Love] hopes all things, and [Love] endures all things.” And to the degree that we participate in this Love, to the degree that we love, we bear, believe, hope, and endure all things as well. And we do so not b/c we are strong or determined or especially holy. We love b/c we are first loved. Loved by Love Himself from the vacuum-suck pop of creation from nothing of everything, we are loved. To love in return is our only reason for being here. 

Lest we confuse love with Love, let's make a few important distinctions. Paul is not writing about the warm feeling of affection one gets for someone one finds attractive; or the fierce attachment one might feel toward a parent or sibling. Yes, that's love but it's not the Love that Paul is writing about. Paul is writing about the Spirit of Love that spoke the Word over the Void and created from nothing everything that is. The same Spirit of Love who freed the slaves in Egypt, led them through the desert, brought them to the Promised Land, and established them as a holy people, a nation of priests, a kingdom of prophets. This is the same Spirit of Love who issued the Law, inspired the Prophets, and promised His people a Messiah. The same Spirit of Love who introduced His son at the River Jordan; transfigured him on Mt Tabor; raised him from the dead on Easter morning; descended like a mighty wind upon the disciples; and lives with us still as a consoler, counselor, and advocate. This Love is the Love that binds us to one another, that holds us fast in our hope, and shows us the way to forgiveness and mercy. This is the Love that never fails, that cannot fail. Hormones, neuro-transmitters, passions, emotions are all well and good when we need to be motivated and the complex cocktail of brain chemistry that produces the state we call “love” is quite useful for motivating action, but it is also quite dangerous if not properly controlled. One of the most common mistakes we make as humans is to confuse the brain state we call “love” with Love Himself. I am confident that Patrick and Jenny—with their U.D. educations and sensible upbringings—will not make the mistake of believing that the Love Who Never Fails is the brain state we call “love.” That sort of love crashes and burns more frequently and more brightly than not. No amount of prayer or sacrifice or fasting will fortify a marriage against the tides of adversity if that marriage is rooted in the sort of love that can washed out of the brain with a timely release of dopamine-serotonin antagonists. The Love that matters, the Love that makes a Christian marriage a marriage is Love Himself, Christ Jesus and the love that he is for his bride, the Church.

I know that you two know what Christian marriage is: I did your marriage prep! But I would be remiss in my duties as a priest if I didn't at least touch on the sacramental nature of our little adventure in love this afternoon. By exchanging matrimonial vows in the Church before God's people and His minister, you two are vowing to live your lives as a sacrament—a visible sign—of Christ's love for his Church. Not only do you vow to live as a sign, you are vowing to BE the love that Christ has for his Church. Sacraments not only point at God's grace, they make His grace present and efficacious. So, when we look at you two, bonded together by vows in the Church, we see not only a sign of divine love, we see Divine Love Himself and we see how much He loves His Church in how much you love one another. Thus, when Paul writes that love is patient and kind, not jealous or pompous, not inflated or rude; that love does not seek its own interests; that it is not quick-tempered nor does it brood over injury; that love does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth, he is describing not only how you two should behave with one another, he's also describing how God loves His people.

In his priestly prayer to the Father, Jesus asks that we all might be made one so that our perfection in him would be assured. Each of us has one last imperfection—one remaining crack, one broken bit—that, when it is finally healed, will mark us out as one, done, complete. For most of us, that last imperfection is hidden under layers of flashier imperfections, louder cracks, squeakier bits that get more attention in prayer and sacrifice early on. One sign that we are ready and willing to begin naming and healing all of our imperfections is the readiness and the willingness to enter into a marriage covenant and have all our bruises and bumps and scars and creases and crevices exposed to the sacrificial love of another human soul. This is the vocation you were called to and the vocation you have agreed to pursue. Therefore, if you will bring one another to perfection in Christ, you will love one another with ferocious generosity, vigorous patience, and zealous humility. Nothing matters more—and I mean NOTHING—than your vow to be a sacramental sign of Christ's love for his Church. When money, kids, jobs, etc. start to ease cracks in your lives, remember: we are a sign of Christ's love for his Church. When jealousy, anger, impatience rise up, remember: we are a sign of Christ's love for his Church. When you are tempted to go your separate ways, remember: we are a sign of Christ's love for his Church. And b/c you are here to become a sign of Christ's love for his Church, his Church is here today to say AMEN to your vows, to witness the creation of this sacrament, and to make our own promises to support you in your ministry to us. 

One last note to you both. The book of Sirach says that “a worthy wife brings joy to her husband.” She also brings a beer and a sandwich so that a smile is ever on his face. Sirach also says that a good wife is a great gift to the man who fears the Lord. If the man is smart, he will also fear his wife. . .for those sandwiches do not make themselves!

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