Left to right: Passionist Fathers Louis McCue, Fidelis Rice, and Isaias Powers. circa 1963

Scripture Readings:

Isaiah 25:6-9
Romans 5: 5-11
Luke 23:44-53; 24: 1-6

Captain of his college football team, lumberjack, formidable softball pitcher in the famed Shelter Island League, blue collar poet, author of dozens of books and booklets of inspiration for ordinary Catholics, charismatic youth and young adult minister, preacher of the passion of Jesus Christ to countless folks of all ages, Father Isaias Powers was a man of many gifts and multiple dimensions. He served the Church and the Passionist community with exemplary dedication and enthusiasm in a variety of ministries during his 57 years as a vowed religious and 50 years as an ordained priest. Perhaps it was his quiet but consistent enthusiasm about life and his vocation that best characterized him.

The word “enthusiasm” comes from the Greek and means, literally, to be “in God,” to be “caught up in God,” to be “inspired.” In the reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans, Saint Paul talks about the gift of the Holy Spirit through which the love of God has been poured out into our hearts. Ike was a man of the Spirit who exuded great enthusiasm in his life and ministry. He inspired and encouraged others in an enthusiastic way. Indeed, several of the brethren with whom I have talked have spoken about the ways in which Ike encouraged them in their Passionist life and ministry. He made the effort to build up the spirits of his brethren and many others with whom he came in contact. In his email message to the province about Ike’s death, Peter Grace shared a poem that Ike wrote for his friends in 2002, on the occasion of his 74^th birthday. In that poem, Ike penned these lines:

With exuberance’s hope
Down Fate’s fading sunset slope,
I’ll coast along – for love turned out all right.
Much thanks to you, I now know more
Of why I trust what’s still in store
And toast you with new wine-of-life tonight!

This poem reflects the enthusiasm, even the exuberance, with which Ike tried to live his life as a religious and priest. I was struck by his words, “for love turned out all right.” It seems that, in looking back on his life, Ike was affirming that the vocation he had chosen turned out to be the right way of life for him. He was proclaiming that despite the inevitable struggles and disappointments that are part of every life, “Love turned out all right.” For Ike, this love that “turned out all right” was the love of God of which Paul speaks, the love that has been poured out into our hearts through the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is a divine love the depths of which were demonstrated in the passion of Jesus, in the fact that Christ gave his life for us while we were still sinners. Ike was an eloquent witness to this love of God poured out in Christ through his preaching, writing, and manner of relating to others.

Just a few words about Ike’s life and work. After his graduation from Oswego High School he served in the Army Signal Corps for two years, immediately following the Second World War. Last evening, Xavier Hayes recalled Ike’s stories about his years in the service, a good part of which were spent in China. After his military service he attended Hamilton College, where he was captain of the football team and editor of the literary magazine, a harbinger of things to come with his later work for Sign magazine and as a very productive author. After ordination in 1961, he was one of the few Passionists to go out on a parish mission in Sacred Eloquence. This he did with the storied Camillus Barth – that must have been quite a mission! Ike served on the itinerant preaching band in several of our communities in subsequent years, including four years at Saint Michael’s Residence in Philadelphia, where he focused on retreats for high school and college students. He was also a member of the team at the retreat house here in Jamaica as well as Saint Gabriel’s in Brighton.  He lived in West Springfield for fifteen years, where he served on the itinerant preaching band, participated in programs in the retreat house there, and initiated a prolific career as an author of spiritual publications. Lucian Clark, who was retreat director at Springfield during these years, remarked to me about Ike’s charismatic presence on retreats for college students. Ike’s ministry on these retreats was dynamic and creative, especially in the ways in which he used Scripture and literature in his presentations. Ike also participated actively and effectively in programs of renewal for religious held at Springfield during those days. Toward the end of his active ministry, Ike served in preaching ministry at West Hartford and North Palm Beach.

Last evening at the vigil service, Brother James Johnson spoke about running into a nurse at Long Island Jewish Hospital this week while visiting another Passionist who is there. Hearing Jim mention Ike’s name, this nurse told of participating in a retreat that Ike led for her class when she was a high school student at The Mary Louis Academy, forty years ago. It sounded like she remembered it as if it were yesterday. I had a similar experience this week. When Peter Grace telephoned to tell me that Ike had passed away, I was at Blessed John XXIII Seminary in the Boston area for a meeting. The rector there is a friend of mine, and I mentioned to him that I had received news about the death of one of our religious. When I said Ike’s name, this priest recalled having had Ike for a retreat when he was in first theology at Saint John’s Seminary in Brighton, in 1981. He even remembered some of Ike’s favorite, treasured sayings. I laughed with him about these, though I must admit that I don’t think anyone is going to remember anything I say in a homily or retreat talk thirty years from now !

Permit me a brief personal memory of Ike, from my early days with the community. Many here will remember the Province Convocation held at Marymount University in Tarrytown in 1980. I was a novice at the time and was able to participate in those important days along with my classmates. To tell the truth, I do not remember much about the presentations that were given at the convocation, but I do remember that we played several softball games during the afternoon recreation periods. I distinctly recall that Ike played catcher in those games. And, while crouched behind home plate engaged in his “catcherly” duties, he kept up an almost constant chatter aimed at the batters of the opposing team and anyone else who might be listening. I remember being struck by his enthusiasm and exuberance, as well as being the recipient of his encouragement to me as a novice just beginning my life as a Passionist. Ike always made the effort to “put heart” into other people.

A glance at the list of publications that Ike authored leaves one staggered by his creativity and productivity. The list numbers more than forty books, booklets and audio cassettes. The titles are familiar to many of us here: Kitchen Table Christianity, Quiet Places with Jesus, Quiet Places with Mary, Women of the Gospels, Advent Prayers and Scripture Meditations, Letters from an Understanding Friend, and many others. Seven of Ike’s booklets sold more than 100,000 copies – a very impressive figure for religious publication. All of this shows how much ordinary people of faith, extending beyond those whom Ike personally encountered in his ministry, benefited from his insight and from the love of God that was poured out into his heart. His enthusiasm for God and for people spilled over into his writing and inspired people throughout the country.

Ike’s preaching and writing reflected the charism of Saint Paul of the Cross and the pivotal message of the gospel that we just heard. His titles include: Journey with Jesus; My God, Have You Forsaken Me?; and God is Good, Yet Evil Happens . . . Why?  He was imbued with the memory of the passion and death of Jesus and endeavored to convey that memory through many different means of communication. He sought to tell the story that we hear in this gospel reading, and to tell it in creative and relevant ways that people of his own day would find intelligible. This is the story of Jesus’ saving death and life-giving resurrection that Luke narrates in his gospel, the story of the One whose entire life was about commending his spirit into the hands of his Father. It is the story that Saint Paul preached so courageously, the story he sums up by saying, “Indeed, if, while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, once reconciled, will we be saved by his life.”

As some of you mentioned at last night’s vigil, Ike also lived the story of the passion of Jesus in his own life, particularly as he grappled with the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease in the past few years. I happened to have an appointment with Dr. DeAngelis yesterday, and when I mentioned that Ike had died he was visibly moved. He spoke about his affection for Ike and his own struggle to help him come to grips with the reality of Alzheimer’s, as much as anyone can come to grips with that terrible illness. As Kenan Peters said last evening, Ike had to gradually let go of everything with this illness — his preaching, his writing, his creative insight, his ability to communicate, and ultimately his own life. Repeatedly, he had to utter the words of Jesus, “Father into your hands I commend my spirit.”

One of Ike’s booklets is titled My God … Have You Forsaken Me? It is a collection of spiritual meditations for each day of Lent. Ike concluded this booklet, however, with a meditation on Easter, reflecting on Luke’s account of the discovery of the empty tomb by the women and the question posed by the angel: “Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here. He is risen.” Ike begins his reflection by saying, “The deadliest evil of them all is death itself.” He proceeds to observe that sometimes when someone we love dies we are so overcome by the loss that we “entomb ourselves beside the grave of our beloved.” At the end of his reflection Ike writes this: “Our Lord never solved the problem of evil. He conquered the problem. He rose again to new life – fuller, richer than he had before. By his triumph over the ultimate experience of death, Christ tenders his healing power over all our ‘little deaths’ as well . . . all the sorrows noted in these pages. Jesus is risen. And he intends to raise us with him – if only we let him do so . . . in his way.”

Father Isaias, we are grateful for the many ways that you communicated the presence and the new life of the risen Christ to us and to so many others through the years. And as Christ commended his spirit to the Father at Calvary, so we place you in the hands of the crucified and risen Christ. We do so with confidence, asking your good friend, Jesus, to grant you eternal life and to raise you up with him on the last day. May Christ “toast you with the new wine-of-life tonight”!

- Robin Ryan, CP

Donations can be made in Fr. Isaias Powers’ memory to the Passionist Retirement Fund. 

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