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The Amazing Value of Not Much, Not Many

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How much time do you have?
How much money do you have?
How much patience do you have?
How many talents do you have?
How much energy do you have?
How much prayer time do you have?
How many gifts do you have?

You’re probably thinking: not much, not many.

“How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked his disciples as he looked on the thousands of people who were hungry because they had been following him for days.

The disciples were probably thinking: not much, not many.
Notice that Jesus did not ask them how much EXTRA food they had. They were hungry, too, of course. Jesus did not ask them if they had a surplus to help feed others. He asked them how much they had, and they gave it all to him.

Then he gave thanks, broke the bread, and gave it to his disciples to distribute to the crowd. It would have been unbelievable if everyone had gotten a bite. It would have been incredible if everyone ate enough to be satisfied. But it is amazing that everyone ate and was satisfied, and there were still seven baskets of fragments leftover.

Jesus is not just doing this to amaze, of course. Jesus is acting out of compassion and addressing a real need of the people who were following him to hear about the Kingdom, who would not have had enough strength to get back to their homes.

Jesus, as always, is also teaching a lesson: he wants us to participate in his saving mission by putting what we have at his disposal. Jesus did not make bread out of thin air (which he could have), nor did he distribute the bread himself. He asked his disciples to give what they had and asked them to hand out the gift. They entrusted their meager resources to the Master, and they must have been in consternation as they continued to hand it out to the people without running out!

What would have happened if the disciples had decided that they had no surplus, and kept those loaves for themselves? This would not have been unreasonable. But God calls us to act beyond reason, to act in faith.
Jesus asks each one of us to entrust our meager resources to him, knowing that God’s work is done beyond our small human abilities, reason, and calculations. We may think we do not have much to give, but when we give generously, he is able to give more generously. In fact, God does his best work when we are at the end of our capabilities and lean into him for results. And God’s results far surpass the sum total of what we give.

Let’s confidently hand him all we have – our meager loaves and little fish – and then watch what he can do.

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Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including newly ordained Father Rob and seminarian Luke ;-), and two grandchildren. She is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 25 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio, by publishing and speaking, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Catechesis, various parishes, and other ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is https://www.kathryntherese.com/.

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Begging Jesus to Leave

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At first, today’s Gospel seems like a straightforward story of Jesus healing another person, freeing him from demonic possession and telling him to go and share his personal good news. But that’s just the surface. If we look deeper, we see the whole human drama of good and evil and freedom with Christ.

Let’s look first at the power of evil. The man is clearly possessed, and St. Mark describes the seriousness of his situation in some detail, so there is no doubt. And yet the devil does not have complete control, ever! In this case, the man is forced to prostrate himself before Jesus, the enemy begging to be left alone. When it is clear that Jesus means to free the man, the enemy is not then freed to roam at will; he must ask Jesus’ permission to enter the herd of swine! While the devil works with angelic intelligence and strength (which is greater than human intelligence and strength!), he is not all-powerful; the enemy can only operate within the parameters set by God Himself.

Let’s look next at how narrow the human perspective can be. The people of the town, who can see only the external details, are more concerned about the loss of the swine than the welfare of the previously suffering man. Hearing “what had happened to the possessed man and to the swine,” they see only the loss and not the gain, and they “began to beg him to leave their district.”

Let’s look at how Jesus operates within this struggle of good and evil. Jesus has supreme authority and power to free and heal and command demons. But Jesus also respects the gift of free will God has given to humanity, and never forces himself on anyone. When the Gerasenes beg him to leave, he gets into the boat and leaves. Free will is a powerful gift; we are always free to send him away.

What about the possessed man? He wanted to remain with Jesus, but Jesus gave him another task. He directed him to share his testimony, to be a witness. And he did, to the amazement of all who heard him. The Lord entrusts his work to us who have been blessed by Him!

What about us? An examination is always in order:

Are there areas in our lives in which we see only the surface, and are unable to see deeply and appreciate what God is doing?

Are there circumstances in which we are counting the cost but missing the deeper spiritual benefits?

Are there places within us that we have “fenced off” from Jesus because we are afraid of what he might demand of us, or ask us to change?

Are we ready and willing to share what God has done in our own lives so that others can know Him better?

Lord, give us light and strength so that we can SEE DEEPLY and remain open to Your saving power!

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Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including newly ordained Father Rob and seminarian Luke ;-), and two grandchildren. She is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 25 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio, by publishing and speaking, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Catechesis, various parishes, and other ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is https://www.kathryntherese.com/.

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Family? What Family?

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If your mother was seeking you, came looking for you, sent word that she was outside waiting for you, your response would be anything but, “Who is my mother?” as if you had never met her. Yet that is how Jesus responds when he receives word that his mother and relatives are waiting outside for him: “Who are my mother and my brothers?”

This is certainly not because Jesus doesn’t know his mother, or disrespects her in any way. On the contrary, he knows Mary better than anyone ever can, his relationship with her is closer than anyone else’s, and he loves her more deeply than anyone ever will!

But Jesus never misses an opportunity to teach what the Kingdom is about and what his Heart desires; so, when informed that his family is looking for him, he takes the opportunity to say something startling: Family? You are my family. We are ALL called to be known and loved by him, to live in close relationship with him, to be members of the very family of God. Jesus tells us that “whoever does the will of God” enters into this relationship of love and belongs to this family. We, whose sins are responsible for nailing Jesus to the Cross, are invited into intimate relationship with him. If we are committed to the will of God, sinful as we are, we are loved by Jesus as much as his own mother!

In a way, Jesus is pointing to the truth that Mary is beloved not just because she is his biological mother, but because she did the will of God in loving obedience; she is the first disciple, the one who believed, whose loving and obedient “yes” made the Incarnation possible. By looking to Mary, we can see the whole mystery of our redemption, from the Son’s conception in her womb to our own conception in the womb of Mother Church, “until Christ be fully formed in us” (Gal. 4:19).

Mary encountered the Word of God, accepted it, assented to it, and never wavered, all the way to the Cross and beyond. Her whole life is summed up in her words at the Annunciation: “I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).  Later, Jesus taught us to pray: “Thy will be done” (Matt. 6:10).

When we keep God’s commandments, we are loving Him (2 John 1:6, 1 John 5:3), but love is more than outward obedience; love is encounter, relationship, and union. Jesus tells us that if we do the will of God and not our own, we will know him and walk with him as closely as Mary and his relatives did. We are made BY Love, made TO love, made FOR Love. In keeping the commandments of love, we find the One Who IS Love, and our hearts and wills are one with His. This is the profound communion Jesus desires for each of us, right here, right now!

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Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including newly ordained Father Rob and seminarian Luke ;-), and two grandchildren. She is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 25 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio, by publishing and speaking, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Catechesis, various parishes, and other ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is https://www.kathryntherese.com/.

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We Are All One

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Am I my brothers Keeper?

In the Gospels, Jesus is constantly demonstrating that he is God, that he has the power to heal, that he is the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises, that he has come to save us from sin and death. To do that, he performs many miracles, including healing the sick; for the Jews, physical infirmity was a punishment for sin, and it kept a person outside the worshiping assembly. In healing infirmities, Jesus shows his power, but also restores each person to their place in the community of faith.

Today’s Gospel teaches us something more: within the Body of Christ, we are interconnected, responsible for the well-being others, and spiritually able to help one another. The paralytic is utterly incapable of bringing himself before Jesus. It took four men to carry him to the house where Jesus was preaching. They are so determined that they do not turn away when they are unable to enter – their ingenuity and dedication impel them to muscle their friend to the top of the house, where they pull away part of the roof and lower their friend into the room (we all need friends like this!). This took some time, energy, and strength! And Jesus’ reaction is a lesson for us: “Jesus saw their faith,” and turned to the paralytic and said, “Child, your sins are forgiven.”

Now, it doesn’t seem that forgiveness was the main motive for working so hard to get the paralytic in proximity to Jesus. It seems more likely that the friends had faith that Jesus could CURE their friend, and we don’t even read that the paralytic asked for forgiveness. But Jesus waits for the scribes to react and object that only God can forgive sins, and then he physically heals the paralytic as a proof for them that he has the power to forgive sins AND heal the lame. Only God can do either of those things!

We are also called to act like the friends of this paralytic. We must work to help others to heal from every woundedness: spiritual, emotional, psychological, physical. We must bring others to Jesus, and not weary or be put off when this task seems difficult. We must intercede for others and sacrifice our own time and energy and strength on their behalf, because God responds to seeing OUR faith by pouring His light and grace on others. This is part of the mystery of the Body of Christ! We are all one in Christ, and must work for the good of one another.

We can ask: Who is the person in my life who needs my help and prayer? What is God asking me to do for that person? Let’s each make an effort on behalf of that person today. When we see God’s action in our lives and in the lives of others, we too will be astounded and glorify God, and say, “We have never seen anything like this!”

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Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including newly ordained Father Rob and seminarian Luke ;-), and two grandchildren. She is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 25 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio, by publishing and speaking, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Catechesis, various parishes, and other ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is https://www.kathryntherese.com/.

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We Are All Lepers

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Have you ever experienced a physical issue that you wanted to conceal or minimize? A swollen eye? A skin rash? Even a blackened fingernail might keep our hands in our pockets.

You know your own hands very well. Look at them and imagine your fingers bent in unnatural positions, several of them missing, mysteriously “eaten away.” You would probably want to hide them from others. What if your face were suffering the same mysterious infection? It is likely that others would look away from you or avoid you.

This is a glimpse into the plight of lepers. Through no fault of their own, lepers have been infected with bacteria that disfigures them completely, causing damage to the organs, eyes, limbs, and nerves. Because of the fear of contaminating others, lepers were considered unclean and were not allowed to be in contact with others. Because of their disfigurement, they were terrible to look at and covered themselves even from their own eyes. They were separated socially, psychologically, spiritually, and emotionally from others, forced to live on the outer edge of society and rely on charity, which they received from a distance. They could not be with their families or pray with the community. They were cast aside to watch their disease progressively erode their physical selves.

Who could be in worse shape in the ancient world than a leper?
And yet, we are all lepers, in a sense, because leprosy can be seen as a biblical analogy for sin. Leprosy is to the body what sin is to the soul. Sin disfigures and eats away at our souls, separating us from all that is good and true and beautiful and from one another. Sin drives a wedge in our relationship with God, with other people, and with our own best selves. Sin is the terrible spiritual disease that keeps us from being able to fulfill our true potential in Christ and to live in full communion with God and other people.

That’s the bad news. But the Gospel is Good News, and today’s Gospel proclaims the good news that if we, like the leper, bow down before the Lord, acknowledging that He alone has the power to cure us, and confidently ask to be healed, we can be free. Jesus will not hesitate or draw back; He will touch us with His grace. He says to the leper and to us: “I do will it.” This is why he has come to us!

Unlike the leper, we don’t have to wait for the Master to pass by. We have access to Him 24/7. It is up to us to open ourselves to the healing mercy and grace of Christ through prayer and through the Church in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

During these last few days of Christmastime, let us ask for the grace to open ourselves fully to the infinite mercy Christ came to unleash on the world, and confidently ask Him to set us free.

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Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including newly ordained Father Rob and seminarian Luke ;-), and two grandchildren. She is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 25 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio, by publishing and speaking, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Catechesis, various parishes, and other ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is https://www.kathryntherese.com/.

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Journeys and Gifts

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“They saw the child with Mary, his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts…”

There are many aspects of this wonderful Solemnity that we can reflect on, but these few words from today’s Gospel give us a glimpse into how this celebration can focus our own search for Christ. The magi – foreigners, non-Jews – have seen a great sign in the heavens, and have come to acknowledge and honor a new king at his birth. They are searching; they are inquiring, they are following a light; this searching and traveling require effort, perseverance, sacrifice, and time, but it is important to them that they reach their destination. And they do: they find the house where this new king is dwelling, and they see him “with Mary, his mother.” The first thing they do is bow before him. Then they offer him the gifts they have carried with them.

We can find a parallel in our own spiritual journey. Our search for Christ happens in prayer and in the circumstances of our daily lives. Our searching also requires effort, perseverance, sacrifice, and time. We must prioritize our prayer time and our desire to follow the light of Christ over other activities and motivations. And like the magi, we can find Jesus “with Mary, his mother”; the woman through whom God came to dwell with us will always lead us to dwell with Him, as her role is always to bring Christ to the world and the world to Christ. Our prayer must always begin, like the magi’s, with humility: we must acknowledge Jesus as the Lord of all, as the king of our hearts and our lives, and adore Him. Then, the rest of our prayer will flow properly, including the offerings of our lives and ourselves that we make to him.

The magi offered gifts that expressed the truth about this small child in poor surroundings: this child is king (gold – a sign of royalty), this child is God (frankincense – a sign of our worship), this child came to offer his life for us (myrrh – for burial). What can we offer to this God-Man who set aside His glory to dwell with us and save us? How can our offerings acknowledge Who God is and our place in the Body of Christ? How can we help others see the profound gift that has been given to all the nations, making us all “co-heirs, members of the same body, and co-partners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel” (Eph. 3:6)?
Today, let us rejoice in the revelation of the one true God to all the nations. Come, let us adore Him!

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Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including newly ordained Father Rob and seminarian Luke ;-), and two grandchildren. She is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 25 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio, by publishing and speaking, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Catechesis, various parishes, and other ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is https://www.kathryntherese.com/.

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A Family of Faithfulness

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On the Sixth Day within the Octave of Christmas, we are still – liturgically – celebrating Christmas Day! We sing the Gloria at each Mass during these eight days, and the prayers for the Nativity from the Liturgy of the Hours are repeated each morning as if it were still Christmas Day. In the Church, we celebrate the major feast days for weeks, not hours, so continue to spread the Christmas cheer, all the way to Epiphany!

In today’s Gospel, we glimpse the “hidden life” of the Holy Family in Nazareth. After the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, where the prayerful, faithful, 84-year-old temple-dwelling widow, Anna, recognized the Messiah in the arms of Mary and Joseph and gave thanks to God, the family returned to Nazareth. By all outward appearances, this was a family like every other family, and the child was a child like every other child, who “grew and became strong.” Like most children do. Right?

We are given a hint that there is a bit more than this at the end of the reading: the child was “filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.” What did this look like within this particular family? There are things we can know and things we can only wonder about.

We know that they were faithful to the prescriptions of the Jewish law. We know that they prayed at the specified hours, that they prayed the Psalms, that they fasted, and observed the feasts prescribed by the law. We know that they had to work, to eat, to serve, and celebrate with their neighbors. And as faithful Jews, we know that they recited (several times a day) the Shema, acknowledging God as one, Whom they love with all their heart, soul, and mind. This is how they lived: in loving obedience to the one God of all, in constant obedience to the Father.

We don’t know many details about these years, but our hearts can lead us to ask some questions about them. What was it like to be the parents of the God-Man, to teach the law to the One Who gave it to His people? Did their neighbors discern anything special about this little family, in their demeanor or their generosity? Did their dinner conversations ever reach to the future, to the Mission of the Christ? We are free to wonder, and even to ask Jesus, His Mother, and St. Joseph to help us understand this mystery. And we certainly can – and should – ask them for the grace to live each moment with the same love and obedience to the Father.

May that be part of our New Year’s resolutions: to strive to walk with the Holy Family, and let them lead us to understand that we are loved intensely and infinitely by God. I pray that you and all those you love are being showered with many Christmas graces, and are blessed with a peace-filled New Year!

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Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including newly ordained Father Rob and seminarian Luke ;-), and two grandchildren. She is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 25 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio, by publishing and speaking, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Catechesis, various parishes, and other ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is https://www.kathryntherese.com/.

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Gaudete! Rejoice!

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Our liturgies for this Sunday take on a different tone than the first two Sundays of Advent. The vestments for Mass are rose instead of violet, and we light a pink candle to represent joyfulness in the middle of our waiting. We are reminded repeatedly to REJOICE! The Entrance Antiphon bids us to “Rejoice in the Lord always… Indeed, the Lord is near,” and the opening prayer continues the theme by asking God to “enable us… to attain the joys of so great a salvation and to celebrate them always with solemn worship and glad rejoicing.” The First Reading tells us, “the steppe will rejoice and bloom. They will bloom with abundant flowers and rejoice with joyful song” (Isaiah 35:2). We have reached “half-time” in our Advent preparation, and we are called to rejoice that the Lord is coming.

The Gospel for today focuses on John the Baptist, with Jesus answering the question about whether he is the “one who is to come” and then telling the crowd that “among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist.” John is the one sent to prepare the way of the Lord, the one who hoped in the Lord, who rejoiced in the Bridegroom and ultimately gave his life for the Truth. He is indeed a great prophet and more than a prophet.

But Jesus gives a surprising comment at the end: he says that “the least in the kingdom of heaven is even greater than” John! The least is greater. Jesus wants us to understand that his Kingdom is essentially unlike any other kingdom: of those who enter, the humblest will be most exalted in it! Our way of judging and rewarding is not God’s way of judging and rewarding. Jesus came to turn the world’s understanding upside down, to bring God’s Light so that we can learn to see as He sees and to teach us to walk with him in our baptismal grace toward holiness and joy only God can give.

It is only because Jesus became one of us – a man like us in all things but sin – that we are enabled to become adopted sons and daughters of the Father, who is Love, and be lifted up into the eternal Kingdom of Christ.

This is why, even as we await the fullness of this Kingdom, the Church rejoices today, singing “Gaudete!”

He is near!

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Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including newly ordained Father Rob and seminarian Luke ;-), and two grandchildren. She is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 25 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio, by publishing and speaking, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Catechesis, various parishes, and other ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is https://www.kathryntherese.com/.

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Bringing the Light to Every Darkened Place

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Jesus’ generation is much like ours, with people ready to take up the gossip on the prevailing wind and believe whatever is being said, rather than working to see the truth and go against the flow when necessary.

Jesus is never one to mince words, and when the situation demands it, he calls out the faults of his listeners. He has one goal in doing this: to get their attention so that they will not MISS THE TIME OF HIS COMING, the hour of redemption. He sees everything from an eternal perspective, the perspective of the whole history of salvation, but his listeners are often like children, subject to their whims and moods at the moment, rather than being awake to objective truth and wisdom.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus compares them to children in the marketplaces, who cannot see things clearly or judge them rightly. They accused John the Baptist of being possessed because he lived a solitary life of fasting and preaching. Because Jesus was “eating and drinking,” they accused him of being a glutton and a drunkard. The people were unable to see that wisdom guided both of their lives completely! Jesus tells us: “Wisdom is vindicated by her works.” And in the end, everything will be clear.

In a world in which trends rise and fall quickly, in which social media facilitates a kind of “mob hysteria” from one moment to the next, in which any opinion can take on the authority of fact because it has a wide circulation, it is important that we “put on the armor of light” (Rom 13:12) so that we can SEE the Truth clearly and are not “carried away by all kinds of strange teaching” (Heb 13:9). In a world of confusion, a world that has no place for objective truth, it is important that we ground ourselves in the One who IS truth so that we can recognize the distortions (and a half-truth can be more dangerous than a lie!).

Each Advent, we have a fresh opportunity to shake off the confusions of the culture and focus fully on the truth: that God loves us, that God comes to dwell with us, that God has a beautiful plan for each of us. In seeking ourselves and all meaningfulness in God, we can act in line with true principles in our very real situations, bringing the Light of Christ to every darkened place.

If we make this our goal, God will provide fresh grace as well, allowing us to do what we long to do for the good of others and for His glory. Maranatha!

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Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including newly ordained Father Rob and seminarian Luke ;-), and two grandchildren. She is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 25 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio, by publishing and speaking, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Catechesis, various parishes, and other ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is https://www.kathryntherese.com/.

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Emmanuel: God WITH US

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If you’ve ever heard me speak, you’ve undoubtedly heard me ask, “Why are we here? What are we supposed to be doing on this planet?” Because every important journey begins with understanding where we are headed and how to get to the destination. There are all kinds of things we can wonder about and discuss, but if we miss the whole point of our existence, we will spend a lot of time on things that do not help us to our goal. We have to keep going back to our beginning to understand our end!

We exist because God willed our existence, continues to will our existence, and His endless creating love works with our wills and our circumstances to continuously create our existence. He created human beings who could share His own life of joy and peace and love, and He is continuously creating. Why? Because He loves us and wants us to dwell with Him eternally.

In Genesis, God DWELLS WITH Adam and Eve, walking in Eden in the cool of the evening. When they allow their trust in Him to die and choose their own way rather than His, He must send them out of this Paradise and no longer dwell with them. A door was closed.

But Jesus came to restore this relationship: “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14). Jesus came to reopen the door that was closed so that God could DWELL WITH US again. And before his death, Jesus leaves his disciples with the Gift that will allow him to remain with us until he comes in glory: in the Sacraments, particularly in the Eucharist, Jesus can be with each one of us throughout our lives.

In the end, we read in the Book of Revelation, “the DWELLING OF GOD IS WITH MEN, and He will live with them” (Revelation 21:3). God made us in His image and likeness, and this image and likeness is love and communion  – a communion of Persons, loving one another perfectly, and desiring to share that loving communion with others because love is effusive of itself.

In today’s Gospel, we glimpse the Trinity: Jesus – the Son – is rejoicing in the Holy Spirit and praising the Father. This is a model for our own prayer: we pray with/in Jesus, to the Father, through the Spirit. We can do this because Jesus, who is one like us in all things (except sin!) is also equal to, consubstantial with, the Father; no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and this knowing and loving IS the Holy Spirit. This is how Jesus can say in another place that those who have seen him have seen the Father.

During Advent, as we prepare to welcome the Child in the manger, let us also remember that He is our Savior, who came to open the door so that He could dwell with us as Emmanuel: “God-with-us.”

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Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including newly ordained Father Rob and seminarian Luke ;-), and two grandchildren. She is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 25 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio, by publishing and speaking, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Catechesis, various parishes, and other ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is https://www.kathryntherese.com/.

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How Near Is The Kingdom Of God?

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As we draw near to the end of Ordinary Time, preparing to enter into Advent, the Gospel readings are… serious. Jesus is giving serious warnings about the destruction of Jerusalem, about signs in the sun and moon and stars, about wars and the persecution of his followers. And understandably, his followers are asking the obvious questions: When will this happen? How will we know? What should we do?

We naturally feel unsettled by these descriptions. It is not comforting or empowering to think of things falling apart and ending. And yet, in yesterday’s Gospel, when Jesus described people dying in fright and the powers of the heavens shaking, he tells his followers to “stand erect and raise your heads” rather than fearfully cower in a corner. Why? “Because your redemption is at hand” (Luke 21-28).

As he speaks of these things, Jesus uses words and imagery that his listeners would understand as referring to the Day of the Lord predicted by the Old Testament prophets. This was seen by Jews as the coming of the Messiah, the end of the Old Covenant, the dividing point of all of history. Jesus is helping us to see that the Day of the Lord is more than a day: it extends to the end of time, as the experience of the first Christians – persecution, growth, war, and disaster – is repeated by every generation until Jesus returns. Jesus IS with us. Jesus WILL return in glory. And Jesus WILL reign over all eternally.

There is another lesson here. In today’s short Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples that these things will certainly come because his word is Truth. No matter what is happening in our human lives, in the culture, in the natural world, in our families, in our hearts, HIS WORD IS TRUTH. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will NOT pass away.” His word is meaningful and everlasting and absolutely stable. More stable than the sun and the moon and the mountains and the sea, more lasting than our own ideas and hopes and agendas, more meaningful than all our own activity.

All of human history is moving toward a final, climactic moment when Christ returns in glory. Each of our personal contributions to that history will be made known when Christ establishes “a new heaven and a new earth” (Rev. 21:1), and takes his place on the eternal Throne of Love. By placing these readings at the end of the liturgical year, the Church invites us to ponder the awesomeness of our eternal destiny, the seriousness with which we must attend to our baptismal calling, and the great Gift of Love that God gave us in sending His only-begotten Son to save us.

With this as our backdrop, we are better “prepared to prepare” – this Sunday we enter into Advent, when we focus our efforts on joyful preparation for our celebration of this Gift of Jesus at Christmas!

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Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including newly ordained Father Rob and seminarian Luke ;-), and two grandchildren. She is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 25 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio, by publishing and speaking, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Catechesis, various parishes, and other ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is https://www.kathryntherese.com/.

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All We Need, And More

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Does your parish church have stained glass windows? Then you will appreciate Pope Benedict XVI’s observation that from the outside, the windows look dark and dull, but when you are inside the Church, they are richly and brilliantly illuminated.

That is another kind of parable for the lesson of Jesus in today’s Gospel. We see Jesus Himself as the “nobleman” who went to obtain a kingship, giving ten of his servants a gold coin worth 100 days’ wages before he left, giving them specific instructions to “engage in trade” with them. After he became king, he returned to check the “return on investment,” as it were.

These coins can be seen as the talents and graces we are freely given. The Lord gives us everything and invites us to freely put our gifts and our lives in his service and the service of others. He asks us to use what we have (without comparing it to what others have!) to engage fully in life, to help others, and to glorify God. To those who do this generously, Jesus promises a generous reward!

But if we refuse to use what we have been given, it will be as if we have chosen to remain outside the church building in the cold, seeing it as a stone mountain into which we dare not enter. From outside, we cannot see the light streaming in through the colored windows, or enter into the hymns of praise rising up from the People of God or partake of the rich banquet of the Body and Blood of Christ. We, therefore, keep ourselves separated from communion with God and His family!

Many things can keep us from fully engaging our gifts: fear, selfishness, ingratitude. We may not really know what we have or what we can do; we may be using our energies to satisfy our own wants and forgetting to look at ways to serve others; we may be blinded by a conviction that we really don’t have enough to give; we may be afraid of the risks of taking our spiritual responsibility seriously; we may be focused on counting the costs. All of these attitudes and more can impel us to “wrap our coin in a handkerchief” rather than “engage in trade”!

Where do we begin to shift engagement? We can begin by making sure that our relationship with God truly has first place in our lives. Then we can take a look at the duties and responsibilities before us, in our family and at work, and assess whether we are doing all we can for the people around us. Next, we can look at our parish, to see where we might be of service to further the mission of the Church!

We need not fear that we will run out of anything. If we are doing what God calls us to do, we are given more! When we engage our gifts and talents in His service, we will always have all we need.

Contact the author

Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including newly ordained Father Rob and seminarian Luke ;-), and two grandchildren. She is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 25 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio, by publishing and speaking, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Catechesis, various parishes, and other ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is https://www.kathryntherese.com/.