Tag: Kathryn Mulderink

Today the Church celebrates the Memorial of the Presentation of Mary. This is not found in the Gospel, but is based on an ancient tradition that Mary was taken to the Temple in Jerusalem and dedicated to God as a child. Its place on the liturgical calendar dates back to the 6^th century in the East (where it is celebrated as the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple, one of the Eastern Orthodoxy’s 12 Great Feasts!) and the 16^th century in the West (though it had some widespread local celebrations before being included in the universal Roman Calendar in 1585).

It is interesting to note that the three feasts of the life of Jesus – Christmas, the Holy Name of Jesus, and the Presentation in the Temple – are mirrored in the three feasts of the Marian cycle: the Nativity of Mary, the Holy Name of Mary, and her Presentation in the Temple. It is this mirroring that gives us a clue as to why this celebration is significant and remains on the liturgical calendar. Mary always points to Jesus and she was the first disciple, the first Christian, the one who followed Jesus most closely. These “parallel feasts” are a reminder that Mary’s life paralleled the life of Christ her Son.

Everything that Jesus tells us to do, Mary has done in an exemplary way, and so we are encouraged to look to her, as the human being on earth who knew Jesus best and can teach us how to follow him closely. We can look to her example to learn how to “ponder in the heart,” seek first the Kingdom of God, bear the cross in the world, trust in God’s mercy and love, and keep our eyes on the eternal treasure of Heaven.

Mary’s deepest identity is BELIEVER – one who encountered the Word of God, accepted it, assented to it, and never wavered, all the way to the cross and beyond.  She is our example of complete receptivity to the Word and a ready YES to every breath, every movement of the Holy Spirit.

There is nothing that Mary does without it being undertaken by the impulse of that original and ever-active grace of the Spirit that filled her from the beginning. And so, this tradition that her parents brought her to the Temple to dedicate her to God makes sense. We can almost see her there, prompted by the Spirit to open herself wholly to the God of her people. This act of dedication would be fully realized as she grew under the gaze of the Father, seeking His Will alone, so that she could truthfully say to the angel: “I am the handmaid of the Lord.”

So, let us ask Mary, “full of grace,” to intercede for us before the Throne of Grace, that we will love and serve the Lord freely and fully as she did!

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Today’s parable is straightforward on the surface: we should never become weary of praying, even if it seems our prayer is not being heard. But if we just look a little deeper, there is a more profound lesson.

We’ve all heard many times that we should “pray without ceasing” and that God hears all our prayers. And we know that when we pray, there is a possibility (or even probability) that things will not work out precisely the way we want. We’ve heard that’s because God knows what’s best, which is certainly true.  I sometimes say that God has three answers to prayer: 1) “Yes.” 2) “In just a minute.” and 3) “Actually, I have a better idea.” Our trustful prayer must be open to all three possible answers!

Jesus insists over the course of several parables on the importance of prayer, on our correct attitude at prayer, and the need to pray always. Prayer is simply a conversation with God; words are not even necessary, as it can be a simple lifting of the heart and mind to God because we desire to know His will, to walk in His ways, to glorify Him. When this becomes a habit, we are “praying always” and our love quietly deepens. St. Augustine says, “Desire always, and you pray always. This is the continual voice of prayer…You are silent when you cease to love. The cooling of charity is the silence of the heart.” If our hearts are not reaching toward God, even wordlessly, we are not fanning the flames of love.

The constant prayer of those “who call out to him day and night” must be accompanied by a firm faith, a confident hope that God hears every prayer. In this, Jesus seems to speak to each individual as well as to the Church as a whole: “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” These words point to the final coming of Christ; before that apocalyptic day, the faith of all will be put to the test. As in the case of the foolish virgins in another parable, the oil necessary for keeping the fire of faith burning cannot be borrowed or bought at the last minute! It is a habit of prayer and Spirit-led action that keeps our oil lamps burning in expectation of the coming of the Bridegroom.

So it is wise to ask for the gifts of prayer, patience, and perseverance. These are gifts that the Spirit loves to pour out on the People of God, but our asking for them shows that we understand these powers do not come from ourselves and places our souls in the position to receive them properly. When we acknowledge that without Him we can do nothing, we give God permission and opportunity to work freely in us and through us, and our prayer is directed by the Spirit through Jesus right to the Heart of the Father.

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Let’s begin by clarifying that the “wedding feast” here refers to Heaven, and the bridegroom is Jesus himself (images already present in the Old Testament). The Church is the Bride of Christ, and each one of us is also his bride.  The bridegroom comes to bring the virgins into the feast with him, but only half of them are ready – the foolish half had run out of oil. They were not prepared for the coming of the bridegroom.

What did they need to do to be prepared? They needed to have enough oil to keep their lamps burning until midnight, of course!

Those waiting for the bridegroom are “virgins” – those who seek “the one thing necessary”, as Jesus said to Martha (Lk 10:42). As today’s Psalm reminds us, their souls thirst for the Lord (Psalm 63); they are focused fully on being ready for Jesus to return for them. He is delayed and comes at the very end, at midnight, when they have all become weary and fallen asleep. Clearly, they were not eagerly watching for his coming! But the wise virgins replenish their oil and stoke up their flames.

What is this “oil”? The oil that keeps their lamps burning to the end of their lives when Jesus comes to bring them into the Heavenly Feast signifies grace and love, their loving desire, faithfulness, and prayer, their pure and burning offering of themselves to him. The foolish ones think of these things as a commodity they can run out and get at the last minute, but growing in love and grace and becoming the person we are created to be is the work of a lifetime. This is why the wise virgins cannot give any of their oil to the foolish ones – the oil is a specific image of Christ-life within each of us, and the warmth and light that come from deep devotion and fidelity cannot be handed off to another at the last minute.

Jesus tells us that he has come to cast a fire on earth (Lk 12:49), and he desires that it burn in a unique way in each of us. This fire that God longs to see in each soul grows throughout our spiritual journey, gradually taking its shape in the depths of our relationship with the Lord and with one another. We can let our light shine for others, and others may light their lamps from this fire, but the oil must come from each person’s cooperation with the work of the Holy Spirit within them, as they become a unique Image of God.

This is the goal of each individual life and of the whole of human history – to grow in our relationship with God in such a way that we burn with the radiance He created us for so that He knows us as His own and we light up the world and heaven in the way that He has called us to shine.

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Jesus points to the fact that his listeners (and his detractors) could certainly interpret indications of oncoming weather – clouds mean rain, wind from the south means heat – and he suggests that interpreting indications of spiritual realities should be just as easy. But is it?

Spiritual indicators are, on the one hand, just as obvious as weather indicators; they are, on the other hand, just as likely to be misinterpreted. The “secret” to interpreting properly is in the dispositions of our own hearts and minds.

The Jewish people should have known the signs of the Messiah’s coming, announced for centuries by the prophets. St. John the Baptist had paved a clear way, announcing that the Kingdom was at hand. Jesus himself was performing miracles of healing and restoration, preaching the coming of the Kingdom among them, and announcing (sometimes subtly, sometimes more clearly) that he was the One sent by the Father. And yet, those in authority did not want to accept these signs. Jesus called them out, making clear their reasons: they were not sincere in their intentions, they did not have the necessary good will, they had a personal interest in protecting the status quo because they liked the power and prestige they enjoyed. This roaming rabbi did not promise to overturn the rule of the Romans or restore the earthly Kingdom they looked for, and so they could not accept that Jesus was who he said he was.

When Jesus says to them (and to us), “Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?” he is pointing to the truth that God is always revealing the Truth, revealing His Will, revealing the way for us, if only we open ourselves to it with sincerity, humility, and love. IN CHRIST, we can know the Will of God, understand our position in the universe (which is infinitesimally small), and therefore appreciate our position in the Heart of the Father (which is disproportionately large). It is here, placing ourselves in our correct position of universal smallness and ontological largeness – here where we know that despite the fact that our existence on this planet is short and limited in scope, we have been called to the magnificence of life within the very Heart of God – that we are truly open to see God at work in our lives and in the world.

So when Jesus says we should be able to judge for ourselves what is right, and what is happening, what he is really inviting us to do is to humble ourselves before the objective Truth that IS, and open ourselves fully to the Spirit’s creative activity in human life. In prayer and immersion in the Word, we can enter more deeply into a relationship with God, and begin to hear the beating Heart of the Father.

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In today’s short Gospel, we have much to ponder. A woman from the crowd, acknowledging Jesus’ goodness, acknowledges also the presumed blessedness of his mother. It is a compliment of the highest order, perhaps inspired by Mary’s presence there, a way of honoring Jesus’ history, his mother, his belonging.

At first it may seem that Jesus is dismissing this compliment, as if he is saying, “Actually, the blessed ones are those who hear and keep God’s word, and not my mother.” But isn’t Mary the first one to “hear the word of God and observe it”? In fact, Jesus is acknowledging that the real reason Mary is to be honored is not her biological motherhood, but her total faithfulness to the Word of God. His words apply in the deepest way to her: “Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and observe it.” She is the one who heard the Word of God, opened herself to it fully, received that Word so completely that it became Flesh within her. Mary is the first disciple, the one who believed, whose loving and obedient “yes” made the Incarnation possible. By looking at 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). Our own daily “yes” should echo this complete willingness to do the Father’s will. But we must remember that God doesn’t want us to do His will because He wants submissive subjects; He wants children who live the joy and peace of a life of love. Love is not just obedience (though lovers often submit to the desires of the other); love is encounter, relationship, and union! Jesus reminds us that this life of real loving union begins with hearing God’s word and aligning our lives with it. In keeping the commands of love, we find the One who IS Love, and our hearts and wills are one with His. This is the “blessedness” and joy and peace Jesus desires for each of us.

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