Tag: Kathryn Mulderink

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The question asked by the Pharisees is one that is running like static electricity throughout the Hebrew world: When will the Kingdom of God come? For thousands of years, they have been waiting for the Messiah, as they grew into a Tribe and a People, enslaved in Egypt, wandering in the desert, fighting for the Promised Land, building a Temple, succumbing to idolatry, exiled in Babylon, and now oppressed by the Romans, with whom they have established a somewhat comfortable but ever-uncertain freedom to live and worship according to the Law.

Expectation and rumor have filled the air for several decades, suggesting that the Messiah would come soon to free them from the enslavement of worldly powers and restore a visible political Kingdom on earth. This is what the Pharisees are looking for: political and cultural independence, international influence, a renewed social superiority, a theocracy even. Jesus knows that what they really want is the glorification and prolonging of their own kingdom, not the dawning of a new and heavenly Kingdom.

Jesus, as he often does, answers the question in a way that refocuses the perspective of the asker: the Kingdom cannot be seen, cannot be announced on a certain date, cannot be limited to one geopolitical territory even if it is the Promised Land. It is already here, among and within you; wherever Jesus is accepted, believed in, and obeyed, he is reigning already. The Kingdom IS Christ. He is standing among them, unrecognized. And then, in the next breath, Jesus warns against running after false Messiahs. The Savior is as bright and unpredictable as lightning flashing across the sky. It is for us to be still and know him in the silence of our hearts, to allow him to reign within us and work through us to extend his glorious, eternal Kingdom.

The glory, universality, and eternity of this Kingdom are hidden. The joy and love and peace of this Kingdom should radiate through the words, actions, and hearts of its citizens. As members of this Kingdom of Love, under the reign of the Prince of Peace, the light of Christ should shine through us, drawing all into the joy of the Lord.

A smile. An act of true kindness. A heartfelt prayer. A word of gratitude. These things spring from deep within our hearts, when they are ablaze with the Fire of the Spirit of Jesus, and the sparks can ignite dry bones and papery hearts with new life. Let’s act from the fires within and be generous with these gifts, so that, as St. Catherine of Siena said, we will set the world on fire.

Kathryn is married to Robert, mother of seven, grandmother to two, and a lay Carmelite. She has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE, and also as a writer and voice talent for Holy Family Radio. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and presenter, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Faith Formation, individual parishes, and Catholic ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Learn more at www.kathryntherese.com or on Facebook @summapax.

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The words in today’s First Reading from Deuteronomy are pivotal in the Mosaic Law and are now known as the Shema, part of the monotheistic profession of faith recited by Jews twice a day and the centerpiece of the morning and evening prayer services: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one.

It is interesting to note that for Jews, to recite this prayer is to reaffirm a personal relationship with God’s rule, and with “receiving the kingdom of heaven;” it is often recited at the point of death. It was well-known to Jesus’ hearers and to the scribe who posed the question. Still, his inquiry about which commandment is the most important is a legitimate one, as the rabbis had enumerated 613 precepts of the Law, 248 commands, and 365 prohibitions; the relative importance of these ritual ordinances, precepts, and expressions of natural law was a common subject of discussion. While the Shema was recited twice a day, its importance could be obscured by the fact that it was immediately followed by rules about temporal prosperity and the wearing of tassels.

This scribe seems to ask the question in goodwill, looking for clarity. Jesus affirms that the commandment of primary importance is to love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength (every power of our body and soul must be put in service to God!). Then he adds something surprising: the commandment of next importance is to love others as oneself (this comes from Leviticus 19:18, but was often obscured by other texts, like “an eye for an eye,” in Leviticus 24:19-20).

What would be surprising to the original listeners is that Jesus brings this law of loving others to the forefront by setting it beside – and making it inseparable from – the need to love God completely, with one’s whole being. It’s important for modern listeners to note the order Jesus gives these: first we must love God wholly, and then our love of others flows from it.

This sums up all man’s duties to God and to others, and the scribe acknowledges the wisdom Jesus has spoken. He expresses a clear understanding of the teaching of the prophets that the interior disposition of charity and fulfilling the moral law were superior to the external ritual of sacrifice; in many ways, this was obscured by the Pharisees’ emphasis on external expressions. The scribe replies that these laws of love are “worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” Love is the goal; ceremonial worship is a means. Jesus responds to this summary by affirming that he is not far from the kingdom of God.

When we profess and believe that God is one and that we love Him with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, we draw close to Him and are empowered to bring His love to others by self-sacrificing service.

Loving God is first. Loving others must flow from this first love.

Kathryn is married to Robert, mother of seven, grandmother to two, and a lay Carmelite. She has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE, and also as a writer and voice talent for Holy Family Radio. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and presenter, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Faith Formation, individual parishes, and Catholic ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Learn more at www.kathryntherese.com or on Facebook @summapax.

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The Sermon on the Mount. The Beatitudes. We have heard them so often, seen them on posters, Facebook art, Instagram, even our daily planners… maybe we forget how revolutionary these words of Jesus are.

Jesus signals to the crowd that this is serious and official by sitting down. When rabbis sat down to teach, it meant that their words were official and doctrinal (we still refer to this tradition when we refer to the “Chair of Peter”, from which we receive official statements of the Church). Another signal we might miss because of the translation is the phrase “he began to teach them”; literally translated, this would say “he opened his mouth,” a phrase indicating an official declaration in the ancient world. St. Matthew tells us that Jesus went up the mountain – from whence the Law was given – and then sat down and opened his mouth; all this is to help us understand that Jesus is teaching something in a rather solemn way, from his Heart.

Each statement Jesus gives us in the Beatitudes is intended to overturn our very natural way of thinking, to proclaim that God’s ways are not our ways and that the Kingdom is established deep within every human heart and not necessarily obvious to worldly eyes. Unlike the rich and powerful of this world, who maintain their position by violence and treachery and self-will, citizens of the Kingdom of God are often oppressed and yet blessed. They are poor, mourning the present state of life, meek and insignificant to the world, yearning to live rightly according to the righteousness of God, merciful to others, pure of heart, sowing peace in the world. These words of Jesus turn worldly wisdom on its head. In our own world, we might read them as “Blessed are you if you are not driven by the desire for power, pleasure, prestige, position, possessions, good feelings, etc…Blessed are you if you are kind and merciful like the Father.”

Jesus says something else that is revolutionary: he links his teaching to himself. He does not say, “Here are some good rules, and you will be blessed even when you are persecuted for following them.” Rather, he says, “Blessed are you when they insult and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of ME. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.” The connection between what Jesus says and his very PERSON is unique in all of history; we must not simply accept his teaching, we must adhere to HIM. To the Jews, these were very strange words. They should not be strange to us! We must know Christ, adhere to Christ and be transformed in Christ so that we can be “other Christs” and bring God’s love and mercy to others.

This is what the Gospel is all about.

Kathryn is married to Robert, mother of seven, grandmother to two, and a lay Carmelite. She has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE, and also as a writer and voice talent for Holy Family Radio. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and presenter, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Faith Formation, individual parishes, and Catholic ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Learn more at www.kathryntherese.com or on Facebook @summapax.

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What IS the Kingdom of God like? To what can we compare it?

If you’ve spent any time thinking about the “ends of things,” the “final things,” the end point of existence, you’ve probably wondered about the Kingdom of God. What is it?

Jesus gives us comparisons that are intended to make us think and wonder even more. He tells us that it is like a mustard seed that a man planted in a garden, or like yeast that a woman mixed into some dough. Hardly images we might choose for the very Kingdom of God!

I’ve always found it interesting that Jesus used comparisons that both men and women of the time could understand really intimately. A man would know about leavening, but not in the same way that a woman who has actually made bread with her own hands would; he knows it in general, she knows the working up close, and the timing, and the need for warmth, and the mistakes that can be made. A woman would know something about planting tiny seeds, but not in the same way that a man who had actually planted it with his own hands would; she knows it in general, but he knows the ground clearing, the furrowing with the finger, the burying to the right depth, the watering, the waiting, the possibility that nothing will grow from this tiny seed.

What both of these comparisons have in common is that they begin small and hidden. They both remain inactive and, in a sense, “dead” unless they are placed in the right conditions to take on a new life, and they need these certain conditions to thrive. When they DO take on new life, they grow continually and expand to proportions much larger and life-giving than their original form would suggest: a sprinkle of leavening makes a whole batch of dough rise in grainy glory to feed the life of others; a tiny, hard, hot mustard seed grows into a bush large enough to support the life of birds in its branches.

The Church grew from the small “mustard seed” of apostles and disciples until it reached the ends of the earth. And the Kingdom of God which is planted in the heart of each one of us is likewise small and hidden, and it is for us to provide the right conditions for it to begin to grow interiorly: self-giving love of God and neighbor. When we do this, growing in virtue and deepening our transformation in Christ, the life of God’s love within us flourishes and becomes life-giving to others!

Kathryn is married to Robert, mother of seven, grandmother to two, and a lay Carmelite. She has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE, and also as a writer and voice talent for Holy Family Radio. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and presenter, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Faith Formation, individual parishes, and Catholic ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Learn more at www.kathryntherese.com or on Facebook @summapax.

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We have a clue to the probability that in today’s Gospel Jesus is addressing those who are against him rather than the crowd of goodwill followers by his use of the word “hypocrites,” usually reserved for the Scribes and Pharisees. Jesus points out that they already know how to judge physical signs to predict what is coming, like the weather, but they do not know how to judge the subtler “signs of the times” to recognize more important things like the presence of the Messiah among them!

The context in which Luke places these words is a longer explication of how beloved we are, the shortness of our life on earth, the need for watchfulness, and the division between people that following Jesus will cause. He “shakes them up” a bit so that they will hear his reference to the importance of the present time and the need to attend to matters before it is too late, calling them to repentance while there is still time before judgment is rendered. His words are not meant to help them avoid legal difficulties with opponents before judges or to avoid earthly prisons. Rather, he is hoping to help them see that the time for peacekeeping and justice and charity is always now! He calls his hearers to act always as if this moment matters, because it does, and we cannot know how many more moments we will be on this earth.

These are valuable attitudes for right living and helping others to live uprightly as well! The Psalmist (Psalm 90:12) asks the Lord to help us know the shortness of life so that we may have WISDOM. Those who recognize this and act accordingly, making the most of each moment before God, live in gratitude and joy and wisdom.

What can we do each morning to begin the day with gratitude and the resolve to live the day in a way that will glorify God, serve others, and lead us to eternal joy?

Kathryn is married to Robert, mother of seven, grandmother to two, and a lay Carmelite. She has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE, and also as a writer and voice talent for Holy Family Radio. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and presenter, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Faith Formation, individual parishes, and Catholic ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Learn more at www.kathryntherese.com or on Facebook @summapax.

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“Beware… (but) do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.”

In this Gospel, Jesus goes from warning to reassuring. He first warns his close disciples to beware of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. Why is this warning needed? Because Jesus plans to put them in positions of leadership of the Church He will establish, and He wants them to always remember and guard against the kind of superficial concerns and selfishness that keep the Pharisees from loving and serving truly. Authority has the tendency to stir in those who have it the desire to do what is expedient in order to keep it. Jesus says: Keep desire for truth and love and humility as the main concern, and don’t fall into the trap of self-righteous self-protection that the Pharisees have fallen into!

Then He addresses the crowd, which Luke points out has grown dramatically, to the point that they are trampling one another underfoot (the translation of the Greek is “tens of thousands”). Jesus now has so many followers that He could, if He desired, lead a rebellion to overthrow the Romans and at last take authority of the Kingdom that so many believed He had come to establish. But no; another lesson in authority is given: His Kingdom is not of this world, and will not be established by force. His Kingdom is quiet and hidden, expanding heart by heart as each person opens to Him and invites Jesus to reign within. This King expands his Kingdom by surrendering His whole self and His life for us.

But this Kingdom is also demanding! To enter into the Kingdom means we lovingly surrender all in return, and that the full Truth – of ourselves and of God – will eventually be known to all! In the interim, we need not fear anything, not even those who can take our mortal lives with violence, because this Kingdom we have longed for will be more fully ours after our death.

Our courage and faithfulness in the face of many difficulties arise from the truth of God’s great love for us and his never-failing help, his infinite loving kindness. We are not loved “en masse” but as individuals, even in the smallest details. God sees every detail of our lives, both the deep, hidden hurts and the tiny acts of loving service that go unnoticed by others. Jesus assures us that God knows the details we cannot know fully, that the very hairs of our head have all been counted. Even the sparrows, worth so little that a fifth one is thrown in when four are purchased, do not escape the providence of God.

And you, “you are worth more than many sparrows.”

Kathryn is married to Robert, mother of seven, grandmother to two, and a lay Carmelite. She has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE, and also as a writer and voice talent for Holy Family Radio. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and presenter, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Faith Formation, individual parishes, and Catholic ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Learn more at www.kathryntherese.com or on Facebook @summapax.

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This Gospel challenges us, as Jesus challenges the Scribes and Pharisees. It can also be easily misinterpreted to mean that the Law is not important. But a true interpretation recognizes that all things – even very good things – must be balanced by LOVE and must lead to Love.

A quick history:

The first sin was committed against God because Adam and Eve doubted His love and goodness toward them. Later, as the human race continued to move away from God, Abram was called to follow God in faith, and his descendants were also called to trust and obey, which they did with varying success. By the time of Moses, they have become a “stiff-necked people,” so this possibility of serving God in free faith is diminished considerably. But God has not given up: through Moses, He makes a new covenant carved in stone with them, a covenant under the Law. It’s helpful to note that this Law was given to set them apart and ensure freedom from sin and hopelessness in this world; if God wanted slaves, He would have left them in Egypt! This Law developed over time until it covered every aspect of life, which connected each person throughout the day with the truth that they were a Chosen People, from whom the Messiah would come, and kept them “clean” for the Temple observances, set apart for God.

The Scribes protected the Law, interpreted and explained it, and the explanations took on the sense of hundreds of additional rules. The sect of the Pharisees distinguished themselves by strict observance of these rules in the minutest details.

These Pharisees have been hounding Jesus on his lack of observance of the Law, which they consider paramount. This is the danger with Law: wherever there are rules, there is a temptation to think that strictly observing them is holiness before God. The Pharisees have slipped into the error of believing that objective adherence to the rules is the most important thing; they have missed the point that external rules are intended to lead us to deep interior conversion and conforming to God’s will, growing in love.

So Jesus calls them out, not saying that the Pharisees should not have followed the Law and paid their tithes, but that they should have ALSO paid attention to “judgment and to love for God.” He points out that they love themselves and their own ideas and reputations, loving to be honored and recognized. This is not loving God, but using the Law as a way of glorifying themselves. They also use it as a weapon, which is proven by the fact that they seek to trap him, and eventually appeal to the Law to execute him: “We have a Law, and according to that law he must die!” (John 19:6-7).

Jesus calls all of us to obey God’s laws, but to obey out of LOVE and not forget to help others so that we become the saints we are called to be!

Kathryn is married to Robert, mother of seven, grandmother to two, and a lay Carmelite. She has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE, and also as a writer and voice talent for Holy Family Radio. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and presenter, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Faith Formation, individual parishes, and Catholic ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Learn more at www.kathryntherese.com or on Facebook @summapax.

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Today’s brief Gospel presents a scene that most of us can relate to on some level. We know that Mary and Martha are sisters (and Lazarus is their brother) and that this family is one of those “resting places” for Jesus; he visited them intermittently throughout his preaching years. He knew them well, and they knew him well enough to complain to him and demand things from him! Martha, busy about household tasks while Mary sits at the feet of Jesus to listen to him, asks a rhetorical question: Don’t you even see, or care about, this unjust distribution of labor?! I’m doing all the work around here. “Tell her to help me.”

The Lord is always seeing things from a place above the fray of the moment, and He is artful about replying to people in ways that reframe the argument and draw them into a deeper understanding. Here, He acknowledges Martha’s busy-ness and anxiety but redirects her attention to what is most important, refusing to do what He demands of her. Rather than tell Mary to get off the floor and get to work, He praises her choice, because she has chosen the one necessary thing. What is that one necessary thing? Being in the presence of the Lord, who is all. “Come and see,” He invited his first disciples. “Follow me,” He invites us. “I am the Vine and you are the branches,” He explains, to help us really comprehend that apart from Him, we can do nothing. Our discipleship must begin with spending time in His presence, and it continues and bears fruit when we remain united to Him.

Most of us who are striving to love Jesus would want the opportunity to sit at His feet as Mary did, listening to His voice, watching His movements, asking Him questions and waiting for His response, allowing His penetrating gaze to fall on us. For love to grow, we must spend time with the Beloved.

While we cannot encounter the historical Jesus, we CAN sit at His feet and spend time before his Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament. In the Eucharist, we draw near to this same Christ who loved these people so much, and who loves us so much that He found a way to remain really present to us throughout all of time and in every place that the Eucharist is offered and reserved.

When we receive the Eucharist and spend time at the feet of Jesus, we grow in our ability to CHOOSE THE BETTER PART. We must choose it over and over again so that the horizons of His Kingdom within us are continually extended, and His reign within us grows fuller. When we walk with Jesus in every moment, choosing to listen to Him instead of the world or our own fears and desires, we are conforming our lives to His and choosing the better part, which will not be taken from us.

Kathryn is married to Robert, mother of seven, grandmother to two, and a lay Carmelite. She has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE, and also as a writer and voice talent for Holy Family Radio. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and presenter, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Faith Formation, individual parishes, and Catholic ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Learn more at www.kathryntherese.com or on Facebook @summapax.

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I have wondered if Herod was haunted by his past, much like the murderer in the Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe; the murderer seems to hear his victim (which eventually gives him away), and Herod seems to see John the Baptist in places where he is not (see Matt. 14:2).

In any case, today’s short Gospel tells us something about the attitude of the people around Jesus, and about Herod as well. Some at the time thought Jesus was a resurrected prophet, perhaps John the Baptist or Elijah or some other ancient prophet. These rumors make it to the ears of the tetrarch. He knows John the Baptist is dead because he had ordered his head on a platter in a drunken boast. Perhaps he is afraid his own act is returning to haunt him.

Herod is intrigued by people and events that seem to point to something beyond the ordinary. This is what drew him to John in the first place. He does not want to hear the truth about himself (that’s why he arrested John in the first place) or convert (he had resisted John’s repeated invitations to conversion). This was the case even though he knew John was good, and he liked to listen to him (see Mark 6:20). Now his curiosity is stirred toward Jesus, but not for the right reasons. The Gospel ends on a resonating word: “And he kept trying to see him.”

Do we keep trying to see Jesus? Why? What motivates us? We can also sometimes miss the point, as Herod did. We can be intrigued by goodness, we can even be eager to hear speakers or attend events that are intended to stoke the fire of love in us and draw us into a deeper relationship with God. But then we sometimes fall short of the invitation before us; rather than embrace the grace of the moment and resolve to work continually on conversion, we let the moment pass. The fire becomes once more a heap of ash-covered embers and we don’t know how to stir those embers into flame again.

Let’s renew our commitment to try to see Jesus in our everyday lives, and to seek to know what he wants for us. Events and speakers are good and necessary, but in order for these experiences to be fruitful, we need to focus on what God is calling us to do right where we are. What are the duties before me today? How can I do them with greater love and attention? How can I be present to the people for whom I am responsible? How can I walk with Jesus in every moment?

Kathryn is married to Robert, mother of seven, grandmother to two, and a lay Carmelite. She has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE, and also as a writer and voice talent for Holy Family Radio. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and presenter, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Faith Formation, individual parishes, and Catholic ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Learn more at www.kathryntherese.com or on Facebook @summapax.