Mary van Balen

Originally published in the Catholic Times

Sunday’s readings from Deuteronomy and from Luke emphasize two things: God’s law is the law of love, and it resides deep within each of us, as close as our mouths and our hearts. The Old Testament reading is taken from the end of Moses’ speech to the Israelites who had completed the long wanderings in the desert and were on the brink of entering the Promised Land.

Moses had recapped the struggles of their journey, told them blessings come from their curse, and that God would gather them back from the nations where they were scattered. The command Moses gave to the people, to turn back to God with their entire being, was attainable. Unlike Gilgamesh, the hero of the ancient Mesopotamian epic, who traveled to the ends of the earth, to the depths of the sea, and to the heavens, in search of the secrets of the gods, the Israelites had God’s word on their lips and in their hearts. They had only to obey it.

In the gospel reading from Luke, when a scholar asks Jesus what he must do to attain eternal life, Jesus answers with a question: “What is written in the law?” The scholar replies that the law is to Love God with one’s whole being and to love one’s neighbor as one’s self. Jesus tells the scholar to go and live out the law.

Why did the scholar persist in questioning Jesus? Read More 

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.

1 John 4:18 (NRSVCE)

Today I read a blog on Huffington Post by Linda Rovertson,
Just Because He Breathes: Learning to Truly Love Our Gay Son. It moved me for many reasons.

First, I am familiar with fear taking over when really, all I wanted to do was love. When my daughter confided in me that she was transsexual and had known since she was a toddler, all I wanted to do was love her.

"I love you. I always will. God loves you. That will never change."

I spoke the words. And I meant them. But I was not perfect in love, as 1John 4:18 states. I was afraid of many things: Of my daughter getting hurt. Of hatred in the world for people like her. Of how friends and family would react. Of what her revelation would mean for all who loved her. So, instead of being free to love and to celebrate with her, I was afraid and wondered if there might not be some way to "fix" it.

I needed time and my daughter's love to make my journey past fear. Read More 

"Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you."
Jer 5, 17

"At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am known.
1 Paul, 13, 13

"Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. It was to none of those that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon."
Lk 4,



Saturday Mass at the small parish church was rocking. Despite the sparse number of cars in the parking lot, the congregation and choir sang their hearts out. The pianist played with power and flourish. I softly tried out some harmonies, tapping my fingers on the pew in front of me and tapping my toes inside my snow boots. The choice of hymns and inclusion of guitars spoke to my 60's heart and I decided I would email an old friend and thank him for the decades of guitar and song he has given to churches around town.

Those gathered on the snowy evening moved through song into repentance, giving glory, and then sat to listen to ancient words proclaimed by their friends. Something happens when God speaks to you with the voice of the woman down the street who tells you that God knew you from before you were born or that everything passes away, prophecies, speech, knowledge. Everything but love. She is different when she reads those words. And we are different hearing them.

Then the priest reads the gospel where Jesus tells us that God didn't sent prophets to the good widows of Israel or to its suffering lepers, but to a widow in a city of dubious repute and to a Syrian leper. The people listening to Jesus were ticked. They were the chosen after all. What was he trying to say? That God loved someone else more? Impossible. Read More 

His betrothed was pregnant. Not his child. Still, he loved her and wanted to spare her the shame and consequences of her condition. What to do? How to love her in such impossible circumstances. And his life? What next for him if what he had most desired and planned was no longer possible?

With so much weighing on his mind and tearing at his heart, how did Joseph sleep deeply enough to have the dream? He did, though, and remembered it on awakening. Mary hadn't been unfaithful. Really she had been radically faithful to the One they both worshipped.

In the midst of his turmoil, what word had he received? Get up. Take Mary home. Love her. Love her child. Make a home.

Extraordinarily common instructions from Adonai Yir'eh, the God Who Sees.

Difficult for Joseph, no doubt, this faith, this call to live as if nothing unusual had happened.

Today, in the midst of personal and national grieving for the victims of Sandy Hook Elementary, in the face of a "fiscal cliff" and global economic crisis, in a world filled with poverty and violence, in a world where children are not safe, where the vulnerable are not protected. In such a world, what is Adonai's word for us?  Read More 

While cleaning my parents' home, I came across a framed print of the Sacred Heart of Jesus that hung in their bedroom. Devotion to the Sacred Heart was not big in our home. I think someone gave the picture to my mother, a convert, when she entered the Catholic Church. Jesus always looked a little wimpy to me, and I couldn't get into the "heart on his chest" image. I donated the print to a local Saint Vincent de Paul shop figuring someone who frequented the store might want it.

Beginning the search for an image to place in this blog, I was sure I would recognize the painting. I don't know why, but I was surprised at the number of choices that popped up. I scrolled through the pages expecting one to jump out at me with its familiarity. In one Jesus is barely able to balance the huge gold crown on his head while balancing a globe on his left hand. Lest one lose sight of the heart, he obligingly pointed it out with his right hand. Read More 

PHOTO: NASA

Something which has existed since the beginning,
that we have heard,
and we have seen with our own eyes;
that we have watched
and touched with our hands:
the Word, who is life –
this is our subject.
That life was made visible:
we saw it and we are giving our testimony,
telling you of the eternal life
which was with the Father and has been made visible to us.
What we have seen and heard
we are telling you
so that you too may be in union with us,
as we are in union
with the Father
and with his Son Jesus Christ.
We are writing this to you to make our own joy complete.
1Jn 1, 1-4

These words from the first letter of John capture the enormity of the improbable reality of the Incarnation: One who was from all eternity, One who was with the Father, has been made visible to us. Those who walked the earth at the same time Jesus did, not only saw the Divinity among them, but also touched him, ate with him, heard his voice, and spoke with him.

One might think that this would be enough, that nothing else could add to the joy or wonder of that experience. The last line in John's letter speaks otherwise: "We are writing this to you to make our own joy complete." Read More 

PHOTO:Mary van Balen
"BROTHER, SISTER, LET ME SERVE YOU; LET ME BE AS CHRIST TO YOU; PRAY THAT I MAY HAVE THE GRACE TO LET YOU BE MY SERVANT, TOO."

QUOTES: 'The Servant Song'by Richard Gillard, 1977 Text and Music copyright ©1977 Scripture in Song (Admin. by Maranatha! Music) Hear song sung by composer

My heart moved within me as I sung this song at Mass today. Truly, I have received grace to accept to gift of Christ given to me through many others in my life and especially over the past months.




"WE ARE PILGRIMS ON A JOURNEY, WE ARE FAMILY ON THE ROAD; WE ARE HERE TO HELP EACH OTHER WALK THE MILE AND BEAR THE LOAD."

The mile we walk and the load we carry changes as time flows by. The friends who walk with us at one moment are not always the same ones who companion us later, but their gift of support remains. We are strong support for others during some stages of life, and at different stages we need support in ways that surprise us.
 Read More 

PHOTO: Mary van Balen
The wedding stirred my emotional pot causing a variety of feelings to rise to the surface. Predictably, joy came first and remained dominant; how could it not in the face of the couples’ glorious happiness and love for each other? It spilled out of their eyes and faces, out of their gently touching hands, out of their smiles, and the rest of us, most seasoned veterans of the sacrament, soaked it up.

Hope filled my heart as well as I sat with the guests in rows of white folding chairs set up in the sun. The thought that the bride and groom are a good match pulled sadness along and "What ifs” threatened to ruin the moment. With practice I am becoming more adept dismissing those spoilers, and that is what I did.  Read More 

"THE UNFAITHFUL WIFE" Jesus Mafa

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. Now what do you say?” Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And when they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”
Jn 8, 3-5; 7-11

My feminine sensibilities require that I share my reaction to the early part of the story: The woman was caught in adultery and the Law instructed that she be stoned. Surely she did not commit adultery by herself, but the patriarchal structure of society is blatantly exposed by the omission of any male culpability. These types of stories make clear that fact that Scripture was written by men and from a male point of view.

Despite that history, the story is rich in meaning, revealing the human tendency to self-righteously pass judgment on others. Jesus would have none of it. Read More 

PHOTO:MARY VAN BALEN


I need no bullock from your house,
no goats from your fold.
For every animal of the forest is mine,
beasts by the thousands on my mountains.
I know every bird of the heavens;
the creatures of the field belong to me.
Offer praise as your sacrifice to God;
fulfill your vows to the Most High.
Ps 50 9-11; 14


What could the Maker of All That Is possibly desire? Not the sacrifices of the Israelites. The earth, the sky, every creature, every star, every universe belongs to the Creator. There is but one thing: Our hearts. And we give it by praising God with our lives. We reverence our sisters and brothers. We care for the earth and its creatures. We share the gifts we have been given as servants. We work for peace. We follow the example of Jesus. What could the Maker of All That Is possibly desire? Our love. © 2010 Mary van Balen Read More