The Gospel according to Luke (8:19-21)
The mother of Jesus and his brothers came to him
but were unable to join him because of the crowd.
He was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside
and they wish to see you.”
He said to them in reply, “My mother and my brothers
are those who hear the word of God and act on it.”
Reflection:
This is a quite challenging Gospel we have today. I’ve written on it in the past, and there really are two big issues – first, did Jesus have blood brothers (who were sons of the Virgin Mary), and second, why would he treat His Mother in particular seemingly so poorly?
I have to admit that, in my “pre-Catholic” days, I didn’t really think too much about that first question. For me as a Methodist, Mary only came to our attention during the Nativity story at Christmas. I don’t think we ever talked about her role in Jesus’ life or ministry otherwise. And, while I like to think I knew the Bible pretty well, I was definitely not a Scripture scholar.
But, this first point does give a lot of non-Catholic Christians pause, as they say it says that Mary had other children with Joseph and that Jesus had blood-brothers born of Mary. If you look at it in English alone it does appear that way. But, I would say two things about that. First, first century life was not the same as we have it now. In particular, in first century Israel, in the language that Jesus spoke, there was a single word that we render today as “brother”, but it actually meant “close relative”. So, these “brothers” of Jesus could be (and we would say they were) cousins. There are other ways of showing that Mary did not have any other children on her own, but hopefully that helps a bit!
And, what about Jesus’ seeming dismissal of His “family” (Mary and His cousins) in favor of those who “hear the Word of God and act on it.”? That is good news for all followers of Jesus, for Jesus was talking about not His “earthly” family, but His family in God’s Kingdom, of which we are all called to be a part. And, as Jesus says in today’s Gospel, all we have to do is hear the word of God and act on it. That is the call of all of us who are followers of Jesus, and while we can’t do any good for God alone, we are blessed to have the Holy Spirit within us to help us to love and do more for the Kingdom than we could ever imagine. And, we get to do our best today, and then, try to do even better tomorrow!
Action for the Day:
Jesus’ words today really are of inclusion in His family. Each of us is called to love those whom God places before us, and never to judge. May each of us today take time to ponder who in our lives we have perhaps judged, and ask our loving Lord to give us a heart full of love that we may desire only to share that love today and every day. If you would like to hear this reflection, click the link below!
