The Relatives of God

And looking around at those seated in the circle he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” - Mark 3:33-35

Jesus used every opportunity to make a point. In this particular passage from St. Mark's gospel, Jesus was teaching when his relatives arrived, and a message was passed through the crowds informing Jesus of their arrival. Jesus saw this as a perfect time to teach and therefore announced that anyone who does the will of God is his true kinsman.

There are some who would say that Jesus was distancing himself from his relatives, most specifically, his mother. Now, Jesus was born under the Law, and since he was Jewish he would be obedient to the Mosaic Law. We all know that he would have honored his mother. Jesus therefore would not have used this opportunity to belittle his mother in front of a crowd of people. He was most certainly attempting to make a point with his lesson to the crowds.

And that lesson is this. When we are baptized, we are born again as members of the Body of Christ. As such, we are called to participate in the Great Commission in bringing the Gospel to all people. As Our Lady gave birth to Jesus and through this birth revealed him to the world, we have the power through the grace of the Holy Spirit and through our living the Gospel to reveal him to the world around us, to give birth to Christ, to be his mother. We are called to bring people to the waters of baptism where they will be born from above and become a new creation in Christ.

Rather than Christ chastising his mother, he was using her as an example, revealing to all those present a means for them to be able to participate in the salvific work which was begun with her fiat mihi. What a wonderful image for Christians to ponder.

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.