16th Week of Ordinary Time 2022 - Tuesday - "My brother, and sister, and mother"

 

During the course of his ministry, the Gospels relate how the Lord Jesus met some resistance from his family members. John’s Gospel tells us how the Lord’s close relatives, his brethren, did not believe in him, even after stories of his miracles began to circulate. 

Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us that in the course of his public mission, the Lord’s relatives send word for him, presumably for him to return home. And when he doesn’t, they venture out to retrieve him, likely thinking he was mentally unsound. He seemed to them to be busily engaged in throwing his life away in a kind of insanity.

Like their Lord, It has often been the case that, when men and women embarked on the way of Christ, their nearest and dearest could not understand them, and were even hostile to them. The Lord even taught that his followers should expect such resistance: a household will be divided he said, “father against son and son against father, mother against daughter.” When he said, “you will be hated by all because of me” that certainly included the possibility of one’s family.

Now thanks be to God when the members of our biological family are also Christians, and understand us, they understand that God is put first. Not family, not country, not the material things of the world, but God. Thanks be to God when our families are places where the Gospel is cherished and practiced. But that’s not always the case.

And, to be Christian is to put God before all others allegiances: “Whoever loves father or mother or son or daughter more than me” is not worthy of me. Even family, that most precious relationship, is to be secondary to fulfilling one’s duties as a Christian.

One early martyr purportedly said, “A Christian’s only relatives are the saints.”

“For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.” Those who do the will of the heavenly Father, in imitation and in union with the Lord Jesus, become members of a new family, a family which transcends space and time and biology and nationality. “A mother may forsake her child” scripture says, but the members of this new family are never forsaken by God. Not even death will sever them from the life and love of God, in fact, death becomes for Christians, a new beginning of intimacy and joy that eye has not seen nor ear has heard in this earthly life.

Today, may we live out that first allegiance to God, by seeking and doing the Father’s will in all things, shown to us and manifested so perfectly in the life of the Son for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the families of our parish may cherish and practice the Gospel in all dimensions of their lives—practicing the forgiveness, generosity, patience, and faithfulness of Christ.

That our young people on summer vacation may be kept safe from the poisonous errors of our culture, and for an increase in vocations to the priesthood and consecrated religious life.

That the love of Christ, the divine physician, may bring healing to the sick and comfort to all the suffering. 

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased priests and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom. 

O God, who know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.