Tuesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
The gospel passage for today relates the story of how Jesus responds to the news that his mother and brothers are standing outside the place where he is speaking. Jesus appears to reject his natural family by saying that the people gathered inside and not his mother and brothers are his real family. He also seems to be rebuking his disciples for thinking that his mother and brothers are important to him. Discerning the meaning of this story is difficult. Is Jesus saying that we should neglect our families? Doesn’t Jesus think that families are important? If his family were in trouble, wouldn’t Jesus help them? Shouldn’t Jesus favor the needs of his family over those of strangers?
If we are not careful, we might make the mistake of taking this passage too literally. I think what this passage is telling us is subtle and certainly goes beyond the surface level of Jesus’ words. In both Jesus’ time and our own, families are considered very important. Jesus’ words should not be seen as minimizing the importance of families. Yet they point out that there are ties that are more important than the blood ties of natural families. It seems to me that Jesus is drawing attention to the greater importance of the family of believers compared with our natural families. When we are baptized, we are baptized into a new family. The church is a family that is united by love and belief in Jesus Christ. More specifically, the people in this family (i.e. Christians) are united by their love for God and their willingness to do God’s will.
Despite the apparent harshness of Jesus’ words concerning his own family, Jesus is not denying the importance of families. Instead Jesus is leading us to consider the proper role for families in our lives as Christians. Many religious—among them most priests, nuns, brothers, and permanent deacons—have given up the right to have children by becoming sworn celibates. This is indeed one way to follow God’s will. Yet this is not the only way to be faithful to Jesus’ teaching in the gospel. Some laypeople are called to the vocation of marriage. Other laypeople remain unmarried. Yet, regardless of whether we have children and raise a family, we all have a family by being part of the family of Christian believers.
One lesson to draw from the gospel reading for today is that we must not allow our families to become idols for us. Jesus stated elsewhere that the greatest commandment is to love God above all things (Matthew 22: 37-8). If there are things in our lives that are getting in the way of that – including our families – then we are not doing what Jesus commands.
Jesus’ emphasis on the importance of the ties between Christian believers means that we are called to reach out beyond our natural families to those outside. We must ensure that our social interactions do not become insular and self-absorbed. This means reaching out not only to others in our circle of friends, colleagues, and immediate family but also to those who on the surface seem to have less in common with us but who nevertheless are baptized into Christ. In addition, we are called to develop the ability to regard all those people whom we encounter on a daily basis as created in God’s image and as loved by God. By cultivating hospitality towards and friendship with others, we follow Jesus’ command to do God’s will and to see other people as our brothers and sisters in Christ.
-Joel Schickel