Tuesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time
There are moments in the Gospels when Jesus says things that are quite confusing. Sometimes, the words he says are even a bit off-putting. One that comes to my mind often is Jesus’ response to his mother at the wedding at Cana. He says, “Woman, how does your concern affect me?” I always bristle when Jesus sounds like this. After several semesters of trying to find the right word to describe these moments, one of my students offered an option: “Jesus is being sassy!” she said. I’ve since come to think of these as Jesus’ “sassy” moments. We are faced with one of those moments in today’s Gospel. Like Cana, the story includes Mary. She and Jesus’ “brothers and sisters” (some scholars think this means relatives like cousins) are waiting for him outside while he in ministering in someone’s house. In response to the message that they’re waiting for him, Jesus replies, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”
For a Catholic, this can be quite startling! How could Jesus say this about Mary? He goes on to say that “whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” There are these moments in Jesus’ ministry where we can see the divine light shining into the world through him. These moments in the Gospels have a certain transcendence, and sometimes it can sound quite “sassy.” But what is Jesus really getting at here? It seems that he’s extending the intimate love of family to a level that most people might not think to extend it. He is showing us the boundless love of God, who loves humanity so much that he draws all people to himself as his own children.
Perhaps Jesus intended his response to be “sassy;” perhaps he wanted people in his presence to be taken aback at what he said. By all accounts, Jesus loved his mother. Jesus seems to be showing his listeners and us by extension that his love for all God’s children is as deep as his love for his own mother. This deep love should, in fact, give us pause. If we are fortunate enough, we have experienced and continue to experience great relationships of love. But these are just reflections of the love of Christ. In a world that seems so often to be consumed by hatred, this immense love is at once a comfort and a challenge.
- Katherine Schmidt