Tuesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time
A reflection on Mark 3:31-35
©2023 by Gloria M. Chang
The mother of Jesus and his brothers arrived at the house. Standing outside, they sent word to Jesus and called him. A crowd seated around him told him, “Your mother and your brothers and your sisters are outside asking for you.” But he said to them in reply, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 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 3:31-35 (Lectionary)
Beyond Blood
The Son of God, the very image and stamp of the Father, transcends all blood relations (Hebrews 1:3). Thus, Jesus’ mother and kin, along with the multitudes at Peter’s house, heard him declare that “whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” For Christ, who never left the Godhead, became the son of Mary and a kinsman of his clan to restore us to the Father.
“I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”
John 20:17 (RSV)
A Universal Family
All who belong to Jesus do the will of the Father, who ordained his Son to be the “first-born among many brethren” (Romans 8:29, RSV). Yet we are called to be more than Christ’s siblings, but his “mother” too. As Paul expressed with groaning to his spiritual children, “I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you!” (Galatians 4:19, RSV)
The Blessed Virgin Mary, first among the saints, leads the Church in bringing forth Christ as a universal mother.
Mother Mary, how shall we bear Christ too?
Sons and daughters, let Christ be formed in you.
Ignoring family to do God’s work
Doesn’t square with true love.
Both love God and love others
Commands us to include both.
After Christ defined his kinship
Did he excuse self,
Go outside and speak with those
Whom he grew up with,
His Nazareth family?
I wonder!
God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are his ways our ways (Isaiah 55:8). How can a finite mind grasp infinite reality? God became man to bridge the gap. But did Christ’s disciples comprehend his discourses about his origin from the Father and the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father? May the Lord grant us objectivity to enter into his uncreated Love.
“But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
John 1:12-13 (RSV)
Happily, after Christ’s ascension, Jesus’ mother and relatives joined the apostles in establishing the universal family of the Church at Pentecost.
“All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.”
Acts 1:14 (RSVCE)
Trinitarian mystery not to be grasped
By finite human minds.
Understanding the Divine dance
Limited by human intelligence.
Primary concept is relationship,
Connections in love supercede
Any others based on career,
Comfort, ego or self-service.
Pentecostal event reveals
Universality of the church.
May I always put God first,
Above all other loves.
May the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit buoy us in the chasm between the created and uncreated.