Relative Of Mine
Memorial of Saint Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
My dear encountered couples:
Jesus often took advantage of unexpected happenings to give a teaching on spiritual realities. That is what he does in today’s gospel when his mother, accompanied by other relatives, showed up unexpectedly while he was talking to a crowd of people seated around him. They sent word they wanted to talk to him about something. Before doing so, Jesus used family relationships to make a point about spiritual relationships. And so he said to the people, “Whoever does the will of God are brother and sister and mother to me.” That should give us pause to think and ask, “Am I included in the family of Jesus?”
It is not always easy to know what God’s will is. But with God, fortunately for us, that which counts is our effort to try to find out his will and then do our best to carry it out. With God intention and effort are what is important. Even though we might do in the material order of the world not exactly what God might like us to do, our intentions and good efforts go very far in our growing in holiness.
We grow in the likeness of Christ by doing our best to be obedient to what we think God wants us to do.
“The mother of Jesus and his brothers arrived, and as they stood outside they sent word to him to come out. The crowd seated around him told him, ‘Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside asking for you.’ He said in reply, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And gazing around him he continued, ‘These are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God is brother and sister and mother to me.’”
