July 21, 2020

Mt 12: 46-50

While he was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers were standing outside, wanting to speak to him. Someone told him, “Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.” But to the one who had told him this, Jesus replied, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” And pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.

Part of one great family

Today's Gospel shows us a moment in Jesus’ life that in some sense is difficult for us to understand. It appears that Jesus denies his family. However, he does not; on the contrary, Jesus broadens what it means to be a mother and a sibling because through love he involves many in a new way of understanding motherhood and brotherhood. 

And how does one become a part of God’s family? Jesus offers a clear response: “Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” God's will for us is to understand his compassion and mercy as a human language, to let them become a way of living our lives. Today Jesus makes us part of a new family. He calls us brothers and sisters and invites us to do the same with those around us, especially the least among us. Jesus asks us to open wide the doors of our hearts, to understand, embrace and accompany them, for they are no longer strangers, but part of Jesus’ one great family, which we now all call home. 

—Rafael Amador, SJ, is a Nicaraguan scholastic from the Central American Province studying philosophy and social sciences at the ITESO, Universidad Jesuita de Guadalajara in Guadalajara, Mexico.