Hello and welcome to the Word, bringing you the Good News of Jesus Christ every day from the Redemptorists of the Baltimore Province. I am Fr. Karl Esker from the Basilica of our Lady of Perpetual Help in Brooklyn, NY. Today is Tuesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time.
Our reading is from the holy gospel according to Matthew
While Jesus was speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers appeared outside, wishing to speak with him. Someone told him, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak with you.” But he said in reply to the one who told him, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.”
The gospel of the Lord.
Homily
In the gospel Jesus speaks about family and includes all of us as members of his family by saying: “whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.” Some may question whether Jesus is slighting his mother Mary, but a little bit of reflection will tell us that this is not the case. When the angel announced to Mary that she was to be the mother of the savior, her response was: “Be it done to me according to your word.” Luke gives us Mary’s hymn of praise to God; and tells us that everything that happened with and about Jesus she pondered in her heart. And in John’s gospel, Mary follows Jesus all the way to Calvary and stands beneath the cross where she receives the disciples into her care. She is the purest and most perfect disciple of Jesus.
The glory of Mary is that she is the mother of the Redeemer, and not just because she gave birth to Jesus. When a woman called out and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed,” he replied, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.” Mary’s greatest glory is the way in which she totally united herself to the mission of Jesus in fulfilling God’s will for our salvation. She was his mother, not just in a physical, human sense, but also in a spiritual, almost divine sense. Jesus learned obedience to God his Father, not just from his own personal union with the Father, but also from the example of Mary, his mother.
Our glory is to be united to Jesus and Mary. Jesus invites us to become members of his family by obeying the will of his heavenly Father, as he and Mary did. That seems like a very tall order. Disobedience and sinfulness seem to be part of human nature; but St. Paul assures us that God’s grace is greater than our sinfulness. Those who believe and give themselves to Christ receive the gift of the Spirit who conforms them to Christ in spite of past sinfulness. And the prophet Isaiah in today first reading marvels at the nature of our God who “removes guilt and pardons sin for the remnant of his inheritance;” who delights in clemency, and “will cast into the depths of the sea all our sins.”
God’s gift of forgiveness is immediate, but our conformity to Christ is a process that starts by imitating Mary, listening to and reflecting on God’s word, especially in the Gospels. We don’t just cheer Jesus’ criticism of the attitudes of the scribes and Pharisees, but we examine our own. We pass from admiring Jesus’ actions and attitudes to imitating them, creating the same habits of welcoming, forgiving and attending the needs of others.
Growth will not be continuous, and we will have to confront our own failures; but confidence in God’s mercy gives us the strength to go on. There will be moments of conflict and even cases where we may have to choose the will of God over the will of one’s family; but in the end, we know that we will be received into the Kingdom of God, because we are heirs, brothers and sister of the Lord Jesus Christ.
May God bless you.
Fr. Karl E. Esker CSsR
Basilica of our Lady of Perpetual Help
Brooklyn, NY
POWERED BY BLUBRRY
