Word to the Wise
Tuesday, January 23, 2007 - Third Tuesday in Ordinary Time
[Hebrews 10:1-10 and Mark 3:31-35]"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."
I belong to a fairly large family in Louisiana. I have cousins I barely know. Even my grandnieces and grandnephews are not that personally close to me, but they are FAMILY, and they have a claim on my affections! So, when a baptism or wedding comes up it has to have some priority! (Even so, they have learned to get on my calendar early!) In the Middle East, the priority of family, clan and tribe is TOPS - a claim beyond all other claims. When Jesus' family shows up and wants to see him, ordinarily that would trump whatever a Middle Eastern male was doing! In Jesus' case, he uses the opportunity to set ultimate priorities. The will of God places a person in closer kin to him than any blood kin. Although it would be a fascinating thing to discover the family DNA of the extended family of Jesus (the imagination totters), in the long run it would not make any difference. That is not the relationship that ultimately matters to him. It doesn't mean that family counts for nothing. On the contrary, Jesus' assertion of doing the will of God OVER family obligations gives a clear indication of the importance of the relationship to God. If we want to be "kin" to Jesus, we don't need to share DNA! We have to follow his teachings! AMEN