Word to the Wise
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 - Tuesday in the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
[Exodus 14:21 - 15:1 and Matthew 12:46-50]While Jesus was speaking to the crowds, his mother and brothers appeared outside,wishing to speak with him.......
In group-oriented societies like those of the Middle East and Asia, one never acts alone but always as a member of a group - family, clan, tribe. The achievements of an individual are those which bring honor to the group and the failures are those which bring shame. Our individualistic Western ways of thinking tend to characterize the Eastern concern about honor/shame as "saving face." We might prefer an idea of Jesus as a kind of "Lone Ranger" who has no obligations to weigh him down. This would seriously mischaracterize the actual person of Jesus. He did not live in a cultural environment like ours. This point is important for understanding today's gospel scripture. Although Matthew omits the motivation, the Gospel of Mark tells us that the reason Jesus' Mother and relatives were looking for him is that they wanted to do what we would nowadays call an "intervention." They wanted to seize him and get him out of circulation! His power over demons was giving rise to nasty comments about his being in league with the "Prince of Demons," and his talk about the "kingdom" was politically dangerous. There was only the Roman kingdom (or at least a dependent kingdom like Herod's) and any talk of any other power would attract some unwelcome attention from the Romans! None of this would be helpful to the family!!! What's more, Jesus does not seem to give any favor to bonds of earthly kinship, so his family (nor his apostles) could not claim a special influence - something very important in Middle Eastern social life. Our cultural foundations influence the way we read the gospel. This is unavoidable and can be beneficial as long as we are aware of the cultural "filters" that we are using to interpret the Word of God. One way to look at what Jesus is saying in today's gospel would be: It's not WHO you know but WHAT you know that counts. But that would not be completely accurate. There is definitely a WHO involved here, Jesus! There is definitely a WHAT - the kingdom of God. Both ultimately transcend all cultural considerations - but until they do, we need to pay attention to the way we understand things or we will be like Jesus' relatives on this occasion - left waiting outside! AMEN
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