Word to the Wise
Tuesday, January 27, 2026 - Tuesday in the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time
[2 Sam 6:12b-15, 17-19 and Mark 3:31-35]The mother of Jesus and his brothers arrived at the house. Standing outside, they sent word to Jesus and called him. A crowd seated around him told him "Your mother and your brothers and your sisters are outside asking for you." But he said to them in reply, "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." [Mark]
The story of Jesus' family trying to remove him from the public eye because they thought he "was out of his mind" is divided by the story of Jesus being accused of demonic powers by the scribes. Scripture scholars tell us that this way of telling the two stories is meant to emphasize that those who should know better failed to recognize Jesus as someone who is completely beyond demonic powers or human relationships. [The gospels of Matthew and Luke do not mention the reason for the family intervention!] By including anyone who does the will of God in his family, Jesus even goes beyond the ethnic boundary of Judaism.
It took a long time for unity in message and structure to develop in the church. St. Paul notes divisions in some of the communities that he founded. The mission to the Gentiles led to a gradual reduction in the status of the community in Jerusalem as one can see in reading the Acts of the Apostles. Claims of familial relationship to Jesus were lost in the effort to survive persecution! Baptism came to be the way in which all believers became members of the "household of God" [Eph. 2:19]. All of us have received the status of adopted children of God and thus become brothers and sisters of Christ. AMEN
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