Even a surface reading of the gospels will offer a glimmer of Jesus making things new. We can read and imagine the scene today. Many are gathered around him in a circle. The crowd is large, but more focused as Jesus is teaching. His family, presumably the relatives that only a few verses earlier came to seize him because he was out of his mind (cf. Mk 3:21), had arrived, were standing outside, and sent word. The message passed among the people was: “Your mother and your brothers [and your sisters] are outside asking for you” (Mk 3:32).

Jesus seizes on the opportunity for a teachable moment. Jesus looks not beyond and past the crowd that has encircled him to his family who had sent word, but to those who nearest him and said: “Here are my mother and my brothers. [For] whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother” (Mk 3:35). The true measure of family in the kingdom of God is not bloodline but faith in and following the will of God.

Only those who still experience the gift of a close, tight knit, experience of extended family can come close to the dramatic moment of silence that must have followed after this statement. For anyone living in the ancient Near East, familial, clan, tribal relations were paramount to survival. To state that family bonds were strong is an understatement. Yet Jesus is challenging this societal norm.

The relatives of Jesus are not present in this inner circle, they are on the outside. Imagine who else might be sitting in that circle; sinners, the unclean, tax collectors, and maybe even Gentiles, non Jews, and Jesus is saying that they are his brother and sister and mother. If his relatives thought he had lost his mind before, I cannot imagine what kind of mental conniption they entered into as a reaction after these words.

We might want to take a brief moment and assess if we might have had a similar reaction to Jesus’ words? Is he putting down his family, undercutting family values? Certainly, those who think nothing of attacking the Bible will stock up on this verse as well as the one in Luke about how if one is not willing to hate mother or father they can not be his disciple (cf. Luke 14:26).

We need to recognize that Jesus is not devaluing or delegitimizing family, he is restoring family to its proper place and extending it out beyond what anyone of his time could conceive of. As Bishop Robert Barron writes, “when we give the family a disproportionate importance in short it becomes dysfunctional” (Barron, 17). We are united under our God and Father as his children. There is a more powerful call to unity here than mere family, clan, or tribe. As each person draws closer in their encounter and relationship with God, they also draw closer together. As we are conformed more and more to the life of Christ we begin to bear his fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control (cf. Galatians 5:22).

If we are living and treating each other with more love, not the mere minimal emotional response, but the depth of unconditional love, willing the good of the other, Jesus practices; if we are more patient and present with one another, are kind, supportive, and empowering; do you think relationships will grow and bonds become stronger? How about if these same acts of expressing respect for the dignity of another goes beyond just family and friends, person to person out to the peripheries, where those who feel set apart, and/or are on the outside looking in? What if we take the fruits of the Holy Spirit and practice them with our enemies? Not possible? True, if we enclose our selves within our own bubble and focus on protecting our ego. Possible if we walk with Jesus who is inviting his followers to build a relationship with God first, and participate in the infinite Love of the One that created the universe.

Many in our country are choosing to encase themselves in their own protective bubble wrap. Instead of embracing diversity we are going backwards, we are regressing. By choosing to close ourselves off to other viewpoints, talking over each other and at each other if we are talking at all, and embracing fear instead of love, we are distancing ourselves from God. Our strength as a people and as a nation and as a world increases when we embrace the human dignity of each person, and the rich diversity bestowed upon us through the unconditional love of God. May we embrace the teaching of Jesus who in his emphasis on following God’s will “was insisting that the in-gathering of the tribes into God’s family is of paramount importance” (Barron 17).

Those in the circle with Jesus are those who are not defined by race, ethnicity, or gender. The family of Jesus is defined by those of us who are willing to follow the will of God and bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit in our encounters with each person we meet. We need Jesus, we need God, we need to open our hearts and minds to receive the Love between them, who is the Holy Spirit, and be open ourselves to will the good of our family and friends, our colleagues, classmates, and neighbors,  as well as those on the margins and our enemies. We need to resist asking who does or does not belong in the circle of those around Jesus and instead ask are we willing to surrender to God, follow his will, and sit at the feet of Jesus to learn how we can be better brothers and sisters to one another.

Photo: Cardinal Newman strong!

Barron, Robert. Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of Faith. NY: Image, 2011.

Link for the Mass reading for Tuesday, January 23, 2018:

http://usccb.org/bible/readings/012318.cfm