Tuesday, XXV Week of Ordinary Time
(Luke 8)
We still tell the parents of the married couple at a wedding that they are not losing a daughter or son, but gaining one or the other. In the gospel today Jesus indicates that his mother is not losing a son gaining a whole host of children.
At first reading it may appear that Jesus is distancing himself from Mary. He says rather tersely that his mother and brother “are those who hear the word of God and act on it.” But recollection of the beginning of this Gospel According to Luke highlights Mary as a preeminent hearer of and actor on the word of God. She willingly accepts the angel’s message that she is to be the mother of the Savior. Likewise, she makes haste to visit her kinswoman Elizabeth when the angel also notes the latter’s miraculous pregnancy.
Still the thrust of this passage is not so much Mary’s being named the mother of Jesus as we being designated his brothers and sisters. We should note that this relationship is not attributed to everyone. No, to qualify as a member of the family of Jesus we must listen to the word of God with our hearts and act on it with our whole lives.
