Tuesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
(Exodus 14:21-15:1; Matthew 12:46-30)
“Parish Renewal” was established thirty years or so ago to evangelize people who are already going to church. At one point in the weekend retreat the pastor is to encourage parish unity by saying, “Blood is thicker than water.” “How do we share the same blood?” the parishioners might wonder. The pastor then explains, “We all drink the blood of Christ.”
Jesus emphasizes the unity of his disciples with him in today’s gospel. Even closer than his blood relatives are to him, he implies, are those who accept God as Father. They have assimilated his message and can be counted upon to assist those with acute needs that Jesus especially identifies with.
God has given us one another in the Church as friends who make life enjoyable and relatives to support and help. With Jesus himself they give cause for the highest praise to God.
