The Catholic Calendar for Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Tuesday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
St. Andrew Kim Taegon, priest and martyr
St. Paul Chong Hasang, martyr
and their companions, martyrs

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Ezra 6:7-8
Psalm 122:1-5
Luke 8:19-21

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

My mother and my brothers
are those who hear the word of God and act on it.
Luke 8:21

Today's gospel reading may be one of the toughest to swallow. On the surface our Lord seems to be rejecting his family outright. In fact, In Mark's version of this incident, Jesus asks the question, "Who are my mother and brothers?" (Mark 3:33) Why would He seem to brush away His mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary who bore Him and those who were his family for thirty years before He began His ministry?

To read the scripture this way is certainly to miss the point. The Father, through His Son has adopted us into His holy family as Paul says in Ephesians, "In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved." This adoption makes us all brothers and sisters to each other and to our Savior, all of us children of the Father. This is precisely what Jesus is saying, that those of us who hear the Word of God, take it to heart, believe in faith and follow His way are truly His brothers and sisters. In no way is he dismissing His earthly mother and "brothers" since He speaks here strictly in the spiritual sense.

This certainly was a radical change in the religious thinking of His time and the Pharisees who heard this most certainly were angered that He had the audacity to claim a father-son relationship with God, and to include all of his followers as well. But that is the part of the beauty of God's salvation plan. He loves us so much that He desires the closest relationship possible with us and has adopted us as His own.

- Don Claunch, SFO
(dlclaunch at bresnan dot net)