Tuesday, January 28, 2003
3rd Week in Ordinary Time

1st Reading: Heb 10:1-10
Gospel: Mk 3:31-35

Jesus' mother and brothers came. As they stood outside, they sent someone to call him. The crowd sitting around Jesus told him, "Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you." He replied, "Who are my mother and my brothers?"

And looking around at those who sat there he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God is brother and sister and mother to me."

Gospel Commentary

When we were children, we were often taught by well-meaning elders to turn to Mary in our needs. She would intercede for us with Jesus, they said. And Jesus will not refuse her, for what son could refuse his mother's request? Pious as all this sounds, there is something seriously at odds with the logic of the gospel in this line of thinking. It suggests that Jesus is guilty of some kind of spiritual nepotism, showing favor to Mary simply on the basis of blood relationship to her. In today's gospel, Jesus corrects such purely physical conceptions of kinship. One becomes his brother, sister, or mother, not by reason of consanguinity, but because of a shared passion to do the will of God. Thus, Mary remains our intercessor, but not simply because she is the mother of Jesus by flesh and blood, but because her life was a total surrender to God's designs and plans.

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