10th Sunday of Ordinary Time
June
8, 1997
Mark
3: 20-35Christian Brothers, Iona College, New Rochelle, N.Y.
One pulled from the "vault," since I don't have an outside Mass this weekend.
“Jesus said
in reply, “who are my mother and brothers?” (Mark 3: 33).
Once upon a
time it was, in some circles at least, highly desirable to be an F.O.B.—Friend of
Bill. A lot of people, maybe most of us,
would like to be in the inner circle of power and influence. Christians too. We’re familiar with the stories of the
apostles bickering among themselves about who was the most important, and of
James and John coming right out and asking the places of power next to Jesus’
throne and of the resentment that caused among the other 10.
If we’ve
studied any church history, we know some of the sordid details of the pursuit
of power, influence, and wealth by individuals and families, by bishops and
cardinals and Popes and their relatives, male and female alike.
So why
shouldn’t there be some interest in the family of Jesus and their status?
Mark’s
picture of Mary and Jesus’ cousins is a double image. On the one hand, and this could be rooted in
historical fact, they doubt his sanity.
Disciples they are not! Rather,
“they came to take charge of him, saying, “He’s out of his mind’” (3:21). He’s an embarrassment to the family with
these scenes he’s causing, these teachings of his, these controversies with the
leaders. He can’t even get himself a
decent meal (3:20).
On the other
hand, it is historically certain that later Mary was among the faithful
disciples at Calvary and in the upper room and soon became the most venerated
of believers. It is certain that Jesus’
cousin James became the leader of the Church at Jerusalem. So the question of blood relationship to
Jesus and one’s status in the Church must have come up among Christians almost
immediately after Pentecost—which is probably why we catch glimpses of the
issue in the gospels.
Not that this
issue is particular to the Church. We’ve
witnessed too many recent instances of clan warfare in Rwanda, Liberia, and elsewhere. We’ve seen the Mobutus of the world help
themselves and their kin to the wealth of their peoples. It’s the way of human nature to look after
one’s own and to be suspicious of the outsider.
So it must
have been a mild shock, at least, for Jesus’ audience—not to mention his
family—when he answered his own question. “Who are my mother and my brothers?”
by asserting that everyone who does God’s will is his mother, brother,
sister. No wonder his mother and cousins
thought he was mad.
Yet it is a
core part of the Good News of Jesus Christ that anybody is welcome. Anybody can belong. Anybody can seek and achieve intimacy with
God. “Whoever does the will of God is
brother and sister and mother to me.”
Blood and kinship have no special claim.
Social status neither. Nor
ordination or vows. Nor age or education. Jesus tells Martha, in a little family tiff,
“Mary has chosen the better part” by sitting at his feet and listening to him (Luke
10: 38-42). That “better part,” that
spiritual closeness, is open to everyone who seeks the Father thru Jesus.
Let’s note,
too, what Jesus says in the dispute with the scribes that’s sandwiched between
the 2 slices of the family episode. When
the scribes accuse Jesus of expelling demons thru satanic powers, he answers
that no household, no kingdom, can survive if it’s at war with itself.
That’s valid
not only for the kingdom of darkness but also for the kingdom of God, even in
our individual hearts. Doing the will of
God requires a wholehearted commitment.
As St. Paul
says (twice in fact: 1 Cor 5:6; Gal. 5:9), “A little yeast leavens the whole
batch of dough”—yeast here symbolizing corruption. Several languages also have the proverb about
a rotten apple spoiling the whole bushel.
That “rot” can be an individual within the community, or the evil
inclinations of our own hearts.
So if we want
to be in Jesus’ inner circle, his family, all we have to do is God’s will. We have to want that with an undivided heart.
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