20200721 THE BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF JESUS
21 July, 2020, Tuesday, 16th Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour: Green.
First reading
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Micah 7:14-15,18-20 ©
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Have pity on us one more time
With shepherd’s crook, O Lord, lead your people to pasture,
the flock that is your heritage,
living confined in a forest
with meadow land all around.
Let them pasture in Bashan and Gilead
as in the days of old.
As in the days when you came out of Egypt
grant us to see wonders.
What god can compare with you: taking fault away,
pardoning crime,
not cherishing anger for ever
but delighting in showing mercy?
Once more have pity on us,
tread down our faults,
to the bottom of the sea
throw all our sins.
Grant Jacob your faithfulness,
and Abraham your mercy,
as you swore to our fathers
from the days of long ago.
Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 84(85):2-8 ©
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Let us see, O Lord, your mercy.
O Lord, you once favoured your land
and revived the fortunes of Jacob,
you forgave the guilt of your people
and covered all their sins.
You averted all your rage,
you calmed the heat of your anger.
Let us see, O Lord, your mercy.
Revive us now, God, our helper!
Put an end to your grievance against us.
Will you be angry with us for ever,
will your anger never cease?
Let us see, O Lord, your mercy.
Will you not restore again our life
that your people may rejoice in you?
Let us see, O Lord, your mercy
and give us your saving help.
Let us see, O Lord, your mercy.
Gospel Acclamation
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1Jn2:5
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Whenever anyone obeys what Christ has said,
God’s love comes to perfection in him.
Alleluia!
Or:
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Jn14:23
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Alleluia, alleluia!
If anyone loves me he will keep my word,
and my Father will love him,
and we shall come to him.
Alleluia!
Gospel
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Matthew 12:46-50 ©
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My mother and my brothers are anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven
Jesus was speaking to the crowds when his mother and his brothers appeared; they were standing outside and were anxious to have a word with him. But to the man who told him this Jesus replied, ‘Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?’ And stretching out his hand towards his disciples he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.’
THE BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF JESUS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Mic 7:14-15. 18-20; Ps 85:2-8; Mt 12:46-50]
One of the doctrinal disagreements with our separated brothers and sisters in the Christian Faith is the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary. Our Protestant friends believe that Mary, after giving birth to Jesus, also had other children because the scriptures mentioned the brothers and sisters of Jesus. In Mark’s gospel, the people asked, “is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” (Mk 6:3) In today’s gospel, we read that “his mother and his brothers appeared; they were standing outside and were anxious to have a word with him.” St Paul also called James, the brother of our Lord. (Gal 1:19) The scripture texts seem to suggest that Jesus had other brothers and sisters.
Yet, Catholic tradition has consistently maintained the perpetual virginity of Mary. The word “brother” in Greek is “adelphoi” a translation of the Hebrew word, “brother.” In the Old Testament, this word could mean someone’s sibling, or a cousin, a nephew or even an uncle. Hebrew does not have a word for “cousin.” The New Testament continues this tradition as well, and so Christians call fellow Christians, brothers and sisters because we are members of the Christian Family. By extension, every person is our brother as well because when the scribe asked Jesus, “who is my neighbor”, Jesus told him the story of the Good Samaritan. (Lk 10:25-37) The letter of Hebrews says, “Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.” (Heb 2:11) Indeed, the fact that Jesus entrusted Mary His mother to John implies that she had no one to take care of her. (Jn 19:26f) Furthermore, scholars think that James and Joses were actually the sons of Mary the wife of Clopas. (Jn 19:25) It would be very unlikely that Mary’s sister would also be called Mary. In order to distinguish siblings from cousins or kinsman, the scripture would normally refer someone specifically as the son or daughter of a parent. In this case, scripture always refer to Jesus as the Son of Mary. We never hear others named as the children of Mary but only as brothers and sisters of our Lord.
Regardless whether Christians believe or accept the perpetual virginity of Mary, what is even more critical is that we share a common faith in Christ as our Savior and our Lord. It is this that binds us together as a family. What binds us as one family is our faith in Christ. Christ made it clear that biological ties are secondary to spiritual ties. “To the man who told him this Jesus replied, ‘Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?’ And stretching out his hand towards his disciples he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.'” What binds us together is our common identification with Jesus in doing His Father’s will. Therefore, what makes us Christian is not even our baptism but when we do the will of God as He did. The truth is that many of us are baptized but we are only nominal Christians. We are not truly the followers of Christ in the way He lived His life before God. It is the spiritual relationship with Christ and His Father that counts at the end.
Jesus’ entire life was focused on doing His Father’s will. He lived out what He preached by putting His Father above human ties to His mother. When He was young and stayed behind in the temple, Mary found Him and said to him, “‘Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.’ He said to them, ‘Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?'” (Lk 2:48f) Earlier on, He told His disciples, “whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (Mt 10:37) In His own life Jesus put His Father’s will and work before His dedication to His mother. Obedience to God comes before obedience to man, says the apostles. (cf Acts 5:29)
However, this does not mean that Jesus is advocating disrespect and not encouraging filial piety to our parents and family members. On the contrary, we read that “He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.” (Lk 2:51) He entrusted Mary at the last moment of His life to His beloved disciple, John to look after her. When Jesus saw the widow at Nain, He felt sorry for her and raised her only son back to life. The Lord knew that she needed the support of her son. (Lk 7:11-18)
But what Jesus demands from us is that we give honour and obedience to God first so that everything else will find its place. Giving first place to God does not mean that others have no place in our lives. On the contrary, it is only because we give our heart to God, that we find a greater capacity to be faithful to our loved ones and be generous with our friends and our fellowmen. Because to love God or to belong to His family is more than merely sharing a biological relationship or even a covenantal relationship, but when we seek to do God’s will.
“Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.” (Jn 14:23f)
The ramifications for accepting this principle are wide. Firstly, it means that this spiritual relationship with Him entails a shared vision and shared values. We do His Father’s will when we are identified with what the Lord reveals to us about His Father and what His Father wills us to do, and how we could live our life in imitation of His Father as taught by our Lord on the Sermon of the Mount, especially on the way we conduct our relationships with our fellowmen, in justice, compassion, forgiveness and charity. The more we identify with the teaching of Christ, the more we are brothers and sisters. We can be baptized, belonging even to the same church, but if we do not share the values that our Lord had taught us, then we cannot claim to be brothers and sisters of our Lord.
Secondly, the strength of our spiritual relationship with the Lord is determined by our experience of Him. Christian Faith is not reducible to a moral discipline, much less still, a legalistic way of living. Christian Faith is basically an encounter of His love and having a personal relationship with Him. People belong to different religions and within the same religion, different denominations, simply because we are identified by our common religious experience of God. Faith is not just a matter of assent to some doctrines but a heart-felt experience of the presence of God and His love mediated by the religious tradition that we belong to. Protestants can try to dissuade Catholics from having a devotion to our Blessed Mother using whatever scriptural texts and arguments they have, but for those of us who have encountered our Lady’s powerful intercession in our lives, no amount of anti-Marian literature can shake that faith.
From these two principles, we can therefore appreciate the different levels of acceptance of the gospel because it is determined by one’s shared values and personal conviction of our Lord. Hence, even if not all Christians share a common religious experience of our Blessed Mother, we can at least focus on our shared religious experience and our shared values based on scripture and a personal relationship with our Lord. This is what binds us together as Christians, and therefore truly brothers and sisters of our Lord. For those outside the Christian Faith, they too are our brothers and sisters by extension so long as they also seek to do the Father’s will according to their perception and religious encounter with the Sacred or with God. Regardless, whether they know it or describe it as such, we all have a shared humanity, a shared brotherhood and shared values of what Micah asked of us, to walk humbly before God, to love mercy and to live justly. Many religions and all humanity aspire to truth, justice, love and the practice compassion. Indeed, this God who knows our limitations, ignorance and sinfulness is ever ready to forgive us and accommodate us because He does not cherish anger forever but delight in showing mercy.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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