Tuesday of 16th Week, even numbered year 19th July 2016
"As Jesus was still speaking to the crowds his mother and brothers stood outside wanting to speak with him. Someone said ’Your mother and brothers are outside wanting to speak to you. Jesus answered ’Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? Those who seek to do God’s Will.’
Jesus is refused by the authorities, abandoned by the crowd, and so he shows who his real community is, the disciples : ’those who do the will of my Father’
His mother and cousins are there outdoors, the image of his real family is here as ’Jesus was still speaking to the crowds’.
In Jesus, God and humanity walk side by side, humanity and divinity are united in the Will of the Father.
Mary’s yes to the Angel at the Annunciation is humanity’s response, this humanity that is seeking the Infinite Love of God.
But it is at the Cross when Jesus will make all things anew.
The Pascal mystery brings about this extraordinary grace of the gift of Jesu to the whole of humanity. The Word became flesh so that man becomes, through adoption ’ a child of God.’
At the Cross Jesus will say to Mary :’Behold your Son’ and he will again say to John ’’ Behold your mother!
John will become Jesus’ brother, the one who does the Will of the Father.
And so comes about the Word ’to do the Will of God.’ To become a mother, a brother of the Lord Jesus.
"For whoever does my heavenly Father’s Will is my brother, my sister, and my mother.’
Much more than in these blood links Jesus does show where his real family lies. It is not because he is misunderstood and rejected by his cousins that Jesus lets there be a confusion concerning him, for he belongs totally to the
Kingdom and to his Mission. This is what it means ’to do the will of the Father’. In order to be of Jesus’ family, we have to do not just his Will but that of the Father. The Father’s obeisance is constitutive of the ’filiation’ through Jesus.
The divine maternity of Mary spreads out in this way to the Church, bringing together all those who are of Christ.
The birth of this new humanity is done at the Cross in the Unity of the mystery of Love of God and of mankind.
The Holy Spirit, Infinite Love of the Father and of the Son, spreads out upon all those whom the Father has chosen to be his children.
God became a tiny little child in Jesus so as to reveal the face of the Father.
Holy God becomes very near working on his creature in his human nature. We are introduced into the mystery of Mary, renewed humanity living from God. In thanksgiving we are in the Father’s Will for the salvation of the world.
"Jesus answered ’Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? It is whoever does the Will of my Father.’
It is when one counts upon God that speaks of trusting confidence, the attitude of the one who places everything back into the hands of Another. In total obedience to the Father Jesus brings about for us a new filiation. The Church wants to do the Will of the Father following in Jesus’ footsteps. A surprising prophetic vison is given to us in Jesus who looks to his disciples :
’Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? It is the one who does the Will of my Father!’
At the Cross ’Behold your mother’, was for John, and for each one of us the entrance door into a new and eternal covenant.
The Holy Spirit, who is ’the spirit of child birth’ in the Virgin Mary’s womb goes through the whole of humanity from now on. This Spirit accompanies Jesus in his public life by giving strength and light : ’He offered himself up in an Eternal sprit’, says the epistle to he Hebrews.
’The mother ’and ’the brothers’ will be with Jesus bringing about the Church’s mystery.
Mary will carry in her heart the apostles’ ministry, those who speak about him, priests who celebrate the pascal mystery.
This is how new brothers and sisters are brought to birth, a whole new humanity whose love is totally new.
The fecundity of love will spread out in this way to the extremities of the earth until Jesu comes back again.