Message of Abbot Paul - Saturday - 20th January 2024

Today’s short Gospel passage from Mark (Mk 3: 20-21), tells us briefly of the reaction of his family to Jesus and his ministry. Mark doesn’t beat around the bush, but packs his punches! “Jesus went home, and once more such a crowd collected that they could not even have a meal. When his relatives heard of this, they set out to take charge of him, convinced he was out of his mind.” It’s difficult to place this short passage in its original context. It would seem that home is Capernaum, where Jesus had set up his base, rather than Nazareth, where he was brought up. Such crowds gather that it’s impossible for Jesus and his disciples to have a meal together. There would have been demands for healing and, as we know, crowds can easily get out of hand.

 

Mark gives no indication as to who these relatives of Jesus are. Matthew and Luke tell us that Mary his mother came with his brothers and sisters, possibly cousins or children of Joseph by an earlier marriage, as tradition explains. It’s possible that they had been told about Jesus’ activity by people from Nazareth who had been healed by him. They arrive with the intention of taking him back, “convinced that he is out of his mind.” If I tell you that my old school and university friends think that I’m out of my mind because of what I do, then that helps us understand how Jesus’ family felt. They might have admired him, but they also thought him out of his mind. In Mark there is no conversation between Jesus and his relatives; all we know is that their embassy is a failure, as in verse 22 we find the scribes or teachers of the Law arrive from Jerusalem and judge him to be possessed by “the prince of demons.” This accusation is followed by a discussion between Jesus and the scribes on the source of his power to cast our evil spirits.

 

​This Gospel account urges us to pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, that the Lord will call men and women to listen to his voice asking them to swim against the current and serve him and his people in the heart of the Church.

Let us also pray that he will help us all fulfil the vocation to which each one of us has been called.