Message of Abbot Paul - Tuesday - 23rd January 2024

​Parents often find it difficult to accept the decisions their children take as they approach adulthood and gradually become independent. I have a friend whose son took a first in History at Oxford and yet whose passion for trains has led him to become an engine driver in the West Midlands. My own parents found it very difficult to accept my vocation and way of life. I’ve only mentioned career choices: when it comes to marriage or the many alternatives there are today, then parents might find that even more difficult to understand and accept. It was no different for Jesus and in today’s Gospel passage from Mark, (Mk 3: 31-35), we hear of a visit made by family members to see him. Mary his mother had been warned by Simeon at the Presentation that a sword would pierce her heart and now she knew what that meant. Jesus was her only Son.

 

​We read, “The mother and brothers of Jesus arrived and, standing outside, sent in a message asking for him. A crowd was sitting round him at the time the message was passed to him.” We might have difficulty with the fact that Jesus had brothers, but as I have mentioned before the Greek word used could also include cousins and other close relatives. In addition, there’s the traditional belief that Joseph was a widower and had children by an earlier marriage. If you look at icons and frescos of the flight into Egypt, you will see Mary, Joseph and the infant Jesus accompanied by a young man, said to be a son of Joseph. I’ve even heard his name mentioned, although I can’t remember it now. Anyway, they are not received with any special recognition and are made to wait outside. They send a message into him that they wish to see him. Inside he is surrounded by a crowd. He is given the message, “Your mother and brothers and sisters are outside asking for you.” The reaction of Jesus is interesting. We are not told whether he went outside to speak with them or whether they were invited in. It’s hard to imagine that they were not, given the exquisite rules of hospitality practised in Israel at the time. However, Jesus uses the visit to teach his hearers a very important truth about discipleship.

 

​Mark continues, “He replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking round at those sitting in a circle about him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. Anyone who does the will of God, that person is my brother and sister and mother.’” In no way does Jesus reject his mother and other family members, but he insists that faith is the basis for true relationships, doing the will of God. This teaching, of course, takes us back to the Annunciation, when Mary said to the Angel Gabriel, “I am the handmaid of the Lord; may what you have said be done to me.” And again, the words that Jesus taught his disciples to pray. “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” If we do God’s will as revealed by Jesus by his words and example, then we will be “his brother and sister and mother.” He does not mention his father, as his Father in God, “Our Father, who art in heaven.”

 

​Let us thank God today for calling us in Christ to be members of his family, that we may always do his will and know the lasting joy of being brothers and sisters of Jesus. Amen