Doing God’s Will

Tuesday, January 24, 2017
3rd Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Heb. 10:1-10. Gospel: Mark 3:31-

Jesus’ mother and brothers came. As they stood outside, they sent someone to call him. The crowd sitting around Jesus told him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you.” He replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”

And looking around at those who sat there he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God is brother and sister and mother to me.”

D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)

Someone said that getting married is like going to a restaurant with friends. You order what you want, and then when you see what the fellow has, you wish you had ordered that. It always looks greener on the other side of the fence. Turning now to today’s Gospel reading we suspect that people may have observed with envy Jesus’ mother and brothers (relatives) who sneaked in while Jesus was preaching.
Their envy was not without basis. Jesus’ growing popularity as healer and exorcist made him the only preacher in those days that spoke with authority. There were many Rabbis in those days, but only Jesus could speak words that devils would obey. Even the winds and the waves obeyed him. Sicknesses would disappear at his words. He just had to say the word and sick people would be cured. Being his mother and relatives became a coveted status. “How blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you”, exclaimed a woman from the crowd (Luke 11:27).

Jesus took advantage of the occasion to rectify their inaccurate concept of Mary’s greatness. Mary’s greatness was not in her biological status as mother of Jesus but in her openness to God’s Will. “Whoever does the will of God is brother and sister and mother to me,” This statement leads us back to the Annunciation when Mary said to the Angel, “I am the maidservant of the Lord, be it done unto me according to your word.” The way Jesus explained Mary’s greatness makes us realize that any of us can be Jesus’ relatives.

Mary was great because among women she alone was blessed to conceive the Messiah in her womb. For this she was conceived free from original sin in the womb of her mother St. Anne. For this she was exempt from birth pangs. But Jesus pointed out a yet higher basis of her greatness. She was great because she was full of grace and chosen among many as mother of God’s Son. Even greater than these was her submission to God’s Holy Will.

There is no need to look at the Blessed Virgin Mary and her relatives with envy. We too can achieve spiritual greatness without being biologically related to Jesus. We just have to follow the Will of God. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM.

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