Tuesday, January 23, 2018
3rd Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: 2 Sam 6:12b-15.17-19
Gospel: Mark 3:31-35
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)
They say 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 may not necessarily be about envy, but it could get close to that. Whether it is about envy or just the impulsive side of desire to have what others possess, it is always greener at the other side of the fence. Was this operative in those people who alerted Jesus about the presence of his mother?
People had all the reasons to envy Mary, for the simple reason that her Son was 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 melt down at his words. He just had to say the word and sick people would be cured. Being his mother 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, however, had a different way of looking at the greatness of his mother. Mary’s greatness was not in her status as his biological mother. “Whoever does the will of God is brother and sister and mother to me,” Jesus explained. This was not without basis. At the Annunciation 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. The greater basis for her greatness was her submission to God’s Holy Will.
There is no need to look at Mary 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., D.M.
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