Tuesday, July 23, 2013
16th Week in Ordinary Time 1st Reading: Ex 14:21—15:1 Gospel:
Matthew 12:46-50
While Jesus was still talking to the people, his mother and his brothers wanted to speak to him and they waited outside. So someone said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are just outside; they want to speak with you.”
Jesus answered, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” Then he pointed to his disciples and said, “Look! Here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is for me brother, sister, or mother.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE (Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life
Experience)
When someone informed Jesus that his mother was looking for him, he replied by asking this question: “Who is my mother?” Taken apart from the rest of the story, this scandalizes us, for under our culture no upright son will do the same to his mother. But taken in context, Jesus’ question unveils the true greatness of Mary.
It was Jesus himself who answered his own question. He said: “Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is for me, mother”. In effect Jesus was saying that Mary was great not only because she was his biological mother but especially because she excelled in obeying God’s Will. When the angel announced to God’s plan to her, the heavenly hosts held their breath until she said yes. With this submission, Mary entered into a special relationship with the Trinity. She no longer was merely “Daughter of the Father” in the order of Creation, but she also became “Spouse of the Holy Spirit by her ‘yes’ at the Annunciation. Above all, she became “Mother of the Son of God” by the mystery of the Incarnation. No mortal creature has come this close to the life of the Trinity.
Her greatness was not a one-time windfall that came after the Incarnation. The implications of that Yes were scary but she embraced them all as they came. In this way she became Jesus’ partner in saving the world. With Jesus’ submission to the Father’s Will during his Agony at the Garden of Gethsemane, and with Mary’s “be it done unto me according to your Word” at the Annunciation, both worked together to save the world.
Some camps in the Church would like to declare Mary as co-redemptrix. Efforts to proclaim her as such have been stalled by theological squabbles on possible adverse implications. But history has it: Mary was God’s co-worker in the salvific act.
Thus when Jesus asked “Who is my mother?” and when he answered his own question with “Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is for me, mother”, Jesus gave Mary the highest form of affirmation God can give to a creature. – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
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