January 28, 2014
Tuesday, 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)
Preachers must not belittle the adverse impact of noise on their message delivery because according to Marshall McLuhan noise can spoil the whole communication process. The good news is that noise can be re-engineered into something useful to message transmission. Consider how Jesus did it. Jesus had just preached about a divided household (see Mark 3:26) when a little later someone from the crowd shouted: “Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you.” That person was referring to the Blessed Virgin Mary and some of Jesus’ relatives (close relatives were also referred to as brothers or sisters in Jewish culture).
Jesus saw in this the chance to clarify that more than being a biological mother Mary was a follower who “kept everything in her heart and pondered upon them”. Jesus was also able to clarify that more than being a disciple and follower Mary was his partner in doing God’s will. Indeed she was. While at the ‘garden’ of the Annunciation Mary said, “Be it done unto me according to your word”, at the ‘garden’ of the Passion Jesus prayed, “Not my will but yours be done.”
By clarifying the status of Mary as doer of God’s Will Jesus came close to saying anybody can be his relatives provided they do likewise. Thanks to that distraction Jesus got the chance to transmit such message of hope to people in the crowd who were envious of the status of Mary as mother of Jesus.
While only a few are called to be preachers in the pulpit, we are all called to be witnesses to the Word by being Christians in action. Anything less turns us into a big distraction fatal to the transmission of God’s message to our generation. As one big noise to evangelization God will have no choice but re-engineer us into something useful to his message transmission. The process of re-engineering can be very painful since it is a process of purification. Nonetheless it is transformative. If even this we refuse, we are leaving God with no option but boot us out. Worse than noise we have no place in any communication process. – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
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