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Gospel: Mark 3:31-35
The mother of Jesus and his brothers arrived at the house.
Standing outside, they sent word to Jesus and called him.
A crowd seated around him told him,
“Your mother and your brothers and your sisters
are outside asking for you.”
But he said to them in reply,
“Who are my mother and my brothers?”
And looking around at those seated in the circle he said,
“Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever does the will of God
is my brother and sister and mother.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Immediately following the resurrection of Christ, the Apostles embraced their mission to spread the Good News to the ends of the earth, starting in Jerusalem. As Peter says in the Acts of the Apostles:
“This man, you killed using lawless men to crucify him. But God raised him up!”
Their message was startling and life-changing.
While large numbers of people converted to Christianity, a significant number of these converts were also martyred for their faith. Mysteriously, their deaths only made the Church grow.
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One reason why Christians were martyred was because of their unwillingness to bend their knees to worldly power. As a result, people like the Roman Emperor Nero spread lies and misinformation about them, creating a culture of fear and suspicion.
For example, Nero labeled Christians as “cannibals,” accusing them of eating the flesh and drinking the blood of their God. While misunderstood, that ancient accusation only affirms the Catholic belief in Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist.
Christians were also called “incestuous,” because they referred to one another as “brothers and sisters,” a practice taught by Christ in today’s Gospel.
“Who are my mother and my brothers?” Jesus asks the crowd. “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
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Jesus taught his followers that he came to establish a new family, God’s family, the Church – a community whose relationships are not bound by DNA, nor do they dissolve in death.
Rather, we are equals who treat each other accordingly – never as inferior, as enemies, or as unwelcome rivals, rather as brothers and sisters in Christ. Recently, Pope Leo stretched this teaching, saying we should treat all of humanity with such kindness.
Imagine the people whom you might interact with today – those whom you love and those whom you may struggle to love. Follow the example of the first Christians, treating all of them as a brother or sister. For whatever we do to them, we do to Christ himself.
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Image credits: (1) The Stepmom Project, WordPress (2) Compelling Truth (3) thidolbabbler.com