A man sitting close to Jesus said, “Your mother and brothers and sisters are outside asking for you.” Our Lord chose this moment to reveal a mystery. He started with a question that sounded like a riddle. He asked: “Who are my mother and my brothers?”
If I were sitting there, I would have remained silent along with everyone else. I would naturally wonder, “If this man doesn’t know who his mother is, how can I tell him?” Of course, Jesus had to know. Everyone knew who his mother was. So the question was strange. It was no different from what you would feel if you were at a family reunion and one of your brothers asked, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”
Expectation mounted. Jesus remained silent. He sat “looking round at those sitting in a circle about him.” Slowly, he stretched out his hands to them and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers.” After a moment of initial confusion, Jesus explained: “Anyone who does the will of God, that person is my brother and sister and mother.”
Perhaps very few of them understood what it meant to do the will of God. One person knew -- the very woman who was outside waiting to speak to her Son. By telling the Angel Gabriel that she was ready to do the will of God, she was the first to become not only mother but “brother and sister and mother”. Her words (“Be it done to me according to your word”) brought down the Holy Spirit and she conceived the child while remaining a virgin.
To do what his Father wanted, Jesus had to die on the cross and rise from the dead. This sacrifice made it possible to send the Holy Spirit -- the one who makes us children of God.
How can we do God’s will? We have to struggle as the Son did when telling his Father, “Not my will, but yours be done.” We have to accept God’s plans for our future the way the Virgin Mary agreed to do whatever God asked. It will be small things: spending time in prayer when we don’t feel like it or being cheerful at home after a horrible day at work. At least try! This is what makes you a child of God.
This article by Fr. Joe Babendreier first appeared in the Sunday Nation on 15th August 2010.