Who Are My Mother and Brothers?

When Carlos [our lector] started this morning,

I wasn’t sure if he was reading scripture or fortune cookies.

Maybe I’m just hungry.

Those Old Testament proverbs are full of ancient wisdom.

The Jews didn’t have a monopoly on that.

The Chinese and others had similar insights and observations on life.

Those proverbs all suggest proper behavior for getting along.

Some people might consider them from a merely humanistic view:

How to win material wealth and happiness;

How to gain the respect of our fellow man.

For us, they’re part of our Sacred Scripture.

They do guide us in our worldly quests and our behavior toward other people.

But we recognize that they also pertain to our relationship with God.

They guide us toward the Good.

They are the word of God, guiding us in following the will of God.

Today’s Psalm readings emphasize that theme:

Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands.

And Jesus sums it up in today’s very brief Gospel passage.

Short as it is, it can raise a couple distracting questions first—

Jesus had brothers!?  No, not in the biological sense.

Is Jesus disrespecting his mother!?  No, quite the opposite.

But then we get to the real point of our Gospel.

The real Good News message.

Hearing the word of God and acting on it makes us members of Jesus’ immediate family.

He considers us to be as close and as beloved as his own mother and brothers.

With a prize like that at stake, we should all be hungry.

Hungry to hear and act on God’s word.

Read This Scripture @ usccb.org

1 Prv 21:1-6, 10-13

Ps 119:1, 27, 30, 34, 35, 44

Lk 8:19-21