Who are our brothers and
sisters?
Precision in blood
relationships can be technical and complex.
People who are descended
from a common ancestor are cousins.
We count the number of generations
we skip over from that ancestor to ourselves.
And that tells us what
degree of cousin kinship we have.
If our common ancestor is
a grandparent, we’re first cousins.
If our common ancestor is
a great-grandparent, we’re second
cousins.
Two cousins can be from
different generations.
In that case, we also note
how many generations separate them.
My first cousin’s children
are first cousins once removed to me.
My children and my first
cousin’s children are second cousins
to each other.
If the common ancestor is
a parent, we have a special relationship.
We don’t call ourselves
zeroth cousins.
We call ourselves brothers
and sisters.
In everyday life, we don’t
always use precise language for our relationships.
In today’s first reading
Paul calls Timothy my dear child.
Though he wasn’t his
child.
We often refer to brothers
and sisters who technically are not.
We’ve read that Elizabeth
was Mary’s cousin.
Even though Mary was a
young woman and Elizabeth was an old, barren woman.
Maybe Elizabeth was really
her first cousin once removed.
Or second cousin once
removed.
Taking the Bible
literally,
We’re all cousins through
Adam and Eve and Noah and – Mrs. Noah.
A young friend of mine had
a new job teaching 3rd Grade.
One day her class read a
story about a family.
And she decided to follow
it up with a little writing exercise.
So she told them to each
list their family members.
And to write down something
they enjoyed doing with their family.
The kids started writing
and thinking.
But in just a few minutes
a few of them were raising their hands.
Miss Jackson, is Sarah
part of my family.
She’s really just my
mother’s boyfriend’s daughter.
But we share a bedroom at
my house.
Does that make her one of
my family?
Another asked:
Miss Jackson, when my
parents got divorced my brother moved away to North Carolina.
To live with my Grandma.
He doesn’t live with me, so
should I still count him as one of my family?
Miss Jackson got a
half-dozen different questions like that.
About half-sisters and
step-brothers.
Adopted brothers and
foster parents.
Jesus avoids all the
complication.
He makes being a member of
his family simple.
He says, Whoever does the will of God is my brother
and sister and mother.
And God’s will doesn’t set
the bar unreachably high.
He wills that we do
something that he has given all of us the ability to do
Something that isn’t
always easy, but is always within our
ability.
He wills that we love each
other.
That we try our best to
fit into His family.
Like the best of brothers
and sisters, sons and daughters.
Jesus doesn’t want to regard
us by our earthly blood relationship.
His cousins hundreds of
times removed.
He calls us by our spiritual
relationship to him.
Children of the same
Father.
Brothers and Sisters.
3rd Tuesday Ordinary Time
