Today's Gospel (Mt 12): "Whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother." Jesus call us to let go of a model of family based on exclusiveness, power, and kinship for the sake of a new family based on inclusiveness, humility, and discipleship.
Conversation
Inclusiveness: Jesus confronts a society divided by codes of clean/unclean, righteous/sinner. He upsets these divisions, restoring the broken and excluded to wholeness and community, inviting those outside to a place of special honor in the feast that God has prepared.
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Humility vs. power: Jesus is determined that the new family of God not reproduce patriarchal power structures of society in which the powerful lord it over the powerless. In this “family” the one who is first must be the servant of all. The oldest should become as the youngest.
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Discipleship vs kinship: He does not “belong” to his blood relatives. His true relatives are those who do the will of God. All of these points pose a challenge to the new Christian family. The first two, inclusivity and humility are obvious. But discipleship is crucial.
There is more than one way of clinging to kinship with Jesus. Just as Jesus' kin tried to keep him to themselves, jealous of his love for the crowd, do we believe that God’s family consists only of Christians? “Whoever does the will of God is my brother, and sister, and mother."
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