Be Sister, Be Brother

Be Sister, Be Brother

January 29, 2013

Tuesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

By Beth DeCristofaro

First he says Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings, you neither desired nor delighted in.  These are offered according to the law.  Then he says, Behold, I come to do your will.  He takes away the first to establish the second.  By this “will,” we have been consecrated   through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all.  (Hebrews 10: 8-10)

For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:35)

Piety

Jesus, show me how to be a Sister or a Brother to your sisters and brothers not just my own.  Almighty God, show me how to do your will.

Study

Families, tribes, clans, cities, nation-states.  Humans group together.  Our groups define us to ourselves and to each other.  They are also places we feel that we fit in if not places of comfort.  I’ve always been fairly shy and find it stressful to walk into gatherings where there are many strangers.  In high school, being on drill team and newspaper staff gave me groups to belong to.  Family gatherings have some stress but for me it is known stress and known modes of being.  If I had been in the group of Jesus’ relatives who heard him say ““Who are my mother and my brothers? … whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”  I think my feelings would have been hurt.

However, when I reflect on those whom he gazed upon and who he invited to be his brother and his sister I feel reassured and thankful.  He invited the woman at the well who was an outcast from her own community group.  He invited an adulteress.  He invited a Roman official, the oppressor.  He invited a tax collector.  He invited gentiles, temple leaders, rural fishermen.  Jesus invited everyone to choose to be family with Him.  Jesus message is “Come, be family with me because I love you as God loves you.”  Beyond generous, Jesus’ invitation is life-giving both on the merely human level of belonging and on a universal level to be united with divinity.   

Action

Take a few minutes with someone not in your “family” or “group”.  What does this child of God have to share with you through her/his story?  What do you have to share with her/him?

Cardinal Donald Wuerl states in a Washington Post  op-ed “Acting on Faith” that  Jesus’ brothers and sisters are obligated to “to manifest love of neighbor, to provide charitable service to others, and to promote truth, genuine freedom and authentic humanism. “   http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-catholic-church-a-2000-year-old-mission-of-faith/2013/01/25/4a6c5e6c-64e0-11e2-9e1b-07db1d2ccd5b_story.html