The Gospel of Matthew, chapter 12:50

They say, “you can choose your friends but not your family.” Family is very important in our lives. Without a family to belong to, people would feel rootless, they would be like directionless ships without sails, especially during the formative years of childhood. Jesus belonged to a family, and that family nurtured and protected Him as He matured in wisdom and grace during childhood.

Jesus was addressing the crowds when someone said: “your mother and your brother are standing out there and they wish to speak to you.” In the culture of the East, as in Latin cultures today, the term brothers is often used of cousins, and not necessarily of brothers in the same family. Jesus replied to the question by asking: “who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” Then, pointing to his disciples, He said: “there are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of my heavenly father is brother and sister and mother to me.”

What Jesus is talking about here are ties of faith which penetrate a person’s being more deeply than ties of blood. The mother of Jesus was chosen to be the bearer of her Son in the flesh because of her deep faith, expressed in her words: “thy will be done.” A family whose relationships are grounded in faith and love of the Lord, and whose actions are guided by sound moral and spiritual values, will be a strong family because those relationships will withstand the seductions of the world, and the all too human expressions of selfishness that drive families apart rather than pull them together.

Why do we have so many broken families in today’s society? Why are there so many divorces? And, why are there so many abandoned and abused children wandering our streets? Family ties; ties of blood; are not enough to bind people together. We need something greater, and that something, the Lord tells us, is doing the will of his heavenly Father.

The disciples of Jesus were bound together by the spiritual ties of faith. With the exception of St. John, and St. Paul, they all had wives and, most likely, children. Yet, it was their trust in the Lord that enabled them to endure the course, in spite of the persecution and opposition of a pagan society; and to be of one mind and one spirit in their love for one another.

Fr. Hugh Duffy

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