The family of Christ

Tuesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time A-1

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 96 (95):1, 6 O sing a new song to the Lord; sing to the Lord, all the earth. In his presence are majesty and splendour, strength and honour in his holy place.

Collect Almighty ever-living God, direct our actions according to your good pleasure, that in the name of your beloved Son we may abound in good works. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: 2 Samuel 6:12b-15, 17-19; Psalm 24:7-10; Mark 3:31-35

The mother of Jesus and his brethren came. Standing outside they sent for him. Many were sitting before him, and they told him, “Behold your mother and your brethren outside are looking for you. Answering them he said, “Who is my mother and my brethren? And looking round on those who sat about him, he said “Behold my mother and my brethren. For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother, and my sister, and mother. (Mark 3:31-35)

The family of Christ If one grants the Christian claim and dogma that Jesus of Nazareth was God — the Son of God made man — then it is surely a source of unending fascination to think of him dwelling among men. Particularly wondrous is the phenomenon of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity being a member of a human family, with a true mother and a foster‑father, living a humble and ordinary life those thirty years at Nazareth. The God of might lived as a member of an obscure family in a backwater village which was not looked on very highly by its neighbours. We know of this meagre reputation Nazareth had from the response of Nathanael (in the Gospel of St John) to Philip’s telling him about Jesus of Nazareth. The point I wish to make, though, is that God took the Incarnation seriously in that he became as all men are except for sin. He became a member of a family, a member of a wider circle of relatives, a member of a clan. That he was a good member truly immersed in his family relationships is shown in our Gospel today when, as the text says, “His mother and brothers came. Standing outside they sent for him. Many were sitting before him, and they told him, ‘Behold your mother and your brethren outside are looking for you’.” They were on easy and familiar terms with him and despite his unique moral qualities and his growing position in the life of the people, they felt quite free to come and summon him to their company. This detail says much for the reality and the scale of the Incarnation. God became man in every sense except for man’s condition of being sinful. It is a wholesome and instructive thought to ponder on our Lord’s life during all those years at Nazareth: thirty of his thirty-three years. Just as family is fundamental and central to the individual, and to the life of the community, so too family must have been fundamental to our Lord, humanly speaking.

But there was to be a wider and far greater family of Jesus, and our Lord’s words in today’s Gospel allude to it. We read that, ‘Answering them he said, “Who is my mother and my brethren? And looking round on those who sat about him, he said “Behold my mother and my brethren. For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother, and my sister, and mother”' (Mark 3:31‑35). Christ our Lord was establishing his new family, and those who sat before him as his disciples were on the way to being members of it. Yahweh God had established his chosen people as his family. The covenant he had with them was a family covenant. The prophets described Yahweh as a Husband, the Husband of his people. His people was his bride, his spouse. It has also been suggested by some scholars that the word “Yahweh” not only means “I am”, but includes in this brief phrase the promise to abide with his people: “I am (as the One always there with you)”. It suggests the fidelity and presence of the Bridegroom. Israel was his spouse. In other contexts, Israel his people is regarded as Yahweh’s son, his child. For example, he called Israel his “child” out of Egypt. The point in all of this is that in the Old Testament God regarded his chosen people as his family. But now with the coming of Christ a new and far loftier family was being established and its grandeur derived from the presence of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Church is God’s family and Christ is our brother. The covenant whereby this new family comes into being is the new covenant in the blood of Christ. Each member of the Church is a brother to Christ through faith and baptism, and through a life of obedience to God. “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” The exemplar for all the brothers and sisters of Christ is his own Mother whose life was summed up in her words to the Angel, “Be it done unto me according to your word.”

As we look out on the world and the stars we cannot but be awestruck at what the Creator must be like to hold all that we see in constant existence. He is the God of heaven and earth, above us in a manner far beyond imagining. And yet, he became man and as our brother lay down his life that we might share in his life. Let us live every day in such a way that Jesus will look on us and say to those around him, behold my brother, my sister, for whoever does the will of God, he is my mother and my sister and my brother.

(E.J.Tyler)

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