Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?

24 JULY (Mt 12,46-50)

The Psalm we chose to help us understand the Gospel of this day, we must not deceive us. On the contrary, it serves to show us, not only in the negative, but also in the positive, all the needs of the Lord’s Word. When a person chooses to live all of the Word of the Lord, every day in the current affairs a chasm is caused around him that keeps him away from the whole world. It is as if God put a wall of fire around him, similar to the one located around Jerusalem – Again I raised my eyes and looked: there was a man with a measuring line in his hand. “Where are you going?” I asked. “To measure Jerusalem,” he answered; “to see how great is its width and how great its length.” Then the angel who spoke with me advanced, and another angel came out to meet him, and said to him, “Run, tell this to that young man: People will live in Jerusalem as though in open country, because of the multitude of men and beasts in her midst. But I will be for her an encircling wall of fire, says the Lord, and I will be the glory in her midst.”” (Zac 2,5-9) – to guard and protect him from everybody, friends and enemies, good and bad people, saints and sinners; so that this person is only God’s and no one else’s. No one must have any power over the man of God. Only God might rule over him and nobody else.

The chosen Psalm reveals us the gulf between the man of God and the empire of evil, that wished it could pounce and tear him to pieces to lead him into the kingdom of darkness and eternal death. But never might God allow his faithful servant to be somehow torn by the powers of evil and of the world. Never might he let him be destroyed in his mission. He must take care that everything goes according to his will. The righteous is always, and only in the hands of the Lord.

Because for Your sake I have borne reproach; Dishonor has covered my face. I have become estranged from my brothers And an alien to my mother’s sons. For zeal for Your house has consumed me, And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me. When I wept in my soul with fasting, It became my reproach. When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them. Those who sit in the gate talk about me, And I am the song of the drunkards. But as for me, my prayer is to You, O LORD, at an acceptable time; O God, in the greatness of Your loving-kindness, Answer me with Your saving truth. Deliver me from the mire and do not let me sink; May I be delivered from my foes and from the deep waters. May the flood of water not overflow me Nor the deep swallow me up, Nor the pit shut its mouth on me. Answer me, O LORD, for Your loving-kindness is good; According to the greatness of Your compassion, turn to me, And do not hide Your face from Your servant, For I am in distress; answer me quickly. Oh draw near to my soul and redeem it; Ransom me because of my enemies! You know my reproach and my shame and my dishonor; All my adversaries are before You. Reproach has broken my heart and I am so sick. And I looked for sympathy, but there was none, And for comforters, but I found none. They also gave me gall for my food And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. (Psalm 69 (68) 8-22).

Jesus must not even be placed in the hands of his Mother. Jesus is not at the disposal of his Mother, but only of his Father in Heaven. They can meet when the Father wants they meet; and the Father decided that they will have to meet on the Calvary at the feet of Crucified Jesus. That is why the Virgin Mary must wait a few more days. Currently there is no reason for them to meet. This is the daily sacrifice that each of us must give to the Lord: the separation from the affects, because the saving mission which was given to us requires it.

While he was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers appeared outside, wishing to speak with him. (Someone told him, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak with you.”) But he said in reply to the one who told him, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

Jesus does not reject his Mother. He tells what must her role be. Always living in the will of God, because it is only in the Will of God that they might encounter.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels, Saints give us the present will of God.