What do we make of the Gospel we hear today? Not only does Jesus not go out to see his mother, but Jesus also proposes that those who are inside the house with him are his “real” family. But, are those who are outside to see him still his family? Immediate and extended families and kinfolk were an important part of society in the ancient Mediterranean world. In today’s Gospel, Jesus expands the concept of family beyond blood relatives, seeing family as those who desire a relationship with God and desire to follow God’s will in their lives. Unfortunately, there are those family members who do not want a relationship with God. And perhaps some of us may experience this reality in our own families. But, for Jesus, in the family of faith, what counts are the choices we make in our faith. This is very radical, considering the Jewish faith considered non-Jews to be unclean and to be outsiders. Members of the Early Church faced persecution and ostracism, sometimes within their own biological families. But, with the values that Jesus proposes in today’s Gospel, he sees Christianity as a new family. Our family of faith does not pretend to be perfect. But our family is here to support us, guide us, and to help us grow and learn together.
Marianne Cope, the saint we celebrate today, was the oldest of 10 children. She was born in Germany in 1838 and was brought to New York state as a baby by her parents. Her parents struggled in their new country, so Marianne quit school after 8th grade to work in a factory to help her family. Despite the challenges she faced, she entered religious life in 1862 as a Franciscan sister. She taught in German-speaking Catholic grade schools and became a school principal. Later, she and her order opened some of the first hospitals in that area of New York state. When she was the superior general of her order, she was asked to send some of the sisters to serve in ministry in Hawaii with the lepers. Not only did she send 6 sisters, but she went herself.
Sister Marianne and her Franciscans sisters worked in two hospitals, they opened a home for the daughters of lepers, and, after then, they opened a home for women and girls on the island of Molokai when Father Damien was living out his last days after coming down with leprosy himself from his ministry with the lepers. Sister Marianne nursed Father Damien in his last dying days. They continued Father Damien’s ministry on Molokai. Sister Marianne stayed on that island 30 years until her death in 1918. She was canonized by Pope Benedict in 2012, three years after Father Damien was canonized. Sister Marianne’s life and ministry stand as a testimony of faith for all of us more than 100 years after her death. May we unite our prayers with her prayers today.
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