Jesus' words today may seem rather cold and harsh.
When he is told that his mother and family members had arrived and were
waiting to see him, Jesus announced that those who hear the word of God and who
act upon it are truly his brothers and sisters.
In the ancient Mediterranean world in which Jesus lived, the family unit
was the most important thing, as it shaped one’s life and one’s destiny, it
determined where a person fit into society.
Even in our modern world today, we have our biological families, but our
community of faith is also so important in our identity and who we are, in how
we interact in the world.
We just celebrated Catechetical Sunday in our Church last
weekend, in which we kicked off our school year of religious education programs,
in which we wanted to show how important it was to grow and learn in our lives
of faith. Our community of faith helps
us to learn and grow. Being Catholic,
being disciples of Christ, should be an important way we see ourselves, and it
should be an important way we identify ourselves to the world.
In the different ministries we have here in the parishes in
Yazoo City and Belzoni, with the prison ministry and the other outreach
programs we have, in our visits to the sick and shut-in, we have a brotherhood
and sisterhood of believers, we are indeed a family of believers in the faith. I see it in the way people love each other
and reach out to one another. May we
always feel like we are members of Jesus’ family.
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