Today's Gospel passage contains a basic theme that is found throughout the Gospel of Luke. Luke sees the proclamation of the kingdom of God as centering around a household or family of believers in Christ, rather than those who gathered together at the Temple to offer sacrifice or our biological family. This manner of forming family groups of believers plays a key role in the spread of Jesus' teachings in the early Church. These groups of believers cross different boundaries that separated people in society. In Jesus' day, society and the very survival of an individual were linked to the kinship group that formed around the biological family, so the message in today's Gospel would have been quite shocking to those who heard it.
Even today, those of us who follow Jesus and who seek the will of God in our lives enter into a new family, which is the family of believers in our Catholic faith. True kinship in Christ is not about flesh and blood. Our adoption as sons and daughters in Christ transforms our relationships and requires a new order of loyalty to God and his kingdom.
I look out at our parish here at St James and I see so much diversity. We need to be welcoming to everyone, not just to those who are the same as we are. In fact, we can learn so much for those Catholics who have gifts and interests that are different from our own. Our true kinship in Christ brings challenge and learning edges to our lives of faith, but it is not something we should be afraid of.
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