A Reflection for Tuesday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Strange Time
Today’s reading is probably the most surprising, and even disturbing, in the whole Latest Testament. To know why, it’s essential to set the scene, which is mirrored in the opposite synoptic Gospels, Mark and Matthew.
Why are Jesus’ mother and clan in Capernaum, Jesus’ home base for his ministry in Galilee? Why have they arrive all the best way from Nazareth, a difficult journey of a day or so, to this town on the shores of the Sea of Galilee? We discover the reply in Mark 3:21: “When his family heard it [meaning news of his preaching and healing], they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, ‘He has gone out of his mind.’” Other translations from the Greek say that his family desired to “seize” or “arrest” him.
Let that sink in for a moment: Jesus’ clan was so disturbed by what he was doing that they traveled all the best way from their hometown to the Sea of Galilee to “restrain him.”
“For Jesus, ties to the Father were more essential than ties to his family.”
Once they reach Capernaum, what happens? They’re standing outside of his home (more than likely Jesus’ own house: Mark calls Capernaum “his own town”). In response, Jesus says, as we read today, “My mother and my brothers are those that hear the word of God and act on it.”
It is a remarkable incident for many who think that Jesus’ family (even his mother) all the time understood him. It takes nothing away from Mary’s holiness or her constant love for him (or what was revealed to her on the Annunciation) to say that even she seemed surprised by his public ministry.
Even perhaps more essential is Jesus’ response, which puzzled me for a few years. How could he say these blunt words about his mother and family? Not long before he died, Latest Testament scholar Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., explained it to me in his trademark clarity: “For Jesus, ties to the Father were more essential than ties to his family.”
Jesus loved his mother and she or he loved him. He loved his family they usually loved him. Loving our families is an element of being a very good Christian. But as Jesus shows us, loving God, with all that entails, even when our family doesn’t understand that priority, comes first.
