29th Week in Ordinary Time
Beloved in the Lord, today in the Gospel we see these two brothers James and John who have gotten it into their heads, that they want to be at places of honor when Jesus arrives in his kingdom. They are obsessed with this: ‘We want you to do for us whatever we ask.” Our Lord says, “What do you wish?” “That in your glory, we may sit, one at your right and the other at your left.” Jesus said, “You do not know what you are asking. These brothers had latched onto this idea, and they WANTED it.
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Now James and John had a nickname, they were called ‘Sons ofThunder.’ We might say they were brash and bull-headed. ‘Do for us what we ask!,’ they say to Christ.
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In the course of our life, we meet people who are stubborn, bull-headed, and inflexible. Certain people think that being stubborn – sticking immovably to what they want – they think this is a virtue, a sign of strength. But is this strength? Is it virtuous to be stubborn?
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If we look in the Holy Scriptures, and the writings of the saints, we will not find stubbornness to be a virtue; The Bible refers to those who are ‘stiff-necked, stubborn, and hard-hearted, always as a negative. ‘Stubborn as a mule,’ – is not a compliment!
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But there are some virtues that seem similar. The virtue of fortitude for example, which means the courage to do something good, no matter how much we have to suffer. There is the virtue of perseverance. This means, that when we do something difficult, we keep going, we ‘persevere’ even when others might be against us. It sounds kind of like stubborn. And then there is the virtue of faithfulness. Remaining faithful to God, to our spouse, to the Church, no matter who or what is trying to oppose us or tempt us.
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St. Joan of Arc needed to have courage to keep following what the Lord was asking of her. She needed ‘perseverance’ when everyone was against her; and she showed the virtue of faithfulness to God even when they burned her at the stake. She was unmovable, she was faithful through it all, and became a great martyr. But this was not stubbornness.
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The strong, virtuous person is striving for what is good, for what God wants. But this is not what a stubborn person is doing. Acts 7:51 says: ‘You stubborn people, you are always resisting the Holy Spirit.’ So a stubborn person holds tightly to his OWN will, not God’s will. A stubborn person insists on his own preferences, and won’t give in to another’s ideas or what God wants.
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Normally, a virtuous person will accept decisions that are not easy for him; he will accept what his boss asks him to do, even if he does not like it; and in many small matters in the course of a day, he will accede to the other person’s preferences out of humility. For a virtuous person – he will accept many things that go against his own will, because he wants to do God’s will.
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Sometimes, a virtuous person must stand up against popular opinion; if a teen finds that his friends are speaking or acting against the moral law of Christ, he will stand firm in the Truth. He will be immovable, in standing for what is right, even if the whole world is against him. They may call him stubborn, but this is not stubbornness, it is faithfulness, because he is following God. But the stubborn person holds onto his own preferences and his own will, even in silly, insignificant things.
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A stubborn person get’s his mind fixated on one way of doing things – his own way – and will listen to nothing else. He may insist that the quickest way to Franklin Park is through Bensenville, because that’s all he knows, and that’s that! Reasoning with him or showing him maps will not change his mind. Some people are so bull-headed, that even if all the evidence shows that they are wrong, they will not change their mind. The stubborn person in-effect, does not live in the real world. He has his own world; it is very simple and very clear, but it must be protected.
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And this is because he has to protect his ego; feeling insecure, he says to himself, ‘If I am not stubborn, if I give in, people will walk all over me; it will appear that I am weak, so I must never back down.’ Such obstinate persons are described as having too much ego, unwilling to be wrong; hot-tempered, self-centered, fearful of the unknown, controlling, or defensive.
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The stubborn person creates an entire world around his ego, in order to protect himself, lest he appear weak. And he therefore doesn’t trust anyone. St. John Cassian tells[i] of an ancient monk of the desert who decided that he would not eat any food unless God gave it to him in a miraculous way. As he wandered in the desert, starved with hunger, he encountered some savage people who felt sorry for him, and offered him some bread. But he was so bull-headed that he would not accept it, and instead died of starvation.
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Stubborn people are very good at making decisions; they make the decision and act, full steam ahead! They don’t wait around for advice or other ideas, and they don’t consider the possibility that they might be wrong. A bull-headed person can be a strong leader and get things done, but he might go down a wrong path, because he is not careful.
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To the stubborn person, the worst thing that could happen to him, is to appear weak. St. Thomas Aquinas says[ii] that the stubborn person is too attached to his own opinion and unwilling to give up his own will; this is due to pride, the person wants to appear to be great, and not weak, and therefore fears that any weakness might be discovered in him.
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Some people do not have the courage to be openly bull-headed, and so they have learned to get their own way by more subtle methods: doing a job begrudgingly, slowing down their work as a statement of protest, excuse-making to avoid what they don’t accept, or manipulating the situation in defiance.
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Dr. Allers, in his famous book on Psychology[iii] says (that) serious problems with obstinacy are often due to mistakes in a child’s upbringing. If a child has feelings of worthlessness or inferiority, and is not shown understanding, but is criticized, the reaction can become anti-social behavior: he sets himself against the world and doesn’t trust anyone.
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Obstinate children are generally very unhappy, and will spend their life protecting their self-esteem. If they have a choleric temperament, they will be openly bull-headed and confrontational; if their temperament is melancholic, their stubbornness will be seen by passive methods of defiance. Diaries of such children show that they are full of complaints of loneliness, thoughts of running away, and longings for affection.
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But obstinate children are easily helped. A 12 year old girl who at home was stubborn and obstinate, and who went away to a school run by some Religious Sisters – she changed completely. The first nun to meet with the girl spoke to her with affection and understanding, and that was the end of her obstinacy.
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If our co-worker or family member is stubborn and bull-headed, we might just try telling him that one of his ideas is very good, and showing him some real affection. What the stubborn person does not realize, is that if he would trust a little, and open his heart, people would not hurt him; if he would not be so insistent on his own way, and even admit sometimes that he is wrong, people would respect him more, not less.
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Stubbornness is not a natural virtue, nor a Christian virtue; it is not a virtue. But courage, perseverance, and faithfulness to God – these are virtues. Living them means dying to our own will, and embracing God’s will, especially if it is not what we prefer.
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May the Blessed Virgin intercede for us; Mary, pray for us, that despite our failings, we may become virtuous, and configure ourselves more to Jesus Christ.
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[Entrusted to the prayers of St. Thomas Aquinas]
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[i] Philokalia(1), p. 101.
[ii] Summa Theologica, Q. 132 a5, under Vainglory.
[iii] The Psychology of Character, pp. 162-170
28th Week of Ordinary Time
Beloved in Christ,
A while back, I was asked to go to a Youth Rally in order to hear confessions for the young people there. I wasn’t sure what this would be, but upon arriving, I saw that the school gym was packed, and the speaker was a young man in blue-jeans named Jason. I noticed, that the young people were totally focused on what he was saying.
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In his talk, he described a young woman who grew up in a sad household; her father had left them, life was hard. He said, this attractive young woman was asked out on a date by the captain of the football team. He told her he loved her. She heard words she had never heard. She wanted to be loved. So she got very involved with him, allowing affections to become sins. Her friends told her, as long as you are in a “committed relationship,” that’s what matters. So she gave away a gift that HE had no right to – her purity. It didn’t take long for him to lose interest, because he no longer respected her.
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She then had to find “love” again; she jumped from “committed relationship” to “committed relationship;” from boy, to boy, to boy, seeking to fill an inner sadness. Did those boys want to be her husband? No. or a father of her children? No. or her protector? No.
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The gym that day felt electrically charged: every single young person there knew EXACTLY what Jason was talking about, with a truth not found in People Magazine or Youtube or Vogue. ‘That young woman, he said, found herself in a despair. That is – until she met Jesus. Until she met the mercy of God. She went to confession and confessed it all. She learned what it means to be pure, and chaste, and self-controlled; she learned a new way to be happy. And she learned that it wasn’t too late for her.
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From then on, every weekend, when her ‘friends’ asked her to go out partying, she said ‘no;’ instead she wrote letters to her future husband. Every time she felt sad, she wrote a letter to her future husband. ‘Oh my beloved, I have done many bad things with my body and my life. But now I am saving myself for you. I am living in the Lord, because he loves me, and wants me to be happy. I know that my sexuality is made by God for love, for family, and for children. I am now waiting for you, my beloved.’ Such letters she wrote.
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From those late high school days, and into college, whenever she felt sad, she wrote a letter. Jason said, ‘eventually, she had a large stack of letters to her future husband. ‘And how do I know that,’ he asked? Because she is now my wife. And she gave them to me on our wedding night.
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Friends, our young people are under attack today with perhaps the greatest evil ever unleashed. They are in the midst of a war against goodness, against love, and against life itself. There is a mind-set almost everywhere that we call the ‘culture of death.’ It is a view that says: do whatever you want. This is freedom. Your sexuality is yours, for your fun. Before marriage – fine. Within marriage, no limits; no need for children, just have fun. And if you get pregnant, we can fix that too. We have the Plan B drug. We have abortion. We will kill your baby for you, and everything will be fine. —— No. It won’t be just fine; I have met many wounded people, and they tell me that it was not ‘just fine.’ It is a lie.
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October is Respect Life Month. The bishops ask us to speak about these subjects, we have to speak about what is going on. Last month the Holy Father, on a satellite meeting with youth, broadcast around the country – he told a young woman ‘You are courageous because you brought your daughter into the world. ‘You could have killed her in your womb,’ he said, ‘but you respected life.’ He spoke very clearly on this, but the newspapers did not report what he said. Time magazine even changed his words.
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You may have seen in the news the abortion-giant Planned Parenthood, that runs abortion clinics – they have been caught on secret video selling body parts of little babies, sitting at expensive dinners and laughing, while they negotiated the best price for a little child’s body parts, for money. This is demonic. This whole thing is demonic.
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Jesus has a totally different plan for our lives. He wants us to live a pure life, a wholesome life, and never be connected with this culture of death. In that rally I was at, Jason told those young people, when you give your body to another, you are saying: I give myself – my whole self to you. But this is meant for marriage. Without vows, without a life-long promise, this is not a giving of self, it is using another person, and this wounds countless hearts and lives.
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‘I have come, says the Lord, that you may have life. And have it more abundantly. What happens when sexual love is trivialized, and made into a recreational sport? Ask those kids in that high school gym. They know. Broken hearts. Venereal disease. Depression. Fear. Despair. These are the fruits of this culture of death. The world does not believe our kids can live in chastity and holiness – instead it tells them, here is your freedom: pills and diaphragms, and gels, and abortions and death and suicide. That’s freedom.
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NO! Our bodies are not machines to be manipulated. Our body is intimately connected to our soul, and to God. St. Paul says: “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you.” ‘And you have NOT authority over your own body, he says, but rather the husband. Whose the husband he speaks of? It’s Jesus. It is Christ who has authority over our body, our soul – he has authority over our whole selves; Jesus is Lord. We must teach this. We must live this. ‘Jesus, you are Lord of my life, let me live for you!
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Many have not protected their virginity or they have taken someone’s purity from them. You may know someone who felt panicked or trapped and had an abortion or cooperated in it. But Jesus has not given up on them. The Lord says, it is not too late. I love you. I LOVE YOU. ‘Come to me, all you who are burdened, and I will give you rest.
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That day at the gym, I heard many amazing confessions, of young people who had made mistakes, but who decided to choose Jesus and follow the path of joy. And not only them, but hundreds of people every week here in confessions at our parish on Fridays and Saturdays or when they call – many are leaving their sins behind and are choosing to follow Jesus.
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We see in the gospel today this young man who could not leave what he had, in order to follow Christ.
He could not leave it.
And then it says, ‘he went away sad.’
The ways of sin are sadness, God’s way is joy. St. Paul says: God did not give us a spirit of fear, but rather of power and love and self-control, so do not be ashamed of your testimony of our Lord.
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Some young people today are giving testimony; they are making bold promises. Promising to be virgins until marriage, or to regain their spiritual virginity until marriage. I’ve seen young men and women wearing purity rings; ‘What is that ring for?’ I ask. ‘It’s a purity ring Father, until I’m married.’ Men and women.
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Some young people are taking a stand, and they are not sad at all, but happy. It takes guts to take a stand. But that is the advantage of being a Christian.
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May the blessed Virgin help us to be great persons; Mary, pray for us to be pure and faithful and courageous, that we will be true followers of Jesus Christ.
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[Entrusted to the prayers of Mother Cabrini]
Friends in Christ, when we are born into this world, and then soon baptized, we walk in the grace of God, our soul is beautiful. But over the passing years we are subject to the wiles of the devil and the pounding temptations of this world. Over time, we can form bad habits, even vices.
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Habits of lying, gossip, theft, of greed; impure thoughts or vices, or habits of judging or of envy. If we really look into our soul, we discover weaknesses and failings that often entrap us. The saints say that inevitably we are punished for our sins; our sins lead us into trouble, or give us an embarrassingly bad reputation or make us sick over ourself; but our falls also humble us. They can make us better. Our temptations and failings are the reins by which God restrains our human arrogance.
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But we do wish to improve, and overcome our vices. St. John of Karpathos says that the devil lurks like a lion; he lays in our path hidden traps and snares in the form of temptations and bad thoughts; but if we use force against the Enemy – if we expend much effort and time in prayer, we can reach a state in which our mind is no longer troubled, and so attain the inward heaven where Jesus dwells. Prayer and effort will do this, will have us conquer.
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In the gospel today Our Lord tells us of the man who is persistent in his asking for help; he says that the man in the house will get out of bed because of this persistent asking. Each time we fall we must get up again and continue after Christ until we reach him. If we are persistent in fighting our bad habits, and ask unceasingly in prayer, we will receive gifts far beyond what we deserve.
Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
Friends in Christ, today we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. The origin of this feast goes back to 1571, when Europe was in great danger. The Muslim empire of the Turks, had captured many people, and made them slaves, and now their army was on the move again, preparing to attack Europe. These Islamic armies had already captured the island of Cyprus and smashed the religious paintings and churches there. Now, they were loading hundreds of ships with guns and canon, to begin the assault on Italy, and then the rest of Europe. The Pope had tried to warn of this danger, but people had not listened.
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Still, one brave man flew into action. His name was Don Juan. Don Juan convinced people to get boats together to defend their countries.[i] Yet this Catholic army was very small and gave little hope of victory. Nevertheless, the Holy Father called people everywhere to pray – and to pray especially, the Rosary. ‘We will call on Mary, he said. And she will save us. The Holy Father blessed the little Catholic fleet as it set off for battle against overwhelming odds; he gave each man a rosary.
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On Oct 7th as the battle drew near, the Pope spent the entire night in prayer. Priests offered Mass on each Catholic ship; all the men went to confession and received Holy Communion. For 3 hours, 65,000 sailors recited the Rosary. Then they arranged the formation of boats, into the shape of a cross. Don Juan flew a flag on his ship; a blue flag, for Mary, with a picture of Jesus on it. He went to each man with a crucifix, and said: ‘Give your life for Christ.’ Then he hung the crucifix on the front of the ship.
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At 2 o’clock in the morning they saw the massive, Turkish fleet coming. But then, an amazing thing happened: the wind, which had been against them, suddenly shifted. Now it was with them, helping them. Also, many oarsmen in the Turkish ships who were slaves – they stopped rowing. The battle raged. Don Juan’s ship gained speed, and rammed into the flagship of the Turkish commander. Sailors ran onto the ship and battled with swords and arrows for 2 hours.
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Now during this time, the Pope had been praying; abruptly, the Holy Father rose to his feat, and walked to the window; looking into the blue sky he said: we must thank God. For we have won a great victory in this hour. Truly, at that very hour, the green Moslem flag of Allah was pulled down, and the flag of Jesus Christ was raised up. The Turks had lost, and Europe was safe. The Holy Father wept for joy, and in cities all over Europe, church bells rang in thankfulness. In gratitude to our Lady, this would become a permanent Feast: The Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.
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Mary wants to give us victories in our life, not in the battles at sea, but in the storms of life. Let us then pray the Rosary daily, for our needs, and especially for Holy Mother church in these days.
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[i] He also got the Knights of Malta to help him.
Friends in Christ, today is the Feast of St. Bruno. St. Bruno was born near Cologne, Germany about 1030. As a young man, he was ordained a priest, and because of his great mind, was invited to be a professor of theology. His reputation for wisdom and intelligence spread far and wide.
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As his life become one of honor and prestige, he slowly drifted into a life of comfort and ease. One day, he found himself with some friends in a garden, speaking of the vanity and false ambitions of the world, and on the joys of eternal life. He was strongly affected by this, and they agreed then and there to forsake the world.
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They found a location in France near the alps, perfect for their needs: well into the mountains, with high craggy rocks, and covered with snow almost the whole year around. They built there a small chapel, surrounded by little cells in which to live in solitude. And so began a new religious order called the Carthusians.
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No woman nor any hunters nor fishermen were allowed to go there. The monks came together twice a day to pray, otherwise they prayed and worked in their cells.
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Blessed Peter of Cluny wrote: their dress is poorer than other monks; their clothes are so rough, that the very sight is frightening. They wear hair shirts next to their skin and fast almost perpetually. They never eat meat, but only bread, beans, and water. Water is supplied by a pipe, and food is cooked by each one in his own cell; Cheese and eggs are allowed on Sundays and Thursdays. but on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, they take only bread and water. They eat only once a day. For these hermits, they spend their time praying, reading and doing manual work.
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Now some might think that a Carthusian hermit might be melancholy, or sad, or harsh,. but St. Bruno has been described as having a real joyfulness about him.
As he died, he was surrounded by his brother monks; he made a confession publicly of his sins, and recited the Creed. St. Bruno has never been formally declared a saint – he is a saint by popular acclaim.
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The Carthusians today are the only Religious Order to have never needed reform in the Church. They have never slackened on the rule in any way after nearly 1000 years.
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We are not monks, but perhaps we can be inspired by St. Bruno, to bring some quiet time into our life, or at least 30 minutes a day, for a little ‘oasis,’ – time to speak, and listen to God.
Friends in the Lord, today, some parts of the world, especially Poland, are offering Mass in honor of a special saint: St. Faustina, and so even though she is not on our official calendar, we can remember her also.
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Her given name was Helena Kowalska, and it was on this day in 1938, that St. Faustina died in the convent of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, in Cracow, Poland. She came from a family of 10 children, a family that struggled on their farm during the terrible years of WWI. She had had only three years of a very simple education. When she was 15 years old, she quit school in order to work as a housemaid to help support her family.
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By the time she was 18, she was sure that God was calling her to religious life, but her parents objected, so she tried to put it out of her mind. But one night, while polka music was playing at a village dance, she seemed to see Jesus, sad and suffering. The next day she packed a small bag and went to the capital city of Warsaw to join the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. There she received the name Sister Mary Faustina.
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About 10 years later, she contracted tuberculosis. Soon she was too weak to manage the heavy gardening assigned to her. So she was given the job of gatekeeper. In this way, she was able to show mercy to the poor people who came to the convent looking for food.
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On February 22, 1931, Our Lord appeared to her, bringing with Him a wonderful message of Mercy for mankind. Here is what she says in her diary: “In the evening, when I was in my cell, I became aware of the Lord Jesus clothed in a white garment. One hand was raised in blessing, the other was touching the garment at the breast. From the opening of the garment there came forth two large rays, one red and the other pale. In silence I gazed at the Lord; my soul was overwhelmed with fear, but also with great joy. After a while Jesus said to me, ‘make an image according to the pattern you see, with the inscription: Jesus, I trust in You.'”
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Some time later, Our Lord told her: “The pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous; the red ray, for the Blood which is the life of souls. These two rays issued forth from the depths of My most tender Mercy; Fortunate is the one who will dwell in their shelter, for the just hand of God shall not lay hold of him.”
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Let us today remember St. Faustina, and also the message that she brings: That Jesus in his great mercy wants to forgive all our sins, and heal the wounds of our soul.
Today is the Feast of St. Jerome.
St. Jerome was born in present day Croatia about the year 345. He was very smart, and one day he met an old hermit named Malchus, who inspired him to live a life of penance; he therefore began to live in a bare cell and spent much time studying the Holy Scriptures.
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Since the common language in those days was Latin, the Pope asked Jerome to translate the scriptures into Latin. He therefore set about becoming an expert in Greek and Hebrew. He learned Hebrew from a Jewish rabbi, and then translated the scriptures into the Latin Vulgate, which remains today the official translation of the Church.
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Jerome also was very fiery and spoke his mind. When some of the clergy were not living right, he scolded them, and for this reason, he created many enemies who tried to humiliate him. They played tricks on him. For example, one time he was sleeping at a monastery, and while he slept, the others replaced his robe which was laid out, with that of a woman’s gown. When he got up early in the morning, still sleepy, he put on the woman’s gown thinking it was his own, and proceeded into the Church for prayers. His enemies had done this to make it appear that he had a woman in his room. But despite the trouble that others gave him, Jerome was not deterred.
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When we see pictures of St. Jerome, there is often a lion there, and here is the reason for this. One day a lion limped into their monastery, and in fear, the other monks ran away, but Jerome greeted the lion as a guest. The lion showed him his wounded paw, which had a thorn. He removed the thorn and applying medicine, nursed the lion back to full health. In doing so, the lion became as tame as a house pet.
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St. Jerome was an expert on the Holy Scriptures; he used to say, ‘Ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ.’ I ask young people if they can commit to reading the Sacred Scriptures for 3 minutes each day; it is a short time, but it does a lot over the years. A priest once said, ‘if at the end of the day you go to bed and turn out the light, but you realize that you have not read anything from scripture, turn on the light and read from the Sacred Book, and only then go to sleep.’
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The bones of St. Jerome are inside the main altar at St. Mary Major in Rome; the altar is supported by carved paws of a lion.
Friends in Christ, the gospel today shows us the very imperfect lives of the apostles – their failings – before they would become saints. Some were concerned with who is the greatest among them.
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St. Bede the Venerable says that after Christ took Peter, James, and John up Mt. Tabor, when they were privileged to witness his Transfiguration – after that, some of the others were jealous. Something stirred up rivalry between them, but Our Lord teaches that great disciples are humble; they make themselves servants of the rest.
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We are great if we do the unimportant things that God wants instead of chasing worldly honor and prestige. William Barclay explains that there are many wrong motives that people have. Some have a great desire for prestige. A century ago, a doctor wrote about a nurse he knew; for 20 years, she single-handedly served a 10-mile district. He says, ‘I marveled at her patience and her cheerfulness.’ She was never too tired at night to rise for an urgent call. Her salary was most inadequate; I protested to her, ‘Nurse, why don’t you make them pay you more? God knows you are worth more.’ ‘That’s all that matters to me,’ she said. What God thinks. She was working not for prestige or honors, but for God.
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Some people are concerned about holding a high position, they wish to be important, they are always climbing the ladder. Only after many years have I come to realize that some people live only for climbing to a higher position, but it is an endless climb, with no peace.
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Some people work for praise, they have to have it. They will work hard only when they are praised for their work. But what reward is there for us from God, if we work only for earthly honors, position, or praise? Then, as Christ says, we ‘already have our reward.’
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Let us then do all for God; let us live and work only for the honor and the glory of God.
Friends in Christ, today and tomorrow, the first reading is taken from the Book of the Prophet Haggai. Who is this prophet and what is he about?
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Haggai is one of the Minor Prophets, toward the end of the Old Testament. This book has only two chapters and so is one of the shortest books of the Old Testament. It was written in 520BC during the reign of Darius I of Persia, and the theme of the Book is that he is urging the people to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.
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In 587BC, the Babylonians attacked Jerusalem, killed many of the leaders, and took the people into captivity back in Babylon; this is called the Babylonian Captivity. They also destroyed the Temple, which had been built under Solomon. It was a national disaster.
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For many years the people lived in Babylon, but then the Persians conquered Babylon, and King Darius decreed that the Jews could return home. Returning to a devasted land, the people began to rebuild the temple, but because of a lack of resources they gave up.
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In 520BC, Haggai the prophet began to urge them to take heart and finish the job, which they did, completing the temple in 515BC. The importance of this to us is that God had promised that he would not abandon his people, and that a remnant would remain from the line of David. From this remnant would come the Messiah, and so Haggai saw the critical importance of urging the people not to loose heart but to keep going, because they themselves, and their true worship of the Living God would be what would one day bring salvation, in the Savior.
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He was correct. That same temple was there in the year 1, when the Messiah came down from heaven to begin his mission. But this situation, of the small remnant being the carrier of salvation through difficult and bleak times, is a theme that reoccurs again and again. I think this is where we are today. Yes, there are still millions who say they are Catholic or Christian, but the real followers of Jesus Christ who are ready to give even their life for the Lord, stand for truth and goodness against a pagan society that rejects truth and the moral law – well, I think that we have to be that remnant now, especially in the West; this is our role today in the great story of salvation.
Friends in Christ, a teacher of Scripture once said, when you come to a passage which seems – very strange – be convinced that something surprising is to be found there. Today is one of those passages that often makes us scratch our head. Jesus’ mother and brethren try to see him, they are outside of the house where he is; but our Lord stops and takes a moment to teach. He says, ‘My mother and my brethren are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.’
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Now Christ in no way is disrespecting his mother here, that would obviously be a sin – and Jesus clearly did not have any blood brothers; they probably were cousins or relatives which; in Aramaic the same word was for cousins, brothers, or relatives, and it may have come into the Greek this way. But what do the saints have to say about this passage?
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St. Ambrose says that there is a mystical meaning here. Israel under the Old Law was often symbolized as a mother of God’s people, just as we refer to Mother Church, today; St. Ambrose says, in a mystical sense, Jesus’ mother and brethren – the Jewish religion – is standing outside. He says: ‘By this symbol, Christ is saying that those who enter inside the Church, who follow him, are to be preferred to the old religion of the synagogue which is still outside.
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St. Bede the Venerable says, ‘People cannot enter in where Christ is teaching, if those people refuse to understand him spiritually. In this scene, we see that many people, surely Gentiles, have entered into the house where Jesus was teaching, because when the Jews rejected Christ, symbolized by the mother and brothers outside – when they rejected Christ, the Gentiles flocked to him.
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Those who stand outside wishing to see Christ, are they who insist on the letter of the Law rather than living the spirit of the Law. St. Jerome says the same thing: ‘His mother and brothers symbolize the synagogue and the Jewish Law, which stands outside. Although they had the power like everyone else to come in, yet they do not approach.
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Gregory the Great says, because the synagogue lost true spiritual discernment, it is not acknowledged, and remains outside. Those outside represent the Old Israel, the mother of the nation. They are free to enter into the New Israel, Mother Church. But no longer is the Old Israel the mother. To be the Lord’s true brothers and sisters and Mother, one must seek the Word of God – that is, Jesus. They must hear the Word of God, and keep it.
