Being related to the Messiah would be, by our criteria, an incomparable honour. But, for the Son of God, doing the will of the heavenly Father is more important than being part of His human genealogy.
Gospel of Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
20 Jesus came home with His disciples. Again the crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat. 21 When His relatives heard of this they set out to seize Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind.” 22 The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebub,” and “By the prince of demons He drives out demons.” 23 Summoning them, He began to speak to them in parables, “How can satan drive out satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand; that is the end of him. 27 But no one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder the house. 28 Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. 29 But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.” 30 For they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”
31 His Mother and His brothers arrived. Standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him. 32 A crowd seated around Him told Him, “Your Mother and your brothers and your sisters are outside asking for You.” 33 But He said to them in reply, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” 34 And looking around at those seated in the circle He said, “Here are My mother and My brothers. 35 For whoever does the will of God is My brother and sister and mother” (Mk 3:20-35).
I – The Secrets of Jesus’ Hidden Life
In meditating on the mysteries of the life of Our Lord, our imagination is particularly stirred when we reflect on the quiet years spent in Nazareth, contemplating the paths that He travelled on so many occasions; the landscape framed by Mount Tabor with the plain stretching to the sea which He looked upon so many times; that house in which He dwelt after His return from Egypt, so modest, yet imbued with such a supernatural presence… There, He lived in an atmosphere of poverty and anonymity, but also of grandeur; of love, of peace, of gentle repose and of hard work. There, He “increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favour with God and man” (Lk 2:52), being prepared, by divine action, for His great mission.
A veil hid Jesus from the eyes of His own
How could the God-Man have gone unnoticed in Nazareth? How did relatives, neighbours, and friends fail to glimpse the divinity in Jesus? How did they not see Him at least as the Messiah? The lofty wisdom of the divine plan demanded that Our Lord spend the long space of thirty years without distinguishing Himself, in the eyes of His own, from a common youth: honouring work, extolling humility, and giving us an example in everything. It was the desire of Providence to confer – in addition to the utmost glory to the Son of God Incarnate – greater merit to the Blessed Virgin, and to submit those with whom He lived to a test: that of the effort and sensitivity of attention to discover that Jesus had something more important than any other man. Accordingly, God cast a veil over His human qualities and over His divine nature.
But He awakened admiration
There were, undoubtedly, those who corresponded to this invitation. If He astounded the doctors in the Temple, at 12 years of age, would He not have awakened admiration among those who knew Him? It is inconceivable that some childhood companions, relatives who had been raised with Him, or adults who were close to Our Lady and St. Joseph, failed to lift this veil a little and to ascertain His identity to some degree. For these individuals – some more and others less – , Jesus likely permitted reflections of His mysterious divinity, incomprehensible to human reason, to shine through.
How different it would have been for those – undoubtedly the majority – who through infidelity considered Jesus to be merely one like them, “the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon” (Mk 6:3). Assueta vilescunt… Human nature, unfortunately, becomes accustomed to everything, and even the extraordinary becomes vulgarized by routine.
What would have been the reactions of each of these groups when the time arrived for Our Lord to leave Nazareth to begin His public life? It was the God-Man who hearkened to the lament of history and opened His arms to lovingly embrace the miseries – not just of those people, but of all humanity. In face of this great manifestation of benevolence, we see how crucial it was for the relatives and those close to Jesus of Nazareth to have passed the test that God sent them. The Gospel for the Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time carries a valuable teaching for all of us.
II – Seeing Only the Son of Man in the Son of God
20a Jesus came home with His disciples.
When the Divine Master “came home” with His disciples, from where was He coming? From the mountain, after having chosen the Twelve Apostles (cf. Mk 3:13-19). In order to fully persuade them of their new situation and the responsibility inherent to their election as Apostles, Jesus has them note the change that has occurred in their lives through contact with the public: “The Lord brings home the Apostles whom He chose on the mountain, to point out to them that, after having received the dignity of the apostolate, they should be conscious of their mission.” 1
Jesus was in Capernaum, probably at the house in which He had cured Peter’s mother-in-law (cf. Mk 1:29-31; Lk 4:38-39). It was a well-known place due to all the miracles performed there, and, accordingly, the people started to gather there before sunrise, hoping to see the Messiah.
Evangelizing demands forgetting oneself
20b Again the crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat.
Unlike today, meals were taken, at that time, in an open-door setting. This was a logical arrangement, since mealtimes are conducive to conversation and social interaction. Our Lord also complied with this custom, as at the banquet in the house of Simon the Pharisee, during which a repentant sinner entered and washed His feet with her tears (cf. Lk 7:36-38).
In the episode narrated here, Jesus is with a multitude that is eager to be in His company and to absorb His teachings, for they esteemed Him and were filled with awe at His presence. Some, however, had come for egoistic reasons, strictly interested in obtaining a cure from illness or some other benefit. Consequently, although open doors were the custom, such a commotion and confluence of people was entirely unusual, packing the room right up to the divan upon which Jesus was having His meal. We can imagine Jesus extending His hand to take a cluster of grapes, and a blind man coming forward and impetuously touching His arm, immediately regaining his sight, followed by a deaf man, begging to have his hearing restored… In this way, the number of sick people entering and leaving the room prevented the Master and His disciples from eating. On that occasion, the Apostles were experiencing the responsibility that had been entrusted to them on the mountaintop.
The egoist considers Wisdom to be foolish
21 When His relatives heard of this they set out to seize Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind.”
The signs and the speech of the Redeemer had spread His fame throughout the region, and, as can be expected, rumours soon began to circulate, some of them inaccurate and exaggerated in the extreme. In the context of these circumstances, this verse relates a dramatic occurrence: some of Jesus’ relatives – those who had altogether failed to see His grandeur – began to take Him for a madman. In those days, family ties were very strong, a wholesome characteristic that has been lost today. Well-balanced and united families were such close-knit units that the conduct of one member affected the whole. The joy and honour of being a close relative of the Messiah was incalculable! Yet, some grouped together to talk about what was being said of Him, His doctrine and miracles. They had seen Him grow up in Nazareth where He had not attended the school of any master, and suddenly they received news that His preaching was drawing multitudes. Where had He acquired this knowledge? Since they did not understand what was happening, they turned against Him. Perhaps they considered Him far-fetched and feared that He would stain the family name. They were even afraid of an unfavourable fallout with authorities were He to be taken as a rebel – something that would in fact later occur. Revolutionaries had previously arisen, who had attempted – and failed – to lead a movement to free Israel from the Roman yoke and its taxes. These relatives may have thought that this was also Jesus’ aim. And, despite His many prodigies, He was destined to failure because of a lack of resources. Essentially, as He opposed worldly ways and had undertaken a mission that utterly defied the norm, they did not accept Him and resolved to treat Him as a madman.
It is curious, on the other hand, that these same relatives who now sought to distance Him from the apostolate, considering it detrimental to their reputation, would later, in light of Our Lord’s success, ask Him to manifest Himself in Judea (cf. Jn 7:3-5), certainly so that the high priest and the Sanhedrin would acknowledge the importance of the family who numbered such a wonderworker prophet among its ranks. With Jesus ascending the social ladder, His kin would rise with Him… That He had not been admired by the majority in His own city, Nazareth, is already difficult to comprehend. But that He be rejected in spite of the wonders that marked the outset of His public life is unimaginable! “He came to His own home, and His own people received Him not” (Jn 1:11)…
Those who oppose the world are often misunderstood and can be rejected and persecuted even by their family, when the latter wants its members for its own sake rather than for God, from whom they came and to whom they should be returned… This amounts to an unjust appropriation of what belongs to the Creator. Vocation signifies a divine seal claiming what is, de iure, His. Accordingly, the curse reserved for parents who deter their children from a religious calling is among the direst on the face of the earth! To rob from the poor incurs a lesser punishment than to snatch from God a person whom He has chosen for His service. History is replete with examples! The father of the great St. Francis of Assisi, for example, Peter Bernardone, went so far as to disown his son and remove all of his possessions, including the very clothes on his back, in an act of rejection of his son’s virtuous life. And the mother and brothers of St. Thomas Aquinas imprisoned him in a tower, to prevent him from becoming a Dominican friar. This is the problem of the family not built on love of God, whose members seek to remove Him from His rightful throne, so that events revolve around each individual.
The affection of Our Lord’s relatives for Him is typically egoistic; it can be concluded that all egoists are kin to those relatives of Jesus. Like them, we too will consider the works of God to be madness and the demands of the Faith exaggerated, if we always strive to put ourselves in the centre. This Liturgy contains an important lesson: we should shun this foolish attitude by carefully avoiding praise and the desire to call attention to ourselves so as to have others adore us. Let us forget ourselves so that our lives may revolve around God’s glory!
A contradictory accusation stemming from envy
22 The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebub,” and “By the prince of demons He drives out demons.”
Men without faith, the teachers of the Law mentioned in this verse were incapable of comprehending who Jesus was. He expelled demons, cured all kinds of diseases and raised the dead to life, provoking envy in them, for they would have wished to have the same power. Seeing as they did not possess it, they feared losing their privileged position in that society. They began, therefore, with overt ill will, to attribute the Saviour’s dominion over the devils to an alliance with Beelzebub.
Jesus derides His enemies
23 Summoning them, He began to speak to them in parables, “How can satan drive out satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand; that is the end of him.”
The response of Our Lord served to show that the accusation levelled against Him was utterly groundless. If two armies engage in battle, will the general of one side order his soldiers to fight against his own comrades on the battlefield? This would mean sure defeat! If Jesus were truly expelling demons by Beelzebub, this would signify that hell was in “civil war”, and consequently, that the devils would soon destroy themselves. When, for example, a city’s inhabitants are at loggerheads, the external enemy can dispense with sending men of arms to attack them, for they will end up wiping themselves out. Any strategist would simply allow these internal battles to run their course and only step in afterwards to vanquish the survivors. Therefore, the Sanhedrin need not worry, for the entire work of Our Lord would soon founder. What was the cause of their concern? As St. John Chrysostom says: “Do you see how outlandish is the accusation, how great the folly, the inconsistency? For it is contradictory to say that He stands and casts out demons, and then to add that He stands precisely by that which likely would be the cause of His undoing.” 2
27 “But no one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder the house.”
This image further illustrated the incoherence of the teachers of the Law, for obviously, in order to rob a house the owner must first be immobilized. Was it plausible, then, that, as the scribes and Pharisees said, Jesus drove out evil spirits by the power of Beelzebub, their prince, and in connivance with him, devastated his subordinates? Chrysostom goes on to observe: “See how the Lord proves the contrary of what His enemies attempted to establish. […] He, with all authority, bound up not only the demons, but also their very chief leader.” 3 Once again, the Divine Master unmasks His adversaries with a simple parable.
Gravity of the sin against the Holy Spirit
28 “Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. 29 But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.” 30 For they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”
Our Lord’s argument becomes graver when He adds that in making this accusation, they fall into the sin against the Holy Spirit, for which there is no pardon. But since Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, how can there be unpardonable faults?
The first requisite for obtaining pardon is that God, being offended, desires to grant it. This indeed He does desires, for His hands are continually extended to welcome us. But another essential condition for being absolved is acknowledgement of error, followed by sorrow for having committed it, for without this, acknowledgement loses its meaning. Final impenitence “removes those things which are a means towards the pardon of sin,” 4 and the sinner essentially ends up attributing his fault to God Himself. This attitude is “the blasphemy of the Spirit, which shall not be forgiven, neither in this world, nor in the world to come. […] When the patience of God leads him to repentance, after his hardness and impenitent heart [the sinner] stores up unto himself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous Judgement of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds.” 5
Should these scribes and Pharisees, whose wickedness had reached such an extreme, be pardoned? After having witnessed the cure of the blind, lepers and paralytics, and the expulsion of fearsome demons – works which were unarguably messianic –, they denied the known truth and seethed with hatred and the desire to kill Jesus, declaring that His activity was motivated by the prince of darkness. And despite having been defeated in all the traps they laid for the Divine Master, they did not admit their error, but maintained that they were in the right, falling into impenitence and obstinacy. Finally, they perfidiously rejected the charisms of Our Lord, the action of the Holy Spirit through His most holy humanity and, out of envy of fraternal grace, scorned the benefits that He dispensed in torrents wherever He went.
We must be entirely docile to the action of the Holy Spirit avoiding even the shadow of envy. Accordingly, benefits granted to others should gladden us, “so that the grace bestowed in abundance upon more and more people may cause the thanksgiving to overflow for the glory of God” (2 Cor 4:15), as St. Paul teaches in the second reading (2 Cor 4:13-18 – 5:1). Whether the Lord gives us little or much depends on His designs. What is important is that each person receives all that is destined by God for His greater glory. If we notice that someone has either a natural or a supernatural gift that we lack, and if we admire God’s work in that soul, we will progress in the spiritual life. If, on the contrary, we act like those relatives of Jesus or the Pharisees, we will fall as they did.
Mary arrives to confront the relatives
31 His Mother and His brothers arrived. Standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him. 32A crowd seated around Him told Him, “Your Mother and your brothers and your sisters are outside asking for You.”
Some Church Fathers comment that Our Lady knew that some people were plotting to harm Jesus, and that She arrived to confront them: “Because the relations of the Lord had come to seize Him, judging Him to be out of His mind, His Mother, urged by the sympathy of her love, came to Him.” 6 This beautiful interpretation shows the combativeness of Mary, an oft-forgotten aspect. She was accompanied by “brothers,” a term which, in biblical language, designates kinfolk in general, such as cousins and uncles.
The tightly packed human barrier surrounding Our Lord prevented Our Lady and her companions from entering the house and getting close to Him. Those present, in keeping with the deep-rooted familial concept of the time which gave great pre-eminence to motherhood, duly informed Jesus of His Mother’s arrival, naturally assuming that He would interrupt the preaching to receive her.
Supernatural bonds are stronger than blood ties
33 But He said to them in reply, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” 34 And looking around at those seated in the circle He said, “Here are My mother and My brothers. 35For whoever does the will of God is My brother and sister and mother.”
Christ, however, used the occasion to counteract the Jewish people’s tendency toward excessive esteem of family. Had He stood up and gone out to meet His Mother and His relatives, He would have supported and solidified this excessive concern… Instead, His reply emphasized the superiority of spiritual relationships over natural ones. These people valued blood ties so highly! Such ties undoubtedly have their importance, but they are not what is most essential, and they only have meaning when considered in light of God. While human kinship encompasses a small number of members, supernatural kinship includes brethren as numerous “as the stars of Heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore” (Gn 22:17). The beautiful principle of St. Thomas applies: “Spiritual goods can be possessed by many at the same time; not so material goods.” 7
The Son of God came precisely to make us participants of His family, His brothers and His children, bound to Him by ties much closer than those of blood. “For there is only one nobility, to do the will of God. This sort of lineage is better than that of the flesh, and more real.” 8 Accordingly, the Divine Master sought out the most fervent souls, that is, those who were avid to come to Him, who desired to hear Him and to be instructed by Him – those who were disposed to accept and embrace His teachings, and He affirmed: “Here are My mother and My brothers. For whoever does the will of God is My brother and sister and mother.” Our gratitude toward God should be incomparably greater than toward any person on earth, however much we may owe them; we ought to abandon ourselves in His hands and obey Him, for He created us. He sent His Son to redeem us, so that we would have life – the very life of God! – and have it in abundance (cf. Jn 10:10).
Accordingly, when the Child Jesus, at 12 years of age, was found in the Temple after three days of search by Our Lady and St. Joseph in the Temple, listening to and questioning the Doctors of the Law, He declared: “Did you not know that I must be in My Father’s house?” (Lk 2:49). His words remind us that our primary filiation is divine, and that blood relations are on a secondary plane. When a child is conceived, it is totally dependent on its parents; as it grows up, it is still helped, guided, and governed by them, until becoming independent. In the supernatural field, the opposite occurs: from birth, that is, Baptism, the relationship with God and dependence on Him increases and attains its apex when the soul attains beatific vision. There, it is fixed in a state of entire familiarity with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Superlative praise of His Most Holy Mother
Far from deriding Our Lady – which would be unthinkable! –, Jesus addresses words of superlative praise to her, affirming that she was more His Mother for doing God’s will than for having transmitted human life to Him. “He does not say this, therefore, to deny His mother, but to show that she is worthy of honour, not only because she bore Christ, but on account of her possessing every other virtue.” 9 During the thirty years that she lived with her Son, Mary fulfilled His will perfectly, keeping everything in her heart (cf. Lk 2:51). Because she believed that Jesus is the Truth, the Blessed Virgin – unlike those who took Him for a madman – maintained a posture of submission to Him, even concerning things that she did not understand.
III – Let Us Be Relatives of Jesus, Just as Mary and Joseph Were
Today’s Liturgy is of fundamental importance in having us understand the value of this “spiritual kinship” with Our Lord Jesus Christ, which we must never renounce. How frequently, alas, we commit faults by acting egoistically, placing ourselves in the centre! Doing the will of God means being upright and honourable from every point of view, like the Mother of Jesus.
We must, then, admit to our weakness, knowing that, as the Divine Master teaches, what defiles a man comes from within (cf. Mk 7:21-23). In fact, we should be surprised at ourselves when we practise a good act, and acknowledge that this comes from the spiritual sonship that He has granted us through grace. Had the Pharisees perceived the wretchedness that stained their interior, perhaps they would have turned to Our Lord with unpretentiousness and opened their souls to salvation. Heaven holds not only innocent souls, but also St. Dimas – the good thief, canonized by the Redeemer while still alive (cf. Lk 23:43) –, St. Augustine, St. Mary Magdalene… and so many others who confessed their guilt and were pardoned. Conversely, all the sinners who persisted in error out of pride are suffering in hell. This is the great problem of fallen human nature.
Let us ask the Blessed Virgin for the precious gift of humility, so that the doors of eternal blessedness will be opened to us and we may reach the plenitude of familial intimacy with Our Lord Jesus Christ! ◊
