"Who are my mother and my brothers?"
And looking around at those seated in the circle he said,
"Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever does the will of God
is my brother and sister and mother."
Jesus would ask his followers to love him more than their own blood relations. But we can see that he, in some way, reciprocated this love, prioritizing his relationship with his disciples and the building of the Kingdom above the natural obligations stemming from natural kinship. To us this probably has the feeling of a slight to the mother of Jesus. And it is probably a real part of the sword that Simeon said would pierce her heart. She was not just a porcelain figure but had the real and genuine emotions of a woman and a mother, one who would have delighted to share a normal life with her son. But we know that Mary was like Jesus in that she was entirely committed to God's plan. And to that end she wanted what her son wanted more than what her natural desires might have preferred. We can be confident that once she knew that it was what Jesus wanted she would have given her wholehearted assent. And knowing that she was on board would certainly have made it easier for Jesus to issue this invitation to others. Mary's humility thus opened the way for us to share her own close connection to her son. Not that she was left out or excluded on account of that. For she was the only person aside from Jesus to ever perfectly carry out the will of God in her life. She was the only one who was fully and completely a spiritual mother to Jesus, in addition to her role in giving him birth.
"Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever does the will of God
is my brother and sister and mother."
Jesus was forming a new kind of family around himself, one united by faithful obedience to his Father. He did not, we note, offer that anyone could be his Father, for there was no other who could claim that title but his Father in heaven. Yet the level of intimacy Jesus offered was no small thing. It was more, not less, than natural human relationships. And Mary wanted us to share in it as well.
Mary delights that Jesus offered that we might, however imperfectly, share her role. She will show us how it is done, by the example of her own humility which always and in everything magnifies the Lord. Therefore she becomes our own mother as well, as we learn from her how to bring Jesus to birth in our lives and in our world.
Then David, girt with a linen apron,
came dancing before the LORD with abandon,
as he and all the house of Israel were bringing up the ark of the LORD
with shouts of joy and to the sound of the horn.
If David could dance with abandon before an ark that was only a symbol of Mary, the true ark of the new covenant, then how much joy ought we to have in her presence? We too become arks, in a lesser way, when we receive Jesus in the Eucharist. And so this is we can and should look to Mary to learn. Then we too can be a cause of joy for others, and an invitation to join the family of Jesus.
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