The mother of Jesus and his brothers came to him
but were unable to join him because of the crowd.
There was a crowd because Jesus was proclaiming the kingdom of God and performing signs and wonders. It is part of life for everyone that we must sometimes choose between different goods. We can't have everything all at once in a life bound by time, navigated by free will. This means that we will sometimes need to choose between even the greatest natural goods such as the family and supernatural goods such as the kingdom. Jesus made it clear which we ought to prefer.
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me (see Matthew 10:37).
There was nothing lacking in the love Jesus demonstrated to his mother. It would have been inappropriate to interrupt the work his Father had put him on earth to do for a conversation or a family meal. He wasn't rejecting his filial duties to his earthly relatives. He was demonstrating the precedence of his higher duties.
He said to them in reply, “My mother and my brothers
are those who hear the word of God and act on it.”
We know that his biological mother was exactly such a person. She heard the word proclaimed by Gabriel the archangel and gave her fiat in response. Then she lived her entire life as an embodiment of that commitment. Because she was also the mother of Jesus in this second supernatural sense she would have been on the same page as him with regard to his duty to the kingdom and to the will of his Father. It might have been one of her sorrows that the fallen state of the world made it necessary that they couldn't spend more time together during their life on earth. But she was blessed along with those others who mourn because she would be so closely united to him in heaven for all eternity.
All the ways of a man may be right in his own eyes,
but it is the LORD who proves hearts.
It is often the case for us that we become overly certain of ourselves, convinced that what we will is also the will of God. Sometimes we have to learn whether or not what is in our hearts is true. The Lord makes the circumstances of our lives conspire to help us internalize such truths. This means that discernment in advance isn't always enough, since we are capable of fooling ourselves. But living with fidelity will eventually bring the truth to light.
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