Daily Reflection – Jan 23, 2016
Saturday 23 January 2016
First Reading: 2 Samuel 1:1-4, 11-12, 17, 19, 23-27
Responsorial Psalm:
Let us see your face, Lord, and we shall be saved
Psalm 79(80):2-3, 5-7
Gospel Reading: Mark 3:20-21
Today’s Note: Saturday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time
Gospel Reading:
Jesus came with his disciples into the house.
Again the crowd gathered,
making it impossible for them even to eat.
When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him,
for they said, “He is out of his mind.”
Reflection:
His relatives were convinced he was out of his mind.
In his grief over the death of Saul and Jonathan, David tears his clothes and repeats three times: How the mighty have fallen! Of Jonathan, “beloved and lovely,” he
proclaims in his distress: “My brother Jonathan, greatly beloved were you to me; your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.” This is a statement about profound and tender friendship, not homosexuality. Jonathan is his brother. Jesus in the gospel will say that all of us who are disciples are his brothers and sisters and even his mother. We will not get part two of this passage (Mark 3: 31) however, because Sunday and so many feasts disrupt the continuous reading. All we hear is that Jesus’ family comes to restrain him because people were saying he was out of his mind.
Families who love one another are always concerned about its members. Why on earth did Jesus leave a perfectly good carpentry business to wander the highways and by-ways of Palestine? Families do odd things, but we have to love enough let go. Who knows, God may have other plans for them. But we still care about them, and hearing of dangers in places where we think they may be we still hasten to check on their well-being.
Suppose we never heard part two, when Jesus points to those who are listening and says they are his new family. If you were Jesus, how would you feel to be so outcast, mistrusted by your own? If you were his family, his mother, how would you feel about his reputation? How are your own family relationships? Any that need reconciliation? Any that need new respect? The role for Jesus was the most wide-ranging mission ever envisioned. Pray for your blood family and all your friends who are sister and brother to you.
The Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness and often the Spirit drives us to wider horizons. Lord, help me allow those I love to move to where they feel drawn; places where, maybe, I dare not and cannot go. Thank you for giving us friends, loving God. Deepen our relationships with those close to us, and open our hearts, softened, to all disciples and to all your children.
