Homily for Tuesday, 24 July 2018– Ferial

Tuesday of the 16th Week in Ordinary Time


Optional Memorial of St. Sharbel Makhluf

Readings of the day: Micah 7:14-15, 18-20; Psalm 85:2-4, 5-6, 7-8; Matthew 12:46-50

This homily was given at the Kateri House Women's Residence Chapel at St. Joseph's College, Edmonton, AB, Canada.

“Who is my mother, and who are my brothers” and sisters?

Do any of us sometimes wonder with what tone Jesus asked questions like this one, which we hear from Matthew’s Gospel today? Of course, I believe that Jesus was sinless, although he was like us in his humanity in every other way but sin. And yet we know from other passages in the Gospels that Jesus experienced anger and irritation from time to time, whether at the religious and social leaders of his time, his own disciples, or even, at one point if I remember correctly, an apparently innocent fig tree! Anger and irritation are emotions we all experience if we are truly human. They are not in themselves sinful; how we deal with our anger, irritation, or other intense emotions we would usually rather not feel, and may be right or may be sinful, especially if how we act on our anger is destructive of other people and relationships.

Still, can we not imagine Jesus, in today’s Gospel, tired after a long journey; tired of the heat of the Holy Land; tired of the crowds asking him the same question ten times and not listening to his answer? At this point, imagine somebody interrupting Jesus yet again to remind him that his relatives have arrived and want “to speak to him.”

How would Jesus have responded to this latest interruption? We know that, however he would have responded, he would not have sinned. But, short of sinning, might Jesus have allowed himself a rhetorical question with just a slight edginess, in response to the endless interruptions and fatigue?

I imagine Jesus’ rhetorical question, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers,” as having some bite to it, especially since he goes on to answer his own question… sort of: “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

Would Jesus’ relatives, who had been waiting to speak with him, been annoyed that he had essentially ignored them, only to extend the notion of father, mother, brother, and sister beyond blood relationship?

What would the great crowds have thought at hearing Jesus’ mild irritation behind his words? Would they have been irritated in turn at Jesus for not quite answering their question? Can we not almost hear somebody in the crowd say, “Lord, but how exactly do we do God’s will enough to be considered an extension of your family”?

This, I think, would have been an excellent question, one I would perhaps have asked Jesus if I had been in the crowd that day. Yet I think this question of how we are to do God’s will, and so be considered mothers, brothers, and sisters of the Lord, is fleshed out in our other readings and in the lived example of St. Sharbel Makhluf, whose feast we celebrate today.

The prophet Micah speaks in our first reading of the great compassion, forgiveness, and faithfulness to the covenant relationship with Jacob-Israel. Our Psalm speaks of God’s surpassing “mercy and love.” St. Sharbel once said, “When placed on a scale, God’s mercy prevails over the weight of the mountains.”

Mercy, my sisters and brothers in Christ, moves mountains. In showing one another mercy, forgiveness, faithfulness, and loving kindness, we become the Lord’s and one another’s mothers, brothers, and sisters.