Posted by The WORD in other words (2018) by Fr Karl Heinz-Peschke SVD – Vienna, Austria
Tuesday 3rd Week in Ordinary Time
Jesus lays out the conditions of true kinship in the reign of God. He is surrounded in a house by people who listen to his words. His mother and close relatives come to see him. So his relatives call him out. But Jesus refuses to go out. Who belongs to the true kinship of his kingdom, Jesus asks?
They are those who listen to his words and are bound together by the common faith in his gospel, but who also do the will of God, such as it is contained in the gospel he preaches. Be it noted that no doubt his mother had that living faith in her heart, as requested by Jesus.
Acts 1,14 notes that among the apostles and disciples gathered at Pentecost in common prayer for the Holy Spirit in the upper room in Jerusalem his brothers were also present; i. e. they had come to believe in him as well.
The gospel then also urges us to have true kinship with Jesus through a living faith in him and in his words. We are called to listen to the word of God, as handed down by Jesus.
Likewise are called to do the will of God. A living faith becomes clear in the obedience to God’s will. We come to know the will of God through the gospel of Jesus. The word of God addresses us also in our hearts and in the guidance of the Holy Spirit, words and inspirations which call for our “obedience of faith” (Rom 1,5; 16,26).
Faith in its deepest root is the obedient surrender to God’s will.
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