A family hear and act on the Word of God

The WORD in other words (2009) by Fr Noel Rebancos SVD – Divine Word College of Legazpi

Tuesday 25th Week in Ordinary Time

When I left the Philippines for my foreign mission assignment in 1980, it took me sometime to assimilate the fact that I had to leave my family behind. What consoled me was the thought that after five years I would be seeing my family again when I go for my home vacation. As time went by, new acquaintances and friendships with wonderful people flourished. Gradually I discovered new relationships characteristically familiar. New found-families were born. They did not replace my family back in the Philippines, on the contrary, they became my extended family away from home. 

Today’s Gospel also talks about family, the family of Jesus. His family consists of his mother and his brothers who hear the word of God and act on it. Looking this episode in the Gospel on the surface, one gets the impression that Jesus is denying any importance to his blood relatives, especially his relationship to his mother Mary. But going deeper into the text, one realizes that what Jesus does is to elevate the family by blood into a larger and stronger family by faith. Jesus calls his mother and brothers those who are open to God’s Word and put it into life.

The idea of family is given a new dimension. From now on, one can belong to the family of the Lord where the familial bond is constituted by fidelity to the Word of God. Hence, there is much reason to place Mary as belonging to the family of the Lord for her acceptance of the Word proclaimed by the angel Gabriel which occasioned the birth of the Son of God. Mary became then the first hearer and doer of the Word. The Church seen as the Family of Christ actually echoes Lk 8, 19-21. The Church is family not in the sense that we can be familiar with the Lord, but in the sense that all those who consider themselves part of it habitually hear and act on the Word of God.

We must then be very lucky for God has not only given us family by blood relationship but also a stronger, eternal family by listening and practicing the Word of God. Now we can also say that the family that reads together the Word of God and puts it into deed is definitely the family that stays together.