10th Sunday in Ordinary Time: The New Family of God

It is always a wonderful sight when families pray the novena and attend the Eucharist together in the National Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help here in Baclaran.  After the novena and mass, some of them would ask the blessing of the celebrant of the novena or mass. Others sit in the shrine benches outside or under the trees to have a picnic. Others go to the restaurants and eateries around the shrine for a family meal together.

In the gospel today, Jesus preach the good news of God’s kingdom (Mark 3: 20 – 35). In God’s kingdom, Jesus will gather a new family under God the Father. Membership in this family of God will be based not on family ties but on following and doing the will of God.      Membership in this family of God goes beyond blood, race, color, culture and religion.

In today’s gospel Jesus was persecuted and falsely accused by the scribes and pharisees, thus, his mother and brothers were concerned about his welfare. So they went out to Jesus who was in the country preaching the gospel to the people. Surrounded by a crowd while Jesus was preaching, the word was passed on to Jesus: “Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you” (Mark 3: 32). Jesus’ response was “Who are my mother and my brothers? (Mark 3: 33)”

In a commentary on this gospel scene, prominent American scripture scholar Raymond Brown commented that Jesus’ response raises the issue of who really constitute his family now that the Kingdom of God is being proclaimed. As his natural family stands outside, Jesus looks at those inside and proclaims, “Here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God is brother and sister and mother to me” (Mark 3: 34).^[1] Jesus’ response to the crowd is consistent with his other words to those wishing to follow him as he continues to proclaim the Kingdom of God:

Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters
or mother or father or children or fields,
for my sake and
for the sake of the good news,
who will not receive a hundredfold
now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields,
with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life (Mark 10: 29 – 30).

This scene where Jesus praised a family of disciples that is obedient to God at the expense of his own natural family, may not incline readers to develop devotion to Mary as many non-Catholics do. Yet, in this scene Jesus subtly highlights the fact that Mary was the first one who obeyed the will of God. She is the model and first member of the new family of God that Jesus preached. The belongingness to the new family of God is modeled after the fiat of Mary and her life of discipleship in Jesus.

This is what is happening in the Baclaran shrine; the shrine is the gathering of the new family of God with Mary, Our Mother of Perpetual Help as their model. The thousands of devotees, coming from different families, gathered as one big family in the shrine to hear and live out the word of God.  They are the new family of God united in following Jesus, moved by the Spirit, journeying towards the Father despite differences in blood, culture, language, race, color, status and gender.

The gospel today points us to the higher mission of the family. Families are inherently missional, that is, they participate in God’s mission to transform the world. The family participates in God’s mission of building a new family based on living out the will and values of God’s kingdom. Understanding families this way implies conversion, a change of thinking about the family. Rather than viewing families as a training ground for individual glorification, families are communities of formation for the Kingdom of God in service to the world.

[1] Raymond E. Brown, J.A. Fitzmyer, and K.P. Donfried (eds), Mary in the New Testament (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1978), 52 – 53.

I am passionate about the intersection between new media and technology. I continue to research and apply new media in theology and vice-versa. I am also a fan of Our Mother of Perpetual Help and her continuing relevance in today's digital world.
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