The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to remember the people in our lives who by their actions have been encounters for us with the brothers and sisters of Jesus.
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| Among the brothers and sisters |
The reading from the Prophet Micah reveals God’s compassion and steadfast Love.
* [7:18–20] The final lines of the book contain a hymn of praise for the incomparable God, who pardons sin and delights in mercy. Thus the remnant, those left after the exile, is confident in God’s compassion and in the ancient promises sworn to the ancestors.1
Psalm 85 is a prayer for the restoration of God’s favour.
* [Psalm 85] A national lament reminding God of past favors and forgiveness (Ps 85:2–4) and begging for forgiveness and grace now (Ps 85:5–8). A speaker represents the people who wait humbly with open hearts (Ps 85:9–10): God will be active on their behalf (Ps 85:11–13). The situation suggests the conditions of Judea during the early postexilic period, the fifth century B.C.; the thoughts are similar to those of postexilic prophets (Hg 1:5–11; 2:6–9).2
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus identifies His true kindred.
* [12:46–50] See Mk 3:31–35. Matthew has omitted Mk 3:20–21 which is taken up in Mk 3:31 (see note on Mt 12:22–32), yet the point of the story is the same in both gospels: natural kinship with Jesus counts for nothing; only one who does the will of his heavenly Father belongs to his true family.3
Eileen Wirth is meditating on this passage at a time when many of us are reflecting uncomfortably on racial and status privileges we have taken for granted.
We don’t have to yell “white power” from a golf cart to be guilty of excluding others from our kinship. Those of us who were lucky enough to assume we would get an education tend to forget that not everyone came from families who could give their kids this kind of leg up in life… Jesus doesn’t ask us how many years we went to school, how much money we make or what neighborhood we live in. He only cares if we have been kind and if we look up to our moral superiors like the “Hey baby” employee.4
Don Schwager quotes “My mother through faith,” by Gregory the Great (540-604 AD).
"If someone can become the brother of the Lord by coming to faith, we must ask how one can become also his mother. We must realize that the one who is Christ's brother and sister by believing becomes his mother by preaching. It is as though one brings forth the Lord and infuses him in the hearts of one's listeners. And that person becomes his mother if through one's voice the love of the Lord is generated in the mind of his neighbor. (excerpt from FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 3.2)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Micah 7:14-15, 18-20 notes that Micah used Gilead and Bashan as images of the peace and restoration that God wanted to give his people after they had finished atoning for their unbelief and evil. He trusted that God would treat his people so gently and mercifully because he was convinced of God’s faithfulness to his promises.
That’s a good perspective to take as you intercede for your family or friends. However difficult things might seem, God still wants to bring you and the people you’re praying for to a place of peace and safety, a place of abundance and bounty. You can count on it.
“Lord, I place all my hope in you. I believe that you are leading me to goodness beyond my imagining.”6
Friar Jude Winkler describes the restoration of the people of Israel as the sins of the past are cast to the bottom of the sea. In Aramaic, “brothers” is a term extended to cousins in the family. Friar Jude reminds us of the generosity of Jesus in forgetting our sins.
Cynthia Bourgeault observes that all four gospels insist that when all the other disciples are fleeing, Mary Magdalene stands firm. She does not run; she does not betray or lie about her commitment; she witnesses. Hers is clearly a demonstration of either the deepest human love or the highest spiritual understanding of what Jesus was teaching, perhaps both. But why, one wonders, do the Holy Week liturgies tell and retell the story of Peter’s threefold denial of Jesus, while the steady, unwavering witness of Magdalene is not even noticed?
Fr. Richard asks us to hold Cynthia’s questions in our minds and hearts that they might stir us to “epiphanies” of our own on the nature of steadfast love. Mary Magdalene’s love for Jesus shows what it means to have one person hold fast to us in our hour of need, despite the apparent hopelessness of it all.7
The Will of God that we are people of love is lived out in faithfulness and forgiveness.
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