TODAY'S WORD
By
Fr. Aloysius Santiago sdb
Rector and Parish Priest
Don Bosco Shrine
Lingarajapuram, Bangalore
Mark: 3:20-21 "and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. When His family heard it, they went out to restrain Him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of His mind.”
TODAY'S REFLECTION
This very short gospel reading from Mark gives us a little glimpse of how Jesus was misunderstood within his own family.
Jesus is busily engaged in his ministry and his family come down from Nazareth to Capernaum to take charge of him because they believe he is out of his mind.
A few chapters later in Mark’s gospel Jesus is rejected in his home town of Nazareth and in response to that experience Jesus says, ‘Prophets are not without honour, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house’.
Jesus was taking a path in life that his family did not approve of.
Tension within families is something we have all experienced at some time or other.
This was a dimension of human living that Jesus also experienced.
He entered fully into the human condition, knowing from within its struggles, its tensions, its misunderstandings and the resulting pain for all concerned.
He can walk compassionately with us through those experiences because he has been there himself.
Jesus did not always go where his family wanted him to go because he was subject to a greater authority in his life, and that was God’s authority.
God’s purpose drove him and he was faithful to that purpose even when it brought him into conflict with those for whom he had the strongest feelings of natural affection.
We, his followers, are called to remain true to the Lord’s direction, his guidance, his vision and values, even if that means for us what it meant for him, finding ourselves at odds with those who are nearest and dearest to us.
RESOLUTION
Let us resolve to follow him in spite of challenges that we may have to face within our family circles.
HAVE AN AWESOME DAY AND A FABULOUS WEEKEND.