Gospel:
Luke 8:19-21
The
mother of Jesus and his brothers came to him but were unable to join him
because of the crowd. He was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing
outside and they wish to see you.” He said to them in reply, “My mother and my
brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.”
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Reflection:
Who would
not want to become a relative of Jesus? Of course we all want to become His
relatives. But Jesus has one important requirement for all of us so that we
could become His relatives: Hear His word/s and act on it (Luke 8:21).
Do we
hear the word of God and act upon it? For example the commandment of Jesus to
love our enemies and to do good to those who hurt us (Matthew 5:44). Do we love
our enemies and do good to them? Or we
immediately follow our natural instinct not to love those who don’t love us and
hurt those who hurt us.
But what
would happen if we follow our selfish human instinct? There would be more
hatred and hurt, more walls than bridges. Mahatma Gandhi once said: An Eye for
an eye would only make the whole world blind.
It’s not
easy to become a relative of Jesus if we put so much value to ourselves. If we
look at ourselves so highly and we immediately despise those who’ve hurt and
disrespected us. But Jesus himself has forgiven those who’ve hurt, persecuted
and killed Him.
Though
it’s difficult to become a relative of Jesus for it requires humility and
forgetting of ourselves. Nevertheless, we must aspire to become a relative of
Jesus and not aspire to become a lover of our ego and pride. – Marino J. Dasmarinas
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