From the responsorial psalm: “Will you not instead give us life; and shall not your people rejoice in you? Show us, O LORD, your kindness, and grant us your salvation. Lord, show us your mercy and love.”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 12:46-50)
While Jesus was speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers appeared outside, wishing to speak with him. Someone told him, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak with you.” But he said in reply to the one who told him, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.”
In his response, Jesus may at first seem harsh and short-tempered. Yet, his reply does not exclude his mother and his brothers but draws on his relationship with them to teach the crowd. Matthew describes Jesus’ gesture of stretching out his hands toward his disciples to indicate that those who follow him do the will of his Father. That sweeping gesture includes those who followed him then and those who follow him now. Through the risen Christ, God invites all of us to belong to the same human family.
Heavenly Father, help me do your will today. Show me clearly how to be a brother to Christ in my words and actions. Having contemplated the real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament at the National Eucharistic Congress, I am grateful for being with him and receiving his sustaining nourishment in Communion with thousands of other members of the Body of Christ. Grant me the grace to remain in your presence even as I go out into the world. I can imagine Mary and the family of Jesus wishing to speak with him, knowing who he was and where he came from. Help me have the presence of mind today to know who you are and what your will is for me with the gift of time you give me today.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
