Loving the family God chooses for us
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.”
Do you know what a “framily”
is? That’s spelled “f-r-a-m-i-l-y” and
was a silly commercial where Sprint wireless company featured a talking hamster
as the father and various international people as part of a family. It was all a marketing gimmick, but
underlying it was an attempt to redefine a family as the people you choose to
be in your family. But a true family is
made up of precisely the people you DON’T get to pick; rather, your family
consists of the people God picks for you.
We just returned from the Honduras mission and several of us shook our
heads in humble amazement that we were born in the U.S. and had the families we
do, while others are born in poverty.
Somehow, that’s part of God’s mysterious plan for each of us. God chooses our family for us; we don’t get
to pick and choose our own “framily.”
In the gospel today, Jesus is
re-defining who belongs in a family.
When his blood mother and brothers come to speak to him, Jesus announces
that those who do God’s will are mother and brother and sister to him. In other words, Jesus’ true family are those
re-born by baptism and who do God’s will.
You see, baptism forms a stronger family bond than even blood. Think about this: the people in the pews next
to you are also the family God has chosen for you. Some of us would rather be related to a
talking hamster than some of the clowns in our Church! Belonging to the family of the Church is also
somehow God’s mysterious plan for each of us.
I believe the family – understood
as the people God picks for us – is under severe attack today. We want to redefine the family on our terms,
not God’s. This is why same-sex marriage
is such a problem: we’re redefining the family as the people we pick. Some people love their pets more than their
own children – granted, some pets are easier to love than some children! When we’re tempted to leave the Catholic
Church, and seek one we like more, we redefine the Church-family God gave
us. In India we have the custom of “arranged
marriages,” where the parents play a role in choosing your husband or
wife. It’s really trying to see how
God’s hand is guiding you to find your spouse.
Why do you think I became a priest: I wanted none of that! But I didn’t really escape an arranged
marriage, did I? The bishop sent me to
you. Sometimes, we don’t like the pastor
we get. Well, believe me, folks, it’s no
cake-walk for us, either!
Instead of
redefining the family on your terms, try to see your family as part of God’s
mysterious plan for you, and try to love the members of your family. If your family is the people God has picked
for you, do you really think you can do better?
Praised be
Jesus Christ!
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