Daily Gospel Reflection

July 23, 2024


Pivot to the Will of God

4 min


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Gospel

Mt 12:46-50


While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood outside, asking to speak to him. But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brethren?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brethren! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

Readings are from Dynamic Catholic’s New Testament Bible: RSV Catholic Edition

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Transcript


Pivot to the Will of God

Welcome back to Radical & Relevant, where each day, we're looking for a word, a phrase, or an idea in the gospel to anchor our day in the life and teachings of Jesus. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 12 verses 46 through 50. "When He was still speaking to the people, behold, His mother and His brethren stood outside, asking to speak to Him. But He replied to the man who told Him, 'Who is my mother and who are my brethren?' And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, 'Here are my mother and my brethren. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."

What jumps out at you today? We have great affection for Mary, Mother of God. We have great affection for the role she played, obviously in the life of Jesus, but also in salvation history, also in the life of the early church, and of course, in our own lives. What jumps out at me is that Mary's there and Jesus' relatives. And we could see this as Jesus being disrespectful to Mary or to His relatives, that sort of thing. And of course, He was not intending that in any way, shape, or form.

But what strikes me is that Jesus says, "Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and my sister and my mother." You often hear people talking about Mary, Mary and spirituality. A lot of people grapple with, "Okay, how do I grow closer to Mary?" And there are a lot of beautiful ways for us to grow closer to Mary. But Jesus, He describes a path to create a bond with Mary here that is unimaginable. It says, "For whoever does the will of my Father in Heaven is my brother and sister and mother." And so we unite ourselves to Mary by doing the will of the Father.

And so you see through all these readings, we've been reading this past couple of weeks in the Gospel of Matthew through chapter 11 and 12. And what we see is Jesus pivoting time and time again to the will of the Father. He feels like He's telling the story over here, and then He pivots to the will of the Father. Feels like He's criticizing the Pharisees over here, and then He pivots to the will of the Father. Feels like He's talking about what our needs are and how we take care of those needs. And then again, He pivots to the will of the Father.

And so there's an invitation to us. There's a teaching for us in that. And that is, whatever it is we're dealing with throughout our day, to be pivoting to the will of the Father, to be asking ourselves, "What is the will of the Father here? How am I being challenged to the will of the Father here? How am I being encouraged to the will of the Father here?" But like Jesus, pivot to the will of the Father. Have an amazing day. Remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.

July 23, 2024