Daily Reflections - October 13,2012

ARE HUMAN BONDS INSIGNIFICANT?

We would think perhaps that such a short Gospel passage for today might be insignificant or irrelevant, having merely two verses. But such certainly isn’t the case.

As a first insight, these two verses are unique to Luke. To think that they are somehow deprecatory of Mary — since she seems to be the unnamed target of Jesus’ remark — is not possible. This is simply because the Gospel according to St. Luke as a whole is strongly Marian. It would be unthinkable that two verses will undo its entire spirit. Then, aside from this, it should be pointed out that there is a somewhat mistaken sense in the statement, brought about (as is often the case) by inaccurate translation. The bone of contention is the word “rather.” A quick check with the original Greek term, menoun, makes us realize that it should be better rendered with the sense “yes, but even more...”

In other words, it is not at all a negative statement against Mary, the mother of Jesus. It is an affirmation of her motherhood but at the same time it opens up to the greater possibility of “surpassing” blood or maternal ties in the truly greater level of fulfilling God’s Word in one’s life. In the First Reading, in fact, there is a similar downplaying or even a “doing-away-with” human ties (nationality, social status, gender) — because of Christian faith. “Each one of you is a son of God because of your faith in Christ Jesus. All of you who have been baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with him. There does not exist among you Jew or Greek, slave or freeman, male or female. All are one in Christ Jesus.”

And so, too, the length of liturgical readings isn’t at all an issue. If even blood, racial and social ties can be surpassed by a common faith in God and His eternal Word, then so will be a puny detail such as how many verses are there in a liturgical reading. Fr. Martin Macasaet, SDB

REFLECTION QUESTION: Are there human ties in your life that you consider as more important than your faith?

Lord Jesus, You showed us how important it is to follow God’s will more than anything else in life, even at the expense of our human bonds. May we learn from and follow Your example.