Embracing God's Will

In today's first reading, Hebrews 10:1-10, St. Paul speaks about the sacrifices that were offered according to the law in which the lives of bulls and goats were sacrificed in atonement for sin.  "But in those sacrifices, " Paul reminds us, "there is only a yearly remembrance of sins, for it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats take away sins." When Jesus came into the world, Paul tells us, he said to His Father: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; in burnt offerings you took no delight. Then I [Jesus] said, As is written of me in the scroll, Behold, I come to do your will, O God....By this 'will' we have been consecrated through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."

Jesus, the New Adam, was obedient to God the Father even unto death, unlike the first Adam who chose his will over the will of God!  As the result of Adam and Eve's disobedience, we all participate in the inclination to choose our own will over God's will and thus sin.  In Christ Jesus, the New Adam, we are consecrated to God and empowered to bring our wills into harmony with the will of God, our salvation, our holiness, our wholeness!

In today's Gospel when a crowd tells Jesus that his mother and brothers and sisters are outside asking for him, Jesus asks the crowd:  "'Who are my mother and brothers?' And looking around at those seated in the circle he said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of 
God is my brother and sister and mother.'"  In doing God's will--acting justly, loving tenderly and doing good (compare Micah 6:8)--we become brother and sisters and mothers to Jesus and heirs of the Kingdom of heaven!

My prayer: "Jesus, you have given me a body, just as God the Father "prepared a body for you."  You have given me this body for the same reason that God the Father gave you a body, namely, to do God's will here on earth, that is, to be obedient to God unto death. Yes, Lord, I am called to learn obedience from what I suffer, just as you learned obedience from what you suffered. May it be so, Lord. I ask this in your name! Amen!"

Honored to be Jesus' Brother, Sister and Mother

In the Gospel of today,  Mark 3: 31-35, Jesus tells us that all those who do the will of His Father are his brothers, sisters, and mothers.  He extends family beyond the nuclear family.  For all of us, family is a bond that is like no other. If our parents are serious about their promise to us at our baptisms, it is in our families that most of us learn to love, to forgive, to show tenderness, to be compassionate.  At our baptisms, our parents promised to pass on the faith to us, to teach us about Jesus, to model turning to the Lord in good times and in  bad times, to follow God’s will in the routine responsibilities of our lives. It was Jesus’  mother  who taught Him  that doing God’s will is what  binds us to one another as sisters and brothers and mothers to each other.  It was that belief that prompted Him, when he family appeared, to use that moment as a teaching moment, telling everyone listening to His message—God’s will for them at that moment—that they were elevated to membership in God’s family and thus  each of them was  brother, sister, and mother to Him.  May you cherish that honor!