Today’s gospel reading.
Gospel Lk 11:27-28
While Jesus was speaking,
a woman from the crowd called out and said to him,
“Blessed is the womb that carried you
and the breasts at which you nursed.”
He replied, “Rather, blessed are those
who hear the word of God and observe it.”
Jesus is making clear in this story that kinship with him and Abba, are possible beyond bloodlines, breasts, or any human categories. While as a Catholic I do call the Blessed Mother of God, Blessed; as a Christian I am more drawn in this passage to Jesus offering his family life to me. To you!
We all are related to someone, and most of those someones are dead. Our bloodlines determine our genetic code, they matter. A limit is imposed when Jesus says, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.” He cuts out the familial tie to the Blessed Mother, only to show that each believer that we all may, by hearing the word of God and observing it, may have family relationship with Jesus. A relationship beyond time. This family relationship to Jesus is also to the entire Church, living and dead.
This is not an easy subject to think about, as my writing thus far has made manifestly clear. The best I can say is that it matters to have a family relationship with Jesus is to admit that Jesus is so real in ones life that no external proofs can sway you into believing that the Holy living presence in your life is just a “spaghetti sky god.” The burning question now is, how do I/you/we keep according to the word of God and observe it, in the current atmosphere of Christian discourse today, especially so close to the Presidential Election.
You turn to God without a second thought! That is not only how you do it, it is the only way to do it. So many things come into our minds, and if we have a family relationship with Jesus, we also have a family relationship with the Holy Trinity. “One God, three ways of being God,”
It is imperative to realize that as Christians we participate in the very life of the Trinity through our relationship to Jesus. So yes, blessed beyond all flesh and this realm of being, is our blessed relationship to the Holy Trinity through Jesus, Christ-God, Savior, Redeemer.
