January 1, 2023 – Mark 3:20-21
In today’s Gospel passage we see Jesus entering a house, probably Peter’s house where he had healed his mother-in-law.
One can of course say that Jesus’ house can be anywhere or that it is home where Jesus is. We have already seen several references to “home,” any home where Jesus gathers with his disciples, with those who listen attentively to what he is saying.
Home for us is the place of our life. We make it beautiful, we want it big and cozy. The house is us. It expresses our personality, our tastes, our capacity for order and cleanliness.
There are houses where there is room for the guest, houses where it is impossible to enter. There are safe houses and open houses. There are houses that make you
make you uncomfortable as soon as you enter, others that are welcoming. There are houses with very beautiful rooms, but where no one can enter: they show them off and, then, take the guest to the kitchen. There are houses that are hovels. Many people are homeless because of various difficulties or natural events. Many people have many houses in various places, by the sea, in the mountains, abroad.
Jesus enters a house where he is at home. He enters with the disciples, whom he has just called to himself, to be with them in intimacy. Those in the house with him understand and listen to the explanation of the parables, those outside listen but do not understand!
Immediately a large crowd gathers to the point that they could no longer take food.
Food is “doing the will of the Father, for man does not live by bread alone.” This food is what Jesus gives to the crowds: his teaching that becomes spiritual food along with material food.
The thoughts, worries and commitments that fill our lives often do not allow us to access the food of the Word. We remain in the desert of life hungry and without sustenance. To understand that food is the Bread of God’s Word and to seek to eat it always and everywhere is a gift of grace. It is a search for the meaning we so badly need.
Eating this food makes us true relatives of Jesus: “Whoever does the will of God, this one is my brother, sister and mother.” Whoever does this will be satiated by Jesus the living Word who instructs the crowds, who is Bread of Life given to us because whoever eats of this Bread will have eternal life, that is, the life of the Father.
The disciples, hearing all that was happening, that the Herodians and Pharisees wanted to kill him, go out to fetch him thinking that Jesus was out of his mind, incapable of understanding. This is true because Jesus is out of his depth, does not follow common sense, and draws upon himself the wrath of the then powerful and a death sentence in absentia. Yet he continues, even though he knows full well that it will cost him his life. And we who are of his own, of his family, also suffer the consequences of being true Christians and sometimes take great risks as is the case today in so many parts of the world where Christians are persecuted.
For good Workers…
This circle of people who love him and listen to his word are his own. They are on the inside, while the others are “on the outside.” The circle invokes a harmony of unity with respect to a center common to all. He is the center of our aggregation, the one Lord who made himself a servant.
P JOBY KAVUNGAL RCJ