July 23 – Tuesday: One Heart Many Faces – Wilson SVD

Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time  

Micah 7: 14-15, 18-20; Matthew 12: 46-50

The Family of God: One Heart Many Faces

What is a family? I checked up in the dictionary, the dictionary says, family is a group of two or more persons living together related by birth or marriage. In the gospel today, Jesus talks of a family, a family beyond human understanding, perhaps a family that is true and lasting. He does not talk of an extended family but an inclusive family. The family of God.  

Mother Teresa of Calcutta, shared one of her experiences.

She narrates, One evening a gentleman came to our house and said, ‘There is a Hindu family with eight children and have not eaten for a long time. Can you do something for them. I took some rice and vegetables and went to her hut immediately. There was this mother and eight little children with shining eyes and pale faces, evident they had not eaten for days. – from sheer hunger. I gave her the rice and the vegetables. She took the rice and vegetables from my hands and divided them into two. She went out quickly taking one of the portions. When she returned, I asked her, ‘where did you go? What did you do? She answered they are hungry also. She knew that the next-door neighbour a Muslim family was hungry.

What surprises me most in this incident is, not that she shared the rice in her utter poverty, but in her suffering, in her hunger, she knew that someone else was also hungry.  A catholic missionary helps, and the help is shared with a Muslim family by a Hindu mother.  A catholic missionary nun, a Hindu family and a Muslim family became members of God’s family.

Jesus declares in the gospel that whoever does the will of God is his brother and sister and mother. Thus he makes it clear that his family goes beyond blood relationships; all those who do God’s will belong to it (3:34-35). Those who put into practice in their lives God’s will belong to the true family of Jesus. Jesus also challenges our conventional understanding of family as a group of blood-related members and invites us into a deeper, more inclusive understanding of family and community. He extends the boundaries of his true family beyond blood relatives and includes everyone.

To be a member of God’s family, what must one do – we must do God’s will. What is God’s will. Jesus himself has given answer to this question. Will of God?  Will of God,  can be enveloped in the greatest commandment given by Jesus himself, Love of God and love of neighbour. Mk 20: 30-31, You love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength. Love your neighbour as you love yourself. Hence, loving God and loving our neighbours is what God wants us to do. Love of neighbour in action is “whatever you do to the least, you do it unto me” Matthew 25:45.

Hence, the family of God is formed and sustained by love and not by language or creed, or culture or economic status.  Jesus’ talks of a family where everyone can find a home, where everyone can find a table to dine, where everyone can find a place to rest. A family beyond borders, languages, culture, religions and faith systems.

Further, as human beings we are social animals – interrelated and interdependent, no one is an island. For example – we need more than 100 people just to prepare our Breakfast – imagine a farmer, somewhere prepares the field, cultivates the wheat – someone buys that wheat – brings to the factory, processes it – makes a flour – a backer buys the wheat flour, bakes the bread – that bread is sold in your shop – someone from your family goes to the store buys and sets it on the table. Don’t we all form a family.

Whenever we eat fish, that should remind us of the joys and hopes, dreams and aspirations, pains and suffering of the fishermen battling in the sea day and night.

We all wear good clothes, our clothes should remind us of the joys and hopes, dreams and aspirations, pains and sufferings of the farmers and people working in the textile industry. – we are inter-connected.

Our Takeaway:

1. Every one of us is a child of God, and all of us are members of the family of God.
2. Can I break the boundary of my family and include others (people from other language, culture, caste, religion, etc) into my family. Challenge to move from exclusivism to inclusivism.
3. May our language be love and may our action be love.

 

Wilson SVD

Divine Word Missionary