We continue our reflection on what it means to become the family of Jesus. You might imagine that it was from today’s Gospel – Jesus’ commentary on who his family is – that the theme of my preaching for the Novena emerged.
I was born into the Hutcherson Family 48 years ago. And of course I am still part of the family and love that family. But I have made choices in my adult life that have shaped who I regard as my family. First I became Catholic – as the only Catholic in my family, I feel much more in common with other Catholics than I do with my own blood family. I moved to the West Coast to work for the Church and then entered the Dominican Order where I even identify other members by familial titles – brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers… Because of these choices, I have not been with my blood family for Christmas for more than 25 years. Sometimes people lament that for me, but I would find it very odd to spend Christmas with my blood relatives who do not share my Catholic faith and the uniquely Catholic perspective on what Christmas means. I spend Christmas with the family I have chosen.
Most of you were baptized into the Catholicism as infants and may even have a sense of having been “born Catholic”. Be that as it may, each of us must, at some conscious life, must make a choice to live our faith. We are continually confronted with the opportunity for conversion – the opportunity to choose to live as members of the Family of Jesus.
It is to this reality that Jesus points in today’s Gospel when he is told that his mother and brothers are asking for him. He gestures to his disciples and says “these are my mother, and brothers, and sisters – these who choose to do the will of my Father…” Jesus invites us to choose to be members of his family.
If we are to choose by living the will of Jesus’ Father, it is important that we become more deeply acquainted with his Father. Our Old Testament reading today is a great place to start to learn more about one of the defining characteristics of the Father that makes it possible for us become his family.
The idea that “God is Love” is an entirely New Testament concept. If we are to find and understand the Love of God in ancient Hebrew understanding, we locate it in other words – In the OT, God is not called “loving” – he is called “merciful.” In God’s mercy, we find his patience, his forgiveness, his sympathy, his kindness, his pity. It is this undeserved expression of compassion by which the father draws his undeserving creation into a familial relationship. Like the Father of the Prodigal son, our divine Father waits patiently for us to turn to him, but once we have turned to him, he does not wait for us to crawl to him, he runs to us and, as the Gospel says, “throws himself on our neck.’ - The most aggressive of all embraces – God aggressively draws us to himself in compassion and mercy.
As Catholics, we have beautiful access to this mercy in the sacrament of Reconciliation. As a confessor, I love to hear confessions because in that moment I have no other job but to be the sign of God’s love and mercy. I get to remind penitents that they are, by God’s grace and mercy, members of the Family of the Lord.
But we are also reminded that as part of the family of the Lord, we are called to grow in the image and likeness of the Father. So as we experience the mercy of God that draws us more deeply into his family, we are also called to grow in mercy – called to become more merciful people. It is one of the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the Merciful, mercy will be shown them…” As members of the family of he Lord, we are called to be merciful to each other – to be patient with each other’s weaknesses, to forgive those who wrong us.
We are called to be humble and honest in our judgments of other, to recognize, even as we so clearly see each other’s faults in the Church, that we are every bit as much in need of God’s mercy as everyone around us. I have often said that one of the best expressions of Church that I know is AA and other 12-step programs. When one goes to AA, one knows that every other person is just another drunk who recognizes their need for help. The Church should be the same way, but all too often we want people to believe that we go to church because we are so good. We are better off when we can look around the room in frank admission that each of us is a sinner in deep need of God’s mercy. That mercy becomes more real and draws us more deeply in the Lord’s family and helps us to grow in being more merciful as well.
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