This weekend, Jesus invites us to reflect on our sense of belonging and where it derives from. You may think of the grammar or high school you attended; the town, city, or country you grew up in; the university you graduated from; your job or company; parish affiliation; memberships; leagues; clubs; and sport teams you cheer for. Another major source of belonging comes from our family of origin and the new families we create. Belonging is a foundational concept in the Bible which begins with the book of Genesis. God was initially the source of people’s sense of belonging, not being a tribe, nation, or family. Whether it be biological or interest based, Jesus reminds us in the gospel of Mark that our sense of belonging is incomplete whenever it serves to mark who is in, and who is out, who belongs and who doesn’t.
As we reflect on the Mark’s Gospel, Jesus makes a claim that belonging is multifaceted in its inclusivity of all people who share a common sense of: mercy, love, justice, who welcome the refugee, seek holiness, the well-being of others, and do the will of God. Jesus now draws a new group around himself. He gathers a family that is no longer characterized by blood, political affiliation, nationhood, race, or even theology. Belonging is to be defined by all who do the will of God. Jesus gives us a new criteria of what constitutes a family, not to do away with our family loyalties and values, but to transform them to their true and deeper meaning.
Jesus is speaking directly to you and me and all our deeply embedded cultural assumptions about belonging. He determines that his own true family is not by blood relations or kinship. Belonging and family are to be about doing the will of God. His words are meant to radically widen our own concepts of “belonging” and “family.” The loyalty, love and service that is properly given to one another in family life is now due to God and through our relationships with one another in the wider “family” of believers. As members of the Holy Family Catholic community, our relationships with one another are to be reconfigured in and through our relationship with Christ. In and through him, we are now all brothers, sisters, mothers, and children to and for one another.
No matter who we are or where we come from, the call of belonging extends to all people. Jesus aims to break down every wall that serves to divide us and calls us to be a part of his new family. All other loyalties and commitments fall short and pale in comparison to the call that Jesus proposes to our lives. Being part of Jesus’ family means that we will continually open our lives to him, acknowledge that he is in charge, and embrace both the invitation and the challenge of following him. Jesus’ words prompt us to consider the relationship between our own family members and what it means to know and do God’s will. The people that Jesus calls his family, his true mother and brothers, are all those who seek and do the will of God.
May the words of Jesus invoke in all of us today a new vision of life in which all people are to care for one another both physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Our spiritual lives are now meant to transcend all our old concepts of family life. The rich, vibrant faith community of Holy Family must seek to draw us more deeply and fully into the will of God. Let us seek our true belonging in our relationship with Christ and recognize the wider family or household of God that is characterized by a sense of unity, spirit, and ability to stand strong in the things of God.