Today’s Gospel reading gives rise to a common non-Catholic assumption (pardon the pun) about Mary:
While Jesus was speaking to the crowds,
his mother and his brothers appeared outside,
wishing to speak with him.
Someone told him, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside,
asking to speak with you.”
But he said in reply to the one who told him,
“Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?”
And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said,
“Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father
is my brother, and sister, and mother” (Matt 12:46-50).
Some have understood Jesus as being very dismissive towards his mother with these words. Not so. First, Jesus always honored his mother, as any good Jewish son would (As God, he’s the very author of the fourth commandment, by the way). Plus, no one was actually more docile, more obedient to God’s will than Mary, who be came the first Christian disciple by her famous “Fiat”. In enfleshing his Word, she proved to be the doer of the Father’s will par excellence.
Describing Jesus as author of the commandments is an over-simplification that is non-biblical and adds nothing to what was an otherwise fine blog.
Thanks for your comment – and for the compliment, too, Ciaran.
Whenever the Holy Trinity acts, all three persons of the Godhead are involved. This was as true in OT times as it is now, for God always was a Trinity of persons, although obviously that fact was not yet revealed in Moses’ time. So, I’m not sure it’s an oversimplification at all, although I would agree that a blog post doesn’t always afford the space one would like for theological exactitude!
Regards – and thanks for reading,
Cale
Thank you Cale. I am very happy with that clarification. Best wishes!