Tuesday 28 January 2025

Today is Tuesday the 28th of January, the feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas, in the 3rd week of Ordinary Time. The monks of Pluscarden Abbey sing Ecce quam bonum: “How good and how pleasant it is when brothers and sisters live together in unity! It is like precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down over the collar of his robes.” Today’s reading is from the Gospel of Mark. Mark 3:31-35 Then [Jesus’] mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, ‘Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.’ And he replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’ When Jesus’s family seek him out here, his reaction seems, at first sight, to be painfully dismissive of the people who care for him. Why do you think he chose to make this point so bluntly? It becomes clear in the passage that profounder values shape all that Jesus does. What are the values that I want habitually to guide my ordinary, daily life? Listen to the passage again, trying to imagine yourself in Jesus’s situation. If you were asked, “who are your brothers and sisters and mothers?”, how would you reply? Can you talk to God about this now? Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.