21st January >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Mark 3:20-21 for Saturday, Second Week in Ordinary Time: ‘They set out to take charge of him’. (2024)

21st January >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies onMark 3:20-21 for Saturday, Second Week in Ordinary Time:‘They set out to take charge of him’.

Saturday, Second Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Except USA)

Mark 3:20-21

Jesus' relatives were convinced he was out of his mind.

Jesus went home, and once more such a crowd collected that they could not even have a meal. When his relatives heard of this, they set out to take charge of him, convinced he was out of his mind.

Gospel (USA)

Mark 3:20-21

They said, "He is out of his mind.”

Jesus came with his disciples into the house. Again the crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat. When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

Reflections (5)

(i)Saturday, Second Week in Ordinary Time

Today’s very short gospel reading from Mark suggests that Jesus was misunderstood by his own family. They had come to hear that so many people were coming to Jesus for help that he and his disciples had no time even to eat. They concluded that Jesus must be out of his mind and they wanted to take him back to Nazareth, back home, for his own good. Jesus’ family meant well, but they completely misinterpreted Jesus. Having set out on his mission of bringing God’s merciful and healing love to all, Jesus was never going to return to Nazareth and live the hidden life he had lived before he left there. There are misunderstandings in every family. A member of a family can set out on a path that just makes no sense to other family members. Jesus’ family was no different to most human families. The members of Jesus’ family had to learn to let him go to God’s purpose for his life, even if it made little sense to them. We often have to let go of those we care about, even if the path they are taking is very concerning to us. We sometimes just have to let them be. The members of Jesus’ family were trying to control him, but we cannot control Jesus. Our calling is to surrender to Jesus and to try and go where he is leading us. Jesus once said, ‘the Spirit blows where it wills’. What is true of the Holy Spirit is true of Jesus who is full of the Holy Spirit. Far from trying to control Jesus, we invite him to control us, in the sense of becoming Lord of our lives. When Jesus becomes Lord of our lives, we don’t lose our freedom. Rather, we become truly free, free to live in the fully human way for which God has created us.

And/Or

(ii)Saturday, Second Week in Ordinary Time

Mark suggests strongly in the course of his gospel that a lot of people did not really understand Jesus during his public ministry. One of the questions that keeps coming up in one form or another is, ‘Who then is this?’ In this morning’s very short gospel reading, it

is clear that even Jesus’ relatives do not understand who Jesus is or what he is about. When Jesus’ workload prevents him from eating properly, Mark tells us that his relatives set out to take charge of him, because many were saying that he was out of his mind. They would go on to learn on that occasion that Jesus was not open to being taken charge of by his relatives. The only one who was in charge of Jesus was God. Jesus was doing God’s work, and part of that work was to form a new family, a family of disciples, of brothers and sisters of Jesus, sons and daughters of God. Jesus’ own natural family, his relatives, would have to come to terms with that. We are all part of that new family; we are all the fruit of Jesus’ work, a work that people struggled hard to understand at the time. For us who are part of this new family, the question, ‘Who then is this?’ remains a relevant question. We are always struggling to know more fully the Son of God whose brothers and sisters we have become.

And/Or

(iii) Saturday, Second Week in Ordinary Time

This morning’s gospel reading from Mark must be one of the shortest gospel readings in the liturgical year. Yet it is very thought provoking. It declares that Jesus’ relatives set out to take charge of Jesus and bring him back to Nazareth because they were convinced that he was out of his mind. By this time in Mark’s gospel Jesus had incurred the hostility of the religious authorities by his teaching and his behaviour, by his eating with tax collectors and sinners, by declaring himself to be the Son of Man who has authority to forgive sins, by working on the Sabbath to heal the sick, and so on. Perhaps Jesus’ family felt that he was not being very wise, that he was behaving in ways that were foolhardy and risky, and they wanted to preserve and protect him. Indeed, Jesus’ teaching and behaviour would eventually put him on a Roman cross. Yet, Jesus remained faithful to his calling to proclaim God’s kingdom in word and deed, regardless of the personal consequences for himself. He would not be deflected from that, not even by well meaning relatives. He placed God’s purpose for the well-being of others, both material and spiritual, before all else. This is what is referred to in the beatitudes as purity of heart, that purity of intention which seeks God’s will and God’s kingdom before all else. He calls on us to follow him in putting the purpose of God and the well being of others before our own comfort and preservation. That does not come easy to us; our instincts can be more like those of Jesus’ relatives than of Jesus himself. We need the help of the Spirit if we are to be as pure in heart as Jesus was.

And/Or

(iv)Saturday, Second Week in Ordinary Time

This very short gospel reading from Mark gives us a little glimpse of how Jesus was misunderstood within his own family. Jesus is busily engaged in his ministry and his family come down from Nazareth to Capernaum to take charge of him because they believe he is out of his mind. A few chapters later in Mark’s gospel Jesus is rejected in his home town of Nazareth and in response to that experience Jesus says, ‘Prophets are not without honour, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house’. Jesus was taking a path in life that his family did not approve of. Tension within families is something we have all experienced at some time or other. This was a dimension of human living that Jesus also experienced. He entered fully into the human condition, including its struggles, its tensions, its misunderstandings and the resulting pain for all concerned. He can walk compassionately with us through those experiences because he has been there himself. Jesus did not always go where his family wanted him to go because he was subject to a greater authority in his life, and that was God’s authority. God’s purpose drove him and he was faithful to that purpose even when it brought him into conflict with those for whom he had the strongest feelings of natural affection. We, his followers, are called to remain true to the Lord’s direction, his guidance, his vision and values, even if that means for us what it meant for him, finding ourselves at odds with those who are nearest and dearest to us.

And/Or

(v)Saturday, Second Week in Ordinary Time

We don’t hear a great deal about Jesus’ family in the gospels, once Jesus begins his public ministry after his baptism. There is an interesting reference to Jesus’ family in today’s very short gospel reading. Jesus is so involved in his work with the crowd that he and his disciples have no time even to eat. Such frenzied behaviour is understood by his family as a sign that Jesus has lost his mind. As a result, they set out on the thirty mile journey from Nazareth to Capernaum to restrain him, to take charge of him. It seems that they had yet to learn to let Jesus go to God his Father’s work. They behave as if they know what is best for him. They set themselves on a collision course with Jesus. As we read on in the gospel story, Jesus refuses to step back from his ministry to the crowds and return to Nazareth with his family. In the course of the gospels, various individuals and groups wanted Jesus to take a path other than the one God was calling him to take. They wanted a Jesus in their own image, rather than receiving Jesus as he was. It seems his family were no different in that regard. They wanted Jesus to be more like themselves. We can all be tempted to imagine Jesus as we want him to be. Yet, we have to allow him to be himself in our lives. He is, after all, Lord of our lives. We cannot shape him to our liking or use him to serve our own purposes. We spend our lives surrendering ourselves to him, allowing him to take his own initiative towards us. We may not always understand what the Lord is doing in our world, our church, within ourselves, but we humbly give ourselves over to his purpose. We continually allow ourselves to be led by his word, and to be shaped by his Spirit.

Fr. Martin Hogan.