“FOR WHOEVER DOES THE WILL OF GOD IS MY BROTHER AND SISTER AND MOTHER.” MK 3:31-35
Humbly submit your will to God (Thy Will be done) and consecrate yourself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through Mary and Joseph.
The mother of Jesus and his brothers arrived at the house.
Standing outside, they sent word to Jesus and called him.
A crowd seated around him told him,
“Your mother and your brothers and your sisters
are outside asking for you.”
But he said to them in reply,
“Who are my mother and my brothers?”
And looking around at those seated in the circle he said,
“Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever does the will of God
is my brother and sister and mother.” MK 3:31-35
Today, Jesus teaches us that the kingdom of God is more important than personal family ties. It may sound like Jesus is putting his family down, but Jesus is teaching us that doing God’s will (Thy Will be done) is what we were made for and God is even bigger than the ones we love the most, our family.
His Will is living the gifts of the Holy Spirit we received at Baptism (vows: fight Satan/sin, grow in holiness, proclaim, preserve, and defend the Apostle’s Creed) and Confirmation (gifts to be soldiers for Christ). Bishop Barron says, “We know we are achieving this when we see the fruits in our life abound: faithfulness, goodness, charity, kindness, self-control, gentleness, patience, joy, modesty, chastity, generosity, and peace.” There is no law against these fruits -St. Paul. Interesting.
The other important point is all of these deal with relationships. God is a Trinity of love, we are made in His image and likeness, we are made “to be with”. Our journey of faith will always deal with God, others, and self. This is where we seek the Truth our heart desires and where we get our identity, so we can live with purpose and mission. When we find this, we set the world on fire because the love that loved us first is POWERFUL!!!! We give ourselves totally and completely to it and it consumes us. We cannot hold it in and the only thing left to do is give it away and share it with others! This is why holy, which means doing the Will of the Father, equals happy!!!
Fr. Mike Schmitz created a daily discernment to ask ourselves if we are doing God’s Will is: 1. Did you pray today? 2. Are you in the state of grace? (don’t forget to make sure you have a correct conscience by viewing a good examination of conscience and asking a priest about sins you are not sure of that come up in your life) 3. Are you fulfilling your daily tasks? If yes to all three, then you are on the right track. This is great mirror material to read each morning.
In this time and place with these people is where God put you to do His Will. The Devil will try to speed us up, make us worry, get us off track, make us want to entertain ourselves to death, put negative thoughts in our mind (mental illness can do this too), put ourselves down, make bad things look good, and make us think God is trying to take away our fun. Heaven is a serious business and Jesus teaches us today it is even more important than our own family whom we love very much! Why? Doing God’s Will helps us to rightly order those family relationships where sin and Satan tear them apart! If you want your family to get along better do the Father’s Will!
Today’s challenge: Reflect in silence each day to see if you are doing God’s Will. If you are still not sure, just ask Him. “Ask and you shall receive, knock and the door will be opened” He will make it clear in His time. He wants you to know His Will, don’t let the Devil or yourself get in the way. Be patient. Go to confession once a month.
Be a servant, become a saint!
#Christian YOLO
All of us are brothers and sisters, mother and fathers in Christ. Through Christ we are one body, one family. Nobody is alone for Christ intertwines all of us. Think about that. Something so overlooked but so amazing. All of us are ONE. A lot of the times we find ourselves alone and sad. Millions of people struggle with depression and anxiety, maybe even the person reading or typing this has. A lot of us know what it’s like to be alone but we aren’t truly alone. God’s always here. Maybe you can’t see him, maybe you can’t feel him, maybe you don’t even believe in him, but guess what he’s there. He is in every tiny perfect thing of your life and right behind the bad is all his good. God puts his strongest people through the hardest battles but we are all one people. In the end, we are all facing the same sin that controls us. Have you ever been scared about how lonely you could be? Let’s reverse that have you ever been scared about how you’re surrounded by all of God. All he is, was, and ever will be right there with you through the valleys mountains of life he’s there. He is the cane of your grandpa or grandma. No matter what we do he’s still there with us. Next time you find yourself alone close your eyes and just say BE WITH ME. God’s near so call on him.