Jesus’ relatives

It was very difficult for Jesus’ relatives to understand him, to figure out what had happened to him. For thirty years he had been the carpenter’s son, a good worker, a bit introverted, maybe shy, never married and liking going out on his own to pray in solitary places. Suddenly Jesus began his public life, preaching the Gospel, performing miracles and surrounding himself with twelve men, called apostles, going around villages and towns, with crowds following him. Why didn’t he show his talents before? Why didn’t he use them with his relatives and friends? They thought that either he had become mad, lost his mind, or an evil spirit had possessed him.

It happens to us when we take our faith seriously, when we have a conversion, when suddenly we find out what God wants from us. Our life takes on a new course, a bright star has been lighted and we see things with different eyes. People around us who haven’t seen our new light are left behind and don’t understand our new outlook. They think we have become fanatical, self-possessed or even a bit weird. They try to help us, to change our mind, to bring us back to reality. But we know where they are; we have been there before. And we know they cannot see what we see, they are not ready to experience what we are going through. We don’t want to change back and we would like them to discover what we see now. Sometimes by pushing our faith on them, we can make things worse. All we can do is give them a good example, to show them the strength of our faith, the promises of our hope and the warmth of our love.

Jesus’ relatives thought he was mad, and they were right; he was crazy for us. We cannot help being moved, realizing what Jesus did for love of us. Many saints, following Christ’s example, have been taken for madmen, because they were mad with love, mad with love for Jesus Christ. The Cure of Ars used to say: “To be holy, you need to be mad.” To follow Jesus you need to be out of your mind. Saint Francis was called the mad man of Assisi. Love is crazy and whoever is in love does crazy things. It is amazing what the saints have done for the love of God.

The other accusation against Jesus is that he was possessed by the devil. Jesus defends himself with a simple logic: if someone expels the devil this means that he is stronger than the devil. We are not to be afraid of the devil. Jesus uses his power to free us from the enslavement to Satan, which means “enemy”. His dominion has come to an end: the prince of this world is about to be cast out. Jesus’ victory over the power of darkness, shows that the light has already entered the world.

“Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” Saint Thomas Aquinas says that by saying this, Jesus gave preference to the eternal generation over the temporal one. Our Lady has an outstanding position in both. She was his mother on earth by generation, and his mother in heaven by obeying her Son above everything else. But Jesus obeyed her first, by being the best Son ever.

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