Tuesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time
The real family of Jesus
His mother and his brothers arrived. Standing outside they sent word to him 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
“What a family you have created around!”. I said impulsively that day when I went to Castelvolturno, to visit Gianluca. He was in the middle of a group of ghanaians and nigerians, with whom he was programming the commitments of the day. My self, his father, who had visited him to see what he was doing and to make sure that he had found his way, I took part to that meeting with the same opinion right of the chairs. No one asked me for an opinion, it was as if I was not there. And I thought that a few years ago, when Gianluca was still living with us, would have never had such behavior. However, it was right in this way! That one was his new family and those were his african brothers, hence, after the first shock, I began to stay quiet, being silent, to listen and to realize the truth of the life which Gianluca was living. It is the sense of the answer which today Jesus gives to those who say “Your mother and your brothers (and your sisters) are outside asking for you”. They too were out, as I was in that meeting in Castelvolturno. Being out it does not mean only not being home: it means to have other projects and other programs and to live other realities. At one point, as I was listening Gianluca speaking to his africans, I began to thank God for my uselessness. At that moment I remembered the answer of Jesus in the passage of today: “Here are my mother and my brothers. (For) whoever does [with me] the will of God is my brother and sister and mother”. We too, as parents, work on the project which the Lord has given us to do, but at this stage of our life this is different from that of Gianluca, as in the passage of today the project of Mary is different from that of Jesus. Give us, Lord, now that we are older, the grace to live our current project, while our sons live their projects. Do not leave us to do nothing like one day, when you called James and John, you have left their father Zebedee all alone at the seashore.