STS ANDREW KIM TAE-GǑN, PAUL CHǑNG HA-SANG, COMPANIONS (MEMORIAL)

My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.

In yesterday’s Gospel reading, Jesus told us to take care how we hear (Luke 8:18). Today, Jesus tells the people that his family members are the ones who hear and act on his word. Why was it so important for Jesus to keep saying this? Because when we listen to and obey the Lord, we participate, even if only in some small way, in his plan to redeem the world.

The best example of this is, ironically, Jesus’ closest blood relative, Mary. When the word of God came to her through the angel Gabriel, it found fertile soil in her heart. Mary was already a person of deep prayer who was also steeped in the Hebrew Scriptures. So when she heard the startling news that would turn her life upside down, she did not react with hardness, anger, or self-pity. Instead, she embodied the kind of discipleship that God desires: “I am the handmaid of the Lord,” she told the angel. “May it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

Not only did Mary hear the word of God, but she also acted on it immediately. Luke tells us that after the angel left her, Mary went “in haste” to her cousin Elizabeth, whose own miraculous pregnancy the angel had just announced (Luke 1:39). And when Joseph was told in a dream to take the baby Jesus to Egypt (2:15-18), she heard it as God’s word for her family and went, though it must have been difficult to leave her familiar surroundings behind and live in a foreign land. And yet even in these difficult circumstances, Mary knew that her obedience was bearing fruit. God’s plan for redeeming humankind was unfolding right before her eyes in the child she loved and cared for.

Through your baptism, you are already part of God’s family. But you can deepen your relationship with your heavenly Father by imitating your mother, Mary. Immerse yourself in prayer and Scripture, as she did, so that you can hear God when he is speaking to you. Then act on what you hear. Know that even when you can’t see the consequences of your actions, you are in some way bearing Christ to the world as Mary did.

“Lord Jesus, give me the grace to hear your word and act on it.”

Proverbs 21:1-6, 10-13
Psalm 119:1, 27, 30, 34-35, 44
Luke 8:19-21