SAINT VINCENT, DEACON AND MARTYR (OPTIONAL MEMORIAL)

Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.

Imagine yourself sitting with Jesus when word comes that his relatives want to see him. As he speaks, Jesus gestures toward you with a warm smile: “Here is my brother and sister and mother.” How would that make you feel?

This isn’t just your imagination. It’s true! Through God’s free gift, you have been brought into a family relationship with him.

Jesus, the eternal Son of the Father, shows us by his example of loving obedience how to live in that relationship. He delights in loving the Father and does not “do anything on his own, but only what he sees his father doing” (John 5:19). So part of what it means to live as a member of God’s family is to do the will of the Father.

To be a brother or sister of Jesus is both a fact about who you already are and a calling toward who you will become as you “take on the family resemblance” more and more. If you have been baptized, you have been “born again” as a son or daughter of God (John 3:4). And as this family member whom Jesus looks at with love, you are also called to love God and do his will more and more each day.

Today, then, thank your Father for making you his child. Your weaknesses, sins, or failings do not make you unlovable or remove you from his family. He sees you exactly as you are, and he calls you to live with him as a beloved family member. And then, being a son or daughter, he empowers you to live like one, someone who does the will of your Father out of love for him.

How can you do God’s will today? By doing the simple tasks that God gives you each day. By calling to mind Jesus’ presence with you as you work. By asking him for the grace to perform those deeds with a loving, cheerful heart, and offering them to the Lord. These shifts in attitude can change your experience, turning drudgery into joyful service. Whether they feel pleasant or trying, these decisions to do God’s will in company with Jesus will bring you even more deeply into your Father’s loving embrace.

“Here I am, Lord. I come to do your will.”

2 Samuel 6:12-15, 17-19
Psalm 24:7-10
Mark 3:31-35