“Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” – Mark 3:35

       I flashed a triumphant smile. It was my birthday celebration and I invited a few friends to come over. To make the preparation extra-special, I challenged the best cook in the world — our father — to a cooking competition. Whoever receives a majority vote from my guests wins.

       Lo and behold, I won by a landslide. One of my sisters asked me, “How did it happen? Did you bribe them?”

        I laughed. “Of course not. They’re my close friends! I know them well, including the food that they like. So that’s what I cooked.”

       When we are in a personal relationship with someone, it’s not too hard to figure out what pleases them.

        It’s the same with God. Jesus reminds us that we cannot call Him our brother or friend if we don’t carry out His will. And it’s only by being in a relationship with God that we can discern — and hopefully follow — His will for our lives. How can we completely obey someone we’re not connected with?

     Obedience underscores the confidence that we have in our relationship with Christ. Maymay R. Salvosa (christiane.salvosa@gmail.com)

Reflection:On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your personal relationship with Jesus nowadays? Why?

Help me to know Your will for my life, Jesus. And grant me the grace to carry it out.

St. Francis de Sales, bishop and doctor of the Church, pray for us.

St. Francis de Sales, whose Feast we celebrate today, wrote many works in defense of the faith. His best-known work is his two-volume exposé on the love of God. Francis focused on God’s love as he lived at a time of much confusion and violence in the Church with the Protestant Reformation raging in Geneva, Switzerland. Love is the true and perfect sacrifice we can offer to God.

1 Brothers and sisters: Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of them, it can never make perfect those who come to worship by the same sacrifices that they offer continually each year. 2 Otherwise, would not the sacrifices have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, once cleansed, would no longer have had any consciousness of sins? 3 But in those sacrifices there is only a yearly remembrance of sins, 4 for it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats take away sins. 5 For this reason, when he came into the world, he said: Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; 6 burnt offerings and sin offerings you took no delight in. 7 Then I said, As is written of me in the scroll, Behold, I come to do your will, O God. 8 First he says, Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings, you neither desired nor delighted in. These are offered according to the law. 9 Then he says, Behold, I come to do your will. He takes away the first to establish the second. 10 By this “will,” we have been consecrated through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all.

R: Here am I Lord; I come to do your will.

1 [2] I have waited, waited for the Lord, and he stooped toward me. 3 [4] And he put a new song into my mouth, a hymn to our God. (R) 6 [7] Sacrifice or oblation you wished not, but ears open to obedience you gave me. Burnt offerings or sin-offerings you sought not; 7 [8] then said I, “Behold I come.” (R) 9 [10] I announced your justice in the vast assembly; I did not restrain my lips, as you, O Lord, know. (R) 10 [11] Your justice I kept not hid within my heart; your faithfulness and your salvation I have spoken of; I have made no secret of your kindness and your truth in the vast assembly. (R)

Jesus is not interested in the conventions of the day. He is only interested in proclaiming the truth of the Gospel and calling others to help Him do so. We need to decide how committed we will be to do the work of the Gospel. This is60 what matters to Jesus – discipleship. Pope Francis calls us to be missionary disciples and we cannot do this without choosing Christ.

Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth; you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the Kingdom.

31 The mother of Jesus and his brothers arrived at the house. Standing outside they sent word to Jesus and called him. 32 A crowd seated around him told him, “Your mother and your brothers and your sisters are outside asking for you.” 33 But he said to them in reply, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 And looking around at those seated in the circle he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. 35 For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

think: Have you ever experienced a conflict between what God wanted for you and what your family expected of you? How did you handle it?

Read the Bible in one year  Luke 10-12

T O D A Y’S BLESSING LIST

thank You, Lord, for: ______________________________________________________

HOW IS YOUR VISION?

There is a way of looking at life, persons and events called a tunnel vision. Typically, when you are in a tunnel, everything else is dark and you focus only on the tiny speck of light at the end it. People with a tunnel vision are the same. They tend to be narrow-sighted. They only see what is in front, what is obvious. At worst, they refuse to see beyond what is before them.

       On the other hand, we can look at life from the vantage point of a peripheral vision. As the term connotes, people with a peripheral vision do not only see what is in front of them. They can see the periphery, those which are in the  margin of their vision and attention. People with peripheral vision see more and appreciate more. The world can be revealed to them in its complex beauty and diversity, and they see more of life. Thus, they are more alive.

       The Gospel for today speaks of the “controversy” concerning Jesus and His relatives. When informed that His relatives are outside waiting for Him, Jesus responded in a way that seemed like He disowned His relatives: “Who are My mother and my brothers? ... These are My mother and My brothers. Whoever does the will of God is brother and sister and mother to Me.” Obviously, His town mates recognize Jesus’ relatives and His origin.

       Jesus here invites us to look at the words “mother,” “brother,” “sister” and “relatives” with a peripheral vision. Kinship in the Kingdom of heaven goes beyond consanguinity and familial bonds. Kinship is not only a passive experience as one does not get to choose the family one is born in.

       In the Kingdom of heaven, we are called to actively choose to make the other a mother, a brother or a sister. People with a peripheral vision share in the vision of God. As the Bible says, “God looked at everything He has created and He found them good” (Genesis 1:31). Fr. Joel Jason

---------- REFLECTION QUESTION ----------

Do you share in the vision of God? Can you see the good in every person, race, culture and religious persuasion?

Lord, teach me to judge my life and the life of others in the way You do so that we can be worthy of the love and salvation that You have for us. Amen.