💖 HOMILY - JULY 23 💖

First Reading - Micah 7:14-15,18-20 

Gospel - Matthew 12:46-50

We all belong to a family. Our belonging to a family reminds us that we also have responsibilities toward our families. Today's readings invite us to become responsible members of God's family by doing God's will, which is our responsibility.

The first reading is a prayer for forgiveness, an attestation of the loving mercy of God, one of the three prayers of hope added to the end of the prophecy. The opening lines suggest the circumstances of the return from the Exile, when the little community was huddled around Jerusalem, beset with enemies all around them and unable to enjoy the pasturelands surrounding the city. The passage celebrates the experience of God's mercy in the past and invokes the continuous experience of His mercy on the people.

In the gospel, we come across a very strange episode where Jesus apparently refuses to acknowledge his family members. In fact, he doesn't do that but widens the family circle to include all those who do the will of God; it includes all his followers in the circle of family. He doesn't denounce his mother but exalts her role in his life because she perfectly carried out the will of God by readily accepting to be the mother of Jesus.

My dear friends, we are called today to become part of God's family. We are certainly members of God's family by the very fact we are baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. However, Jesus emphasizes that our belonging to him is more apparently manifested by our life to carry out the will of the Father. We have the best example in Jesus, who says: "I have come to do the will of my Father," and the Blessed Virgin Mary, who fulfills the will of the Father by accepting to become the mother of God. Furthermore, we are also reminded that God, as our Father, pours out His mercy on us despite our failures and sins. Therefore, we, as God's sons and daughters, are to be always eager to do what He expects from us. It's our reciprocal response that can help us establish an intimate relationship with God. Jesus is keen on inviting us to become a close-knit family of God. We know that there are many Christians who are baptized but don't practice Christianity. Are they really the members of God's family? Perhaps, only in name. We are to become the family of God by living as God wants and expects from us. Let's seek always to remain faithful members of the family of God by desiring to do God's will in our lives.

May God help us to seek His will always in our lives.