Genesis 3:9-13
Psalm 130:1-10
2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1
Mark 3:20-35

"And His Own Received Him Not"

The Sacred Scriptures can offer frequent shocks of illumination, to borrow a phrase from my former teacher, Hugh Kenner. For many people reading this sentence, the shock can be extreme. This is not the picture we cherish of the Holy Family. We desire to see only harmony as we write micro-devotions like "JMJ" on our letters and emails. We wish for a Mary who understands fully Who Jesus is, the Son of God, protecting Him from a murderous world, which she had witnessed right after His birth and death. And we wish for a Joseph, the wise and holy widower, who took this little dove under his protective wing and taught and nurtured her Son Jesus, the God-man. But this is simply not the way it was.

The story of Mary is one of simple and pure faith. Here was a girl of perhaps fifteen sitting in a cave in Nazareth. (I have knelt in that cave beside my Bishop who silently blessed my Rosary beads.) She sat alone in this very quiet place and beheld an archangel. Now, we who have lived after the period when angels have been depicted as "cupid figures" may not realize how large and imposing an angel is. This is not a cute or domesticated little pet, but a fearsome creature radiating power and dignity. He said, "Be not afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God." And when she was told that the Holy Spirit would overshadow her and that she would give birth to the Son of God, she listened attentively. We can well imagine that she was stunned and could barely hear, much less understand, what was being said. The Holy Spirit? What's that? Overshadow? What exactly does that involve? Son of God? Son of God is a phrase that turns up in the Scriptures in Genesis, Deuteronomy, Job, and Wisdom usually referring to angels. But Gabriel did not unlock the Scriptures for Mary, nor could she realize that this moment in this cave was the turning point in all human history.

Nor could Joseph understand the real meaning of his role as protector. The lot fell to him to accept this role. All that he knew, according to our best sources, was that Mary was holy and that God had chosen him to be her protector. When they stood together in the Temple before Simeon, who did know what this child signified, St. Luke's Gospel reports, "And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about Him" (Luke 2:33). In other words, they were overwhelmed, stunned, dumbfounded, revealing that they had no idea who Jesus was. And they walked away in a state of, not intellectual understanding, but astonishment. We might say it was a heart-expanding, but not mind-expanding, experience.

Later, when Jesus was found missing from their caravan headed back to the hill country, and they found Him in the Temple, He said, "How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in My Father’s house?" (Luke 2:49). And, the text reads, "they did not understand the saying which He spoke to them" (Luke 2:50). They did not understand.

It turns out that the Holy Family did not go forward in perfect harmony nor did Joseph and Mary bear their life-and-death burdens with a perfect understanding of this holy mission. In fact, the case was nearly the opposite: they braved one harrowing experience after another — we recall Joseph being awakened by a dream instructing him to "arise and walk to Egypt!" — without understanding anything about this boy .... only that God had called them to do this, had chosen them, had trusted them to carry forward something that was important to God. Mary's words said it best from the beginning: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it unto me according to Thy word." These are shimmering words, sacred words that Catholics grew up hearing in Latin, Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum, sending chills up one's spine. Why does this happen? Even hearing about such moments is a transforming experience. It is our heart ringing! As we draw closer and closer to our true relationship with God, the true purpose of our lives, our hearts jump within us as surely as the infant St. John Baptist jumped within his mother's womb.

I began this morning by citing the New American Bible, the work of my seminary professor, John J. Collins, designated the official Bible of the U.S. Roman Catholic Church. As he often does, Prof. Collins speaks directly and boldly: His mother Mary and His step-brothers attempted to seize Him because they believed He was was out of His mind. The Greek word εξεστη can certainly mean insane. The Revised Standard Version translates, as usual, quite literally: they thought Jesus was "beside Himself," going back to the root for this word εκστασις (ekstasis), which means ek or ex "out of" (think our word external), one's current position, stasis. The shrewd reader will wonder about the connection to to our word, ecstasy, referring to a trance-like religious experience, an out-of-the body exerience. But this mystical use of the related word would not occur in the ancient world until the mid-third century A.D. (Longinus). No, reading the Greek will not shed more helpful light on this passage.

Mary and His step-brothers simply have come to lay hands on Him, to restrain Him, and to bring Him home. I say Mary and His step-brothers where the Greek text says family because in a later scene they will turn up asking for Him outside a place where He is speaking, which we read this morning our Gospel lesson. In a sense, Jesus' family is conforming to the opinion of the best religious authorities around them, who assert in this same scene that Jesus is possessed.

What we have depicted in our Gospel reading this morning is a crisis in faith. How many times have we been blessed by a holy moment and become filled with holy conviction but then months or years later the memory fades, and we ourselves fade in our conviction and purpose? The mind returns again and again demanding explanations from the soul which the soul cannot supply, for the soul has its own reasons which reason cannot understand. And now being under great pressure and feeling ashamed because respected religious men are mocking Him, their instinct it to retreat to their home taking their beloved Jesus with them.

In his great classic, Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis wrote,

He has brought us to this crisis, to this battle between brain and soul, this war between mind and heart. He has planned it all. It was the path He planned for His adoptive father, for His step-brothers, and for His mother, the Blessed and Glorious Ever-Virgin Mary. He does not expect us to piece out every detail of this mystery. Indeed, His true identity would remain a secret during His life on earth, — Biblical scholars call it "the Messianic Secret" — a mystery for us to enter with all our hearts.

We can betray Him. The mind can choose to betray Him, and ourselves, by giving human reason the upper hand and labeling Him "insane." "Will you betray me also?" He asks to each and every one of us. But we look into our hearts and say to Him, "Where else could we go, Lord? For You alone have the words of life .... and eternal life." And here we fall to our knees and say, "Behold the servant of the Lord. Be it unto me according to thy word!" This is the path blazed for us by our Beloved Mary — the quiet woman, the woman wrapped in silence, who saw certain things, not often, but then locked them as precious in her heart and pondered them again and again. She was not perfect in her every action. She did not always do everything right. But her heart and her conduct of life were right .... to the end. Today, she is known as the Queen of Heaven and Earth.

Recall the holy moments that have been granted to you. Lock them in the sacred precincts of your heart, for they are precious. Again and again, think on these things. Because for such as this there is mirth in Heaven, and for this the angels rejoice.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.