September 26, 2017
(Ss. Cosmas and Damian, Martyrs)
Jesus was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside and they wish to see you.” He said to them in reply, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.” Lk_8:19-21
It’s so easy for us to take a couple of sentences out of the Bible and make all kinds of inferences from them. Did Jesus have brothers and sisters? Was He blatantly rude to his mother? Or was He just making the point of the primacy of God over all others, even parents?
The Protestants take the brothers and sisters concept literally, while we believe that the translation is important, as there were no words for cousins or step-siblings in the ancient Aramaic/Hebrew. We also believe that Mary was kept virginally pure her entire life. So Jesus never really had any other direct siblings from His mother.
In the end, we are all His brothers and sisters, beloved.
And Mary is our Spiritual Mother as well!
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Whispers to the Wind 