Pages from the Past: Brother and Sister and Mother to Jesus

James Tissot, Jesus' Exhortation to the Apostles
courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum via Wikimedia Commons

“Whoever does the will of my Father is brother and sister and mother to me.” 

In my meditation, I noticed these words in particular: “will of my Father”; Jesus “stretched out his hand” and also—he did not say “brother or sister or mother” as if, “pick one”—but “and,” as if speaking of the sum of all family relations; a single relationship more intense and encompassing than any one alone; a new kind of degree of relationship. 

St Paul picked up on that idea, I suspect, when he said we were members of Christ’s very body, and he our Head. Because the relationship is not only one way; if we are Jesus’ “everything” (except, of course, his origin), we are “everything” to Jesus, and he is everything—the sum of all relationships—to us.

"Pages from the Past" are randomish excerpts from my old journals. I process things in writing, so there were a lot of volumes, but here and there I found notes that were still pertinent or helpful. I got rid of the books (hello, shredder!) and typed up the things I wanted to save, whether for myself (mostly) or to share.