Does Mary Mind if Jesus calls us his brother, sister, mother?

While Jesus was speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers appeared outside, wishing to speak with him. Someone told him, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak with you.” But he said in reply to the one who told him, “Who is my mother?  Who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother. 

Every so often when today's Gospel (Mt 12:46-50) is proclaimed, I come across someone expressing the thought that Mary must have felt a twinge of pain upon hearing the words of Jesus. I know that those who say such things mean well: They are trying to identify with Mary. But I think they are missing something big. And in part it could be because they are not reading this passage in the light of the rest of the Bible.

For the past six months (or more!) I have been listening to an audiobook version of St Teresa of Avila's classic, The Interior Castle. It has been so helpful to me, I keep it on "replay" and must have heard it 20 or more times by now. A line that has struck me (perhaps I have already mentioned this) as almost the interpretive key of the whole book is taken from the version of the Song of Songs: "He set charity in order within her." In other words, the whole journey from the outer precincts of the "castle" (the soul) to the innermost throne room where the King of Kings dwells in his glory (in the selfsame soul!) is a gradual process of God establishing charity in proper order, so that the person truly loves "God with all the heart, all the soul, all the mind and all the strength" and one's "neighbor as self" (see Matthew 22:36-40).

   The Magnificat  
  James Tissot
Brooklyn Museum Open Collection             

From the first to the last, we can be sure that the Blessed Virgin Mary lived that way. Her Immaculate Conception meant that she was created with "charity set in order within her." Her heart was one with the heart of God. That is why Mary could not have been troubled, but delighted to hear Jesus say that anyone who did the will of God was his "brother, sister, mother."

To assume the opposite is to think Moses more generous than Mary, and Moses had been a murderer (see Exodus 2:12). Remember Moses' reply to Joshua's well-meaning plea that he stop the two elders who were prophesying in the camp (that is, apart from the other elders): "If only all the people of the Lord might be prophets! If only the Lord would bestow his spirit on them all!" (see Numbers 11:29).

Or think of John the Baptist's answer to those who, perhaps meaning to stir up envy, informed him that Jesus and his disciples were baptizing more people than the original Baptizer: "The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and rejoices to hear the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must increase; I must decrease" (John 3:29-30).

Mary's response must have been along the same lines, only more so, given her maternal love for God-made-man: "If only every person on earth would become the brother or sister or mother of Jesus! Then my motherly joy would be full!" Even now, as Queen of Heaven, she probably has those exact sentiments.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners,

That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ!