The Gospel for today (Lk 8:19-21) tells of an encounter between Jesus's mother and brethren who come to see him. They try to get closer to Jesus but cannot get in because of the crowds surrounding the Master. Jesus asks a question, "Who are my mother and my brethren?" And he gives what should appear to us as a surprising answer: "They who hear the word of God and act upon it."
The brothers of Christ--or to change the relational term: the sons of the Father--are those who hear God's word and act upon it. And so we have here a map to our ultimate destination in life, a path to divine sonship. First we must hear. Where do we hear God? In prayer. "In the silence of the heart, God speaks," as Mother Teresa so often repeated. And to hear, we must be silent.
So we are reminded of Mother Teresa's spiritual axiom: souls of great prayer are souls of great silence. The first step to becoming sons in the Son, children of the Father, is to learn silence. There is a silence of the body, a silence of the mind, a silence of the heart.
But as St. James exhorts us, "be doers of the Word and not hearers only" (Jas 1:22). To hear the word of God and not to act upon it--this is a great tragedy, because it is a refusal to accept the great dreams, gifts, and plans that God has made for us. It is to reject our own ultimate happiness, because our ultimate beatitude is in God. "I have come that they may have life!" It is life with the Father.
How do we become doers of the Word? Through charity. The fourth vow of the Missionaries of Charity is wholehearted and free service to the poorest of the poor. We can all live this vow, even if we do not publicly profess it. In this vow, we encounter the ideal of the Christian moral life. Faith, hope, and charity abide (1 Cor 13:13). But charity is the greatest. For to live a life of charity is to live the life of God, since God is love (1 Jn 4:8). Charity becomes the path to life.
The brothers of Christ--or to change the relational term: the sons of the Father--are those who hear God's word and act upon it. And so we have here a map to our ultimate destination in life, a path to divine sonship. First we must hear. Where do we hear God? In prayer. "In the silence of the heart, God speaks," as Mother Teresa so often repeated. And to hear, we must be silent.
So we are reminded of Mother Teresa's spiritual axiom: souls of great prayer are souls of great silence. The first step to becoming sons in the Son, children of the Father, is to learn silence. There is a silence of the body, a silence of the mind, a silence of the heart.But as St. James exhorts us, "be doers of the Word and not hearers only" (Jas 1:22). To hear the word of God and not to act upon it--this is a great tragedy, because it is a refusal to accept the great dreams, gifts, and plans that God has made for us. It is to reject our own ultimate happiness, because our ultimate beatitude is in God. "I have come that they may have life!" It is life with the Father.
How do we become doers of the Word? Through charity. The fourth vow of the Missionaries of Charity is wholehearted and free service to the poorest of the poor. We can all live this vow, even if we do not publicly profess it. In this vow, we encounter the ideal of the Christian moral life. Faith, hope, and charity abide (1 Cor 13:13). But charity is the greatest. For to live a life of charity is to live the life of God, since God is love (1 Jn 4:8). Charity becomes the path to life.
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