The Word of New Obligations

From the Cross, Jesus expands family beyond blood. The Church becomes a community of those doing God's will, obligated to orphans, widows, and the estranged left behind.

When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. (Jn 19: 26-27)

While the crowd mocked and jeered, it is heartening to note there was present at the foot of the Cross those who really cared, especially women: “Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.”(Jn 19: 25) Again we note that in his last moments on earth, Jesus was concerned, not with his own condition, but with the accomplishment of his mission and with the welfare of those He was leaving behind. He did not go into self-pity, but was concerned about his mother and the disciple whom he loved. Jesus did not devalue his earthly relationships. But he lifted these relationships to a higher plain. Family and human relationships are precious and to be cherished. Jesus, even at this last stage of imminent death, takes responsibility for his mother and the disciple whom he loved. Jesus, by these words, invites us to be responsible and take seriously our obligations and commitments.

However, Jesus binds them into a new relationship of obligation and responsibility that transcend blood relationship and our narrow and parochial loyalties. In these days when our commitments and loyalties are narrowed down selfishly to one’s nuclear family, Jesus’ words to his beloved mother and disciple assume new meaning and significance. In a nuclear family, the husband, wife and children, often limited to one or two, would love and care for each other. But then, their ultimate point of reference becomes their family and the priority becomes enriching and securing that one family unit. In the process, our obligation even to parents and other elders in the family, left without any resources to rely on, is forgotten. It is increasingly becoming an institution in which children learn to be selfish.

In this cultural scenario, this word from the Cross, calls us to extend the boundaries of our family, obligation and responsibility. In Jesus, a new family is created, a family of those who do the will of his heavenly Father. When his mother and brothers tried to have access to him and talk to him in the midst of a crowd that was listening to him, Jesus lifts up the question of family and asks, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” He, then, pointing to his disciples and raises one of the strongest criticisms on our notion of family, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” (Matt 12: 49-50; Mk 3: 32-35). Jesus, on the Cross, lays the foundation for a new and extended family called the Church, a community that submits itself to do the will of Jesus’ Father, whom he taught us to call “Our Father”.

In this word, Jesus champions the cause of orphans, widows and those who suffer without a community to take care of them; the number of people in this category and condition are increasing – the mentally and physically challenged, people who are seeking a half-way home before they become fit to be integrated, battered women, the elderly who are left to fend for themselves, the home-less who seek a family to find love and care. Jesus calls us to a new responsibility and commitment. Will we hear his call for a community, instead of wallowing in our affluence and ritualistic piety? The Cross demands that we ever expand the circle of our love to include more and more of those who otherwise would be left out on the highways and byways of our life.

~ Prayer ~

O God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for adopting us as your children; and extend the boundaries of our family to include all those who are left out in the race of life. Thank you for the new family of the Church; help us never to be an exclusive club but be an inclusive fellowship that broadens the horizon of its responsibility and commitment, not only to our friends and benefactors, but also to all those who are widowed, orphaned and estranged. We pray trusting in your love manifested on the Cross. Amen