Can some one explain Mathew 12:46-50

[Pathway2]

Jesus’ Mother and Brothers
46 While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. 47 Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.”

48 He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

I am confused by this, I understand that sin is a matter of being disobedient to the LORD’s compassion. wounded themselves away from others and the LORD but how come this doesn’t dishonour his mother. what is the church’s stance on it.

 

[Vico]

Jesus’ Mother and Brothers
46 While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. 47 Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.”

48 He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

I am confused by this, I understand that sin is a matter of being disobedient to the LORD’s compassion. wounded themselves away from others and the LORD but how come this doesn’t dishonour his mother. what is the church’s stance on it.

His mother did the will of the Father in heaven, so was a member of his family. He was teaching the higher meaning of family.

• “And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.” (Lk 1:38)
• “And after the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses, were accomplished, they carried him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord:” (Lk 2:22).
• “Do whatever He tells you” (Jn 2:5)

 

[Pathway2]

so he did speak to her in the end?

 

[MT1926]

how come this doesn’t dishonour his mother. what is the church’s stance on it.

Actually, Jesus gives His mother an even greater honor here. He is saying My mother doesn’t get a pass because of Me. She isn’t just riding my coat tails into heaven. She is My mother because she freely chose to do the will of the Father.

She did this when she said…Be it done to me according to your word.

She did it again when she said…Do whatever He tells you.

Jesus would never dishonor His own mother.

Hope this helps,

God Bless

 

[fide]

Non-Catholic anti-Mary types search for any Scripture that they can mis-interpret In such a way that Mary seems to be dishonored. There are NO passages in Scripture that dishonor Mary, His mother. Mary is His mother because she bore Him as all mothers bear their children, and also because she was further graced and called to be mother of all the faithful - mother of the Church. This was declared from the Cross: “Behold, your mother,” spoken to “the Beloved Disciple” (Jn 19:27). All “beloved disciples,” in other words, have Mary as mother in Christ.

But further, all faithful obedience disciples are called to bear fruit - to bear children (new disciples) - as Jesus commanded to the Church “Go, make disciples…” (Mt 28:19) - thus becoming “mother” to the full “Body of Christ” the Church.

 

[Pathway2]

“Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.”

48 He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

is was that she was asking to see him and that confused me.

 

[MT1926]

so he did speak to her in the end?

The Bible doesn’t tell us nor should we expect it to.

I’m sure when He finished teaching He would have spoken to her.

It is easy to see that Jesus was using this opportunity, of what was said to Him, as a teaching moment for His disciples. I’m sure His mother would have known and understood this and would not have been offended by His words.

God bless

 

[Pathway2]

what is honouring your mother and father than?

 

[MT1926]

what is honouring your mother and father than?

There is no one answer to this question or a list of dos and don’ts for honoring your parents.

Some basics…

If you are still living at home that would mean living by their rules whether you want to or not.

If you are on your own or have your own family now then you can do things your way (even they don’t agree) without dishonoring them.

However, at the same time you need to keep in mind that the above two basics can change based on the situation.

If you aren’t living at home (as Jesus wasn’t) honoring parents doesn’t mean you need to come running every time they call. Sure if it is an emergency then you better go running, but if they need something that can wait an hour then there is no dishonor in making them wait.

In the end it comes down to Love God and Love Neighbor.

God Bless

 

[Vico]

so he did speak to her in the end?

His mother (Virgin Mary) was with Jesus at the foot of the cross with John (John 19:26-27) so surely, also perhaps on the way to the cross when he spoke to the women of Jerusalem (Luke 23:28).

 

[Genesis315]

From a sermon of St. Augustine included in the Little Office:

Stretching out his hand over his disciples, the Lord Christ declared: “Here are my mother and my brothers; anyone who does the will of my Father who sent me is my brother and sister and my mother.” I would urge you to ponder these words. Did the Virgin Mary, who believed by faith and conceived by faith, who was the chosen one from whom our Savior was born among men, who was created by Christ before Christ was created in her – did she not do the will of the Father?

Indeed the blessed Mary certainly did the Father’s will, and so it was for her a greater thing to have been Christ’s disciple than to have been his mother, and she was more blessed in her discipleship than in her motherhood. Hers was the happiness of first bearing in her womb him whom she would obey as her master.

http://www.liturgies.net/Liturgies/Catholic/LittleOffice.htm

 

[gregoryphealy]

(Part 1 of 2)

A couple of interesting bits on this passage:

Luke records the following exchange between Jesus and a woman:

11:27 As he said this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!” 11:28 But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

I am sure that we can identify with this compliment offered by an unnamed woman in the crowd; a compliment which extends to the Mother of Jesus in light of who He is and her relationship to Him as mother. This text provides support to the tradition of the Church which honors Mary, precisely because of her role as the Mother of God.

At the same time, we must not overlook the response of Jesus, though we must understand its true significance. Jesus is not attempting to downplay the honor due His Mother. Though the RSV renders a word in verse 28 as “rather,” the Greek word behind this has a range of meanings, including “indeed” or “surely” or “much more.” In other words, we are dealing with a contrast, not contradictions. Jesus was not contradicting the point that his mother was blessed for being His natural mother but He was extending the opportunity to be blessed or happy to those even beyond the limits of biological and familial relationship. In a similar manner, we find that when Jesus is told that His mother and kinfolk are looking for Him, his response is to broaden the scope of those who are in relationship to him to include those who do the will of God. Again, this is not to deny or diminish the privileged place of Mary as His mother, but to emphasize that any of us can be brought into the family of God.

Source

 

[gregoryphealy]

(Part 2 of 2)

• …To understand well the sense of this response it is convenient to look at the situation of the family in the time of Jesus.
• In the Old Israel, the clan, that is, the large family (the community), was the basis for social living together. It was the protection of the families and of the persons, the guarantee of the possession of the land, the principle vehicle of the tradition, the defence of identity. It was the concrete way on the part of the people of that time to incarnate the love of God and the love toward neighbour. To defend the clan was the same as to defend the Covenant.
• In the Galilee at the time of Jesus, because of the system established during the long periods of government of Herod the Great (37 BC to 4 BC) and of his son Herod Antipas (4 BC to 39 AD), the clan, (the community) was becoming weaker. The taxes to be paid, both to the Government and to the Temple, the debts which were increasing, the individualistic mentality of the Hellenistic ideology, the frequent threats of violent repression on the part of the Romans and the obligation to accept the soldiers and give them hospitality, the ever growing problem of survival , all this impelled the families to close themselves in self and to think only of their own needs. This closing up was strengthened by the religion of the time. For example: the one who gave his inheritance to the Temple, could leave his parents without any help. This weakened the fourth commandment which was the backbone of the clan (Mk 7, 8-13). Besides this, the observance of the Norms of purity was a factor of marginalization for many persons: women, children, Samaritans, foreigners, lepers, possessed persons, tax collectors or Publicans, the sick, mutilated persons and paraplegic persons.
• And thus, the concern with the problems of one’s own family prevented the persons to meet in community. Now, in order that the Kingdom of God could manifest itself in community living of the people, the persons had to overcome the narrow limits of the small family and open themselves again to the large family, to the Community. Jesus gave the example. When his own family tries to take possession of him, he reacted and extended the family: “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.” He crated a community.
• Jesus asked the same thing from all those who wanted to follow him. Families could not close themselves up in self . The excluded and the marginalized had to be accepted in the life with others, and in this way feel accepted by God (Lk 14, 12-14) This was the path to attain the objective of the Law which said “There must, then, be no poor among you” (Dt 15, 4). Like the great Prophets of the past, Jesus tries to consolidate community life in the villages of Galilee. He takes back the profound sense of the clan, of the family, of the community, as an expression of the incarnation of the love toward God and toward neighbour.

Source

 

[gregoryphealy]

tl;dr: Jesus is broadening the range of those who can be considered part of His family, and it in no way diminishes the role Mary played as His mother.