Tuesday Reflection from Sr. RoseMary Finnegan, O.P.
Readings from: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/092623.cfm
I enjoy seeing those ‘Ancestry.com’ commercials where someone has discovered their extended family tree and genealogy. They’re surprised and excited to learn their lineage. My favorite is the young woman who found out that a very, very distance cousin of hers was George Washington. She’s smiling proudly into the camera while holding a portrait of her ‘cousin George’!
In our gospel today, Jesus is making a point about who belongs to his family. It may sound a little disconcerting to us at first when Jesus was told, "Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, and they wish to see you.", and he replied: "My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it." It’s not a response we would expect from Jesus…in fact, it seems a bit harsh and insensitive to our ears.
What Jesus was trying to teach us, however, is that our primary relationship in life is our relationship with God. This relationship supersedes the strongest of all family bonds. We belong to God before we enter into relationship with anyone else. Our lifelong identity is as a child of God, and in that communion, we are sisters and brothers to one another. And just as all family relationships grow and develop, so do we in God.
When Jesus said: "My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.", it was not meant to be a rebuke, but rather an invitation for us to grow and deepen our bond with God. Jesus is actually welcoming us into the same intimate relationship he has with his mother Mary.
Today we celebrate two men who entered into that relationship with God wholeheartedly. We don’t know much about Sts. Cosmos and Damian, but we do know they were twin brothers born in Arabia in the third century. They both studied medicine and devoted themselves to the rich and poor alike, accepting no payment for their medical services, thus earning their title, "The Silverless Ones". These miraculous patrons of medicine were accused of being Christians by two fellow doctors and arrested by the governor. They were tried in a court of Ceasar's and sentenced to death by torture, eventually being beheaded. Because of their generosity and their dedication to both the body and soul of those they served, their names are among those we hear in the Roman canon of the Mass and the litany of saints.
Truly Sts. Cosmos and Damian were those who, as Jesus says, ‘heard the word of God and acted on it’. May their work of evangelization through selfless service in the name of Christ continue to deepen our virtues of courage and fidelity to Christ.
Sts. Cosmos and Damian, pray for us.
