'Who are my mother and my brothers?'

'Who are my mother and my brothers?'
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When Jesus was preaching, word was brought to Him that His mother and brothers were waiting outside for Him.

Taking advantage of the situation Jesus asked,  'Who are my mother and my brothers? ' in order to bring home to His audience one important fact.

Some people who find it difficult to give importance to Jesus'  mother take this question to their advantage to mean that Jesus Himself did not give importance to His mother.

But what did Jesus mean?

He Himself gives the answer.

"Anyone who does the will of God, that person is my brother and sister and mother.''

Suppose we want to praise a person by comparing him to some well known thing,

will we compare Him to an important thing or an ignorable thing?

'This man is Tamilnaattu Gandhi. '

'This man is Tamilnaattu Kotse.'

Which of the above two sentences gives the man praise?

When we want to speak well of a person we compare him to someone who is highly estimated by us, not to someone who is in our low estimate.

If Jesus compares His disciples to His mother, it only  means  that He has very high regard for His mother.

His question only implies, ''My mother does the will of God,  so whosoever does the will of God is like my mother."

'தாயைப் போல பிள்ளை.' is a Tamil proverb.

'Children are like their mother. '

We are the spiritual children of mother Mary.

So our spiritual life must be like Mary's.

We should carry out the will of God  in our life.

Mary had Jesus in her womb for nine months.

Whenever we receive Jesus in Holy Communion and take Him in we are like His mother as long as He is within us.

So we are like our mother Mary whenever we receive Holy Communion.

Our mother followed Jesus on His way of the Cross.

Whenever we carry our cross we can be sure that  our mother is with us, consoling us with her sweet words.

As long as our mother is with us we can be sure of a safe heavenward journey.

We shall meet her face to face in heaven and be in her motherly embrace for ever and ever.

Lourdu Selvam.