"Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother." (Mark 3:35)
The Pharisees are watching to see if Jesus will heal on the Sabbath, so they can accuse him. Jesus knows their thoughts and calls the man with the withered hand to stand before everyone. He asks: Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill? They are silent. Mark records something remarkable: Jesus looks around at them in anger and is deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts. This is not a mild disappointment. It is righteous indignation at the perversion of religion, the use of the law of God as a weapon against the mercy of God.
He heals the man. And immediately the Pharisees go out and begin to plot how to destroy Jesus. A healing and a murder plot, on the same Sabbath. The contrast is Mark's theological point in a single scene: Jesus gives life; the hardened religious heart conspires toward death.
Jesus goes up on a mountainside and calls to himself those he wants. He appoints twelve, that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. Twelve, corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel. The new Israel is being constituted around the person of Jesus, with an inner circle of twelve who will be its foundation. The Catechism teaches that the College of Apostles, with Peter at its head, is the origin of the episcopal college that governs the Church today (CCC 880). The Church is not a human organisation that adopted a structure for convenience. It is a body whose structure was established by Christ himself on that Galilean hillside.
When Jesus' family comes to take charge of him, thinking he has lost his mind, and someone tells him his mother and brothers are outside looking for him, Jesus responds: Who are my mother and my brothers? He looks at those seated around him: Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother. This is not a rejection of Mary. Mary, more than any other human being, did the will of God. She is precisely the model of the family of God that Jesus is describing. What Jesus refuses is any claim based on biology alone. What he honours is the deeper bond: the bond of faith and obedience.
Brothers and sisters, Jesus called the Twelve to be with him first, and then to be sent. The order matters. We cannot give what we do not have. Before mission comes communion. Before we go out to preach and serve, we must sit at the feet of Christ long enough to know him. The quality of our witness will always reflect the depth of our time with him.
Lord Jesus, you appointed the Twelve to be with you and to share your mission. Call us more deeply into your presence and send us out renewed. Make us part of your family, not by accident of birth but by the daily choice to do your Father's will. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.