Daily Gospel Reflection

Who Is My Neighbor?

Hi, I'm Matthew Kelly, and welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where we're exploring the genius of Jesus, His life, His teachings in the gospel. Today's gospel reading is from Mark's Gospel, chapter 3, "And Jesus' mother and his brethren came and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting about Jesus. And they said to him, 'Your mother and your brethren are outside asking for you.' And he replied, 'Who are my brother and my brethren?' And looking around on those who sat about him, he said, 'Here are my mother and my brethren. Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.'" So was Jesus disrespecting his mother and his relatives? Absolutely not. We see here is really an extension of what I believe is the biggest question in human history, the biggest question in the human experience. The question is, who is my neighbor? Who is my neighbor? And answering that question leads us to ever deeper levels of spirituality, morality, ethics, both as individuals and as a society. When we really think about the question, "Who is my neighbor?"

And so Jesus is inviting us into that bigger perspective again. It's not just the person who lives next door. Just like he was saying, "Okay, yes, the person who is my mother, the person who are my brethren, are those who do the will of God." And that's the big concept in today's reading, isn't it? Whoever does the will of God. Are you doing the will of God? Sometimes I think we pretend will of God is impossible to know because that's convenient, right? Because the reality is we don't want to always do the will of God. A lot of the time we want to do our own will. And so if we say to ourselves, "Well, I don't know what the will of God is," or, "I'm confused about what the will of God is," or, "It's impossible to know what the will of God is," sort of just to give ourselves a pass to do whatever we want. But let's think on a deep level today. What is the will of God in your life, this time in your life, this season of your life, in a particular situation you encountered today, what is the will of God? Have a great day. Remember, don't just be yourself. Be the very best version of yourself, all that God created you to be.