Tuesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

The men of my family
me, David, Rick, Bob, Jim

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.”

Five times in today’s reading we hear stretch, stretching, and stretched. Moses stretched out his hand over the Red Sea at God’s command in the Book of Exodus. In the Responsorial Psalm (also from Exodus) God stretches out his hand and the earth swallowed his enemies. And Jesus stretches his hand over his disciples and says, “Here are my mother and my brothers.”

Liturgically we recognize this gesture when the priest blesses the bread and wine which have been placed on the altar, and when he blesses the congregation at the end of Mass. We use it also in the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, Ordination, Reconciliation and Anointing of the Sick. It might be supposed the groom and bride stretch their hands toward one another as they join hands and pledge their troth.

Stretching out the hand is not simply a warlike gesture, as we might suppose from the Book of Exodus. It is also an expression of gathering, healing, blessing and tenderness. It is God’s blessing us as a mother comforts her child; it is His gathering us as a husband embraces his wife.

In today’s gospel, learning that his mother and brothers have come to hear him speak, Jesus includes you and me among them. Hearing his word we have become his mother and brothers and sisters.