First,
a Catholic trivia answer for you. We
are told that Jesus had brothers and sisters and our Gospel, and we may wonder,
“How can this be? Wasn’t Mary a
virgin?” Some will cite a verse
like this in attempt to show that we are foolish for believing in the perpetual
virginity of our Blessed Mother.
Yes, the Scriptures report Jesus’ brothers and sisters. Yes, also, do we maintain Mary’s
virginity. These can be reconciled
by recognizing the original languages of the Scripture had no word for cousin. The same is true in some places today. When I was in Ghana, Africa, they didn’t
have cousin in their vocabulary
either. Thus, what we consider cousins they do in fact call brothers and sisters. The men and
identified by the evangelist were not blood brothers or sisters but His
cousins.
Now
for a homily…
The
Scriptures repeat the importance of God’s will in our lives. At the most basic level God wills two
experiences for us: to be happy and to be holy. God wants us to be happy here on earth and forever in
heaven. He doesn’t want us to eek
through life or find constant distractions that blur our true desire for
happiness.
Yet
to be happy we must be holy. We
may hear the word holy quite a bit
and may be tempted to think it is a quality reserved to priests and nuns. Yet holiness is nothing more than being
in a relationship with our God.
God wants to be our best friend.
Think
about the ways you communicate with a friend—pictagram, facebook, texts, phones
and more. Granted, you can’t text
God, but He wants us to communicate with Him in a variety of ways in our
lives. Whether this is vocal or
mental prayer, reading the Scriptures, offering up a game or workout or
enjoying His beautiful creation in nature.
The
more we give to God, the more we receive from Him, and that is the stuff of
which holiness is made. Then we
may dare say with the Psalmist, “Here am
I, Lord, I have come to do your will.” And when we do His will, we will be happy.
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