Tuesday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Luke 8:19-21

“My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.”

Yesterday’s Gospel passage concerned “mission”:  the work that the follower of Christ carries out so that others may see the Light of Christ.  Today’s Gospel passage, also from Chapter 8 of Luke, speaks to the nature of Christ’s Church.  In the final sentence of today’s Gospel passage Jesus speaks not just about one person following Him, but about what all His followers have in common:  “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.”

Acting upon the word of God describes the mission of those who follow Jesus.  Yet we might want to pause and focus our attention upon the former action of Jesus’ followers.  Before they can act upon the word of God, they must “hear the word of God”.

The prologue (the first eighteen verses) of St. John’s Gospel account describes Jesus as the Word of God who became flesh and dwelt among us.  To describe Jesus, the Son of God, as the “Word of God” is mysterious, and raises a lot of questions in our minds.  Nonetheless, it’s true that in listening to Jesus, we are listening to the Word of God.  In other words, God the Father speaks to us in the person of God the Son.  So we might rephrase what Jesus says in today’s Gospel passage in this way: “My mother and my brothers are those who hear Me and act accordingly.”

To hear Jesus demands that we first stop and listen for that Word.  That’s not always easy.  It’s the first step, even before hearing the word of God and then acting upon it.  Stopping and listening for the Word of God requires attention and focus, which do not come easily in our hurried, scattered culture.