"My mother and my brethren are they who hear the word of God and do it." (St Luke viii. 21.)

1st Prelude. Our Lady standing waiting on the outskirts of the crowd.

2nd Prelude. Grace to "hear the word of God and do it."

This one incident in which Mary is mentioned between the time of the Marriage at Cana and Holy Week, happened during the second year of her Son's ministry. We do not know whether or not she had been near Him during this time. According to the opinion of some, she was one of the little band of women who followed Him about, to minister to His needs and those of His Apostles. But whether she followed Him actually or not, we know that her spirit was ever with Him, and that she followed Him with her prayers, and interest, and sympathy, knowing Him more as He manifested Himself more by His healing and miracles, and therefore loving Him and imitating Him more, and therefore, growing in grace, of which she was ever full. Such, we are quite sure, is a true picture of Mary, though this one instance at Capharnaum is the only occasion on which we are able to make an actual picture of her.

Her Son had probably come to Capharnaum for a rest after one of His missionary rounds; it may be that He had come to have a little time of refreshment with her. And she and His brethren—His relatives—went to meet Him, desiring to speak to Him. We are not told what it was that they were so anxious to tell Him. When they arrived He was already addressing a crowd which was sitting about Him, and which was so great that His Mother and His brethren could not get near Him; and so "they stood without"—on the outskirts—and thus attracted the notice of someone who attracted His notice; someone, in fact, who interrupted Him in the middle of His discourse, by telling Him that His Mother and His brethren wanted Him. Such is the simple incident, and by it Mary affords her Son the opportunity of giving two most important lessons to His Apostles, and also to those who would, during all time, have any kind of apostolic work to do.

He is preaching, and He is interrupted. What does He do? Shows, as He had shown so clearly before, when He was only twelve years old, that His "Father's business" must come first—that He is perfectly indifferent to all natural ties when that is concerned, and that His followers have got to be the same. He is preaching to the people—that is His work, and not even for a desire of His Mother will He interrupt it. He preaches by example what He had already preached by word: "He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he that taketh not up his cross and followeth Me is not worthy of Me." (St Matt. x. 37.)

Incidentally, He shows us what we may do with our interruptions. We are so prone to let them worry us, to think that they spoil our work, to say: But for these endless interruptions, I could do so much more! What did our Lord do with His interruption, which was a very real one, and far more disturbing than are many of ours of which we complain so readily? He turned it into good use, so that His work was the gainer by it and not the loser. If we cannot always follow His example literally by making the interruption a direct help to our work, we can always make it help indirectly by taking it as a message from God, Who would give His Apostle an opportunity of practising patience, self-control, and self-repression. Our work will gain more by these divinely planned interruptions than by the smooth, easy, methods which we had planned for ourselves.

To the interrupter He said: "Who is My mother? and who are My brethren?" And, looking round on them who sat about Him, He saith: "Behold My mother and My brethren! For My mother and My brethren are they who hear the word of God and do it." It is the same lesson that He gave to the woman, who probably was one of the very crowd He was now addressing, and who could not refrain from proclaiming before everyone the blessedness of His Mother. To her He said: "Yea, rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it." (St Luke xi. 27, 28.) The lesson, then, is that He holds as His nearest and dearest those who do His Father's Will. His Mother was, it is true, dearer to Him than all besides, was, it is true, blessed above all women; but only because she did His Father's Will more perfectly than any other.

Who is My mother? Any of these in the crowd have as much right to Me as she has, if they do My Father's Will as she does it. This is the lesson that Mary is giving Him the opportunity of teaching.

Would I be dear to Him as His Mother was; would I have that close union of heart; would I see things from His point of view; would I be willing to be put in the background and kept standing there if it furthers the "Father's business"; would I be ready to suffer anything for the spread of His Kingdom? There is only one way—do as she did. "Whosoever shall do the will of My Father that is in Heaven, the same is My mother."

Colloquy with Mary standing in the background. Thou whose unique privilege it is to be the Mother of God, teach me to do His will in such a way that I may share in some degree thy spiritual maternity. This was thine by detachment—even from the visible presence of Jesus, by a perfect performance of the will of God, and by suffering. By thy ceaseless intercession help me to struggle ceaselessly till I know something of these three things.

Resolution. To prove my close relationship with Jesus and Mary to-day by the way I do God's will.

Spiritual Bouquet. "His Mother stood without."