PASSING THROUGH WATERS 

July 20, Tuesday

SIXTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

 

      In epic style and with a superabundance of poetic detail, the authors of Exodus write down, centuries after the events themselves, the realization that God himself had saved his people. The waters of the Sea of Reeds engulfed slavery and marked the beginning of freedom in God; they set off the people of God from the people of idols; later, the waters of the Jordan allowed a free people to enter its new fatherland.

      This passing through saving waters is used in the New Testament to describe baptism; baptism is the beginning in the Christian of all true liberation, a passing with Christ from slavery to sin to life in God.

Jesus assures us that what brings us close to God and makes us his relatives is doing the will of the Father. This is all that matters, more than ties of blood. This mission was the core and meaning of Jesus’ life and death. Let us pray that his faithfulness may also be ours.

 

First Reading: Exodus 14:21–15:1

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and God, with a terrific east wind all night long, made the sea go back. He made the sea dry ground. The seawaters split.

The Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground with the waters a wall to the right and to the left. The Egyptians came after them in full pursuit, every horse and chariot and driver of Pharaoh racing into the middle of the sea. It was now the morning watch. God looked down from the Pillar of Fire and Cloud on the Egyptian army and threw them into a panic. He clogged the wheels of their chariots; they were stuck in the mud.

The Egyptians said, “Run from Israel! God is fighting on their side and against Egypt!”

God said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea and the waters will come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots, over their horsemen.”

Moses stretched his hand out over the sea: As the day broke and the Egyptians were running, the sea returned to its place as before. God dumped the Egyptians in the middle of the sea. The waters returned, drowning the chariots and riders of Pharaoh’s army that had chased after Israel into the sea. Not one of them survived.

But the Israelites walked right through the middle of the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall to the right and to the left. God delivered Israel that day from the oppression of the Egyptians. And Israel looked at the Egyptian dead, washed up on the shore of the sea, and realized the tremendous power that God brought against the Egyptians. The people were in reverent awe before God and trusted in God and his servant Moses.

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to God, giving voice together,

 

Gospel: Matthew 12:46-50

While he was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers showed up. They were outside trying to get a message to him. Someone told Jesus, “Your mother and brothers are out here, wanting to speak with you.”

Jesus didn’t respond directly, but said, “Who do you think my mother and brothers are?” He then stretched out his hand toward his disciples. “Look closely. These are my mother and brothers. Obedience is thicker than blood. The person who obeys my heavenly Father’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

 

Prayer

Lord our God,
you passed with your chosen people
through the waters of the sea to a land of freedom;
you lead us, your new people,
through the waters of baptism,
that we may pass with Jesus, your Son from death to life.
Make us aware that for them and for us
this passing was only a beginning.
Stay by our side on the road of life
that we may keep growing in the freedom
of faith and hope and love
through him who set us free, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

 

Reflection:

“Who is my mother, and who are my brethren?” (Mt 12:48).

With this question, Jesus challenged his hearers to reflect on who are the members of their family, their relatives and loved ones. Then he sets a new criterion for the Family of God: “Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, sister, and mother” (v. 50). The challenge for the listeners was to be part of this new family.

The concept of this Family of God became so strong a binding force for the community of disciples, especially after the Pentecost experience. They lived together as a family, sharing everything and was willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of their brothers, sisters – their now-found family. As the community grew in numbers, the missionaries who left their homes and natives for far off lands, because of their convictions that they were part of a family much larger than those based on blood-lines, religions and nationalities. The missionaries, in the history of the Church, set out in search of family members they did not yet know.

If not for the efforts of those missionaries who came in search of the faces of their “unknown brothers and sisters,” this family of Jesus would have lacked the African faces, Latin American faces, Chinese and Japanese faces!

In the Gospel, Jesus calls his listeners as his brother, sister and mother. And that invitation is for all those who listen to him even to this day. He gives us the invitation to be missionary disciples by sharing with others what Jesus did and said. He ate with sinners, assuring them that they too had a place at the Father’s table and the table of this world; he touched those considered to be unclean and, by letting himself be touched by them, he helped them to realize the closeness of God.

During his Mass in the National Stadium in Bangkok in Thailand in 2019, Pope Francis said, this family of Jesus also include children and women who are victims of prostitution and human trafficking, young people enslaved by drug addiction and a lack of meaning, migrants, deprived of their homes and families, exploited fishermen and bypassed beggars. All of them are part of our family. They are our mothers, our brothers and sisters. Let us not deprive our communities of seeing their faces, their wounds, their smiles and their lives. Let us not prevent them from experiencing the merciful balm of God’s love that heals their wounds and pains. A missionary disciple knows that evangelization is not about gaining more members or about appearing powerful. Rather, it is about opening doors in order to experience and share the merciful and healing embrace of God the Father, which makes of us one family – the family of God.

 

Video available on Youtube: “Who is my mother, and who are my brethren?” (Mt 12:48).