In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
“Who is My mother,” says the Lord, elsewhere from today’s Gospel reading,
‘and who are My brothers?’
Matthew 12:48–50
And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, ‘Here are My mother and My brothers!
For whoever does the will of My Father in Heaven is My brother and sister and mother.’
The Lord does not dismiss His beloved Mother—we see elsewhere how much He honours her—nor His brethren, but that being part of the household of God is not according to blood lineage nor cultural bonds, rather it is about fidelity and faithfulness to God. The Lord regularly criticises the Sadducees, the scribes, lawyers and Pharisees for their hypocrisy but not those outside the Jews, yet when He finds fidelity and faithfulness among the Gentiles He praises it. “Lord,” entreats the Centurion, “my servant is lying paralysed at home, in terrible distress.” This man, part of the Roman occupation of Galilee, comes forward beseeching the Lord for help.
And in our society, in our world, there are many beseeching the Lord for help. They may be outside the household of God, outside Israel, but they come to Him asking, entreating, pleading—at the point of despair and loss, they remember the Father’s House (see Luke 15:11–32) begging for help.
For whoever does the will of My Father in Heaven is My brother and sister and mother.
And we, who claim to be of the household of God, must do the will of the Father. If we dare to take for ourselves the name ‘Christian,’ if we dare “with boldness and without fear of condemnation” to pray “Our Father, Who art in Heaven, … Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven,” if we dare to step forward and taste of immortality, then we must act.
Brothers and sisters, ours is not to perform miracles, this is for God and for those through whom He would act; ours is not to bring about conversions, this too is for God; ours is to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, take in the stranger, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned: (see Matthew 25:31–46) and through these the will of God is fulfilled, because through these—if we act for the glory of God and not for our own—we would let the Light of Christ shine through us.
Today we commemorate All the Saints of Britain and Ireland who themselves have become translucent and transparent to the divine Light. The Holy Apostles Simon the Zealot of the Twelve and Aristobulus of the Seventy, Alban our first martyr, Patrick, David and Columba, Bridget, Melangell and Hilda, Gregory, Augustine, Laurence and Theodore, Brendan and Kevin, Aidan, Cuthbert and Bede, Osyth and Etheldreda, Cedd and Chad, Winifred and Edith, Erkenwald and Felix, Frideswide and Æthelflæda, Swithun and Birinus, and all the countless hosts who sanctify these Isles in the Western Ocean. And this great cloud of witnesses (see Hebrews 12:1) is encouraging us, interceding with God for us, that we complete the will of God in our lives.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us fulfil the will of God in this land that those who come to the Lord in their poverty and despair—from outside the household of God—may have an encounter with the divine and be invited into His household:
And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one Shepherd.
John 10:16
And let us ask the intercession of all the saints, particularly of the Saints of these Isles, that we may be found to do the will of God and therefore worthy of the name ‘Christian’ and be heirs of eternal Life.
That we may offer true praise and worship to our God and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who is “the Way the Truth and the Life,” (John 14:6) that we may be led to His unoriginate Father by the power and grace of the All-holy, Good and Life-giving Spirit. Amen.
Brethren, glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek; for there is no respect of persons with God. For as many as have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law; and as many as have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law (for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God but the doers of the Law are justified. For when the nations who do not have the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law, these then, in spite of not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, and their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or perhaps excuse them) in the day when God judges the secrets of persons, according to my gospel, through Jesus Christ.
— Romans 2:10–16
At that time, as Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, beseeching him and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying paralysed at home, in terrible distress.” And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” But the centurion answered him, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard him, he marveled, and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.” And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; be it done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment.
— Matthew 8:5–13