Tuesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 306

Fallen leaves

Therefore, he is not ashamed to call them “brothers” saying:
I will proclaim your name to my brethren,
in the midst of the assembly I will praise you. (Psalm 22: 22)

Many Christians cope with deep psychological issues around shame, and an army of counselors have been raised up to help them. Sometimes they fight it; saying. “There should be no such thing as shame. “And, “It should never be used in the formation and discipline of children.”

But it’s there, whether we like it or not. Village and school yard children, permitted to freely associate with one another, quickly learn how to shame one another into acceptable behavior. Not only do they learn what words not to say and what attitudes to take, they also learn not to wet their pants or soil their britches. That sort of thing is not done in our polite society!

But in a dysfunctional family or school, shame can be used cruelly and carelessly; and many people grow up ashamed of their very being. Despite their scrupulous attention to right acting, speaking and thinking they believe they have no right to exist and no claim on the love of others.

They – and I include myself in this group – need to hear this verse from Hebrews 2:11,

“He is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.”

This is another lesson many people learned on the playground. We claim one another as friends, and we welcome that claim from others. We freely, generously and eagerly wrap ourselves in the complicated web of human relationships. We are friends of, siblings of, children of, nieces and nephews and neighbors of one another – and happy about it.

Jesus the Son of God tangled himself in human affairs as the son of Mary and Joseph, a brother (in whatever fashion) to “James and Joseph and Simon and Judas and his sisters;” nephew to Zechariah and Elizabeth and cousin to John the Baptist. Not only did he have family, sometimes they were troublesome to him, as we find in Mark 3:21. The great American biblical scholar, Father Ray Brown, suggested that Jesus’ family might have attempted to wrest leadership of the new church from the apostles. They were suddenly proud of the one they had disowned. Father Brown found traces of that struggle in the New Testament.

In any case, Jesus knew human relations of every sort, as a child, relative, neighbor, friend and enemy. He knew the complexity of politics, both local and international. And he was not ashamed to call anyone his brother or sister.

If the Lord is not ashamed of me; if he welcomes me into his Church, I will certainly not be ashamed of myself! Amen!