Memorial of Saints Timothy and Titus, bishops

Lectionary: 560/316

When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, "He is out of his mind."

Family is most certainly a sacred institution, and rightly revered by every civilized society. But it's also peccable and pathetically subject to human frailty. If some people are surprised by Saint Mark's report that Jesus' family tried to contain and suppress his mission, the scriptures are not. The sacred genealogies found in Saint Matthew and Saint Luke count philanderers, prostitutes and murderers, with the great King David prominent among them. An extended line of ancestors that did not include such characters would be patently false. As Jimmy Carter said, “We’ve uncovered some embarrassing ancestors in the not-too-distant past. Some horse thieves, and some people killed on Saturday nights."
Discovering this about Jesus, we again celebrate the humility of God. Rightly we celebrate his mother's Immaculate Conception and Joseph's sanctity, recognizing the privilege God bestowed upon them; but we could never recognize our Savior if everything about him were "perfect." The poverty in which he was born and raised, and the abuse that he suffered; the insults, mockery, beatings, the crown of thorns, nails and crucifixion signify his absorption in human life. He was one of us and subject to everything we suffer including an embarrassment of ancestors. 

That he actually did so and would not pull rank to avoid our common lot certifies his right to redeem us. This beautiful man has vanished beneath the flooding mob that swallowed and destroyed him.
Today's gospel begins a story that will not be resolved until Tuesday when his family arrives and Jesus refuses to acknowledge them. As he says in Luke 14:26

“If any one comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple."

Saint John's prologue explains it clearly, He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him." And, more importantly, 

But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God.

and finally, "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God..."

Believing in Jesus should not destroy our relationships with family, but it must alter them considerably. Begotten by God through Baptism is far more important than our blood relationships, despite the old saying. Baptismal water is thicker than blood! 

Reborn in the Lord we may be sent back to our families as blessings because we know them deep within our bones and love them with the passionate affection of children.