Today, we look at two engaging reflections on this famous passage from Luke regarding Jesus’ answer to the question, “Who is my mother?” Bishop Robert Barron points to the nature of family. He writes that there is nothing in the world wrong with fostering the flourishing of your family. But over and again, the Bible places the world’s goods into question—even something as good as family relationships. Why? Because family isn’t God. It is not that which you should serve with your whole heart; it doesn’t belong in the center of your life. Is family the point around which most of your energies revolve? Is it your primary focus as you make your way through the day? Are there times when you feel your family obligations competing with the will of God? That brings you back to today’s reflection verse, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.” So Fr. Ron Rolheiser asks, “Is Jesus distancing himself from his mother here?” He emphatically replies, “No.” He’s pointing out the fundamental link between them. Among all the people in the gospels, Mary is the pre-eminent example of the one who hears the word of God and keeps it.” Fr. Rolheiser goes on to note how Mary gave birth to Christ as something we are called to do in our lives – giving birth to faith in Christ. “Looking at how Mary gave birth to Christ, we see that it’s not something that’s done instantly. Faith, like biology, also relies on a process with several distinct, organic moments. What are these moments? What is the process by which we give birth to faith in the world? Mary wants imitation, not admiration. Our task, too, is to give birth to Christ. Mary is the paradigm for doing that. From her, we get the pattern: Let the word of God take root and make you pregnant; gestate that by giving it the nourishing sustenance of your own life; submit to the pain that is demanded for it to be born to the outside; then spend years coaxing it from infancy to adulthood; and finally, during and after all of this, do some pondering, accept the pain of not understanding and of letting go. It began with Mary, but each of us is asked to make our own contribution to giving flesh to faith in the world.”