Tuesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time II
July 21, 2026
Hello and welcome to the Word, bringing you the Good News of Jesus Christ every day from the Redemptorists of the Baltimore Province. I am Fr. Karl Esker from the Basilica of our Lady of Perpetual Help in Brooklyn, NY. Today is Tuesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time.
Today our reading is taken from the holy gospel according to Matthew.
While Jesus was speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers appeared outside, wishing to speak with him. Someone told him, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak with you.” But he said in reply to the one who told him, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.”
The gospel of the Lord.
Homily
In our readings today we hear a cry and a reply. Humanity cries out to God to see us as his family; and God replies in Jesus Christ that, yes, we all are his family, if we take to heart doing God’s will.
So, what does it mean to be family? Looking at my own experience, I believe that family is very important, and yet it can create difficulties. We cannot always get our own way. The needs of others often takes precedence over my needs. We are expected to look out for each other, even when we might disagree. But when we do look out for each other, when we appreciate the gift that is each member of the family and enjoy each other’s company, we find security and the strength to become the person God meant us to be.
I remember my grandmother recounting bits of the family history, with some notable members and a few not so notable. In the first reading, the prophet Micah calls on God to remember the notable moments in the past when God saved his people and forgave them their sins, and asks that he show the same clemency, “as you have sworn to our fathers from days of old.” We know that God did show clemency in the time of the prophet and has shown even greater love and mercy through Jesus Christ, who took on our flesh and became part of our human family.
In the gospel, when Jesus’ mother and brothers appear at the house wanting to speak with him, Jesus replies: “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.”
Some people use this passage to say that Jesus rejected his family, even his mother, in favor of his disciples. But both Luke and John in their gospels show Mary as one who always did the will of our heavenly Father, and therefore was the greatest of the disciples. Jesus is saying that blood lines do not give greater access to him; his family includes not only his mother and his brothers, but all who do the will of God.
And doing the will of God is imitating Jesus in his care for the poor and the marginalized. It is giving of ourselves to those who need us, being understanding and forgiving of those who may have offended us, and helping each other reach our potential as children of God, as in the best moments of family life.
Of course there will be moments when we fail to live up to these demands and will, like the prophet, have to ask God to show us his love and mercy and then give that same love and mercy to others. We ask Mary, whom Jesus gave to us as our mother also, to help us on this journey. And we take heart that as members of the family of Jesus, God looks upon each one of us with the same love God looks upon Mary.
May God bless you.
Fr. Karl E. Esker CSsR
Basilica of our Lady of Perpetual Help
Brooklyn, NY
