Homily for Saturday of the 2nd Week in Ordinary time

St. Mark strongly infers that many people did not understand Jesus during His public ministry. One question that keeps coming up in one way or another is, "Who then is this?" 

In today's notably short Gospel reading, it is evident that even Jesus' relatives do not understand Him or what He is doing. When the demands placed upon Jesus stop Him from eating properly, St. Mark tells us that His relatives attempt to take control of Him, certain that "He is out of his mind." They would soon learn that He would not allow His relatives to control Him. 

Jesus was doing His heavenly Father's work, and part of that work was to form a new family, a family of disciples, brothers and sisters of Jesus, sons and daughters of the Father. Jesus' own natural family, his relatives, would have to learn to accept that. 

All of us are members of that new family; we are all the fruit of Jesus' work, a work that people struggled hard to understand at the time. For us who are part of this new family, the question, "Who then is this?" remains a relevant question. We are always struggling to know the Son of God more fully, whose brothers and sisters we have become.+