Who are my brethren?

"My mother and my brethren are those who hear the word of God and do it."(Luke 8: 21)

Mary was never far from the ministry of Jesus. Although she kept in the background during His public life, she was fully aware of what Jesus was doing. In this passage, we see Mary seek out her Son during His ministry. Jesus used the opportunity to teach us a useful lesson about what constitutes true relationship in the kingdom: "My mother and my brethren are those who hear the word of God and do it."

Navarre Bible Texts and Commentaries": writes -
"These words of our Lord show us that fulfillment of the Will of God is more important than kinship and that, therefore, our Lady is more united to her Son by virtue of her perfect fulfillment of what God asked of her, than by the Holy Spirit's using her to make Christ's body.....Therefore, the Church reminds us that the Blessed Virgin "in the course of her Son's preaching received the words whereby, in extolling a kingdom beyond the concerns and ties of flesh and blood, He declared blessed those who heard and kept the word of God as she was faithfully doing" (Vatican II, "Lumen Gentium", 58)."

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