Last year my brother was very sick. The family rallied around him and saw that he got the care he needed to recover. Now he is thriving. We went out of our way to care for him because that is what families do. The gospel challenges us to expand our notion of family. St. John in the epistle says that ‘every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God.’ Jesus “come in the flesh” means faith is more than an idea we profess or simply a movement of the heart. Faith must take flesh. Jesus told us that whatsoever we do for the least we do for him. That is acknowledging Jesus come in the flesh. Jesus said whoever does the will of God is “brother and sister and mother to me.” Jesus come in the flesh has transformed all flesh into the family of God since we have him as our elder brother. Everyone has a claim on us for that’s what the family of God does.
