SEPTEMBER 22, 2026 MSGR. ROBERT NUSCA
Today’s Gospel, is taken from St. Luke’s account of Our Lord’s ministry in the region of Galilee. Here, in what is essentially part of a training session for the Twelve Apostles, we find Jesus teaching about the life of faith and the nature of true discipleship. And as He and the disciples prepare to begin their journey to Jerusalem, Our Lord challenges them to focus their attention on what is truly essential.
As Jesus instructs His disciples He is also preaching, teaching and performing miracles before the adoring crowds who have gathered around Him. Indeed, as we have just heard, so many people surround Him that Mary and those closest to Our Lord are having a difficult time reaching Him owing to the size of the crowds. And several things emerge for our reflection.
First of all, when Jesus says that those who hear the Word of God and put it into practice become like Mother and brothers to Him, we see that Jesus calls us not just to be followers and disciples, but to become members of a new spiritual family.
Here, St. Francis of Assisi, in his First Letter to the Faithful, suggests that we become brothers and sisters of Jesus – and I quote – “when we do the will of the Father who is in Heaven. We are mothers [of Jesus] when we bear Him in our hearts and bodies with divine love and with pure and sincere consciences. And we give birth to Him through a holy life which should enlighten others because of our example.”
So it is that more than a call to love and serve God and our neighbor, and beyond the call to become disciples of Jesus and follow Him, ultimately those who follow and are obedient to the will of Our Father in Heaven enter into an intimate familial, spiritual bond with Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Indeed, when we consider the story of our journey of faith as reflected not only in today’s Gospel but elsewhere in the writings of the New Testament, we see that, Jesus calls us not only to become part of a new spiritual family, but to a profound and everlasting transformation. For ultimately, more than followers and disciples, and beyond the new family of faith united in the love and service of God and our neighbour, we see that Jesus is calling us along the path that leads us to become a whole new creation.
The life of faith lived deeply and to the full results in our being radically transformed to the depths of our being into something new: something that shares in the mystery of Christ’s own nature, something that is truly Christ-like.
St. Paul leads us to reflect on the nature and scope of this transformation in his Letter to the Ephesians, where he speaks very clearly in terms of the lifelong process of spiritual transformation that demands an ongoing effort on our part. In Paul’s own terms, this involves ‘casting off the old self…23 and putting on the new self, created to be like God in righteousness and holiness.’ And as I have said on more than one occasion, we find a profound theology of human transformation in Christ in the Book of Revelation. For instance, in chapters 2 and 3, Jesus promises to those who are faithful witnesses a whole series of spiritual transformations that come to mirror His own divine life and glory.
Those who give brave public witness to the Gospel will be given ‘Power over the nations.’ Jesus will give them ‘the Morning Star.’ They will dine with Christ, and He will grant them to sit with Him on His heavenly throne. These lines of spiritual reflection are developed in the early Christian writings.
St. Hippolytus, states clearly that: ‘for the sake of his own glory God has given us a share in His divinity.’ In their writings St. Athanasius, Augustine, Irenaeus, St. Thomas Aquinas and others lead us to reflect upon what it means to acquire a share in God’s divinity what it means ultimately to become a mother, a brother or sister of Christ, and more.
What are the marks of true discipleship, then? To live our lives in such a way that we are prayerfully attentive to the Word of God which calls out to us every day in the circumstances of everyday life, so as to discern what it is God is calling us to do; to live the Gospel fully through the life of prayer but also through our actions in the service of God and one another.
Jesus calls us to strive to live the life of holiness in imitation of the Saints of the Church as we follow Him on the Royal Road of the Cross. Here is the radical call to leave everything behind, which also demands a complete re-ordering of all of our attitudes, our relationships, of our attachments, of our very inner-being so as to be conformed to Christ, and in so doing to become truly “Christ-like.”
What does this involve? One modern theologian speaks in terms of allowing God to become the absolute center of all ‘spiritual attraction and gravitation’ in our lives. So it must be for us as disciples of Christ in our world today. God must become the very center and focus of all of our energies as the lives of the Saints show us so clearly.
For ultimately, to be a true disciple involves setting aside our ego, as we place God first. And at the same time, it is important to appreciate that true discipleship involves giving bold and courageous public witness to the Gospel before a disbelieving world that now, as in the time of Jesus, is hostile to its message and its values.
Our Lord’s teaching today that we are called to become His mother or brother or sister, leads us then to pause today on our own respective journeys and to reflect on a whole series of important questions…What is our treasure in this passing life? What do we hope for? In what have we invested our time, our thoughts; in what are we investing our energies? Like the Magi, by what star are we charting our spiritual journey in this world?
Finally, as Our Lord instructs His disciples concerning the true nature of discipleship, His teachings remain very relevant in our time especially regarding the exercise of power and authority in our world. For this new spiritual family established by Christ, demands that we treat one another as family members united in our obedience to the will of Our Father in Heaven. And so, we should not overlook the social dimension of today’s Gospel.
For as we reflect upon the truth that Jesus Himself came not to be served but to serve and to give His life for others, we can appreciate that His teachings together with His own living example remain far ahead of their time in our globalized world. For as those who truly hear the Word of God and put it into practice, it follows that we are called to care for one another like close relatives. This includes the poorest of the poor, the sick, the stranger, those suffering from food insecurity, the lost, the lonely and abandoned of our society.
As we continue to celebrate this Mass, let us pray for the grace not only to follow Jesus as servants, but to become brothers and sisters of Christ and so to be transformed and configured to Him in every dimension of the Paschal mystery. Let us pray for the grace, again in the words of St. Francis of Assisi that we too may give spiritual birth to Christ through a holy life so as “to enlighten others by our example.”
For as St. Maximus the Confessor observes: “The Word of God, born once in the flesh… is always willing to be born spiritually in those who desire him.”
