Tuesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time (July 24, 2018): How important are you to Jesus?

Think about how much Jesus loves you. How important are you to Jesus, really? The correct answer is: As important as his own Mother, Mary the Queen of Heaven, the blessed and “highly favored one”!

We know Jesus had favorites: friends that he felt closest to, a mother he cherished, companions he enjoyed being with during the fun times, and a few he wanted near him during the worst of times, but never did he show favoritism. John “the beloved” was an especially close friend. James the apostle was a cherished relative whom he invited into the inner circle of the twelve. But as we see in today’s Gospel passage, Jesus did not give anyone, not even his Blessed Mother, preferential treatment.

In this scene, Jesus is busy ministering to the crowds who flocked to hear him and to get a healing from him. Mary brings along some relatives who want to speak with him. Without a pause to find out what they want, Jesus uses the opportunity to teach his listeners that they were all equally important. Anyone, he explains, who unites their will to God’s will is an important member of his family and is as loved and appreciated and valued as his own dear mother and his personal family.

That means you are equally precious to Jesus! You are as important to God as anybody!

Can you accept this? Or do you suppose your problems exist because you’re not special enough to God?

And can you accept that everyone else you know is as important to God as you are? Even the people you don’t like?

Find the followers of Christ who truly want to do the Father’s will and you will find the favorites of Jesus. God loves everyone equally, but the blessed are those who work hard at being holy. If you want to enjoy the blessings that come from being among God’s favorites, get more involved with those who love God. Seek out the ones who love God so much that it’s obvious that they love others too. You’ll usually find them busy serving in parish ministries. Join the same ministries!

Enjoying God’s favorites, however, does not mean that we can treat them with favoritism. Consider how readily we give special favors to family, to friends who are good to us, to people who worship like us and think like us, or to those we want to impress. Why aren’t we just as willing to do favors for anyone else? Another word for “favoritism” is “prejudice.”

Let’s be more like Jesus. Jesus is not prejudiced against you or me or anyone in any way, even when we sin. However, he really enjoys being close to us when we cherish doing the Father’s will. And that’s when we most enjoy being close to him!

Thank You, my Lord Jesus, because You paid the cost for giving me a wonderful, joyful and eternal family in Your Church. Praised be to You for those who listen to Your Word and put it into practice. Amen.