feeling close.

[Luke 8:19-21.]
Then his mother and his brothers came to him but were unable to join him because of the crowd.
He was told, "Your mother and your brothers are standing outside and they wish to see you."
He said to them in reply, "My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it. +++

hmmmm...
wouldn't it have been great to be the guy to tell Jesus: "hey Bro, your mom and friends are here".
i wonder who THAT guy was.

Jesus then replied in a tone that seems snobbish when you look at it from a daily conversation point of view.
If somebody told me that my mom and my friends are outside and they want to see me, i'd probably go "ok il be there in a bit, what did i do anyway?". I probably wouldn't tell em something that's partly dismissive.

This gospel is a bit confusing because we don't know what the context was.
Maybe there were people outside waiting to see Him who got impatient and all and namedropped so that they'd be given priority to see Jesus.

Or maybe Mary and Jesus' "brothers" (probably the apostles) didn't really want to see Him that badly, but some jackass just wanted to announce that some religious VIPs just arrived.

aaanyway, i think what the Gospel is saying is that some people assume that they're close to God/Jesus just because they were in speaking terms with Him, or they hung out with Him, or because they offered more to the Church or because they gave alms or something... i think what Jesus is trying to tell us here is that we shouldn't be assuming.

wag tayong Feeling Close ika nga :P

maybe He was letting people know that being close to Him is not important, what matters is how we live our lives.
being religious is not the same as being a good person. that's what i think.
maybe he wanted the scribes and the pharisees and the hypocrites to KNOW that its not what you KNOW about religion that matters, its what you DO.

i read this line somewhere: "do not let religion get in the way of living a religious life." or something to that effect.
confused?

here's a good example:
a priest who molested a little girl = going to hell.
an ex-convict who saved a little girl from a flaming building = going to heaven.