NOTES for Co1 12:12-13
The Gospels often tell us of the reward that the Lord’s followers get. Thinking of this which is waiting for them, people can imagine really very different things. For some this will be a ‘blessing’ of wealth, prosperity, comfort, and health. For some it means no sufferings in the afterlife. For some – spiritual richness. But few of us would ever dare to think of the reward that Jesus is speaking about in today’s reading. Those who fulfill God’s will become His brother, sister and mother. They get as close to the Lord as possible to be to a person – they become his family. Not just a group of hired servants or sheep from his flock. Not even a community gathered around their Teacher and Master, but a real family. Their relationship would be the one of loving brothers, or the one between a brother and a sister, or between a mother and a son. And being God’s relative surely is a bit too much of a reward to hope for. Only God himself can reveal that reality to those who can bear it.