Families can be interesting, can't they. We all have our quirks, our conflicts, our times and places where things don't go right. We long for conflict-free relationships, and sometimes feel bad that we aren't able to achieve that. We might even blame ourselves for not preventing family discord. Perhaps today's Gospel (Mt 12: 46-50) might give us a bit of comfort in that regard, in that we see today that even Jesus' family was not without its conflicts. In today's passage, Jesus' "mother and brothers" are trying to get to see him, but they can't get through the crowd. Jesus' response to the situation is pretty dismissive. Rather than try to get people to stand aside so He can talk to His family, He suggests, in essence, that earthly family is second to the family of believers, and that His true "mother and brothers" are His disciples, who do the will of the Father. A bit of a back of the hand to His human family, to be sure. We might see the reason for all this if we look at Mark's Gospel, where the run-up to this event is discussed. Mark tells us that Jesus' family has concluded that He is out of His mind, and they are looking to take charge of Him, presumably so they can talk some sense into Him (Mk 3:21). It is with that in mind that Jesus' "mother and brothers" are trying to get to Him. They think He's nuts, and they're desperate to figure out how to fix Him. Not surprisingly, Jesus wants nothing to do with that. Obviously things eventually turn around, and jesus' family comes to understand who He is and that His actions are from God. But for a while, the family relationships must have been incredibly strained. Maybe that gives us some hope when our own families go through tough times. We're certainly farther from perfection than were Jesus mother and brothers, and yet they got crosswise with Jesus. Happens to the best of them, as they say. Maybe the plan is to hang in there, not break off contact, and pray that things turn around, confident that in God's time, they will. It worked for Jesus' family.