A Brief Liturgical Commentary on Matt. 12:50

One of the best ways to read and understand Holy Scripture is through the prism of the Church’s traditional liturgy. This authentic Lex Orandi of the Church’s tradition is not only safe for her children, but also highly illuminating of the Sacred Page for those who want to profit from it.

Today is the feast of the Ss. Septem Fratrum Martyrum, ac Rufinæ et Secundæ Virginum et Martyrum — the holy seven brothers [sons of Saint Felicity], martyrs, and Saints Rufina and Secunda, virgins and martyrs. Let us look at the Gospel of their Mass, which is proper, and see how the Church’s use of it for their feast is itself an enlightening commentary on how to understand the inspired text as a true Christian:

At that time, as Jesus was yet speaking to the multitudes, behold his mother and his brethren stood without, seeking to speak to him. And one said unto him: Behold thy mother and thy brethren stand without, seeking thee. But he answering him that told him, said: Who is my mother, and who are my brethren? And stretching forth his hand towards his disciples, he said: Behold my mother and my brethren. For whosoever shall do the will of my Father, that is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother. — Matt 12:46-50

Driving the message home with an intense focus, the Communion verse of today’s Mass echoes the last verse of the passage, make it clear that today’s martyrs are in her maternal mind:

Quicúmque fécerit voluntátem Patris mei, qui in cœlis est: ipse meus frater et soror et mater est, dicit Dóminus.

Whoever does the will of My Father in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother, says the Lord.

Saint Felicity is the mother to seven martyred sons, each of whom she saw die in different gruesome ways. She later became a martyr herself sometime in November, but is, very fittingly, commemorated with her boys, whom she birthed, on they day they were born into eternal life. Because she is a mother and her sons brothers, it would seem apt that, in employing these inspired words for the Communion verse of today’s Holy Mass, the Church has these eight martyrs especially in mind, and not those two virgin martyrs of nearly a century later, Saints Rufina and Secunda, who share a feast with them.

Saint Felicity is a mother of Christ because she did the will of His Father in Heaven. She mothered Christ in her sons by her virtue, her instruction, her edification. She is that “valiant woman” of Proverbs 31 whose “children rose up, and called her blessed” in their own supreme witness to Christ in martyrdom. For their part, these seven sons are Christ’s brothers because they, too, did the will of the Heavenly Father by confessing Him before men. To this beautiful mother and her manly sons, Our Lord’s words in Matt. 10:32 clearly apply: “Every one therefore that shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven.” He confesses them as His mother and His brothers, and they are, for that reason, part of the great family of God in heavenly beatitude.

This episode from Matthew 12 is often abused in the hands of heretics. Many of them “wrest” this passage, “as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction” (2 Pet. 3:16). In particular, they weaponize it against he blessed Mother of God, as if Jesus meant to slight Our Lady. But they miss the point: While He made it amply clear what it takes to be His metaphorical mother and adopted brothers (doing the will of the Father — good works, anyone?), He did not say that the Virgin Mary was somehow unqualified! In fact, if we read this pericope with the analogy of faith in mind, He made it clear that, apart from all sentimental considerations, Our Lady’s true greatness is that She does the will of God — which is precisely what we see Her doing whenever She appears in the Gospel, from the Annunciation to the Passion to Pentecost.

(A passage from another Gospel, Luke 11:27-28, is similarly employed against Our Lady by these heretics, whereas it, also, shows Her true greatness. I have treated both of these passages from an apologetical angle in For the Honor of the Virgin.)

May the Church in our own day be enriched with more brothers and sisters and mothers of Christ! Saint Felicity and her Seven Sons, pray for us.