Lent: With One VoiceSample

JESUS’S DEFINITION OF FAMILY

The Wu family, founders of Wing Lung Bank, donated HK$20 million in 2010 to a local university to set up a Research Centre for Cancer. What was so unusual was that the centre was named after the family’s two former maids who had served the family faithfully for over fifty years. The Wu’s have treated their maids like family and have lived out Jesus’s radical notion of loving those who are not related by blood. Jesus has transcended the narrow definition of family based on biological kinship. Jesus has challenged us today to obey God’s commandment of loving our neighbours, regardless of class, race and gender, and including those often rejected by the community, such as foreign domestic workers, prisoners, sex workers, homosexuals, HIV positive and Aids patients in our midst. Jesus regards people who do the will of God as His brothers and sisters and mothers.

FOR REFLECTION
• Are you ready to embrace those who have been excluded, and welcome them to become a member of our divine family?
• What are the difficulties in including these marginalized people to be part of our family?

PRAYER
Gracious God, we pray for the people who do not have a family to take care of. Strengthen the Christian family to share the love of God with people who are alone. Help us to embrace each other as sisters and brothers regardless of our class, race, gender and sexual orientation. May we all live a life according to Your will of love and to bring You glory. Amen.