Praised be Jesus and Mary.
Today's saint is St. Angela Merici. She was born in Desenzano, a town in northern Italy, in 1474. She received a good upbringing from her pious parents. In fact, when she was a child, her dad would read the lives of the saints to her and her siblings, and she tried to imitate them since she was a little child. She prayed, fasted, slept on the floor, and did all that she was inspired to do by reading—or rather, having read to her—their lives. She, however, lost her father, sister, and mother by the age of 15. She lived with her maternal uncle after that, and at the age of 22 became a member of the Franciscan Third Order. She had a vision from God calling her to found a company of virgins. She gathered young women in response to that to teach faith and virtue, and she founded the religious order of the Ursulines, the Company of St. Ursula, whose mission was to provide Christian education to young women. She guided this new congregation until she died on January 27, 1540, and her body afterwards remained incorrupt as a sign of God's presence in her soul, God's presence in her life, and the fact that God, through her, wanted to accomplish something important and special for the Church.
Going from her life now briefly to today's Gospel, in which Mark tells us that Jesus is summoned—Jesus is called by His mother and brothers and sisters standing outside wishing to see Him. So, of course, this is Mary, His mother, and His cousins—brothers, sisters in the broad sense—and the response of our Lord has to be understood correctly.
Two comments are worth making about this Gospel. First, the strong words of Jesus are not intended as a response or lesson for His mother or against His mother. These words are frequently taken and misunderstood as if our Lord was trying to distance Himself from His mother. These words are not intended for her, but for those who think that Jesus would do a favor for those who were His relatives. In fact, again, there was a crowd. Not everybody could get as close to our Lord as they wanted, and certain persons thought that blood ties with our Lord would receive preferential treatment. And our Lord's response puts the emphasis on spiritual ties rather than blood ties, spiritual bonds rather than carnal ones. Our Lord is not introducing a conflict between blood ties and spiritual ties. In fact, two of His Apostles were His relatives—His brethren in the broad sense—James and Jude—but they're not privileged because they're relatives. In fact, Peter, John, and James are more privileged than they are. So again, spiritual ties with our Lord are more important than carnal ones.
And then the second observation is that our Lord did not wish to receive His mother the way she was being presented to Him at that moment—by those who saw and appreciated only flesh and blood, only saw her as an ordinary mother. And she was not an ordinary mother, but one who conceived and gave birth by the power of the Holy Spirit. For this reason, Jesus didn't wish to receive her announced as a mere ordinary mother. This would have diminished her dignity, which our Lord did not wish to do, nor did He wish to reveal at that moment the exact scale of her dignity—that she was the Virgin Mother of God. It would not have been understood, perhaps even derided. And Jesus allowed other doctrines of His to be derided, but He would not allow this one to be derided. So, in a veiled way, He expresses how His mother is united to Him by doing His will. Because Our Lady, in fact, perfectly fulfills the definition of maternity of Jesus. She hears, and she acts. And in fact, it was the profound union with the will of God that allowed her to conceive Jesus, pronouncing her fiat: “Let it be done unto me,” her agreement, the agreement of her will with the will of God. And devotion to Our Lady, for that reason, cannot do anything but that. Hearing Our Lady, being devoted to Our Lady, means hearing and doing the will of God. And that's what Our Lady wants for us most of all. And that's what Our Lady will help us to do if we practice that true devotion to her.
Praised be Jesus and Mary.