PERHAPS, when thinking of our Lady, we really begin with the Annunciation, and go on with the scenes of the "Childhood ", and then of her standing by the Cross, and then of her Assumption, and her constant prayer for us in heaven.
But anyone who is inwardly " different " from others, must have hours of solitude (I do not mean of loneliness). Thus when our Lady went to get water from the well at Nazareth. she could not but find herself among a number of women who not only did not know her unique secret, but whose outlook and way of talking and thinking was different from her own.
She could be endlessly kind and helpful, but, even when they loved her back, she was giving rather than taking. A perfectly mutual relationship could not be established.
It may seem strange, but even in the house of Nazareth she was " in exile", for she did not yet see God face to face. She was still in via, still a pilgrim.
But the time came when our Lord began His public life. and St. Joseph (as we hold) having died, our Lady had to live with. or near, relatives who did not believe in
her Son and were even hostile to Him, or at least exasperated by the notoriety He was causing them.
What of the apparent rebuff in Mk. 3:33-35? We think the sequence of events was as follows Enthusiasm at Capharnaum had grown to he such that our Lord was mobbed and found it impossible to so much as cat. News of this reached Nazareth, and His relatives came out to take Him away — for people were saying: "He is off His head!" (21).
The opinion, then, would have been that not of His kinsmen, but of those who came and informed them of the excitement (the change of subject is exactly like Mk. 2:18); and " He is become mad " is much too strong : the word is used for surprise, admiration, enthusiasm " He is out of Himself " is an exaggeration just as ours would be if we said : " He's simply killing himself " e.g. with over-work.
The arrival of the " deputation " from Nazareth is then described in verse 31. That our Lady came too is natural — as a mother she was anxious about her Son.
But it remains that our Lord insisted that nothing and no-one could make Him break off His mission. Our Lady herself had to endure the eepasatinn