Luke 8:19-21

           La Famiglia !

          19 Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him for the crowd. 20 And he was told, "Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you." 21 But he said to them, "My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it."

          In the new TV series, Major Crimes, a very young man, a witness and a victim whose mother has abandoned him, is the ward of Captain Raydor. Aside from any other weekly plot, this story line really shows a new family being created. It has all the hallmarks of love, concern, caring and respect. Not the typical family but a family none the less.

           In recent decades here in the US and perhaps around the world, the definition of family has grown as divorce has created newer varied family units, war widows, single parenthood and recently same sex families have burst into our consciousness.

           As we know when a gay person comes out, especially to their natural born family, they run the very real risk of being shunned. Not only do they run the risk of being thrown out of their homes, they run the risk of being thrown out of their social circles and their house of worship. Included in this is the insidious toleration of  being gay, people who accept another family member being gay on only a superficial level. People proclaim members as 'family' but in fact have nothing to do with them. That family member being gay becomes an elephant in the room and they wear the invisible "A" of Hester Prynne.

            As the support and love of family is almost the basis of our lives, gay and lesbian people construct another version of family. Perhaps it's another couple, two unattached gay people who live together and support each other, perhaps couples who socialize, love and respect each other. Still, a whole host of straight people who not only accept their gay friends but embrace it because they see the beautiful person that God created. These people create new families, no less valid and perhaps in many cases much more loving.

           In the reading, Jesus said "My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it." A family, any family, is not necessarily the one we are biologically born into. Family are those that hear God's words of love, who live out the two great commandments day in and day out with each other. This is nothing more radical than what Jesus is saying when he made a denial of sorts of his very own natural family and went the step further to say that family is the unit that walks the walk, not the one that talks the talk.

            Quoting Moonstruck yet another time,  let's toast La Famiglia!