2 Sam 1:1-4, 11-12, 17, 19, 23-27 / Mark 3:20-21
We are called Christians. There are many words that can be used to describe who we are and what we do as Christians.
For e.g. we are to be loving and forgiving, generous and kind, merciful and compassionate, etc.
One simple expression could be to say that we are "big-hearted" people.
Big-hearted people also express love in a big-hearted way.
We not only love our friends and those who are good to us.
We also must rise above our selfishness that tends to make us hate those who hate us and to ignore those who ignore us.
In the 1st reading, we could see how David showed he was such a big-hearted person.
He forgave Saul who had persecuted him for so many years.
Not only did he lamented in grief over the death of Saul, he also remembered Saul's good qualities and he also remembered the goodness and love that Jonathan had for him.
Jesus Himself preached and showed the bigness and greatness of love.
But such bigness and greatness of love is not easily understood and accepted by others because they may have become numbed to the selfishness and evil they see so often around them.
Even the relatives of Jesus thought He was out of His mind.
But what is foolishness and madness for the world is indeed the bigness and the greatness of love.
That bigness and greatness is shown on the cross. It is in the cross we encounter the unfathomable bigness and greatness of God's love.