Reflection
Today is Saturday, October 10th. It is the Saturday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time.
“Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.”
Those are the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel from Saint Luke. Those words are in response to a woman in the crowd who proclaimed, “Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed.” It may seem that Jesus is rebuking the woman and dishonoring Mary, his mother, in the process. That is not the case.
Mary was blessed from the moment of her immaculate conception; blessed to be chosen to be the mother of the Son of Man. The angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she had found favor with God, would conceive and give birth to a son who was to be named Jesus and would be the mother of the Son of the Most High.
Mary is one who is included with these words of Jesus - “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.” Mary heard the word of God from the angel Gabriel and she observed it. Mary was obedient to the word of God through her consent. With the words, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”, Mary gives her fiat.
Jesus is not dishonoring Mary. Rather He is honoring her as one who heard the word of God and observed it AND He is inviting all of us to enter into her blessedness. The Word was made flesh in the womb of Mary and, through her obedience, poured forth from that womb for the world to hear.
We are invited to give our own fiat and listen to and observe the words of her beloved son, Jesus. If we respond to that invitation, in faith, we are able to enter into the state described by Saint Paul in his letter to the Galatians. We will have clothed ourselves in Christ. We will become “all one in Christ Jesus.” We will “belong to Christ”. Could there be a greater blessing then to share in the intimate union that Mary and Jesus experienced?
Mary, Mother of God, pray for us so that we too can be counted among those who are blessed.