Saturday in the 27th Week Of Ordinary Time, October 9, 2021

Luke 11:27-28

While Jesus was speaking, a woman from the crowd called out and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed.” He replied, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.”

The wedding ceremony went well.  My sister’s daughter shone with her beauty (which, as I informed my sister, comes from my side of the family) and the groom was handsome.   

The woman who “raised her voice” as the Greek says, is filled with excitement, even elation, at the words Jesus says but still more at his very Person.  She does not cry out in praise of his words, but in praise of him.  Or, it is more than praise.  She may feel love for the first time in her life and expresses her rapture in her blessing of his Mother.  She sees the Mother in the Son and blesses her to bless him.  While she uses a figure of speech to honor Jesus, she also does bless the Virgin Mary.  In this, we begin to see how Mary’s words, “All generations will call me blessed” begin to be fulfilled.  The Lord accepts the woman’s words for himself and his Mother and reveals their full meaning.  The Greek text has: “Indeed, blessed those who hear the word of God and keep it.”  The word translated as “rather” in the lectionary has the primary meaning of “indeed” and “truly”, strengthening the statement it precedes.  Here, the Lord identifies his Mother as blessed in her obedience to God’s will in hearing him, and in her continuous obedience to God’s law and his call throughout her life.  Speaking in this way, he calls this anonymous woman herself to share in this blessedness through her own obedience to God.  Those who place themselves at God’s disposal in this way will hear Jesus say, on the last day: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25, 34).