The Magnificat of the ages begins, Mary: Day 240

The Magnificat of the ages begins

Pope St. John Paul illuminates further our Lord’s response to the woman who cried out, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!” (Lk 11:28).

Is Jesus thereby distancing himself from his mother according to the flesh? Does he perhaps wish to leave her in the hidden obscurity which she herself has chosen? If this seems to be the case from the tone of those words, one must nevertheless note that the new and different motherhood which Jesus speaks of to his disciples refers precisely to Mary in a very special way.

Is not Mary the first of “those who hear the word of God and do it” (see Lk 11:28)? And therefore does not the blessing uttered by Jesus in response to the woman in the crowd refer primarily to her? Without any doubt, Mary is worthy of blessing by the very fact that she became the mother of Jesus according to the flesh (“Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked”), but also and especially because already at the Annunciation she accepted the word of God, because she believed it, because she was obedient to God, and because she “kept” the word and “pondered it in her heart” (see Lk 1:38, 45; 2:19, 51) and by means of her whole life accomplished it.

Thus we can say that the blessing proclaimed by Jesus is not in opposition, despite appearances, to the blessing uttered by the unknown woman, but rather coincides with that blessing in the person of this Virgin Mother, who called her- self only “the handmaid of the Lord” (Lk 1:38). If it is true that “all generations will call her blessed” (see Lk 1:48), then it can be said that the unnamed woman was the first to confirm unwittingly that prophetic phrase of Mary’s Magnificat and to begin the Magnificat of the ages.
—Pope St. John Paul II, Redemptoris Mater

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
What does it mean to “hear the word of God and keep it”? Is there some command in God’s Word that I presently have trouble keeping? How can Mary’s example help me keep it?

CLOSING PRAYER
With all generations I will call you blessed, Mary; for above all other disciples of your Son, you have most perfectly heard the Word of God and kept it.

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