Those who hear God's Word and who do it are blessed. Persons who accept what they are called to do in each and every moment are blessed. We are reminded of these truths in today's Gospel, where we hear that
It happened that as Jesus was speaking, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said, "Blessed the womb that bore You and the breasts that fed You!" But He replied, "More blessed still are those who hear The Word of God and keep it!"*
As Saint Augustine has noted, Our Blessed Mother Mary is blessed moreso because she heard The Word of God and kept it, rather than just because she carried Jesus in Her womb. Our Blessed Mother Mary assented to the will of God that she would conceive through the power of the Holy Spirit, and bear the Son whom she would name Jesus. In response to the angel Gabriel informing her that this would come to pass, she declared to the angel Gabriel, "Let it happen to me as you have said."** Our Blessed Mother Mary heard The Word she was to bear, and welcomed Him into her womb, and, more deeply, into her heart. She was so blessed because she heard the will of God and acquiesced to it.
In how she lived her life while she walked on this earth, Our Blessed Mother Mary gave us a hint of the message she would come back to give in her apparitions to Saint Jacinta, Saint Francisco, and Servant of God Lucia. When she appeared to these peasant children in Fatima, Portugal in 1917, she told them that we are called to pray much and make sacrifices, since many souls go to Hell since they have no one to pray for them. Later Jesus told Lucia that the sacrifices demanded of each of us are the performance of the duties of our state in life.
In our lives, we are constantly called to do our duties. As the author of "The Cloud Of Unknowing" notes, we will be called to account for every fraction of time that has been given to us. We are always being called to attend to the duty of the present moment, as the Jesuit priest Jean-Pierre de Caussade described. In every little moment, we can make little sacrifices of love of our neighbor, as Saint Therese of Lisieux demonstrated.
In each little instant of time, the duty of the present moment calls us to perform little acts of love for our neighbor. Where each one of us happens to be, there we are called to love our neighbor as ourselves, just as Jesus taught us to do.*** Wherever each of us finds ourselves, there we are to love others and thus do the will of God, just as the situation calls us to do.
For Our Blessed Mother Mary, in the moment when the angel Gabriel announced to her that she would bear the Son whom she would name Jesus, her duty was to give her consent to bear the Son of God in her womb. In accepting the duty presented to her, she accepted the Son of God not only into her womb, but also into her heart. She heard The Word proclaimed to her, that she would bear Jesus, and she accepted This Word and carried The Word out. She was so blessed since she heard The Word of God and submitted to it.
Those who obey the will of God are blessed. People who hear The Word of God, and who do what The Word calls them to do, are blessed. If you wish to be blessed, do what the state of your life calls you to do. Amen.
* Luke 11:27-28
** Luke 1:31-38
*** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14
It happened that as Jesus was speaking, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said, "Blessed the womb that bore You and the breasts that fed You!" But He replied, "More blessed still are those who hear The Word of God and keep it!"*
As Saint Augustine has noted, Our Blessed Mother Mary is blessed moreso because she heard The Word of God and kept it, rather than just because she carried Jesus in Her womb. Our Blessed Mother Mary assented to the will of God that she would conceive through the power of the Holy Spirit, and bear the Son whom she would name Jesus. In response to the angel Gabriel informing her that this would come to pass, she declared to the angel Gabriel, "Let it happen to me as you have said."** Our Blessed Mother Mary heard The Word she was to bear, and welcomed Him into her womb, and, more deeply, into her heart. She was so blessed because she heard the will of God and acquiesced to it.
In how she lived her life while she walked on this earth, Our Blessed Mother Mary gave us a hint of the message she would come back to give in her apparitions to Saint Jacinta, Saint Francisco, and Servant of God Lucia. When she appeared to these peasant children in Fatima, Portugal in 1917, she told them that we are called to pray much and make sacrifices, since many souls go to Hell since they have no one to pray for them. Later Jesus told Lucia that the sacrifices demanded of each of us are the performance of the duties of our state in life.
In our lives, we are constantly called to do our duties. As the author of "The Cloud Of Unknowing" notes, we will be called to account for every fraction of time that has been given to us. We are always being called to attend to the duty of the present moment, as the Jesuit priest Jean-Pierre de Caussade described. In every little moment, we can make little sacrifices of love of our neighbor, as Saint Therese of Lisieux demonstrated.
In each little instant of time, the duty of the present moment calls us to perform little acts of love for our neighbor. Where each one of us happens to be, there we are called to love our neighbor as ourselves, just as Jesus taught us to do.*** Wherever each of us finds ourselves, there we are to love others and thus do the will of God, just as the situation calls us to do.
For Our Blessed Mother Mary, in the moment when the angel Gabriel announced to her that she would bear the Son whom she would name Jesus, her duty was to give her consent to bear the Son of God in her womb. In accepting the duty presented to her, she accepted the Son of God not only into her womb, but also into her heart. She heard The Word proclaimed to her, that she would bear Jesus, and she accepted This Word and carried The Word out. She was so blessed since she heard The Word of God and submitted to it.
Those who obey the will of God are blessed. People who hear The Word of God, and who do what The Word calls them to do, are blessed. If you wish to be blessed, do what the state of your life calls you to do. Amen.
* Luke 11:27-28
** Luke 1:31-38
*** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14
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