Homily for Saturday of the 27th Week in Ordinary Time

Our Gospel passage today must be one of the shortest Gospel readings in our Lectionary; it is just two verses long. This brief story of the exchange between Jesus and a nameless woman is told only by St. Luke.

Women have a more prominent place in Luke’s Gospel than they do in the other Gospels. Of the four Evangelists, Luke offers the best balance between the male and female disciples of Jesus.

On this particular occasion, a woman was so impressed by Jesus that she suddenly spoke out with praise for His mother, whom she proclaimed to be blessed for carrying Jesus in her womb.

While we know that Jesus loved and cherished His mother, He used the woman’s words as an opportunity to give praise to a much wider group. Even happier and more blessed than His own mother, are those who hear the Word of God and keep it. Jesus’ mother belonged to that wider group and she, more than anyone else, heard the Word of God and kept it.

Mary’s blessedness is due to giving herself over to hearing and doing God’s Word. To that Word her lifelong answer was, “May it be to me according to your word.” [Luke 1:38] May we devote ourselves to hearing and doing God’s word, that we, too, may be blessed. +