October 10, 2015
Saturday
27th Week
in Ordinary Time
1st reading: Joel 3.12-21
Gospel: Luke 11:27-28
As Jesus was speaking, a woman spoke from the crowd and said to him, “Blessed is the one who bore you and nursed you!” Jesus replied, “Surely blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it as well.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)
A woman from the crowd exclaimed that Mary was blessed because she had the privilege of nursing a Messiah. That woman focused on blood relationship. Jesus shifted her focus to a higher level. More than being his biological mother, Mary was his partner in the fulfillment of the Father’s grand plan to save mankind.
This reply opened to all people the possibility of being in Mary’s position. Had Jesus confined his recognition of Mary to the biological level, Mary’s position would have remained unreachable to others since blood relationship cannot be assumed. By declaring those who hear the word of God and practice it as his mothers and brothers, Jesus was not only raising the level of Mary’s significance from the biological to the spiritual, but also opened himself to a possible relationship with anyone desirous of embracing God’s will.
As Mary took her biolo-gical motherhood to the spi-ritual level by being a disciple of her own son, she was effectively taking that biological motherhood beyond the confines of their home in Nazareth to become the universal mother of all. This was later confirmed by Jesus’ offer of Mary at Mt. Calvary to be John’s mother – an offer interpreted by scholars as symbolically offering Mary to be mother of all humanity. This happened when Jesus told Mary and the Apostle John, “Son behold they mother; woman behold they son”. Our biological matriarch Eve died leaving us orphans, but in Mary humanity found a new mother who will never lead her children to the forbidden tree as Eve did, but to a much better tree – the cross of salvation.
For so many years we found a good intercessor in Mary not only because of her dedication to our welfare but most especially because of the favor she enjoys with Jesus as confirmed by the Cana event. Our slogan “To Jesus through Mary” encapsulates our conviction that Mary who enjoys the favor of the Lord will never keep devotees to herself. In Mary, nobody is lost because she makes sure that the devotee finds his way to salvation.
Growing deeper in our understanding of Mary’s role in our life we can revise our slogan to “To Jesus WITH Mary”. With Mary, we grow easier towards the stature of Christ and become Jesus’ mother, brothers and sisters as we become doers of God’s Will.—Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
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