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GREGORY Y. GLAZOV
why Elizabeth and the anonymous woman bless His mother. However, as the last sentence is this passage shows, St. Luke is careful to characterize Mary by the virtues that Jesus emphasizes as deserving of blessing to the anonymous woman. To keep what the angels and the shepherds said and ponder them in the heart unpacks the meaning of “hearing God’s words and keeping them,” with the addition that “keeping” is not a passive activity but an active one, it entails “pondering.”
ON MARY’S ROLE IN OUR RETURN TO PARADISE
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forth what she has heard with patience and become the mother of the Word that she heard and pondered in her heart. To state all this is simply to harmonize the words of Luke 11:28 with 8:21. If this explanation unpacks Luke’s Gospel’s intentions, we can see two things: The God so well and held on to his Word so closely that her hearing and keeping God’s Word yielded a hundredfold, namely Christ Himself and so, according to Luke 8:21,
And as for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bring forth fruit with patience... Take heed then how you hear; for to him who has will more be given, and from him who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away.” Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him for the crowd. And he was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you.” But he said to them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it” (Lk 8:15-21 RSV). The words in bold emphasize that keeping the word of God takes patience, whereby the fruit of that keeping is not automatic but requires energy, action or “doing.” “Keeping the Word” is here interpreted as “doing the Word.” The words in the last sentence of this passage explain that those who hear the word of God and “do it,” are Jesus’
us, we can thank and bless her. However, Jesus would not have us bless her without understanding that the mystery of Mary’s spiritual maternity and entry into the Kingdom of God is available to us as well through the hearing and keeping of God’s Word. We are not to praise Mary without imitating her and by means of this imitation we too may become “mothers” of the Word. Finally, if entry into the Kingdom of God entails a return, as it were, to Paradise, or to something better, we see that Luke’s Gospel presents Mary as both a cause and an exemplar of that return. To illustrate this more clearly, we may ask which women Elizabeth was comparing Mary to when she blessed her? Being a Jewess and wife of a high priest, she would have compared her to the heroines of their own race and biblical salvation history. As such, she would have compared her to the mother of the race, Eve, to the matriarchs, such as Sarah and Rebekah, to mothers of great prophets, such as Hannah, and many others.
the biological to the spiritual sphere. I want to emphasize the mystery of spiritual maternity that he points to, omitting for the moment the category of brothers, we may this phrase lines up exactly with his response to the anonymous woman, I venture to add that we have assembled enough clues to understand Jesus response to that woman. Like St. Elizabeth, the anonymous woman praised Jesus’ mother. Jesus’ response to her does not contradict or criticize her for what she said but directs her to understand that the reason why what she said is true has to do with hearing and keeping the
woman who did not believe what the Lord said. This unbelief, once transferred to Adam, led to their loss of Paradise. Sarah too models a degree of unbelief, evident in the famous account in Genesis of her laughing at the words spoken by the Lord that she and Abraham would have a child in their old age:
something spiritually stirring and enlivening within her. This is to say that she hears the Word of God. Jesus’ words to her direct her to hold on and keep what she has heard and experienced and not let go of it, so that by not letting go of it she too may bring
They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “She is in the tent.” The LORD said, “I will surely return to you in the spring, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?” The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say, `Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, in the spring, and Sarah shall have a son.” But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh” (Gn 18:9-15 RSV).
INSTITUTE FOR CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY
IM M AC ULATE C O N C EP TIO N S EM IN ARY S C H O O L O F TH EO LO G Y
to His mother but is available to all who hear and keep God’s word. Evidently, the woman blessed His mother because like Elizabeth, she was touched by the Spirit. This is corroborated by the fact that the passage in question highlights how Jesus’ audience responds to the Spirit in Him. Being touched by the Spirit, Elizabeth is moved