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Join us as we reflect, ponder, and pray together inspired by today's Gospel.

Today's Gospel: Luke 11:27-28

At first glance, today’s Gospel reads like a subtextual slap at the Blessed Mother. A woman offers a word of blessing for “the womb that carried [Jesus],” and he rebuffs her praise.

Given what we know to be true of both Christ and His mother, though, we know it simply cannot be the case that He is denying the Blessed Mother’s blessedness. No one loves Jesus better than Mary; no son ever loved a mother better than Jesus loved His own. So what is going on here?

Jesus wants us to pay attention not to Mary’s attributes, but to her response and her use of those attributes. She is not blessed because of the shape of her body or the Savior it produced and nourished. She is blessed because she offered that body as a gift to God; she cooperated with the production of that Savior.

Jesus’ words remind us: she could have said no.

Mary heard the word of God in the message of the angel Gabriel at the Annunciation, and she observed it by making her fiat, her yes, a gift in response to that message. We may spend time hearing the word of God, but how often are we letting it penetrate to the very bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh?

Hearing is not enough; we must observe. Sanctity requires not passive observation but an active response. We must allow ourselves to be utterly transformed by the message of God -- our whole selves, every cell in our body, from our central beating heart and the wombs bearing children beneath them to the farthest tips of our arms, lifting those children to be fed.

God’s word must penetrate. It gives life to our bodies, stretching us to offer those bodies in joyful response, to observe, to act for love of Him.

 

Ponder:

 

What message does God have in His Word that you are invited to observe with your fiat today?

 

Pray:


Jesus, open us to receive the messages God has for us. Give us the grace to offer every part of our bodies in joyful and holy observation of God's word.

 

Click to tweet:
God’s word must penetrate. It gives life to our bodies, stretching us to offer those bodies in joyful response, to observe, to act for love of Him. #dailygospel

Daily Gospel 2

 

Copyright 2022 Christy Wilkens

About the Author

Christy Wilkens

Christy Wilkens

Christy Wilkens, wife and mother of six, is an armchair philosopher who lives in Austin, TX. She writes at FaithfulNotSuccessful.com about disability, faith, doubt, suffering, community, and good reads. Her first book, Awakening at Lourdes: How an Unanswered Prayer Healed Our Family and Restored Our Faith, a memoir about a pilgrimage with her husband and son, will be released by Ave Maria Press in 2021.