Commemoration of the Blessed Virgin Mary, God-bearer

Luke 11:27-28

Our reading from today’s Gospel passage had me casting my mind back to high school English.

We naturally read the woman in the crowd’s statement, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!” (Lk 11:27), as an example of synecdoche, a figure of speech that substitutes a part for the whole: “womb and breasts” stands in for “woman,” or, more specifically, “mother.” I’m sure you’ve heard versions of this: hungry mouths, a pair of shoulders, a willing hand.

But even if these only stand in or point to the whole, they nevertheless overemphasize a specific function relative to everything else. If the mother is only identified as the parts of her body necessary for giving birth and sustenance to a baby, then what about the rest of her? What about those infinite permutations of histories and emotions and motivations that make each of us who we are, that make each woman, each mother, who she is? We are each more than our parts, more than our biological functions.

Jesus’s response may on first hearing seem overly harsh: “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!” (Lk 11:28). But he doesn’t deny his mother Mary blessedness; rather, he affirms that she finds blessing in her whole-self offering. “All generations will call me blessed” (Lk 1:48)—not because Mary just happened to have a womb, but because she heard the words of God through the angel, because she pondered and questioned and ultimately said yes: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” (Lk 1:38).

It matters that Mary bore Jesus as a baby, but it matters because of this context of obedience. Mary bore Jesus with her whole self—her whole body, mind, and spirit joined in obedience to the word of God—and in this whole-self offering, this whole-self response, is blessed.

And her response doesn’t deny or gloss over what was difficult in her life. A young, poor, unmarried mother; a temporary refugee; a woman who doubtless experienced complex emotions about her brilliant son. Her response was a lifelong yes of witness, of joy and grief, of fear and hope. A response that led her to the foot of the cross. A response, ultimately, of faith that she wasn’t alone, of faith that God was with her through it all.

We each are called to make a whole-self-offering to God. In the example of Mary, we are assured that, though it might not be an easy offering, it won’t be a lonely one. And we are assured that in bearing that offering to God, we too will be blessed.

Amen.