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Timea,
- What do you suppose their point is in advancing this verse? — that Mary is not blessed?
If so, that is fruitless because she prophecies that "all generations will call me blessed" (Luke 1:48), and this is confirmed by St. Elizabeth (Luke 1:42) and by Psalm 45:17 ("I will cause your name to be celebrated in all generations; therefore the peoples will praise you forever and ever"), which is symbolically about Mary as queen (cf. Revelation 12:1). Consequently, we know she is blessed since Scripture says so.
- So, what is Jesus's point?
His point is that she is blessed because of her faith. The Second Vatican Council says,
"In the course of her Son's preaching, she received the words whereby in extolling a kingdom beyond the calculations and bonds of flesh and blood, He declared blessed those who heard and kept the word of God, as she was faithfully doing."
(cf. Luke 2:19, 51), (Lumen Gentium 58) |
The Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture remarks,
"However, the fundamental reason that she is blessed, as Elizabeth had said in her beatitude, is Mary's belief in the Lord's message through the angel (Luke 1:45). Jesus replies to the woman with a beatitude that echoes Elizabeth's, specifying this more basic reason for blessedness: Blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it. Indeed, Mary gave a model response to God's word (Luke 1:38), and thus she is the blessed Virgin Mary. She sets an example for other disciples to follow on the way to beatitude: hear the word and act on it (see Luke 6:47; Luke 8:21)."
(Gadenz, Pablo T., The Gospel of Luke, edited by Peter S. Williamson and Mary Healy, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic: A Division of Baker Publishing Group, 2018), p. 228) |
Aquinas, quoting St. John Chrysostom, opines (Homily 44. in Matthew, Chrysostom)
"In this answer, He sought not to disown His mother, but to shew that His birth would have profited her nothing had she not been really fruitful in works and faith. But if it profited Mary nothing that Christ derived His birth from her, without the inward virtue of her heart, much less will it avail us to have a virtuous father, brother, or son, while we ourselves are strangers to virtue."
(Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels, Collected out of the Works of the Fathers: St. Luke, edited by John Henry Newman (Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1843), III, 409) |
Another commentary reflects,
"The idea conveyed here is the same as in St. Matthew 12:50. Our Lord while giving a preference to spiritual relationship, founded on faith and grace, and on the observance of God's Commandments, over carnal relationships, includes in this latter respect His Blessed Mother, who far excelled in sanctity, and correspondence with divine grace, all the rest of creation together. He gives a preference to spiritual relationship; because it was more general. It was not confined only to one, but it extended to all. He does not deny the felicity of her who gave Him birth in the flesh, but it was more on account of having first spiritually conceived and begotten Him, by grace and faith in her heart, than on account of having given Him birth in the flesh, she was happy."
(An Exposition of the Gospel of St. Luke by John MacEvilly (Dublin: Gill & Son, 1887), p. 129) |
So, I suppose my immediate response would be,
- "So ... are you arguing that Jesus contradicted Scripture?"
and relate what St. Elizabeth said about Mary and what the Blessed Mother prophesied about herself.
For further perspectives, see:
Eric
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