Mary is the example par excellence for all of us

Reflection for Saturday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Find today’s readings here.

What does it mean to be a believer “par excellence”? That is how Pope Leo XIV described the Blessed Mother earlier this year. In Mary, he said, “we are offered the perfect form of unconditional openness to the divine mystery within the communion of God’s holy people.”

Leo was continuing his general audience reflections on the Second Vatican Council, specifically on “Lumen Gentium.” In this dogmatic constitution, the council fathers drew on the Gospel passage from today’s readings:

“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” (No. 58).

After a woman from the crowd describes his mother as blessed, Jesus responds, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it” (Lk 11:28).

“Rather” translates from the Greek word menoun. It can be read as a correction, or as “yes, but even more.” Catholic tradition typically applies the latter definition, and Luke’s Gospel supports that reading. In the first chapter, Elizabeth greets Mary as “blessed among women,” and adds, “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled” (Lk 1:42, 45). 

Many years ago, I was a guest on a Catholic radio show. The show’s two co-hosts were priests, and we were having a conversation about Catholic media. At one point I said something like, “The central reason for everything we do is Jesus Christ.” One of the priests immediately responded, “Congratulations! You’re the first one of us to say the name of Jesus on the show, and you’re the layperson!”

I was perplexed by his comment, but it was live radio, so I laughed it off. I have thought about that moment many times since. But it wasn’t until reflecting on Leo’s comments and today’s readings that I finally understood what bothered me. It was the presumption that, for some reason, a priest should have said the name of the Lord before I, the layperson, did. 

But the first follower of Jesus was not ordained. She was a young woman from Nazareth named Mary. Last October, Leo, echoing church tradition, called her “the first of the disciples.” She is the example par excellence for us to follow. It doesn’t matter if we are Jew or Greek, slave or free, man or woman, ordained or lay. Jesus calls us blessed if we “hear the word of God and observe it.”

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