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So many times throughout the Hebrew Bible we hear God say to the Jews through Moses or the Prophets, “If you hear my voice and observe the commandments I am giving you today.” All of God’s revelation was to prepare us to hear and obey, knowing that to hear and to obey are the same word in Hebrew. The law prepared us, he was suggesting, to meet Jesus the Master, to hear what he was saying and to put it into practice. A pedagogue was a tutor who generally lived with the family of the student, supervised his homework and lessons, and took him to class with the master. “The law was our disciplinarian for Christ,” he says, “that we might be justified by faith.” The word “disciplinarian” in English is the word “pedagogos” in Greek. In the first reading, we see how Saint Paul describes that the entire Old Testament, the Covenant God made with the Jews, was meant to train them to hear and observe the Word of God.

We also have to listen to him as he describes for us the will of God and then, just as he did, say, mean and lovingly do the words “Thy will be done!” This is an essential aspect of going into the deep in prayer. To be a true brother or sister of Jesus in the family he came from heaven to earth to found, it’s not really enough just to be baptized, although that’s an essential start. Mary is the paradigm of all those who do the will of God the Father, who hear what he asks and who act on it. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother” (Mt 12:46-50). Taking advantage of the teaching moment, he replied, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. In a parallel scene, when Mary had come to see him together with many of his cousins from Nazareth, they told Jesus inside a crowded house where he was teaching and healing that his mother and relatives were outside waiting for him. So many medieval depictions of the Annunciation and the miraculous virginal conception of Jesus in the Incarnation show the Holy Spirit entering through Mary’s ears, to highlight this form of faithful listening. Athanasius described that before Mary had ever conceived the Word of God in her womb, she had already conceived Him in her heart through faith. The profoundest source of Mary’s beatitude was her faithful listening and response to God in her life. Prayer is ultimately not just to permit us to enter into conversation with God, but as we seek him, find him, hear him, we’re also called to say, like Mary, “let it be done to me according to your word,” to love him and love his will such that we, like Mary, want to do it.

The word to hear is “audire” and the word to obey is “ob-audire,” an intensified listening, almost like eavesdropping. In Hebrew, there is no distinction between the verb “to hear” and “to obey.” If we hear the Word of God as it’s supposed to be heard, we hear it as a word to be done. He replied to the woman by highlighting a far greater source of Mary’s blessing, something that each and every one of us not only can emulate but is called to emulate: “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.” Prayer is the attentive listening to the word of God. But Jesus wasn’t going to limit the praise of the mother whom he daily honored to her inimitable physical bonds to him as the Son of God made man. If any breasts were blessed, it would have been those that nursed and fed the one who gives us each day our daily bread. If any womb was blessed, it was the immaculate womb of Mary of Nazareth that tabernacled for nine months the Creator and Savior of the world. “Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed!,” the unnamed woman called out.

In today’s Gospel, the conversation between Jesus and an anonymous woman from the crowd who sought to praise his mother Mary is very helpful to us as we seek on this retreat to go into the deep in prayer.

The following points were attempted in the homily: To listen to an audio recording of this homily, please click below: Saturday of the 27th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II Immaculate Conception Seminary, Huntington, NY

Retreats for Priests, Deacons, and Seminarians.

Love is the moment the heirs mp3 free download