Galatians 3 :22-29,
Psalm 105:2-3.4-5.6-7,
Luke 11:27-28 Full Readings
Saint Francis BorgiaAre you Blessed?
Brethren, in today's Gospel Jesus teaches us what it means to be blessed as he was responding to the woman who had praised the womb that bore Jesus and breasts that breast fed him. Jesus teaches that the more blessed is the one who hears the word of God and does or keeps it. In this way, Jesus gave us a simple trick to examine ourselves and see whether we are blessed or not. In a way Jesus says that it is not about the praises we give or the glory we give to God daily or even going to church that makes us blessed for even the psalm says that our praises add nothing to him, but it is doing the Word of God that makes us more blessed.
Do you hear the Word of God? And if you do hear it, do you observe it? If so, then you can consider yourself among those truly blessed by our Lord. Mary the mother of Jesus indeed is blessed as the woman in Gospel acclaims. She received the word of God from an Angel, accepted it, kept it and did whatever God had told her. It is through this that she gave birth to Jesus our saviour. The blessedness which the woman talks about today fulfils the what she said in her song, the magnificat, "all generations will call me blessed" (Luke 1:48).
In his teachings, Jesus emphasizes on doing the word of God as the source of blessedness and a pathway to the kingdom of heaven. Once he told his disciples that not everyone who says Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but that who does the will of the Father (Mt 7:21). On another occasion when his mother and brothers came looking for him, he said that his mother and brethren are those who hear the word of God and keep it (Lk 8:21) and today he says the most blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. This is an invitation for us to take the word of God seriously and do what it tells us.
Most times we go to church to pray but it's quite unfortunate that sometimes we cannot even tell where the readings were from or even the message of the readings. Mass has two important parts, liturgy of the word and the liturgy of the Eucharist, these two are equally important and must be paid the same and serious attention. What we hear from the word and eat from the Eucharist should guide our way of behaving and acting outside the church. That's why the priest or the presider says, Go in peace to love and serve God or any other phrase he uses, which invites us to go and continue doing what we have received from the Word of God and from the Eucharist.
Brethren, the Word of God should bring effect in our lives, in the way we love, the way we behave and in the way we act, otherwise we have no difference from the Pharisees who observe the law outside only but inside us evil thoughts. If the word of God tells us to love our neighbours, then let us show that in our actions. Let us not just be hearers and then do different things contrary from the word of God. St James tells that to be doers of the Word not just hearers (James 1:22). This is what makes us blessed and members of a new family of Christ.
Do you hear the Word of God? And if you do hear it, do you observe it? If so, then you can consider yourself among those truly blessed by our Lord. If you have not been doing the Word, then it is never too late with God, ask for the gift of the Spirit to always be a doer of the Word of God not just a hearer.
Let us Pray
Lord Jesus you said that not everyone who calls you Lord will enter into the kingdom of heaven but those who do the word of God, and again that that your mother and brethren are the ones who hear the word of God and do it and today you tell us that blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it, help us through the power of your Spirit so that we may always hear and do the Word of God in our lives. Amen
Be blessed.
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