Saturday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Or Optional Memorial of Saint John XXIII, Pope
Beyond Hearing: The Joy of Keeping God’s Word
St John XXIII
Luke 11: 27-28

Today’s Gospel reminds us of the true source of blessedness. When a woman praises Jesus by exclaiming, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!” Jesus does not deny her words but deepens them. He points us to the foundation of all happiness: hearing the Word of God and keeping it.

Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is indeed blessed, not only because she bore the Son of God, but because she listened with faith and surrendered to God’s plan. At the Annunciation, she declared: “I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word.” Her greatness lies in her obedience of faith, a model for all of us who long to belong to God’s family.

This is the challenge and the invitation for us: are we a blessing to our families and neighbours? Do our lives reflect the joy of those who hear God’s Word and live it? Jesus tells us that true kinship goes beyond flesh and blood. Our deepest identity is found in being children of God, adopted into His family through Christ. This transforms all our relationships and calls us to a higher loyalty—to seek first the Kingdom of God.

To hear without keeping is to welcome the Word only superficially. Blessedness comes when the Word takes root, filling the soul with grace, shaping desires, and conforming the heart to God’s own will.

Let us pray for this hunger: that our lives may be filled, not with passing satisfactions, but with the abiding joy of those who hear the Word and keep it.

Let us pray for the grace to hunger for God’s Word, to prefer His will over our own, and to become a blessing to those around us by living as faithful disciples.
Amen.

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Cum Approbatione Ecclesiastica 2025