I didn’t say God treats us all equally. He does as far as salvation is concerned, but 1 Cor 3 makes is clear, as do many other passages, that there is reward in heaven for those who obey on earth.
However, Mary was called blessed by the woman because she gave birth to Jesus and nursed him at her breasts. This has nothing to do with heavenly rewards. In essence, she said Mary ‘won life’s lottery’ - that countless women would have loved to be chosen to bear Jesus, and she was the ‘lucky’ one. She was blessed by God in that He gave her something she hadn’t earned.
I sometimes look at my family, my wife, my 3 kids, my 3 dogs, my 3 horses (except for the wife, notice a trend?) and think, “Wow! God has blessed me, and I’ve done nothing to deserve it!” It isn’t that I’m wealthy, but that God has been wonderful to me, and I haven’t earned it.
THAT is the sense the woman was using.
And Jesus makes it clear she has missed the point - that being TRULY blessed is obeying God. He doesn’t deny that Mary was blessed by God, the REAL point is “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
“Yes, Mary has been blessed by God - but YOU can have true blessing, if you just keep the word of God.” It is the word used in the Beatitudes. You are blessed, not by wealth, not by who you are related to, but by hearing and obeying God.
That is not in any way a call to ‘venerate’ Mary, or any human. God blesses those who hear his word and keep it. That means we should do likewise, rather than venerating (revering, treating someone with respect tinged with awe) someone who once did so.
Consider Peter: “And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?” - Acts 3 If your ‘saints’ are real saints, they would tell you the same thing: “Why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have done great things?” The focus is on what God has done, not man!
You write: “None of the episodes you cite have anything to do with Mary’s supposed disobedience or lack of faith.”
She went with the brothers of Jesus and stood by them when “they went out to seize him...saying, “He is out of his mind.” That wasn’t a shining moment of faith on her part...
See, you continue spinning this verse as if it denies the validity of the woman's act of veneration. Note that Mary, too, kept the word both in the sense of obedience but also in the sense of being pregnant with Him the Word. The woman didn't miss the point, she did not go far enough. Christ told her not to restrict her veneration to Mary alone.
If your ‘saints’ are real saints, they would tell you the same thing: “Why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have done great things?” The focus is on what God has done, not man!
And they do say that, starting with Mary herself: "My soul doth magnify the Lord" (Lk 1:46-55). To venerate a saint is to worship God Who made them.
She went with the brothers of Jesus and stood by them
Nothing in that episode indicates she agreed with Christ's accusers. Let's not slander, of all people, Our Lady.
THAT is your own (silly, pathetic) personal interpretation of Scripture.
I wish I could come some day to understand this drive among protestants to deprecate the Mother of God.
Actually, THAT is your own silly, personal, parochial deprecation of a praise of the Mother of God.