as he spoke these things, a certain woman from the crowd, lifting up her voice, said to him: Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the paps that gave thee suck (Luke 11:27)
This devotion to Mary is natural. It comes as a response to one among the clearest proclamations of the divinity if Christ found in the gospels:
if I by the finger of God cast out devils; doubtless the kingdom of God is come upon you (Luke 11:20)
The woman in the crowd blesses Mary because that woman comes to the understanding of the mystery of the Incarnation: the Word became flesh and Satan is defeated.
Did Christ disapprove of this outburst, He would have had His opportuinity here. And He did disaprove. Let us listen to His voice:
But he said: Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it. (Luke 11:28)
This succint reaction is remarkable for what it does NOT say. It does not prohibit the veneration of His Mother. It says, in effect, to look also for others who are like Mary: not physiologically as birthgivers of Christ, but spiritually as the followers of the Word. Rather than stopping the veneration of saints in its nascent tracks, it expands it, to its Catholic understanding.
Blessed is the Church that reads and follows the Gospel.
Good insight, annalex. I think we could say it's an invitation to holiness.
First, “But through Mary we have access to the omnipotence of God.” That in itself gives lie to the whole claim that Mary isn’t mediating between us and God. There is no scriptural support anywhere for going through Mary to get to Jesus. It also gives lie to the claim that prayers ‘to Mary’ are just asking for her to pray on someone’s behalf. Sorry, but no one goes to a human and says, “Joe, pray for me, for it is through you that I can access the omnipotence of God”.
Second, “But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” is NOT an endorsement of devotion to Mary.
Look at the first word: “BUT”. That means what follows is a contradiction. And notice he does NOT say, “you should also...” Instead, BUT is followed by “rather”. Rather means it is better to, or this is what you should do instead. Since rather is preceded by ‘but’, we are presented with Jesus saying ‘You’re missing the point. My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.’ (from Luke 8)
Both Luke 8 & 11 make it clear that Jesus is saying the PHYSICAL relationship isn’t important, the SPIRITUAL one is!
Even the NAB footnote has “Rather, it emphasizes (like Luke 2:35) that attentiveness to God’s word is more important than biological relationship to Jesus.” or, from Luke 8, “The family of Jesus is not constituted by physical relationship with him but by obedience to the word of God.”
You wrote “The woman in the crowd blesses Mary because that woman comes to the understanding of the mystery of the Incarnation: the Word became flesh and Satan is defeated.”
Ummm...no. Blessing the mother that bore someone important was common. We still do it today.
The passage very clearly teaches that we should NOT focus on Mary, but focus instead on Christ. What is important is not the womb that bore Him, but the Cross that bore Him, and His resurrection. What is important is not that Mary gave Him birth, but that the Holy Spirit gives US a new birth.