Mary in the Gospel of Luke: The Words of the Anonymous Woman

The Words

W  ith our last article, we concluded a brief study of The Magnificat, the final section of the Visitation narrative.

However, before leaving the Visitation, it may be well to examine the two beatitudes of the eleventh chapter of Luke. They not only concern Mary but are related to the two Visitation beatitudes, “Blessed is the fruit of your womb,” (Lk 1:42) and “Blessed is she who believed” (Lk 1:45). Moreover, the beatitudes of LK 11 help clarify Mary’s Magnificat song: “All generations will call me blessed.”

This article of The Queen will therefore study the Marian implication of Lk 11:27-28.

The Setting

It is difficult to see exactly why Luke inserted this bit of biographical material in the context of the eleventh chapter of his Gospel. It appears to be able to stand on its own and would fit in well at the conclusion of any of Jesus’ discourses.

As it now stands, the episode speaks of a woman – often called the anonymous woman in the crowd – who having heard the marvelous words of Jesus, is so overtaken with his sermon that she shouts. “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that fed you”.  In modern English this could be translated, “How happy, how blest is the woman who has you for a son”!  Perhaps in contemporary times, the person would have stood up and applauded as Jesus finished his talk. But in Palestine of Jesus’ age, the pronouncement of a beatitude would be an even clearer way to thank him for his words.

We can imagine this lady now being surprised by Jesus’ retort. “Blessed rather are they who hear the word of God and keep it”!  To her beatitude, Jesus speaks another which if it does not reject the woman’s, at least clearly modifies it. The episode then comes to an abrupt close. What is the Marian implications of this strange event?

The Beatitude of the Anonymous Woman

In order to decipher this event in the life of Jesus, it is important first of all to understand the meaning of the blessing pronounced by the woman: “Blessed the womb, blessed the breasts”.  Her statement resembles an inspired text: “Let your father and mother be glad, let her who bore you rejoice”.  (Proverbs 23:25). Her expression was a rather typical Jewish way of praising the mother of an exemplary child. Jacob declares that the blessings of his son Joseph will include “blessings of the breasts and of the womb” (Genesis 49:25), i.e., a large number of children. To understand these expressions as anti-feminist because they reduce a woman to reproductive organs shows a profound ignorance of the customs of the Jewish people at the time of Jesus. They merely state that the mother of Jesus is fortunate indeed: how wonderful must be the mother of such a marvelous preacher!

The praise uttered by this woman bears a resemblance to the first of the beatitudes spoken by Elizabeth at the Visitation: “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb”!  (Lk 1:42). Like Elizabeth, the woman is extolling Mary for having been chosen to be the mother of Jesus. And Mary herself in the Magnificat applies to herself the same beatitude: “All generations will call me blessed”.  (Lk 1:48).  Blessed precisely because of her motherhood. She is truly the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Beatitude . . .

Up to this point, the episode is simple and clear. It is the response of Jesus – not asked for by the woman – which is mysterious: “Blessed, rather are they who hear the word of God and keep it”.

Is Jesus denying the truth of the woman’s statement? Is he denouncing the praise that the woman offers his mother? It would take quite a dose of anti-marian prejudice to state that Jesus does not believe his mother to be “blessed”.  Even if the term “rather” in his response implies a negation of the anonymous woman’s beatitude, his words must be taken within the total context of the Gospel of Luke which consistently and decisively extols the Mother of the Lord. The inspired word does not contradict itself.

. . . Pronounced by Jesus

What Jesus is saying is that the woman’s cry does not fit his mother; she is not just “mother,” not just the “instrument” by which he has come to us. No (rather), she is among those “who hear the word of God and keep it”.  Jesus extols her faith as the primary aspect of her beatitude. The Lucan Gospel – most especially the Annunciation and Visitation episodes – require such an interpretation.

However, based on Lucan grammatical usage and the entire Gospel context, it is far more likely that the term “rather” implies a “Yes, but . .”.   Jesus is not denying the woman’s statement that Mary is truly blessed in motherhood. However, the phrase is quite inadequate. It needs to be completed by another proverb, one that goes to the heart of his mother’s blessedness: “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it”.

At the Annunciation (Lk 1:26- 38), Mary hears the word of God coming to her through the angel Gabriel and she acts on it, she observes it. “Let it be to me according to your word”.  (Lk 1:38). It is this faith of Mary which is praised by Elizabeth in her second beatitude: “Blessed is she who believed . . .”.  (Lk 1:45). Just as Elizabeth clarifies her first pronouncement, “Blessed is the fruit of your womb” with her second beatitude, so too in this episode Jesus clarifies the first beatitude, the one spoken by the anonymous woman, “Blessed the womb and breasts,” with the one given by himself, “Blessed who believe and keep the word of God”.  There appears to be a similarity, therefore, between the content of these verses of chapter eleven and the Visitation narrative.

Blessedness is Not Restricted to Mary

It is not only Mary’s faith which is praised by Jesus. He is telling us that blessedness is not restricted to Mary; it is pronounced over all who, like her, “hear the word of God and keep it.” As Pope Paul VI tells us in his Apostolic Constitution, Marialis Cultus, “When the children of the Church unite their voices with the voice of the unknown woman in the Gospel and glorify the Mother of Jesus by saying to him: “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that fed you,” they will be led to ponder the divine Master’s serious reply: “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it”!

While it is true that his reply is in itself lively praise of Mary, as various Fathers of the Church have interpreted it and Vatican II has confirmed, it is also an admonition to us to live our lives in accordance with God’s commandments”.