Blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it
Published Oct 11, 2025 12:05 am
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Updated Oct 10, 2025 06:31 pm
REFLECTIONS TODAY
Luke underlines the importance not only of listening to God’s Word but also keeping it. Concluding the Sermon on the Plain, Jesus says that the person who listens to his words and acts on them is his true disciple (6:47).
In the Gospel, when a woman from the crowd calls his mother blessed for having brought him to the world, Jesus says that true beatitude rather belongs to those who hear the word of God and observe it.
Rather than belittling the role of Mary, Jesus points to her as a true disciple, indeed, the first disciple, because, in Elizabeth’s encomium of her, Mary is blessed because she believed that what was spoken to her by the Lord would be fulfilled (1:45).
St. Augustine has Jesus say these words: “My mother, whom you call blessed, is indeed blessed, because she keeps the word of God. Not because in her the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, but because she keeps that same word of God by which she was made and which, in her womb, became flesh” (Tractates on the Gospel of John, 10, 3).
Speaking of Mary’s faith that gave human flesh to Jesus, Pope Francis comments, “This was a point on which the Fathers of the Church greatly insisted: Mary first conceived Jesus in faith and then in the flesh, when she said ‘yes’ to the message God gave her through the angel. What does this mean?
It means that God did not want to become man by bypassing our freedom; he wanted to pass through Mary’s free assent…
But what took place most singularly in the Virgin Mary also takes place within us, spiritually, when we receive the word of God with a good and sincere heart and put it into practice.
It is as if God takes flesh within us; he comes to dwell in us, for he dwells in all who love him and keep his word. It is not easy to understand this, but really, it is easy to feel it in our heart” (Address in the Year of Faith, Oct. 12, 2013).
First Reading • Jl 4:12-21
Thus says the Lord: Let the nations bestir themselves and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit in judgment upon all the neighboring nations. Apply the sickle, for the harvest is ripe; Come and tread, for the wine press is full; the vats overflow, for great is their malice.
Crowd upon crowd in the valley of decision; for near is the day of the Lord in the valley of decision. Sun and moon are darkened, and the stars withhold their brightness. The Lord roars from Zion, and from Jerusalem raises his voice; the heavens and the earth quake, but the Lord is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the children of Israel.
Then shall you know that I, the Lord, am your God, dwelling on Zion, my holy mountain; Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall pass through her no more. And then, on that day, the mountains shall drip new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk; and the channels of Judah shall flow with water: A fountain shall issue from the house of the Lord, to water the Valley of Shittim.
Egypt shall be a waste, and Edom a desert waste, because of violence done to the people of Judah, because they shed innocent blood in their land. But Judah shall abide forever, and Jerusalem for all generations. I will avenge their blood, and not leave it unpunished. The Lord dwells in Zion.
Responsorial Psalm • Ps 97
“Rejoice in the Lord, you just!”
Gospel • Luke 11:27-28
While Jesus was speaking, a woman from the crowd called out and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed.”
He replied, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.”
Source: “365 Days with the Lord 2025,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.