“But blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it” (Luke 11:28).
This is the Lord's response to the outburst of a simple woman, moved by the awe she felt in His presence and His teaching. “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you.” Truly, what greater praise exists for a human being considered a blessing to their fellow men than a reference to their mother? If we often feel the same—to bless the mother of a person because they are a jewel in this world, as their presence perhaps dignifies the human race either through the gifts they offer for the benefit of the social collective or through the spiritual purity that makes them function as a literally heavenly fragrance—how much more did this apply in the era when God Himself came as a man? Christ “went about doing good and healing all,” constantly benefiting and healing everyone, according to the Word of Scripture; therefore, the woman's doxological speech regarding His Mother (“joy to the Mother who bore you”) must be considered the most logical, yet most charismatic, assessment ever made of Him—they blessed Her because She brought Him into the world as a man!
And how did the Lord, the God-made-man, respond? What did He say? He did not oppose the praise, He did not dismiss it, He was not indifferent, and He did not react negatively, as He usually did when complimentary speech referred directly to Him—He would refuse such doxological words, forbid them, or depart. However, He confirmed the word regarding His Mother, and indeed in an eminently emphatic way. Not only is what you say true, but much more so! “But rather!” Certainly. Most certainly. According to the rendering of the great and wise Blessed Hierarch Dionysios (Psarias), Metropolitan of Kozani: “Joy and thrice joy to her!” For in a providential way, such a Maiden with such purity of soul, such humility and love, such readiness of obedience to the will of God, never existed in the world and will not be found in the future. “But when the set time had fully come,” as the Apostle Paul divinely notes, “God sent His Son, born of a woman.” All the centuries were waiting for this woman, the Virgin of Nazareth. In her alone were the prophecies of the Old Testament fulfilled, specifically that of Genesis after the fall of the forefathers: “the offspring of the woman shall crush the serpent-devil.” And it was true: in the Annunciation of the Theotokos, Genesis was fulfilled.
And the Lord's continuous word comes to confirm this reality in the best possible way: “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it in their lives.” That is to say, His Mother is not blessed simply because she was chosen to be the bridge that would bring God into the world. She is blessed because she was already oriented from her very conception toward the word of God, toward His love, and toward obedience to His holy will, as we mentioned above. Mary, who was already found for three years within the Holy of Holies, lived as an angel of Heaven, with absolute priority in her life being God Himself—the “love the Lord your God with all your soul, with all your heart, with all your strength” was the guiding element that held her together. How then could she not incarnate God as a man, when He found in her person the dwelling place He sought? “I will live in them and walk among them, and they will be my people and I will be their God” was His promise, and the little Mary was the “ground” of its fulfillment—the communion with God (theotheos) was, so to speak, preordained.
And this orientation and this love toward God were not for a limited period. From the beginning until the end of her life, the Theotokos was a “yes” to her Son and God, which means that His blessing toward the Panagia, His Mother, was constant and increasing—her heart was a plowed and unburnt field by the grace of God. And along with Him, her blessing would be repeated from the heart and lips of every faithful member of His, from then until the completion of the age and beyond. She herself prophesied this in the Spirit: “From now on, all generations will call me blessed.” There is no Christian who is characterized this way whose attitude toward the Panagia is different from the attitude toward God Himself.
The Lord's emphatic confirmation of the simple woman's blessing of the Panagia, His Mother, serves as a guiding light for every believer: we know that hearing and meditating on the word of God, which leads to application and practice in life, brings the abundant grace of God—God praises us and rests in our heart and our entire existence. And it cannot be otherwise, since the Lord Himself confirmed that within His word and His commandments, His almighty energy is ultimately contained. Our Church insists that in every feast of the Theotokos, and much more so in the greatest of all, her Dormition, to remind us of this truth. Because it is not interested merely in us glorifying the Panagia, but in us becoming little Panagias ourselves, a fact which constitutes the greatest glorification of Her.
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