Gospel (Lk 11,27-28) - At that time, while Jesus was speaking, a woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to him: "Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!". But he said: «Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!».

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

The amazement at Jesus' preaching made a woman in the crowd exclaim: "Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!". It is a very short passage from the Gospel of Luke. But, in its immediacy, it outlines what is the central dimension in the life of the believer. That woman who praised Mary in the crowd wanted to express admiration for Jesus. However, she also gave voice to the worldly way of thinking that everything happens naturally. It is a temptation that creeps in among us very easily too: it is easy to believe that everything depends on one's character, social conditions, in short on one's nature, one's abilities, the means one has at one's disposal. It is not so. And Jesus corrects that woman. True bliss – says Jesus – does not lie in allowing oneself to be guided by spontaneity, instincts, natural inclinations or the character one possesses, but rather by the ability to listen to the Word of God. For this reason he replies: «Blessed rather are those who listen the Word of God and observe it! Listening and living the word makes us children of God and brothers among us, indeed brothers of all men and women: universal brothers, as Charles de Foucauld liked to say.