--Who is my
mother? Or, who are my brethren? Behold my mother and my brethren!
Whosoever shall do the will of my Father in heaven, the same is my
brother, and my sister, and my mother.
No less should we be expected in this place to take notice of that most
remarkable passage of Holy Scripture, [Luke xi. 27.] in which our
blessed Lord is recorded under different circumstances to have expressed
the same sentiments, but in words which will appear to many even more
strongly indicative of his desire to prevent any {282} undue exaltation
of his mother. "As he spake these things, a certain woman of the company
lifted up her voice and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare
thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked." On the truth or wisdom of
that exclamation our Lord makes no remark; He refers not to his mother
at all, not even to assure them (as St. Augustine in after-ages taught,
see De Sacy, vol. xxxii. p. 35.), that however blessed Mary was in her
corporeal conception of the Saviour, yet far more blessed was she
because she had fully borne Him spiritually in her heart. He alludes not
to his mother except for the purpose of instantly drawing the minds of
his hearers from contemplating any supposed blessedness in her, and of
fixing them on the sure and greater blessedness of his true, humble,
faithful, and obedient disciples, to the end of time.
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