Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! (Luke 1:42)
Mary was unique in human history. It is absolutely true. She was “blessed among women” (Luke 1:42), and among men as well. She received the singular holy gift of being the mother of our Lord (Luke 1:43). God dwelled inside of her body in human form. Then he lived in her home and was under her care until adulthood.
Focusing on the Wrong Blessing
The mystery woven into Mary’s calling as Jesus’s mother has tempted some to attribute near divine status to her and worship her. It was a temptation from the very beginning, even when Jesus was still walking the earth. We get a glimpse of this when a woman in a crowd shouted out to Jesus, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed” (Luke 11:27)!
We don’t know exactly what was in this woman’s mind when she said this. But the human heart, which makes idols out of almost anything, can easily progress from considering a womb blessed by Jesus’s presence (which it was) to believing that the womb must have somehow been worthy of such a blessed presence (which it was not).
