“We’re Catholics”

“He comes from a good Christian family.”

“Our family has always been good Baptists.”

“I’m a Methodist – born and raised.”

For many of us, our religion is part of our identity. Very often it is something that has been handed down to us from our parents or even by our culture.

It was even more that way in the time and place that Jesus walked among us. People were born and raised in a particular religion. It was part of their identity and it was their ticket to God’s blessings. They were born that way; they’ll be saved that way.

Today’s readings speak strongly to those who try to coast to salvation based on their identity.

In the Gospel, a woman praises our Lord’s mother – not because she knows Mary, but simply because she physically gave birth and raised him. Our Lord gently corrects her:

"Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it."

By saying this, our Lord is not "dissing" his mother. Remember, in the very first chapter of this same Gospel (verse 45) St. Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, says to Mary, “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”

True, Mary is the mother of Jesus, but she is first and foremost one who hears the word of God and does it.

In the first reading, Paul reaffirms that salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ, not from one’s identity as a Jew, or as a freeman, or as a man.

Likewise, none of us should dare to rest on the laurels of our personal religious identity. There may be differences among us, and these differences may have implications in our lives, but our salvation comes only through Christ – in whom all of us are baptized – and by living out our faith in him.

Blessed are those
who hear the word of God
and observe it.