Call Her Blessed

My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts, he has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his posterity for ever.

Luke 1: 46-55, RSV-CE

I write these on Friday mornings, so yesterday was the Solemnity of the Assumption, and the Gospel reading included the Magnificat. I also listened to a few daily Scripture commentaries/homilies, so I heard five different reflections on it. I don't really remember most of them, with the exception of one point that all of those reflections touched on:

"All generations will call me blessed."

She is blessed, both in the traditional sense (literally, "happy") and in the more modern sense (more like "good things happen to me"). Seriously, what doesn't she have to be happy about? Conceived without sin, betrothed to a chaste and loving man, visited by an angel, building with her own body the very flesh of God Himself, raising Him and caring for Him...the Prophecy of Simeon, the flight to Egypt, losing her Son for three days, watching Him carry a cross and be crucified, taking His lifeless body from the Cross and laying Him in the tomb... wait a minute, those are the Seven Sorrows!

Through all of these sorrows - some of which are surely the deepest and most profound sorrows that one might experience - she is the most blessed, the happiest among all women. Because she never doubted, never feared. She knew God's plan: as terrible and horrifying it was to see Him crucified, she knew that He would rise, and that His Resurrection would bring us all to new life. So, yeah. Why shouldn't she be the most the blessed woman to have ever lived?