Jesus has been preaching to the people. While He still speaks, a woman in the crowd shouts out her approval: "Happy the womb that bore you and the breasts you sucked!" What the woman is really saying is that Jesus' mother must be really proud to have such a wonderful son as Jesus and she must in some way be responsible for His turning out so well. Jesus does not contradict the woman but He qualifies what she says: "Rather, happier still are those who hear the word of God and keep it!" In other words, the real greatness of Mary is not that she is the Mother of Jesus or that she produced such a wonderful Son but that at all times she listened to the Word of God and carried it out. That was true from the moment she said 'Yes' at the Annunciation to the terrible day she stood at the foot of the Cross and accepted the death of her Son, as He Himself had accepted it in the garden. Our greatness, too, lies not on our social connections or our personal achievements but to the extent to which we have carried out God's will at every moment of our lives.