As Mary herself has told us, her greatness did not lie in her being the physical mother of Jesus. That was only the consequence of her being committed to a radical life of faith. She herself predicted, "All generations will call me blessed¡K" (Lk. 1:48). Now we are told why¡K "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it." (Lk. 11:28).

Mary, the first to come to faith, is rightly called first of all disciples. She is here presented as a model of a disciple in the new family of Jesus: radically open to the word of God and prepared to take the risk of living by it. She treasured the revelation of the fullness of the mystery still lies in the future. Mary's final appearance in Acts 1:14 shows her primacy in the order of faith. Here she gives direction to those treasured memories, while being present with the earliest Christian community awaiting for the Gift of the Father, the Holy Spirit. In Luke 1-2 she is prepared to plunge into a darkness of human foolishness, lit up only by her faith, prepared to live entirely by His word.

In the history of salvation, it is a woman who is both chronologically and qualitatively the first among those who believe.