Those who downplay the role of Mary, the Mother of Jesus in the work of our salvation will point to this among other texts to prove to their own satisfaction that Mary is not so important and that those who listen to the word of God and keep it are more blessed than Mary.

Such a way of using (and actually abusing) scriptural texts is highly faulty on a number of grounds. First of all, Jesus is not discoursing on his Mother or setting his mother in comparison with anyone else.

As a good Jew, Jesus would have felt it totally unfilial to insult his mother. After all, as a good Jew he was bound to listen to the word of God and keep it himself before urging others to do so, otherwise he was risking the sin of arrogant hypocrisy. God's commandment calls upon us all to honour our father and our mother, and it is of great significance that this is the only commandment to carry with it a promise: "so that you may have a long life in the land that the Lord, your God, has given to you." (Exodus 20:12).