Hail, Mary!

This is the text of my presentation at a recent Legion of Mary function. The subject is the Hail Mary.

That’s the Hail Mary in Aramaic. While that is modern Aramaic, it’s closer to what Mary actually heard from the Angel Gabriel that the words we say in Modern English. But I’m not fluent in Aramaic – and by not fluent, I mean I don’t speak a word of it, and in fact I can only speak English. So, I’ll stick to the translation of the Hail Mary that we all know so well.

Hail, Mary!

For us, that’s the first two words of a well-known prayer. We know what comes next, we know Mary conceives by the power of the Holy Spirit, we know her child grows to manhood, is crucified, dies, and is resurrected. We know her child is the Lord and Savior.

But think of a time before, a time before any of that happens, back when Mary was a girl – hardly more than a child, perhaps, just a young girl, living over 2,000 years ago. She undoubtedly knows scripture; she knows a savior has been promised. Has she daydreamed about it? Has she thought that maybe someday she might get to see the promised savior from afar? In her wildest dreams, has she ever imagined what is to happen?

And the Angel Gabriel appears to this young girl, and greets her, not just in the common words of greeting, not just in the way a young girl would be addressed, but as an important person. Hail, Mary! She has heard the words “Hail Caesar,”never did she think such an important form of address would be used for her! Hail, Mary!

“Full of Grace”.

I wonder what those words even meant to Mary. We know Mary is totally full of grace, conceived without the stain of original sin. But the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is not dogma until 1854. Mary might have an understanding that she is close to God, closer than other people she knows, but when the Angel Gabriel calls her “full of grace,” she doesn’t know how close she is; how close she will be. There’s nothing we know about Mary that would lead us to believe that she has any idea how special she is; how special she has been from the moment of her conception; or what plans God has always had for her.

“The Lord is with thee.”

This is a little difficult for us in English, because, in our knowledge of the Trinity, we tend to hear “Lord” as the second person of the Trinity. But Mary is a person of her time. She knows one God, and only one God. There is no concept of a triune God; no one knows the Trinity yet. I am sure her first thought was along the lines of “huh? Wait, what?” Even if she were open to the idea that God communicated individually with people through His angels, she wouldn’t consider herself worthy of that kind of connection with Him. Okay, maybe an angel here to tell me something, we can imagine her thinking, but God Himself? Here? With me?

Mary must be confused, perhaps even frightened. St. Luke says “she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.”

Gabriel understands this, for his next words are “Do not be afraid.”

It’s interesting that Gabriel gives this full greeting, “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee” before he says “do not be afraid.” Angels always say “do not be afraid” when they appear. But he doesn’t say it right away to Mary. I think that Gabriel, who is not bound by our time, greeted Mary as someone he already knew and honored. And I wonder how awed Gabriel was that out of all the angels, out of all the archangels, he was the one to be given the honor to announce the good news to Mary.

And then he tells her:

“Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?”

And the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.”

The Hail Mary skips over this part – after all, it is a short prayer. But there is so much theology packed into this short discourse: Son of God, Virgin Birth, unending kingdom. And, the first explanation of the Trinity. For if He is the Son of God, He must also be divine; if His kingdom will have no end; He must also be divine. And don’t miss that part about “the Holy Spirit will come upon you…” Really, at this point, Gabriel might as well have been speaking 21st century English to Mary; everything he is telling her is totally, completely, outside the realm of any reality she has ever heard of.

And what does Mary say? She doesn’t question the power of God; she doesn’t ask how any of this works. She says “okay”. Well, actually, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”

Mary’s Fiat. Her “yes” to God that changes the world; that begins salvation history.

“Blessed are thou among women.”

And she then goes to visit Elizabeth, who greets her with the next words from the Hail Mary: “Blessed are thou among women.”

And here’s Elizabeth, already immersed in the wonder of her late-in-life first pregnancy (and likely confused by her husband’s muteness). Yet when her cousin Mary comes into view and greets her, and the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leaps with joy and recognition, Elizabeth cries out to Mary “Blessed are thou among women.” Elizabeth’s miraculous pregnancy takes on new meaning; she suddenly knows the task her child will have. He is to be the voice in the wilderness, announcing the good news of the coming of the Savior – a task he has already begun, in utero, when he leapt at the sound of Mary’s voice.

“And blessed is the fruit of thy womb.”

I love the total joy in this picture. I think it captures what the two cousins must have felt.

How wonderful for Elizabeth, to know that Mary is carrying the Savior. How wonderful for Mary, to have someone to talk to, someone who is also living inside this mystery. Mary may not have told anyone yet; remember how troubled Joseph will be when he finds out she is with child.

"Jesus.”

And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

The mystery of the Incarnation, made possible by the power of God, made possible by Mary’s fiat.

Holy Mary, Mother of God

Of all of Mary’s titles, there is none more mystical, more theologically challenging than “Mother of God.” Theotokos, in Greek. Again, our language is limiting. When we say “Mother of God”, we don’t mean Mary is the Mother of God the Father. It might be more precise if we said “Mother of God Incarnate”. Mary is the Mother of God because she is the parent of his human nature. Remember, Jesus is always fully human and fully divine. His divinity comes from the Father; by the power of the Holy Spirit. His humanity comes from Mary, His Mother; Mary OUR mother.

We are, by virtue of our baptism, children of God, and children of Mary. Consider that: we share, in a way we cannot comprehend, the same father and mother as Jesus – Jesus our brother. We are all, literally, part of the one big family of God.

Pray for us Sinners

We call on Mary, our Mother, to pray for us. We appeal to the love of our Mother to intercede for us. We bring her our troubles and problems, just as children bring their little troubles and pains to Mom to “kiss away”. We rely on Mary in times of stress.

Now and at the Hour of our Death

Just as Mary cradled the body of her Son when He was taken down from the cross, we ask her to likewise cradle us when we are called home to Christ.

When my husband died, I saw him with all the tension and pain gone from his body. He lay there, seeming to be as content as a baby sleeping cozily in his mother’s arms. And, really, what else could we ask for from death but to be in the arms of Mary, our Mother?