“What awe and wonders await us in heaven when we will come to fully understand the greatness and the mysteries of Mary! “
What does the Angel Gabriel’s greeting ‘Hail, Full of Grace’ mean? Paul reflects in this edition of A Minute with Mary.
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Popular Scripture scholar Tim Staples, when reflecting upon the Annunciation, comments that in the original Greek it is clear that instead of using Mary’s name in the greeting, Gabriel uses Mary’s role of “Full of Grace”, in place of Her name. By doing this Gabriel stresses Mary’s unique privileges and graces. A better translation could be, “You who have been and still are, full of grace”!
This unusual greeting, full of praise for Mary, made Her somewhat guarded that the angel may not be from God. The Scripture text makes it clear that Mary was not troubled by the angel per se but by “what sort of greeting this might be”.
Gabriel tells Mary that She is to bear a son and name Him Jesus. The logical question arises why would Mary respond to Gabriel with the question “how could this be, since I have no husband?” when She was betrothed to Joseph!
St. Augustine answers this when he rightly says, that “Mary certainly would not have spoken those words if she had not vowed her virginity.”
Now reflect on this: God would have had to give Mary infused graces for Her to comprehend the very notion of God as Trinity and to understand the enormity of the event that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity was about to become flesh in Her womb!
What awe and wonders await us in heaven when we will come to fully understand the greatness and the mysteries of Mary!
