"HAIL, MARY, FULL OF GRACE"

I rarely take potshots at my Roman Catholic brothers and sisters, but I thought it might be useful to at least zero in on one common aspect of their religious practice, recitation of the “Hail, Mary.”

Hail, Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus..
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.

Even non-Catholics are probably aware of this prayer, often in the context of a movie in which someone in the confessional booth is being told to recite so many Hail Mary's to atone for some sin they have committed. That is hardly the original context of the first half of this prayer, which is not a prayer at all. The words in bold were originally said by an angel to Mary before announcing to her that she would bear the expected Messiah (Luke 1:28). The following two lines in italics were then taken from Luke 1:42, Elizabeth's address to Mary. The words of the rest of the prayer, as most all Protestants would agree, are not found in the Bible at all and actually go against the whole thrust of New Testament teaching.

But rather than quote comments from Protestant scholars, I would like to concentrate on what two Roman Catholic priests and one Catholic Bible translation have to say:

    “Rejoice, so highly favored!* The Lord is with you.**” (Jerusalem Bible)

* “The translation 'Rejoice' may be preferred to 'Hail' and regarded as containing a messianic reference. 'So highly favored', i.e. as to become the mother of the Messiah.”

** “The angel's word's recall several O.T. passages referring to the Messiah.”

    “Hail, favored woman! The Lord is with you!” (Anchor Bible)

The translator, Joseph Fitzmyer, adds these comments: “For Luke, Mary is the model believer (see 1:45), pronounced blessed; and because she has been favored, she will be declared blessed by all generations (1:48). In Acts 1:14 she sits among the believers awaiting the promised holy Spirit.”

    “Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you.” (The Birth of the Messiah, Raymond Brown)

Concerning the first half of this proclamation, Brown explains: “In the Greek expression chaire kecharitomene, words of closely related stems are involved. Chaire is related to the noun chara, 'joy.' Kecharitomene is from the verb charitoun, a factitive verb, 'to make one favored, to give one grace,' of the same stem as charis, 'grace, favor.'

Brown also notes in relation to the second half of the angel's greeting, “While the phrase assures Mary of God's support, it does not mean that the Lord Jesus is within Mary's womb. After this phrase the Codices Alexandrinus, Bazae, and many of the versions, including the Latin, add: 'Blessed are you among women.' This is almost certainly a scribal borrowing from 1:42, but it has influenced the 'Ave Maria' prayer.”

Many years ago I had a rare religious discussion with a close friend who was a Catholic. I stated that one of the differences between us was that Protestants believed that salvation was by grace, whereas Catholics felt it was by works. I don't know if my comments at the time were totally theologically correct, but I still remember my friend's response. He corrected me by saying, “We Catholics believe in grace also. In fact, we are given a whole list of things that we can do in order to earn it.” I hope that is not still the standard teaching in Roman Catholic churches, but it became very obvious to me that a theologically charged term such as “grace” is capable of total misunderstanding by many lay persons. So I was pleased to see that “full of grace” in the more recent Catholic writings has been replaced by the more accurate “favored.” That latter word immediately conveys the fact that some outside party (God in this case) has conveyed favor on Mary, not that she already possessed it through her own merits.

One additional word easily misunderstood is “hail.” One standard definition is “to greet with enthusiastic approval or acclaim” as in “Hail, Caesar” or “Hail to the Chief.” But as the Jerusalem Bible translation notes, the Greek word is merely a standard form of greeting such as “rejoice” or “good day to you.” It certainly does not denote placing the person being greeted on any sort of higher plane or indicate superiority on their part.

Also, Raymond Brown's comments regarding line 2 of the Ave Maria also provide another useful corrective to what is apparently the erroneous idea among some Catholics that “the Lord” already was in her womb. That would fit with the heretical (from a Protestant viewpoint) notion that Mary was “the mother of God,” as in line 5 of the Ave Maria. After all, “Lord” in Luke 1 almost certainly means “Yahweh, God the Father” who is the One giving her favor. Therefore she certainly did not give birth to Him. And as Fitzmyer notes, she will only receive the Holy Spirit (the Third Person of the Trinity) after Jesus has been crucified and resurrected. In fact, as JB notes, she is only predicted to give birth to the promised Messiah, certainly not God.

As for the rest of the teachings in the Hail Mary, there is certainly nothing unbiblical about calling Mary “holy,” since the New Testament teaches that all believers are holy, set apart by God. The only problem is when she is singled out as “holy” in some sort of special sense, such as in the common phrase “The Holy Family.” It is no wonder that the later Koran confusedly felt that the Holy Trinity of the Christians consisted of God, Jesus, and Mary since that was probably the common understanding of many in the Church at that time period.

Then there is the idea stated in line 6 that dead believers who were especially holy, such as Mary or the official “saints,” can continue to intercede with God on our behalf. That notion only comes from one hint in the Apocryphal writings, not from any teachings in the NT. On the other hand, we are clearly told that believers now have access to the very throne of God through the intercession of Jesus Christ. To say that we need to first go through any earthly priest or dead human being residing in heaven is heretical to say the least.

Finally, the Ave Maria alludes to the Catholic practice of Extreme Unction, in which a priest says a final prayer over a person right before he or she dies to ensure that all the person's sins will be forgiven and they will be guaranteed a place in heaven. I don't know how strictly the Catholic Church still adheres to that belief, but it is implied in the final line of the prayer. Sadly, I had a dear relative, a faithful Protestant, who was obsessed all her life with the belief that if she died in her sleep without first praying that all of her sins that day be forgiven, she would never be allowed into heaven. It is an extreme example of faith by works instead of grace, whether or not she would ever have admitted it.