Victor R. Claveau, MJ
We form an impression regarding the character of an individual by the manner in which that person is addressed and treated by those who know the true meaning of dignity and whom they are who possess it. As a messenger from God, the Archangel Gabriel possessed an unmistakable conviction about Mary’s attributes, and he addressed Mary in such a manner as to provide to us the most exalted ideation of her superiorly eminent dignity above all humans.
Who is a better judge of Mary’s distinction than Archangel Gabriel? Would that I were a modern-day religionist, I would rue the day that, in my eager attempt to digress away from Catholicism—this born of ignorance or pride—I should divest myself of common sense and spiritual sagacity. Knowing that which has been revealed, I would repent and hang my head in shame before the Archangel Gabriel, the messenger of the Creator, rather than speak with even marginal disgrace of the Blessed Virgin; and I invite those of you self-termed albeit pseudo Ministers of the Gospel, who deny yourselves and your protégés the fullness of truth by teaching that she was just an ordinary woman, to awaken to the veracity taught by the one true Church of Jesus Christ, whom the Holy Spirit instructs exclusively.
An Angel sent by the proper authority of God, bearing the words of the adorable Trinity upon his tongue has claimed for the Blessed Virgin what no man can presume to reverse. Ill-informed mortals would do well to take heed, about-face, and imitate the Angel Gabriel, who exalted her in one sentence: “Hail! Full of Grace; the Lord is with you; blessed are you among Women.”[1] The behavior of those Protestants who have heard and understood this admonishment, yet still dare to speak of Mary as an ordinary woman is tantamount to uttering a bold-faced lie to the face of the Angel—nay—a lie to the face of God Himself. All of Heaven recognizes Mary as blessed among women.
How this dogma remains invisible to Protestant eyes is beyond my comprehension. What celestial radiance must have shown through Mary’s entire being while she was nourishing the Christ Child within her womb. How extraordinary! The insight of this dogma cannot be lost on those who have spiritual eyes to see, enlightened by the Holy Spirit. Would our all-knowing God declare an ordinary woman to be full of grace? Would He deem fit an ordinary woman for the preeminent position that she was about to occupy; would He not qualify her to be what no woman ever has been before, and what no woman ever would be again—the mother of the God-man? If her detractors were not blinded by a dark prejudice, they would see that this unique privilege automatically and logically confers upon her a rank far above that of ordinary mortals.
Still, there are those who will persist in asserting that these words, “full of grace”, should rather be interpreted merely, as the Protestant translations have it, “you that are highly favored.” To this, Mother Church (alone guided by the Holy Spirit) responds an emphatic, no!
Moreover, Protestantism has unwittingly corrupted the ineffable word of God in their skewed translation of the term “the woman” by minifying the Savior’s mother to the status of a common personage. Protestant translators, unwilling to adopt the proper translation because it is favorable to the dignity of the Blessed Virgin had a very difficult time in formulating a translation that would fit their views. They rejected the authentic translation, but they were compelled to search for a rationale at least somewhat akin to the original. Their struggle to arrive at a Protestant meaning is an apt indicator that they were at war with the truth. They labored to provide their public, not with the truth, but something like the truth—notoriously, an adulterated facsimile (to wit, heresy). In matters of Church teaching, there can be no such thing as a partial truth.
Saint Jerome, the most learned scriptural scholar, interpreted gratia plena, as “full of grace,” adding that the Blessed Virgin was thus addressed because “she conceived Him in Whom all fullness of the Deity dwelt corporally.”[2]
Saint Athanasius, a Doctor of the Greek Church reports that, “Our Blessed Lady had this title, Kecharitomene, because the Holy Spirit descended into her, filling her with all graces and virtues.”[3]
[1] Luke 1:28.
[2] Hieron in Expos. Psalm 94.
[3] Saint Anthanisius, de S. Deip.