Question
Dear Father Angelo,
How can we explain Our Lady’s ignorance regarding supernatural and preternatural gifts?
Warm regards,
In Christ.
Antonio
Reply from the Priest
Dear Antonio,
1. The almost unanimous opinion of theologians is entirely different from your statement, at least regarding knowledge.
From her mother’s womb, Our Lady would have enjoyed at least a few moments of infused knowledge.
Instead, she was subjected to the penalty of suffering, as was Christ, who through his passion and death desired to accomplish the work of redemption.
Regarding Mary’s infused knowledge, I will share with you the theological arguments of the great Dominican Father Reginald Garrigou Lagrange.
I have translated from French the passage in which he discusses it in his beautiful book entitled La Mère du Sauveur.
2. He writes: “All theologians recognize that the holy soul of Jesus Christ enjoyed the beatific vision, or immediate vision of the divine essence, from the first instant of his existence, and the Holy Office declared this doctrine to be certain on June 6, 1918.
Jesus, in fact, in his capacity as head in the order of grace, enjoyed from the first moment the glory he would give to the elect, and this was in him a consequence of the union of his humanity with the Word.
He also possessed infused knowledge like the angels, to a degree superior to that in which this infused knowledge existed in some saints, for example, among those who had the gift of tongues without having learned them.
Theologians recognize that these same two sciences were perfect in Jesus from the beginning, because progress occurred only through his knowledge acquired through experience and reflection.
Therefore, Jesus, high priest, judge, and king of the universe, from his beginning in the world offered himself for us, (Heb. 10:5-9) and knew everything in the past, present, or future that could be subjected to his judgment. (…).
For Mary, nothing allows us to affirm that she had the beatific vision here on earth, especially from the first moment.
But many theologians maintain that from that moment on, she had knowledge infused into her, at least temporarily, and others say permanently.
Thus, from her mother’s womb, she would have had at least some use of intelligence and free will, and consequently of the infused virtues and gifts she already possessed to a very high degree. This cannot be denied without affirming that in Mary, intelligence, freedom, and infused virtues remained somewhat dormant, as in other children.
3. First of all, it is very probable, according to the vast majority of theologians, that Mary had, from the first instant of her conception, the use of free will through infused knowledge, at least in a transitory manner. This is what Saint Vincent Ferrer, Saint Bernardine of Siena, Saint Francis de Sales, Saint Alphonsus, and also Suarez, Contenson, Justin Miechów, and with them, commonly modern theologians, believe.
The reasons given for this privilege are the following:
1°. It is not fitting that Mary, Queen of the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and all the saints, should be deprived of a privilege that was granted to John the Baptist.
Now, in Luke 1:41 it is said of him: “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb” and in Luke 1:44: “Behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.”
Saint Irenaeus, Saint Ambrose, Saint Leo the Great, and Saint Gregory the Great noted that John the Baptist’s joy before his birth was not merely sensible, but was also caused by the coming of the Savior, whose forerunner he was to be. Cajetan likewise adds: this spiritual joy presupposed knowledge and the use of spiritual free will; now here it could not be a question of acquired knowledge but of infused knowledge. The Church also says in its liturgy, in the hymn of Vespers of St. John the Baptist: “Senseras Regem talamo manentem … Suae regenerationis cognovit auctorem” (You have recognized your King who sat on the bed and the author of your regeneration).
If, therefore, John the Baptist had the use of his intellect and free will before his birth, as a precursor of Christ, this can not be denied to her who was to be the Mother of God.
2°. Since Mary received grace, the infused virtues, and the gifts from the first instant to a degree superior to the final grace of all the saints, she had to be justified as adults do, that is, by the use of free will, disposing herself with actual grace to habitual grace and therefore meriting from the moment she received it.
This means that, to the extent of her knowledge, she had already offered herself to God, as her Son would do, who “when he came into the world, said to his Father, ‘Behold, I come to do your will, not mine'” (Heb 10:5-9).
Mary certainly did not know that she would one day become the Mother of God, but she was able to offer herself to everything the Lord wanted of her and would later ask of her.
3°. The initial fullness of grace of the infused virtues and gifts, which surpassed the final grace of all the saints, could not remain inactive and inoperative in Mary at the beginning of her life. Because she would have been inactive and sterile for a fairly long period in the Virgin’s life.
4. Thus, almost all theologians now recognize that it is very likely that Mary had the use of free will and the knowledge infused, at least temporarily, early in her mother’s womb.
They also recognize that she had the use of this infused knowledge in some more notable circumstances, such as at the moment of the Incarnation, in the Passion and Resurrection of the Savior, in his Ascension, and also a more perfect knowledge of the divine perfections and the mystery of the Holy Trinity.
If infused knowledge was granted to the apostles at Pentecost when they received the gift of tongues and a deeper knowledge of Christ’s doctrine, and if Saint Teresa, having reached the seventh dwelling of the Interior Castle, often enjoyed an intellectual vision of the Holy Trinity—and this cannot be explained except by infused knowledge—this favor could not be denied to the Mother of God in her initial fullness of grace, which already surpassed the final grace of all the saints combined.
This is how theologians generally speak, even those most careful not to go beyond this point without very serious reasons.
Certainly, the least we can say is that the Mother of God enjoyed the apparition of the Archangel Gabriel, the holy familiarity with the Word made flesh, that she was constantly enlightened by him throughout his hidden life, that she received special revelations before and after the Passion, and on the day of Pentecost she received an abundance of the lights of the Holy Spirit, more than all the apostles put together” (La Mère du Sauveur, pp. 75-80).
So says Father Garrigou, who was John Paul II’s teacher when he, as a young priest, attended the Angelicum, the Dominican university in Rome.
5. St. Francis de Sales also holds this opinion.
He speaks of it in two sermons.
The first: “The Blessed Virgin had the use of reason from the moment of her conception, and at the same moment she saw how divine goodness preserved her from the precipice of original sin, into which she would have fallen if its omnipotent hand did not hold her back. In gratitude for this grace, She dedicated herself from then on so absolutely to His service that the word She gave to the Divine Majesty was irrevocable. But despite this, for the space of three years She kept Her resolution closed and covered under the appearances of childhood. I say under appearances, because in reality She was not an infant at all, but having the use of reason, She led a purely contemplative life; She was such a wise infant that no similar one can be imagined, with the exception of Her most beloved Son” (For the Feast of the Presentation, sermon 26).
6. And here is the second: “Since this glorious Virgin was to be born of a father and mother like all other children, it seems that, like them, She was to be affected by original sin; but Divine Providence arranged everything the opposite, and stretching out His most holy hand, held Her back, lest She fall into this precipice. She gave her the use of reason and faith, with which Our Lady knew God and believed all that was true, so that filled with this clarity she dedicated and consecrated herself entirely to the divine Majesty, but in a most perfect way.
Theologians assure us that Our Lord, casting a ray of His light and grace into the soul of St. John the Baptist while he was still in the sixth month, in the womb of St. Elizabeth sanctified him and gave him the use of reason along with faith, so that, having recognized his God in the womb of the Most Holy Virgin, he adored Him and consecrated himself to His service.
And if the Savior granted such a grace to Him who was to be His Precursor, who can doubt that He not only granted the same favor, but that He favored with an even greater and more special privilege the One He had chosen to be His Mother? Why would He not have sanctified her from her mother’s womb, like St. John?
It is therefore quite certain that from the moment of her Conception, God made her entirely pure, entirely holy, through the perfect use of faith and reason in a way that is truly admirable and cannot be admired enough; for He had conceived this thought from all eternity, as His thoughts were very high (Isaiah 55:8-9), and what had never before been able to enter the understanding of man, God had meditated before all time. Oh, how many favors, graces, and blessings divine Goodness poured into the heart of the glorious Virgin! But these were graces so secret and interior that no one could know them except those who experienced them, and even her mother, Saint Anne: for it is credible that at the moment the Lord poured so much grace into the soul of this blessed Infant, her mother sensed it and shared in the great spiritual sweetness and consolation, because her Daughter had been filled with it” (For the Feast of the Presentation, sermon 37).
I am happy that your email has given me the opportunity to share the thoughts of a “proven author” like Father Garrigou Lagrange and a great Doctor of the Church like Saint Francis de Sales.
I wish you all the best, I remember you to the Lord and I bless you.
Father Angelo
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