If the Virgin Mary had understood at the moment of the Annunciation that it was the incarnation of God and if she had intuited the mystery of the Trinity

Dear Father,

Today during his homily, my priest said that it was difficult for the Jews and even for Mary to understand the incarnation of Christ, since for the Jews God was One and not Triune. Therefore, I was wondering if Mary understood at the Annunciation that Jesus was the Messiah but not God Himself, and only in later years did she understand the mystery of the Triune God.

Hugs,

Eugenio

The priest’s response

Dear Eugenio,

1. To understand the answer I am about to give you, it is necessary to keep in mind that Our Lady, from the first moment of her existence, had an excellent degree of holiness and therefore had a very high degree of theological virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit.

This means that Our Lady had a capacity for understanding the Word of God that is unimaginable to us, certainly superior to that of theologians.

Therefore, not only was she aware of the divinity of Christ from the beginning, but also of the mystery of the Holy Trinity.

Of course, especially regarding the mystery of the Holy Trinity, she did not speak about it as our theologians do, nor did she ask themselves their questions, but this mystery was clear to her, as much as it can be clarified in this life.

2. I would like to present to you the thoughts of Father Reginald Garrigou Lagrange, a great Dominican theologian of the first half of the 20th century, in his beautiful work “La Mère du Sauveur.”

I am translating the page in which this great theologian illustrates Mary’s faith as it is further perfected by the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

My translation from French is very literal, but the meaning of what he wrote is clear.

Here it is:

3. “Faith enlightened by the gifts of the Holy Spirit in Mary

If we consider the natural perfection of the soul of the Blessed Virgin, the most perfect of all after that of the Savior, we must admit that her natural intelligence was already endowed with great insight and no less great righteousness, and that all these natural virtues continued to develop throughout her life.

Her infused faith was all the more profound because of the revelation made to her from the day of the Annunciation of the Mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption, and because of her holy daily familiarity with the Word made flesh. Subjectively, her faith was also most firm, most certain, and most ready in its adherence, because these qualities of infused faith are greater the higher the faith is. Now Mary received the highest infused faith that ever existed, and the same must be said of her hope, because Jesus, who had the beatific vision from the first moment of his conception, had neither faith nor hope but the full light and possession of the eternal goods that are promised to us.

We will therefore never be able to fully comprehend the elevation of Mary’s faith. At the Annunciation, from the moment the divine truth about the mystery of the redemptive Incarnation was sufficiently revealed to her, she believed. Thus, Saint Elizabeth said to her shortly afterwards (Luke 1:45): “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” At Christmas, she sees her son born in a stable, and she believes that He is the creator of the universe; she sees all the fragility of his child’s body, and she believes in his omnipotence; when he begins to babble, she believes that he is wisdom itself; when she has to flee with him from the wrath of King Herod, she believes that he is the King of kings, the Lord of lords, as St. John will tell her. On the day of the Circumcision and the Presentation in the Temple, her faith opens up more and more to the mystery of Redemption. Mary lived here below in perpetual chiaroscuro, clearly distinguishing the darkness below, which comes from error and evil, and the darkness above, which surpasses the divine light accessible on earth and gives a foretaste of what is most exalted in the divine mysteries that the blessed contemplate in the open sky.

During the Passion, when the apostles, with the exception of John, leave, she stands at the foot of the cross without fainting; she never ceases to believe that her Son is truly the Son of God, God himself, who is, as the Precursor said, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” the one who, though apparently defeated, is in fact the victor over the devil and sin, and who in three days will be the victor over death because of His Resurrection, as He had announced. This act of faith by Mary at Calvary, in this darkest hour, was the greatest act of faith that ever existed: the one whose object was the most difficult, that Jesus would win the greatest victory because of his complete sacrifice.

This faith was admirably enlightened by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which she possessed in a degree proportionate to that of her charity. The gift of understanding enabled her to penetrate the revealed mysteries, their intimate meaning, their appropriateness, their harmony, their consequences; it enabled her to see their credibility more clearly, especially in the mysteries in which she participated more than anyone else, such as the virginal conception of Christ and the incarnation of the Son of God, and consequently the mysteries of the Holy Trinity and the economy of Redemption.

The gift of Wisdom, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, enabled her to judge divine things with that sympathy or naturalness which is based on charity. She thus knew experientially how these mysteries correspond to our highest aspirations and always give rise to new ones to complete them. She enjoyed them in proportion to her charity, which never ceased to grow, of her humility and purity. In Mary, the words “God gives his grace to the humble” and “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” were eminently fulfilled; they already glimpse them here below.

The gift of knowledge, through a special instinct of the Holy Spirit, enabled her to judge created things, both as symbols of divine things, in the way that the heavens narrate the glory of God, and to see their emptiness and fragility and better appreciate eternal life by contrast” (pp. 132-135).

4. We can therefore say with absolute certainty that Our Lady, because of her fullness of grace, was the greatest theologian.

She did not possess the science of theologians, but the science of the saints, that is, the knowledge that the saints have in heaven, a knowledge proportionate to their degree of love.

The great theologians speak of this scientia sanctorum (the knowledge of the saints).

Thank you, I remember you to the Lord and bless you.

Father Angelo

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