Today we celebrate the meaning these words imply. Full of grace. This is something which is so uniquely characteristic of Mary that it is her name as far as the angel is concerned.
This is so striking because man is not full of grace in this way. He eats from the tree of which God had forbidden him to eat. He is compelled by "peer pressure" or "societal pressure" into doing something which he knows he ought not do. He realizes he is naked. He knows now that something is amiss. He has to conceal himself to protect himself from being exploited by others.He must be vigilant to not exploit them himself.
Yet even at this first sin of our first parents the hope of the feast we celebrate today is hinted.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will strike at your head,
while you strike at his heel.
However, it is not immediate. God does not delay, as we know, but in his patience and mercy he waits for the fullness of time (cf. Gal. 4:4). Eve is the mother of all the living, but not really. She is the mother of all but until today's feast we are not truly alive. In a real way, Eve is merely the mother of the walking dead. The world waits for the one who is truly the mother of all the living because "her offspring" are "those who keep God's commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus" (cf. Rev. 12:17). This is the one about whom Jesus says, "Behold your mother" (cf. Joh. 19:27).
Mary is the pinnacle. She is the fulfillment of God's plans for man in the most perfect way. We all thank God "who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens". But Mary is "holy and without blemish before him" from the first moment of conception. We hope that this blessing will one day completely fill our own lives. Mary is lifted up today to be our exulted model and pattern. She reveals what is possible for those who trust in God completely. No longer must we wonder, what would it be like if we didn't fail this time or that time. No longer must we look at the failings of even our greatest heroes and wonder what if, what might be possible. In Mary the fullness of possibility for man is attained and displayed.
The LORD has made his salvation known:
in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness
toward the house of Israel.
In Mary the woman and her seed finally strike at the head of the serpent. Women typically don't have seed in Hebrew thought but with Mary there is no other way to put it. There is even a hint of the virgin birth in Genesis. Most people confuse this birth for the Immaculate Conception which we actually celebrate today. But the Baltimore Catechism reminds us what the Immaculate Conception truly is:
The Blessed Virgin Mary, through the merit of her Divine Son, was preserved free from the guilt of original sin, and this privilege is called her Immaculate Conception.Maybe we can use this common misunderstanding as a small way to proclaim God's marvelous deeds today. This hope that we have in Mary, this vision of human fulfillment should be cause for us to rejoice. It is so wonderful. How can we do anything but share it?
In him we were also chosen,
destined in accord with the purpose of the One
who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will,
so that we might exist for the praise of his glory,
we who first hoped in Christ.
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