Hail Mary

It is undoubtedly the most popular and recited prayer by Catholics; it is repeated 53 times in the rosary alone, which is so beloved by the wise and the simple alike; it is also recited in many other situations and circumstances. 

Like the Lord's Prayer, the Hail Mary is also divided into two parts; but unlike the former, the Hail Mary is not entirely biblical. In an ascending movement, the first part, taken from the Bible, consists of 5 steps that go up to Jesus. In a descending movement, the second part is also made up of 5 steps that descend to human reality -- our death. 

It cannot be understood by the advocates of "sola fide sola scriptura solus Christus", because it harmoniously unites Scripture, the Word of God, described in the first part, with Tradition, that is, the history of the Christian community’s faith throughout the ages, reflected in the second. Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega, the center of history, is the core that unites the two parts.

The Hail Mary is a compendium of salvation history; it unites heaven, represented by the angel Gabriel, with earth, represented by Elizabeth, Mary's cousin. It combines the past, the Annunciation and the Visitation all the way to Jesus, with the present, when we ask for Mary's intercession "now", and the future, when we ask for her intercession also at "the hour of our death". 

Hail – It means rejoice; rejoice, daughter of Jerusalem, the Lord is in your midst. This is how Mary is greeted by the angel Gabriel, who, a few verses earlier, introduced himself to Zechariah, saying, “I am Gabriel, I stand in the presence of God…” (Luke 1:19). Mary is human, and humans because of sin, do not stand in the presence of God. However, the Archangel Gabriel recognizes in Mary a dignity superior to his own; furthermore, the dogma of the Immaculate Conception is already deduced here, namely that Mary was conceived without sin.

Mary – It means enlightened and illuminating. Illuminated inwardly by the Sun who is Christ, being herself like the illuminating moon; and just as the light of the moon exists only in reference to the sun, so Mary is a finger always pointing to Christ

Full of grace – Grace is the presence of God; the angel recognizes that Mary is full of God’s presence. Full of grace because she was conceived without original sin. Because she was the mediatrix of the principal Grace, which is the gift that God gave to humanity, Jesus, Mary is now the mediatrix of all the graces that God grants to those who love Him. 

The Lord is with you – Mary is the dwelling place of the God Most High; Mary is the new ark of the covenant; while the old ark contained only sacraments of the presence and wonders that God worked in his people, Mary contains the same God made man. Mary is also both the temple and the spouse of the Holy Spirit. 

The old ark contained manna, the manna that the people ate only to be hungry again; Christ is the new manna that satiates for eternal life. The old ark contained the tablets of the law, the Ten Commandments; Christ is the new law, the law of love that sums up the commandments and goes beyond them, because he invites us to love without measure, whereas the commandments only told us what not to do. If the old ark contained Moses’ staff with which he guided his people and worked wonders, the new ark contains the Good Shepherd, the one who gives his life for the sheep and tells us that we should only recognize one authority, one Father, one Teacher, one Lord who is God.

Blessed are you among women – After the Angel’s Annunciation, the Visitation to her cousin Elizabeth begins. If in the Annunciation Mary related with God, loving God, praying, contemplating, then in the Visitation Mary relates with her neighbour, loving her neighbour by helping her cousin, acting and putting God’s word into practice in concrete works of charity.

We make Elizabeth’s greeting our own. In fact, the first beatitude of the Gospel is spoken by Elizabeth, inspired by the Holy Spirit, to Mary: "Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” (Luke 1:45) 

Mary is the faith of Abraham from generation to generation, which finds in Mary its broadest and ultimate fulfilment. Through Mary, not Jacob, Abraham has descendants more numerous than the sands of the sea, since he is the father of all believers outside the meager borders of Israel.

Blessed is the fruit of your womb – The wheat that God sowed in Mary's womb has become for us the bread that gives us life and eternal salvation. (Canticle of Fatima)

A disciple is one who listens to the word of God and puts it in practice. Mary listened to the word of God from the Angel and put it into practice by accepting and incarnating it. So, Mary is mother because she was first a disciple; she is the fertile ground par excellence, because in her the seed of the Word bore 100% fruit. Mary is also the fulfillment of Jacob's dream: the ladder that connects heaven and earth. 

Whenever we recite the Hail Mary, we are uniting heaven, represented by the angel Gabriel, with earth, represented by her cousin Elizabeth. By means of Mary's ladder, God descends to earth and Christ ascends with humanity to the Father.

Jesus
Strange as it may seem, the Hail Mary prayer is a Christ-centered prayer. He is the subject, the raison d'être of the prayer; it is in him and through him that Mary is praised. He is the center of the prayer that unites its two parts. 

Just as a stone thrown into a lake makes concentric circles that travel until they reach the borders of the lake, so Christ, when he came into the world, occupies the centre of human history, his action gradually making itself felt, until he is all in all, (1 Corinthians 15:28). Jesus is the cornerstone (Acts 4:11), the foundation of the Church, the one who holds everything together in a harmonious and secure whole. 

Conclusion – The words of the Angel, followed by Elizabeth’s words, make up the biblical part of the "Hail Mary" prayer which ends with JESUS, who is the center and the glue that binds the Bible to the Tradition of the Church, which is represented in the second part of this prayer. 

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC