Holy Mary

To this form of thanksgiving the Church of God has wisely added prayers and an invocation addressed to the most holy Mother of God, by which we piously and humbly fly to her patronage, in order that, by her intercession, she may reconcile God to us sinners and may obtain for us those blessings which we stand in need of in this life and in the life to come.

This is what the Catechism of the Council of Trent says about the second part of the Hail Mary. It is not known who wrote it, but it is the result of many years of reflection, liturgical practices and lots of prayer. It began to be included in some breviaries of the religious orders of the past until it came into regular use by the people of God around the 15th century. Like all traditions, it was not taken from the Bible, but it is rooted in it.

Holy Mary – Unlike Eve, who was proud before God and wanted to usurp God’s power by submitting to the serpent, the symbol of evil, Mary, humble before God to whom she submits, crushes the serpent's head. By becoming the Mother of God, Mary achieved through humility what Eve wanted through pride "to be like God" (Genesis 3:5). Eve, the pretentious one, wanted to be like God in omnipotence, while Mary, the humble servant of Zion, wanted to be like God in holiness.

If Abraham is our Father in faith, then Mary is our Mother in faith; in Mary, faith and hope throughout the ages find their fulfilment. 

Mother of God – An enthusiastic Protestant proselytizer gets on a bus and exclaims, "This is the letter and this is the envelope that contained it, we keep the letter and throw the envelope in the trash. Christ is the letter, and Mary is the envelope." "Is your mother also an envelope you throw in the trash?" Someone asked...

And it is not true that you throw away the envelope. Lovers who keep their love letters keep them inside their envelopes. Christ is a love letter from God to humanity. Mary is the flagrant, colorful envelope that contains that letter; whoever is a mother is always a mother. Furthermore, the envelopes also contain the address of the sender of the letter; we need this to respond, just as we need Mary's mediation.

A mother is the one who carries a child in her womb and has contributed genetically to its formation; Mary is a mother in both of these senses. If Mary is the mother of Jesus and Jesus is God, then Mary is the mother of God. This is an inescapable syllogism.

She is not the mother of God in the sense that she is the origin of God or that she came before God and is the origin of Jesus’ divinity. She is the mother of God because she contained God in her womb and because she contributed genetic material to the human form that God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, took in Christ.

Pray for us sinners – The new Eve, the new Abraham, the new Jacob, Mary is also the new Moses. Abraham interceded before God for Sodom and Gomorrah; Moses continually interceded for the people until he could no longer hold up his outstretched arms. In the new and eternal covenant established by Christ, the role of intercessor fell upon his mother Mary because there is no human creature closer to God than her. Even during her Son’s earthly pilgrimage, Mary exercised this role of intercessor and mediator of all graces. Jesus' first miracle at the wedding feast in Cana is performed at Mary's request, (John 2:1-11).

Now – “Passed Waters Do Not Move Mills". Life takes place in the present; however, there are people who are held hostage by traumatic and guilt-ridden events of the past that act as curses in the present and prevent them from taking charge and being responsible for their own behavior. 

Sin is done in the past and forgiven in the present; Jesus' forgiveness sets us free and undoes the shackles of the past; this is assimilated in the context of our whole life in a positive way. With Jesus we chant our "Felix Culpa" in the present; "there are no evil out of which good cannot come", "God writes straight with crooked lines". 

The three theological virtues explain and shape our life, which consists of three stages. We live only in the present, but it is the faith we bring from the past that gives meaning to our present, and it is the hope that projects us into the future that animates and inspires our present. Charity must be the only action we do in the present; to live is to love, both God and neighbour.

And at the hour of our death – "I want to die," said my mother in agony when she saw death coming to take her to God. Jesus said, "No one takes it (life) from me, but I lay it down of my own accord!" (John 10:18). If we love God above everything and everyone, death does not deprive us of anything or anyone. Letting go of the little we have in order to cling to the Much that is God should not be difficult. Let us live in the hope that the best is yet to come.

Amen – So be it, I believe this is our stamp, our signature underneath, we endorse to everything we have said above.

Conclusion – The first part of the "Hail Mary" concerns the past and the role of Mary in the history of the salvation of humanity. The second concerns what Mary is in the present and future, and her role in the salvation of each one of us. 

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC