Theotokos: Full of Grace

From the very beginnings of Christianity, Mary, the mother of Jesus, was taught to be “full of grace.”  This teaching has its roots in both Scripture and the writings of the Fathers of the Church.  It has been consistently taught in the Catholic Church from the beginning.

Specifically in Scripture, Mary’s fullness of grace (plenitude gratiae) is formally contained in the Archangel Gabriel’s greeting to her at the Annunciation.  Let’s look at this greeting which is found in Luke 1:28. 

Listed are six translations of the same passage beginning with the original Greek  followed by two versions of the Latin Vulgate (Jerome’s translation was used in the Catholic Church for almost 1500 years with little change; the Nova Vulgata is now the official Latin translation authorized by the Church).  The Revised Standard Version – Catholic Edition is one of three main English translations authorized for use in worship by the Catholic Church.  The Douay-Rheims translations was a direct translation of the Vulgate into English and was the only authorized Catholic English translation for several hundred years.  The King James Version first published in 1611 is arguably the most popular English translation of the Bible and is used widely in Protestant churches.  The New International Version, published in 2010, is one of the newest English translations representing how the verse is translated most commonly today (in both Catholic and Protestant translations).

χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη, ὁ κύριος μετὰ σοῦ  (Greek – early 60’s A.D.)

 chaire kecharitōmenē o kurios meta sou (Transliterated Greek)

have gratia plena Dominus tecum  (Vulgata – Latin translation by Jerome - 384 A.D.)

Ave, gratia plena, Dominus tecum  (Nova Vulgata – updated Latin translation of Vulgate - 1979 A.D.)

"Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!"  (Revised Standard Version – Catholic Edition – 1965; 2006 A.D.)

Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee (Douay-Rheims – 1568; 1633 A.D.)

Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee (KJV – 1611; 1769 A.D.)

“Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” (NIV – 2010)

The graphic, surprising nature of this greeting is best captured in the Greek.  The emphasis is on the word “kecharitomene”, which points out what appears to be a predominant trait or characteristic of Mary.  The angel does not greet her by name – does not say “Hail Mary” – but uses a most unusual greeting.  The fact that this was unusual if not surprising can be seen by Mary’s own reaction to the greeting.  “But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be” (Luke 1:29).

The root of “kecharitomene” is “charitoo” which in its simplest means “I show grace or favor”.   To understand how God shows favor or grace to us, we need to look at Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians (Eph 1:6). 

 εἰς ἔπαινον δόξης τῆς χάριτος αὐτοῦ ἧς ἐχαρίτωσεν ἡμᾶς ἐν τῷ ἠγαπημένῳ. (Greek)

eis epainon doxēs tēs charitos autou ēs echaritōsen ēmas en tō ēgapēmenō (Greek Transliterated)

in laudem gloriae gratiae suae, in qua gratificavit nos in Dilecto (Vulgate)

Unto the praise of the glory of his grace, in which he hath graced us in his beloved (Douay-Rheims)

God’s way of showing favor or grace is to endow us with His sanctifying grace – a supernatural gift to us for our salvation.  Grace is the means, indispensible and divinely ordained, to effect the redemption from sin through Christ and to lead men to their eternal destiny in heaven.

Thus when the Archangel Gabriel called Mary “kecharitomene”, he was referring not just to a woman favored by God.  Nor was he referring to a woman endowed just with the graces associated with her divine maternity for she had not yet become the mother of Jesus.  Mary was not in fact the mother of Jesus when the angel called her “kecharitomene” for she had not as yet consented to become His mother.  Rather, he was referring to a woman endowed with a full measure of sanctifying grace in preparation of her divine vocation as Mother of God, a vocation that must by its very nature be conditioned on purity and holiness.

The phrase “the Lord is with you” is not part of the salutation but indicates the promise of divine protection for some definite task or mission.

Jerome translated “kecharitomene” as the Latin “gratia plena” (full of grace) because he was already aware of the long tradition of the Church as understanding this meaning of the gospel passage.  To further show this, the next post will show how the Fathers of the Church understood Mary’s “fullness of grace”.