Most Blessed Are You among Women
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When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
“Most blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”
Luke 1, 41-42
Most Bible versions
in English have Elizabeth declaring “Blessed are you among women, and blessed
is the fruit of your womb.” The passage that is taken from the Catholic New
American Bible has the superlative adjective “most” qualifying the feminine past
participle eulogemene which gives meaningful substance to the statement
“Blessed are you among women.” The expression “blessed among women” is a
Hebraism which literally means “most blessed among women” or “blessed above
(all) women.” There is also no superlative in the Greek lexicon of the original
text which explains why most Bible translations in English don’t include the
word “most”.
We have two related examples in the Old Testament with respect to the Jewish heroines Jael and Judith who, as collaborators with God in His saving work, prefigure Mary as the promised woman in the divine order of redemption: ‘Most blessed of women is Jael…blessed among tent-dwelling women…She hammered Sisera, crushed his head; she smashed, pierced his temple’ (Jdgs. 5:24-26). “Blessed are you daughter, by the Most High God, above all the women on earth…who guided your blow at the head of the leader of our enemies” (Jdt. 13:18). What is striking in the passage from the Book of Judith is its close parallel with the Gospel of Luke in its verbal structure and theme.
Let us examine
Judith 13:18 and Luke 1:42 to see how the two passages are connected. The verse
in Judith is taken from the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old
Testament. The evangelist wrote his gospel in Greek. What we have here is a
sample of what St. Augustine has described: “The New Testament lies hidden in
the Old, and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New” (Commentary on the
Sermon on the Mount).
Then Uzziah said to
her, “Blessed are you daughter, by the Most High God, above all the women
on earth; and
blessed be the Lord God, the creator of heaven and earth, who guided your blow
at
the head of the leader of our enemies.”
καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῇ ᾿Οζίας· εὐλογητὴ σύ, θύγατερ, τῷ Θεῷ τῷ ῾Υψίστῳ παρὰ πάσας τὰς γυναῖκας τὰς
ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, καὶ εὐλογημένος Κύριος ὁ Θεός, ὃς ἔκτισε τοὺς οὐρανοὺς καὶ τὴν γῆν, ὃς κατεύθυνέ
σε εἰς τραῦμα κεφαλῆς ἄρχοντος ἐχθρῶν ἡμῶν “
And blessed are you
among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”
καὶ ἀνεφώνησεν φωνῇ μεγάλῃ καὶ εἶπεν Εὐλογημένη σὺ ἐν γυναιξίν
καὶ εὐλογημένος ὁ καρπὸς τῆς κοιλίας σου
To understand what
St. Luke means by Mary being blessed, we must examine the Greek word he uses to
describe Mary’s state of grace. It isn’t the same word he uses in 1:45 which is
makaria (μακαρία). Instead, the word he chooses to use here is the
feminine perfect passive participle eulogemene (Εὐλογημένη), as we also
have in the Deutero-canonical Book of Judith. This verb literally means “having
been blessed” and is used as a benediction. The perfect action of the participle
is taken to have been completed before the time Elizabeth praised Mary. How
long before the action took place is unimportant, but the Greek verbal idea is
that the action has already been completed, most likely at the first instant of
Mary’s immaculate conception in virtue of her election to the Divine
Maternity.
This word is
employed on only one other occasion in the New Testament, and that being
regarding the Kingdom of Heaven: “Blessed (Εὐλογημένη) be the kingdom of our
father David that cometh: Hosanna in the highest” (Mk 11:10). The verb
eulogemene is derived from the root eulogeo (εὐλογέω). The evangelist is
evidently drawing a parallel between Mary and the Kingdom of God to explain how
it is that the mother of our Lord is blessed together with her divine Son.
Mary’s blessed state
is intended to mean much more than having been favored by God to be the mother
of Jesus and having cause to be happy because of this divine privilege. Luke
doesn’t use makaria, which literally means “happy”. Elizabeth isn’t merely
praising Mary for having become the mother of her Lord. Rather, Mary’s blessedness
must do with her personal affinity with her Son in a spiritual and mystical
way. God rules in Mary’s soul as much as Christ’s divinity rules his humanity
and takes charge of his human soul. God is the ruler of our Blessed Lady’s soul
no less than He is the ruler of His heavenly kingdom.
This is most proper
considering God has chosen Mary to collaborate with Him in vanquishing Satan
and bringing his dominion in the world to ruin. In response to Elizabeth’s
praise, Mary does declare: “My soul proclaims the glory of the Lord, and my
spirit (pnuema/soul) rejoices in God my savior” (Lk 1:46-47). Both the
Mother and the Son share a single enmity with the serpent and his offspring.
Neither of them is subject to him in his domain by being enslaved to sin and
oppressed by the corruption of death, as all Adam’s descendants are in the
state of original sin. Thus, by Mary having been “blessed”, Elizabeth must mean
that her kinswoman has been “sanctified” and “consecrated” to God in virtue of
the blessed fruit of her womb, who likewise is holy and consecrated to God the
Father in his humanity for serving Him as the “God who is salvation” (Yeshua)
in collaboration with his most blessed Mother.
St. Luke also
writes: “The kingdom of God is within you” (17:21). The Greek word for “within”
is entos (ἐντός) which can mean either “inside” (within) or “among”.
This word originates from the preposition en (ἐν) which is “in”. Since
the evangelist is comparing Mary with the kingdom of God in his description of
her being personally blessed, the former meaning is applicable here, and it
must do with her interior state which resembles that of her divine Son’s in his
humanity. This becomes more apparent when we look at the following passages:
‘Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God
dwelleth in (en) you?’ (1 Cor 3:16); ‘Jesus answered and said to them,
“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (Jn 2:19). By
“temple,” Jesus means his body.
Elizabeth is
pronouncing her kinswoman blessed for the quality of her soul which mirrors the
justice and sanctity of her divine Son’s in his humanity. The Mother of our
Lord is most blessed for having the Spirit of God dwell within her, whose
sanctifying or justifying grace has made her pure as her divine Son is pure in
his sacred humanity (1 Jn 3:3). She is revealed to be spiritually and bodily
unblemished without any stain of sin in the likeness of her divine Son because
of her collaboration with him in the redemption of mankind. God put Mary at enmity
with the serpent and, by doing so, exempted her from being implicated in the
sin of Adam along with the rest of humanity, as to be worthiest of being the
mother of His Only-begotten Son and our Redeemer.
The original root verb eulogeo
also occurs seven times in the Gospels with reference in the masculine perfect
passive participle form only to Jesus. We find it in the second clause of Luke
1:42 (as in the Book of Judith referring to YHWH) and in Mark 11:9: ‘And they
that went before and they that followed, cried, saying: Hosanna, blessed (eulogemenos
/ εὐλογημένος) is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.’ The blessed
state of the kingdom of heaven where the Divine rules is in likeness the
blessed state of the Lord in his divinized humanity: “full of grace and truth”
(Jn 1:14), and in the likeness of his blessed mother who has been most
abundantly and supremely graced: ‘And the angel being come in, said unto her:
Hail, full of grace (Ave gratia plena) the Lord is with thee: blessed
art thou among women’ (Lk 1:28 DRB). The original Greek text reads kecharitomene,
which means “completely and perfectly graced in the past with a permanent
result.” The permanence of Mary’s Divine Maternity was established at the first
instant of her conception, when God, therefore, sanctified her soul and
preserved her free from the stain of original sin.
Hence, Jesus and Mary
are described by Luke as being blessed in common by being divinely favored with
the spiritual ability to accomplish the Divine objective: the redemption of
mankind. Both are consecrated to God (set apart to serve Him) and sanctified by
His grace (made holy) in their shared humanity to be fit to meet God’s
purpose of satisfying His justice by undoing what the serpent has wrought from
the beginning (Gen 3:14).
God’s heavenly kingdom is
in Mary, for in her disposition and conduct she embodies and displays its
concrete manifestation amid fallen humanity with the coming of the divine
Messiah and the outpouring of his regenerating grace (Jer 31:31-34; Ezek
36:24-27, etc.). In her personal relationship with God, she observes the law of
the first covenant established on Sinai that is written in her heart: the
natural law of love and freedom not written on stone, but declared to her by
the Holy Spirit who dwells in her soul. She knows God as He should be known in
His goodness and righteousness by being taught through the Holy Spirit, who
enlightens her mind and transforms it by His generous gift of knowledge and
understanding (Jn 14:26).
God has removed Mary
from among sinful humanity and has given her a heart of flesh, putting His
Spirit in her so that she should be careful to always follow His laws and
decrees. In the sanctifying light of faith, our Blessed Lady perceives all God
has taught His chosen people through Moses in its proper light. Indeed, she is
a daughter of God after His heart worthy of receiving her promised inheritance,
a true servant of Israel in the spirit. Mary’s covenant with God is the new and
everlasting one established by the mediation of her divine Son through the outpouring
of his precious blood (Lk 22:20). The blood of her Son hasn’t cleansed her of
any sin but rather has preserved her from being tainted by it. This justifying
blood of his which has mixed with his mother’s blood in her holy womb applies
to her first and foremost in honor of her and for the establishment of her
covenant with God.
Mary is the first human
being to reap the fruits of redemption, and in a singular way, not only
because she has been graced with the divine motherhood, but more importantly because
her conscience has never condemned her up to the time of her Dormition (1 Jn
3:20). There is no need for our Blessed Lady ever having to repent, for she has
never broken her covenant with God at any point in her life by having committed
any personal sins.
As a partaker of the
divine nature, Mary is free of all the corruption in the world caused by dark
human desires (2 Pet. 1:4). By the light of the Spirit who dwells within her,
divinity shines in her soul. Her divine Son is reflected in her divine image.
Through Mary’s love of God and her charity towards humanity, the divine quality of
her soul shines forth into the world. “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God shines forth” (Ps 50:2), manifesting the coming of His new kingdom on earth
to His glory (Mt 5:16). The inner core of Mary’s being is undefiled and
resembles the inherent righteousness of her divine Son in his humanity. By
cooperating with the graces and gifts she has received from the Holy Spirit,
Mary keeps herself pure as her divine Son is pure (1 Jn 3:3).
In her blessed state,
Mary sees the God whom she desires to see face to face within her as she gazes
upon herself with the Holy Spirit bearing testimony to the sublime quality of
her soul. In her fullness of grace, she finds that the Lord she longs to see
face to face is inside her sanctifying the temple of her body and the sacred
sanctuary of her womb. The glory of God radiates her soul with its light, as
her soul proclaims His glory (Lk. 1:46). The kingdom of God “is neither here
nor there” but within Mary. She is with the Lord as fittingly as she should be
in His work of redemption – at complete enmity with Satan and the powers of
darkness that wreak havoc in the world within God’s providence, as much as her
divine Son is in his sacred humanity.
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And to the woman were given two wings of a great
eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her
place, where she is nourished for a time, and times,
and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
Revelation 12:14
Hence, by describing
Mary as “most blessed” (eulogemene), Luke presents the mother of our
Lord as the free promised woman in whom the peace of the Kingdom of God reigns.
The quality of her soul preludes the life of Heaven itself since there is
nothing spiritually wanting in our Blessed Lady’s state of being. Mary is
unaffected by those disordered inclinations of the soul which even the faithful
must strive to overcome in their daily life of unity with God because of
original sin. She experiences within the depths of her interior state the joy
and the peace of God’s complete dominion over her, free of all the dark
passions which can disturb and blemish the soul with its vices.
Not unlike her divine
Son in his humanity, by the plenitudes of endowed grace and the gifts of the
Holy Spirit, Mary is totally detached from all created things that could draw a
soul away from God, these vain allurements of the world which the serpent or
dragon has the liberty to exploit in its quest to destroy souls by
extinguishing the light of God’s glory in them (Rom 3:23). Indeed, Mary’s soul
magnified the glory of the Lord, and her spirit rejoiced in God her savior, who
redeemed his most blessed mother in the most perfect way (Lk 1:46-49).
For Mary, there never
has been any transition from the state of sin to the life of grace because of
her total enmity with the serpent. Grace has preceded her birth, for she has
been predestined to be the Mother of God. The blessed mother of our Lord is untouched
by the propensity of human nature to sin against God. Her desire to please God
by aligning her will with His has never faltered. Mary is plagued by no dark
imaginations that can draw her sensitive appetites towards anything that
displeases God. The prince of this world holds no dominion over her. The unruly
desires of the will, such as pride, envy, ambition, greed, and lust do not lie
dormant within Mary, but only the supernatural virtues which God desires she
should possess in His love and goodness: faith, hope, charity, chastity,
humility, kindness, patience, fortitude, wisdom, gentleness, and so on.
The kingdom of heaven on
earth isn’t essentially a place or a terrestrial dominion, but the divine
quality of the human soul sanctified by God’s grace existing in this world: a
lamp set upon a hill to shed its light before others so that they will see her
goodness and glorify God in return. Of all human creatures re-created by the
Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary is the light of the world par excellence who has
this light to give to all those who wish to be kingdoms themselves like her by
perfectly emulating her Divine Son in his humanity (Mt 5:14-16). Mary is the
prototype of the Church by being our perfect model of faith and charity in
God’s grace. Most blessed is she indeed.
And so, the Kingdom of
God is within Mary, and God alone rules in her soul through the Holy Spirit,
her Creator blessed. Her soul resembles an unspoiled wilderness with untilled
soil untouched by the human settlement of worldly wisdom and unnatural desires
that deviate from the original goodness of creation. Mary is carried aloft on
the wings of divine grace over the lower region of sinful humanity. She is
beyond the dragon’s reach and the raging waters of sin having escaped from
landing in its clutches, for she hasn’t been born in sinful slavery within its
dominion. Our Blessed Lady is the free Woman promised by God, whose holy
offspring is the free Son of promise.
As the lily among thorns
so is my love among the daughters.
Song of Solomon 2, 2
St. Luke characterizes
the Virgin Mary as a living symbol of the pneumatic Church or Kingdom of God,
having no “spot or wrinkle” but is “holy and without blemish” (Eph 5:27). She
personifies the heavenly Church which is essentially the pilgrim Church on earth.
He presents her as the perfect model for all the faithful who have been
predestined to grace and are children of God by adoption, “chosen to be holy
and without blemish before Him” (Eph 1:3-6). Our Blessed Lady embodies the
highest stage of conversion that baptized Christians are called to attain, viz.
the state of spiritual perfection and mystical union with God, albeit the many
imperfections that remain in those who have advanced this far and are still at
war with the dragon in their spiritual combat.
Mary’s blessedness is
equal to the blessedness of her Son, though not by nature but by grace. And
since she is preserved free from the stain of original sin by the grace of God,
St. Paul’s exhortation to all the faithful, that they “put off the old nature
for the new nature” does not apply to her (Eph 4:22-24). Mary is God’s
re-creation of fallen humanity from the time she has been first created upon
the infusion of her soul into the body.
The fullness of grace
with which Mary is endowed is a singular gift from God in virtue of her Divine
Maternity. She is certainly the model of spiritual perfection in her mystical
communion with God since His heavenly kingdom has circumscribed her soul. The
interior life that Mary leads is complete without any spiritual imperfections.
Yet she is maturing as she increases in wisdom and knowledge through life’s
experiences. Mary’s soul searches for the deep things of God for a greater
understanding of Him, but without the slightest regression or a fall from grace
(1 Cor 2:10). Her soul is completely detached from the created world and united
with the non-created God. She lives her life in spirit and in truth. The motto
of her soul is faithfulness and abandonment. She who follows her Son walks not
in darkness but possesses the light of life (Jn 8:12) by walking in the light
as her Son is in the light (1 Jn. 1:7), he who has claimed to be the “light of
the world.” The Holy Spirit, who is love, enlightens her soul in the perfection
of love. She is God’s perfect creation, ever-blossoming in perfection.
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
Zephaniah 3, 14-18
Our Most Blessed Lady
loves God with pure and perfect love, and by loving Him, she can love her
neighbor with a totally unfailing love that reflects God’s absolute love.
Mary’s love of human souls derives its existence from the love God has for her
(1 Jn 4:19). She understands and fully appreciates what true love really means.
The love she has for others is that same eternal love she has received from God
and cherishes above all temporal goods. Her love may be finite, but it is
perfect; since Mary’s soul is free of all pride, ego, and selfishness. God is the
supreme object of her soul before whom she humbly denies herself and thereby
becomes the mother of God the Son. God raises up and exalts the humble or
lowly, and so, all Christian generations shall declare the Virgin Mary blessed
for all the “great things” He has done to her (Lk 1:48-49).
The Blessed Virgin Mary
is God’s greatest creation, of all human creatures. God has fashioned her to be
renewed unto the knowledge of Him to be charitable, which is the bond of
perfection. Since she has been of age, Mary has sought only “the things that
are above, where her Son is, seated at the right hand of God.” She has always
“set her mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth,” for
she has died to this world, and her life “is hidden with Christ in God.”
Because Mary has been chosen and made to be the holy Mother of God, her divine
Son has revealed himself within her soul which proclaims his glory. Thus, she
shall be “revealed with him” in the glory of her Assumption body and soul into
Heaven. All Mary has done throughout her life “in word or deed” she has done
“in the name of the Lord” (Col 3:17). By the plenitudes of grace our
Most-Blessed Lady has received, the kingdom of God is “neither here nor there”
but “within” Mary in an exceptional way (Lk 17:21).
The Protestant
theologian Karl Barth rightly stated: “Jesus himself is the kingdom, he was the
kingdom, and will be the kingdom, and in him exists the entire establishment,
all the salvation, all the joy of the kingdom.” “The identity between Church
and kingdom,” Christoph Cardinal Schonborn says, “has its basis in Christ,” yet
“there is no higher concretization of this identity for the Church than the
Mother of God. It would not be possible to assert this identity if its only
basis was Christ, the Head of the Church, and there was no real perfect
correspondence on the side of the members of the Church (Mystical Body of
Christ) … If Mary did not exist in the Church, then there would be a distance
between the Church and the kingdom, because of the presence of sinners in the
Church… In Mary, the most perfect member of the Church, we can contemplate the
Church’s true nature… ‘As the Mother of Jesus… is the image and the beginning
of the Church, which will be perfected in the world to come, so she also shines
here on earth in the intermediary time until the day of the Lord comes… as a sign
of sure hope and of consolation to the people of God on its pilgrim way’” (Lumen
Gentium 58).
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Beautiful for elevation,
the joy of the whole earth,
is mount Zion,
on the sides of the north,
the city of the great King.
Psalm 48, 2
Early Sacred
Tradition
by the holy Virgin, and prepared a robe which He wove for Himself, like a bridegroom, in the
sufferings of the cross, in order that by uniting His own power with our moral body, and by mixing
the incorruptible with the corruptible, and the strong with the weak, He might save perishing man.”
St. Hippolytus,
Treatise on Christ and antiChrist, 4
(A.D. 200)
for there is no blemish in you nor any stains upon your Mother.
Who of my children can compare in beauty to these?”
St. Ephraem of Syria
Nisibene Hymns 27:8
(A.D. 361)
so He proceeded from her contracting no stain.”
St. Proclus of Constantinople
Homily 1
(ante A.D. 446)
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Salve Regina!