There is no clear indication of Mary coming to faith in Christ. It is not said that she “believed in Jesus,” nor that she gave any testimony that caused others to believe in him. . . . (note that the Fourth Evangelist never even uses her proper name) . . .
St. John, as a point of fact, never refers to his own name, either; using, rather, the “disciple whom Jesus loved” (13:23; 20:2; 21:7, 20). This is his style.
She appears to be more like Nicodemus in ch. 3 . . . Neither John 2:5 nor John 19:25-27 provides any evidence that Mary has moved beyond shallow sign-faith and understood the cross to be Jesus’ “hour of glorification.” She is there at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry (but goes unmentioned as regards a virgin birth), . . . she is there at the cross (with others), where again there is no indication of movement beyond a shallow sign faith, filled with grief and incomprehension.
Imagine thinking that the Blessed Virgin Mary: whom the angel Gabriel called “full of grace”, and who was “blessed among women”; whom all generations would call “blessed”; the Mother of God, who spent some thirty years with Jesus before anyone else knew about Him; i.e., ten times longer than anyone else, is not even a believer in Jesus!
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Gagnon would have us believe that God (Who knows everything, including the future) would choose a woman to be the Mother of God who wouldn’t even understand, let alone believe, what the angel Gabriel told her at the Annunciation, and who wouldn’t comprehend or believe Who Jesus was over His entire life? In fact, the biblical account in this regard is very clear: so much so that I submit it could hardly be any more so. The angel Gabriel told Mary at the Annunciation:
Luke 1:30-33 (RSV). . . “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. [31] And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. [32] He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, [33] and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end.” [34] And Mary said to the angel, “How shall this be, since I have no husband?” [35] And the angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.
Any Jew who knew anything at all would know that this was clearly the Messiah Whom she was to bear, and the “Son of God” language, which the Pharisees took to be blasphemy because they understood that it meant being equal to God the Father (John 5 and 10), also indicates His divinity and Godhood.
Her cousin Elizabeth proclaimed, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Lk 1:42-43). Mary (as far as we know from the text) doesn’t rebuke this, or ask, “what are you talking about?!” She accepts it as truth. She believes in the “Lord” Who is her Son. Mary’s “Magnificat” (Lk 1:46-55) – similar to Hannah’s prayer in 1 Samuel 2:1-10 — shows that Mary is well-acquainted with Old Testament theology and expression: enough to have certainly understood the messianic allusions in Gabriel’s and Elizabeth’s words to her.
Mary may have been present at John the Baptist’s circumcision (Lk 1:59 ff.) since Elizabeth was her cousin and she knew her well (e.g., she stayed with her for three months: Lk 1:56). If so, on that occasion, John’s father Zechariah “was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied” (Lk 1:67), saying, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, [77] to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins” (Lk 1:76-77). Then when they presented Jesus in Jerusalem in the purification rite, Mary and Joseph encountered the “righteous and devout” Simeon, who said, “mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to thy people Israel” (Lk 2:30-32).
This is pure messianic language as well. Furthermore, Mary might have been present at Jesus’ baptism (or heard about it), in which God the Father spoke from heaven: “Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased.” (Lk 3:22). An “angel of the Lord” told Joseph in a dream Who Jesus was (“. . . that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”: Mt 1:20-21). Angels told both Mary and Joseph Who Jesus was. Elizabeth, Zechariah, and Simeon all confirmed it while Jesus was still very young.
The three wise men visited Jesus, with Mary present (thought to be when He was about two years old), and “saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him” (Mt 2:11). We see no protest from Mary along the lines of, “what are you doing?! You can’t worship a mere man!”
Yet Dr. Gagnon thinks that Mary wasn’t a “believer” in Jesus. Sadly, even fellow Christians can fall into carnal or “unspiritual” thinking (1 Cor 2:10-16).
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Photo credit: self-designed cover for my self-published book, “The Catholic Mary” [public domain] [see book and purchase information]
Summary: Robert A. J. Gagnon, a New Testament scholar, believes that the Blessed Virgin Mary never came “to faith in Christ.” I refute this with several relevant scriptural passages.
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