Thus is the Lord with Mary; He is with her insofar as Christ is about to be, true. But He is also with her because she is living in God’s grace, His power, that is, His will for the salvation of the world, a will she obeys without flinching, in spite of the seeming insanity of the angel’s words.
The next three lines call us to honor her further, for she is “blessed […] among women.” Here, however, I do not see some point about her only deserving honor insofar as she is a woman, that is, not a man—some coded misogyny. Rather, these words can be read along with the next ones, those venerating the incarnate God-Man, her son, Jesus Christ. He is “the fruit of […her] womb,” the salvation of the world, whose crucifixion and resurrection will offer redemption to mankind. In this sense, we are reminded that Mary is blessed in part because of the task God has given her, and, again, because of her great “yes,” her humility in the face of the divine. We shall, to crib Scripture, know them by their fruits, and here we know Mary’s greatness because of the greatness of her fruit—a fruit accepted in a position of absolute humility from a girl, effectively then a child. In this way ought we also be like the little children—we must be like Mary.
At the end, in the final part that constitutes the prayer, we are reminded of her holiness, of the fact that she is indeed the Theotokos, the Mother of God. Her holiness can be read alongside the rest of the prayer, another layer of desirable emulation. We too ought to wish to be holy; thus we must wish to be humble. The final lines, in effect, are an exercise in humility, a recognition that we are sinners, in need of prayers from the saints in heaven, now and unto death, for temptation can come at any time, and sin can spoil what had thus far seemed holy fruit. By the last lines, we see that, at bottom, we are sinful people—proud, lustful, whatever the case might be—in need of divine aid, in need of not our own willfulness, but obedience to the will of God, which is precisely what we were told, at the beginning of the prayer, that Mary enacted. In this way, what seems merely a prayer of petition directs us to what God desires of us—love in humility; we begin to put it into practice.
Thus we end with “amen,” or “so be it.” May we be humbled, so we ask; may we come to do the will of the Lord.
I do not wish to be overlong; these are simply my thoughts after some reflection. I do not pretend that they exhaust the potential of the prayer, but, at least in my own life, they were new to me, a sort of reminder of my own smallness, my own fate to return to dust, buried in a prayer that left my lips all too often, but without nearly enough loving attention. I hope they may be of some worth to some of you as well.
To end, I’ll just quote the Angelus:
- The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary. R. And she conceived by the Holy Spirit.
Hail Mary…
V. Behold the handmaid of the Lord.
R. Be it done unto me according to your word.
Hail Mary…
V. And the Word was made flesh.
R. And dwelt among us.
Hail Mary…
V. Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
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