Sacred Scripture often confirms what belongs to Tradition by the use of words (blessed) and expressions (kecharitomene) employed by the authors through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. These help us to understand what God really has in mind to tell us. And they sometimes meaningfully extend beyond the primary context as is the case with prophecies. Mary spoke prophetically when she proclaimed: “Behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed” (Lk.1:48). Many Protestant commentators have said that what Mary means by being blessed (makaria) is that she has been favoured by God to be the mother of Jesus. In its primary fulfilment the prophecy is true. Unless Mary is the mother of our Lord, there is no reason for us to rejoice in Mary’s happiness together with her on account of this pre-eminent favour. Yet we are still left with the prophecy’s secondary fulfilment which is actually alluded to in the following verse: “The Almighty has done great things for me.” What Mary is alluding to has yet to be realized in the future and is connected with the present moment and her state. The original word makarizó (μακαρίζω) in the given context literally means “to be pronounced blessed as a result of enjoying benefits or privileges that extend from being the mother of our Lord by God’s grace.” Thus the great things God has done for Mary are blessings that rest on the Divine Maternity which in itself is a blessing of the highest honour any woman could ever receive by the gratuitous grace of God. However, the future generations which pronounce Mary blessed are not merely paying her honour for having been chosen to be the mother of the Lord. As we have seen, the Greek word for “blessed” is more than an honorary term. It refers to how one stands in their personal relationship with God. The secondary fulfilment of Mary’s prophecy is found in these benefits and privileges that extend from her Divine motherhood which future generations of the faithful shall acknowledge as blessings that by virtue of her maternal right exclusively belong to her in the order of grace. And these privileges are also connected with Mary’s association with her Son in his work of redemption for which other reason she was chosen to be his mother. Jesus was not made by a woman only to acquire his flesh and blood from her.
Protestant scholar Donald G. Dawe in his exegesis of this verse concurs that the Greek word for “blessed” is “more than a polite honorific term”. In his work The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin in Ecumenical Perspective, he informs us that this same word was used in Patristic literature to characterize the martyrs. “The highest expression of this blessedness was in the possibility of their ascension into heaven to dwell in the immediate presence of God.” (cf. EWTN). In other words, they weren’t simply blessed for having died for Christ in faith. In the same vein, when Jesus says “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God,” the highest expression of their blessedness is seeing God. Thus Mary’s divine motherhood is not the highest expression of her being blessed in the eyes of future generations. This verse is vital to the Catholic dogma of the Assumption. In this verse we not only see her role in the Incarnation, but also the final consummation of salvation in Heaven. In Mary’s case, this final consummation would be her assumption into Heaven. This is something all generations shall especially rejoice in for Mary’s sake alone, since the Assumption is one of the privileges she has been graced with for being the Mother of God. The future generations shall not pronounce Mary blessed for simply having died and gone to Heaven. This is the blessed hope of all the faithful who die in the state of grace. The redemption of our bodies is a divine truth which has already been made manifest by the resurrection of Christ. But Mary is speaking prophetically about herself in particular. There is a secondary fulfilment that exclusively applies to her which is her Assumption body and soul into Heaven pending our own resurrection. Mary is the one person whom by all the other faithful is pre-eminently pronounced blessed. She has been granted this privilege that no other Christian shall ever receive, not only because she is the mother of our Lord, but also because of the other associated benefit extended to her - that being the Immaculate Conception.
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