I’ve read the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) and don’t recall any mention of Mary being “hidden”. There is mention of God’s plan being increasingly revealed throughout time, divine revelation becoming fuller throughout time, man’s relationship with God being on a journey just as God created the universe in a state of journeying (of motion). That is, God didn’t create Adam and Eve and tell them everything about Jesus and Mary and have Jesus crucified right there in the Garden the same day Adam sinned; he didn’t tell us his name until after 400 years of Israelite enslavement by the Egyptians, long after Abraham, Isaac (and Ishmael) and Jacob had died, etc. So God reveals more and more of his plan to us over time, and has with Jesus and the last of the apostles told us everything we need to know. So it’s possible that knowledge of Mary as the person who would be the mother mentioned in the prophecy to Adam and Eve could have been hidden from the angels, as it was hidden from us, until the Annunciation. Jesus says only the Father knows when the end of the universe will come, for example, so there’s at least one thing the Father hasn’t made known to his angels (cf.
Matthew 24:36).
Really, though, knowledge of Mary’s coming being hidden from the angles strikes me as irrelevant; it’s not knowledge we need to know, and I don’t see it as useful information beyond satisfying vain curiosity; in a certain sense, it’s like being nosy.
You may read through the primary section of the CCC about Mary yourself (passing references are made to her elsewhere, though, mainly about how she’s our mother, and our assurance of our own life after death, etc.):
CCC is online. Pick your language (in my case,
English); check through the table of contents for sections that interest you … Of interest here seem to be:
vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1K.HTM
vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2C.HTM
You might also read certain articles from the
Original Catholic Encyclopedia; the M section has “Mary, Devotion to the Blessed Virgin” and “Mary, The Blessed Virgin”, which I intend to read, although their length is discouraging to me.
Hope this post helps.
