I agree with Wesley7 that the Virgin Mary excelled in the Christian virtues. I also assert at the same time that, if we read between the lines, we can do great honour to our Blessed Mother by **considering some things that She may not have known **at points in Her earthly life,
rather than what She knew.
It helps to further bear in mind before delving into speculative thought, that the love our Blessed Mother bore for Jesus as her sweet Son also included the dimension of Her adoration of Him as her God .
At the wedding feast at Cana for example [John 2:1-11] , I don’t think Mary knew Jesus would change water into wine or that he would even provide wine when they had run out of it. But she knew He
could and trusted He* would
; in other words, She had* faith **in Him – in Her God and her Son , confirmed by Her words, “ Do whatever He tells you.” I don’t believe we can say She knew Jesus would do it, but She believed He would . Faith ,as St. Augustine says, “ is belief in those things we do not see, and the reward of this faith is that we shall see all that we have believed.”
So the beginning of the faith of the disciples and others in Jesus ,as the Gospel tells us [John 2:11] , “Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs in Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him” , was preceded by the faith of our Blessed Mother – our model of faith.
Can we even describe what it must’ve been like for Mary to have faith in someone who is at the same time God and Her Son ? We need to admit that at some point Jesus had to have told her He was going to suffer and die for us on Calvary. What untold tears must have fallen at that announcement.
Pondering things can give us a better idea of the reality of just how profound the humility of our Blessed Mother was. Considering the time and service she spent in the temple, she had to have known what the Jewish people knew about God and about the long-hoped-for Messiah.
A previous spiritual director of mine once told me he believed our Blessed Mother never knew nor thought she could or would be the mother of the Messiah, and that if she had any aspirations at all in that regard, the most they could have amounted to was to have been a maid or servant to the mother of the Messiah. The more I thought about that one, the more sense it made to me. From the perspective of humility, it makes perfect sense.
It would also explain why Mary was , “greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.” – because she never suspected any of it.
It would further shed a realistic light on the words of the Magnificat, “He has looked with favour on his lowly servant”
What better expression of the profound humility of our Blessed Mother, than to say that the only one worthy or chosen to be God’s holy Mother , never for a moment prior ever even dreamed it would be that way ?
… just a couple of possibilities .
