Mary, Full of Grace

Luke 1:28 is a verse that most of us hear around Christmas time, but yet, we don't stop to really think about what it means. It is found in the story where the angel Gabriel comes to Mary to tell her that she, even though she is a virgin, will conceive and give birth to the Son of God. Gabriel greets Mary in Luke 1:28 by saying, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you." So what does it mean when Gabriel calls Mary "full of grace"?

The Greek word used for "full of grace" is the word "kecharitomene," which means to be "completely, perfectly, and enduringly endowed with grace." It is the only time that this word is ever used in the Bible, and it is used in reference to Mary. But that is not all. Another interesting thing is that "kecharitomene" is a perfect passive participle, which "denotes the present state resultant upon a past action."

Now, what does that mean for us lay people, who may not know Biblical Greek? It means that Mary was given the special privilege and gift from God to be already completely, perfectly, and permanently endowed with grace before the angel Gabriel appeared to her, before Jesus was conceived, before Jesus was born, before He performed His first miracle, before His death on the cross, before His resurrection from the dead, and before His ascension into heaven. How long before? The Bible doesn't say. But according to Church Tradition and belief, Mary was full of grace from the very moment of her conception, which is what we call the Immaculate Conception.