BLOG POST | Hey Deacon!

Most of us are familiar with the popular Christmas song, “Mary Did You Know”. Many Catholics debate the merits of the song because some of the lyrics are counter to Catholic theology. Some people love it, others don’t. For me, I enjoy the simple beauty of the song because it joins my heart with Mary’s even though it is not an accurate reflection of her experience.

Mary, having been preserved from original sin, was raised in a devoted Jewish family and was a devout Jew herself. We know the Blessed Mother frequently “pondered” or “treasured” things in her heart, such as the message from the angel Gabriel. “And coming to her, he said, ‘Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you.’…Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”…and the angel said to her in reply, ‘the holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.” (Luke 1:28,32-33,35)

While we do not know the full details of Mary’s thoughts, we know she would have had a good scriptural understanding of the coming Messiah. I suspect she would have been pondering what it meant to have her only child as the Messiah. The message from Gabriel would have stirred thoughts in her head about scripture she knew from the prophets. “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then, the tongue of the dumb will sing.” (Isaiah 35:5-6)

We can reflect on the Blessed Mother’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth, who confirmed what the angel had told Mary. Elizabeth recognized the holiness of the child in Mary’s womb. Likewise, Simeon’s words to Mary when Jesus is presented in the temple. “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.” (Luke 2:34-25)

Mary would have known the Messiah was from God, suspected He would perform miracles, and suffer for us. She would have known the Messiah had come to save the world. Some Catholics take issue with the song’s verse: “Did you know that your Baby Boy has come to make you new? This Child that you’ve delivered will soon deliver you.” The answer to the question is “Yes”. We affirm this belief from our Catholic faith that Mary was immaculately conceived. She was already “delivered” from sin when she delivered Jesus. This is possible for God who is not constrained by time, unlike Mary who is constrained by time. She was delivered precisely by the death and resurrection of Christ because of her fiat to God. Her deliverance transcends the time of Jesus’s nativity as a future event.

Mary may not have known the specifics of future events, who Jesus would heal or what miracles he would accomplish, but she seems to have had a biblical and theological understanding of what the Messiah’s coming largely meant.