Msg Base:  AREA 5  - ASK FATHER            CIN ECHO   AMDG
  Msg No: 249.  Wed  2-19-92 17:28  (NO KILL)  (MAILED)
    From: Father Mateo
      To: Benny Diaz Jr.
 Subject: KHARITOO

+-
| You stated in a previous post:
|  FM> In Luke 1:28, the archangel Gabriel calls Mary "kekharitomene",
|  FM> "favored".  We often translate this "full of grace", following St.
|  FM> Jerome's Latin translation: "gratia plena" Mary's fulness of grace
|  FM> prompted generations of Catholic theologians to ask: "How full is
|  FM> full?"  Part of the Church's answer is:  "Her fullness of grace
|  FM> reaches as far as her utter freedom from sin, even from the first
|  FM> moment of her conception in her mother's womb."  "Kekharitomene" is a
|  FM> perfect tense form of the verb "kharitoun", "to favor".  In this tense,
|  FM> the verb means utterly, perfectly, totally favored or graced.
| Does that mean that all believers have received the same "fullness of grace"
| and "favor", since we are told in Ephesians 1:6 which He (God)
|  has "graciously shown us in the one he loves"?
|  FM> Luke 1:28 by itself does not "prove" the doctrine of the Immaculate
|  FM> Conception.  It shows only that the doctrine is in accord with
|  FM> Scripture: if Mary is truly "kekharitomene", then God so filled her
|  FM> with His grace that never in her whole existence did he leave any room
|  FM> in her for the slightest sin (any sin is the ultimate "ungrace").
| But if the same Greek term (karitao) is referred to believers (Ephesians
| 1:6), why are we not privileged as such?   I also found from a Greek reference

| work that the "special" term used in regards to "favored one" in Luke 1:28,
| means "to show kindness to someone, with the implication of graciousness on
| the part of the one showing such kindness" (Greek- English Lexicon of the New
| Testament by Louw and Nida).  This same term is directed to believers.  That
| has me wondering.  I hope you can help.
| Thank you in advance,
| +Benny++
| ... Jesus Christ, our Great God and Savior (Titus 2:13)
| ... God's Word is our light and our lamp (Psalm 119:105)
+-[BDJ=>FM]
 
Dear Benny,
 
The Koine dialect Greek verb KHARITOO is used twice in the New
Testament.  In Ephesians 1:6 it is used in the active voice, indicative
mood, first aorist tense form EKHARITOSEN: HE SHOWED GRACE.  In St.
Luke 1:28, KHARITOO is used in the passive voice, feminine participial
mood, perfect tense form KEKHARITOMENE: GRACED, (WOMAN) TO WHOM GRACE
HAS BEEN SHOWN.
 
Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
7th edition) shows this verb as: 1) ACTIVE, "to show grace to"; 2)
PASSIVE, "to have grace shown one, to be highly favored".
 
KHARITOO is a factitive verb, developed from the noun KHARIS (stem
KHARIT-), meaning "favor", "grace", "kindness" and many other related
ideas (L. and S. ad loc.). KHARIS often connotes an unexpected,
unearned, gratuitous favor or grace, which as it were takes one by
surprise.
 
The verb form in Ephesians 1:6 shows indeterminate (aorist) action in
the past: HE SHOWED GRACE, with nothing implied except the bare fact
as stated.  It does not say HOW MUCH grace, or for HOW LONG, or WITH
WHAT RESULT.
 
The verb form in Luke 1:28 is perfect tense.  The Greek perfect states
completed action and implies an enduring result. KEKHARITOMENE is the
perfect passive participle of KHARITOO, and in this tense means
utterly, perfectly, totally favored or graced, "full of grace".
 
There is no "fullness of grace" stated or implied in Ephesians 1:6.
The difference in TENSE between this verse and Luke 1:28 is the point
at issue.  Neither Scripture nor tradition has ever taught the utter
sinlessness of all believers.  But tradition teaches and Scripture
confirms (in Luke 1:28) the utter sinlessness of the Mother of God.
 
Grammar study is useful but insufficient in interpreting the data
of revelation.  To know what God has revealed, we must supply the
deficiencies of study with the infallible witness of "the Church of
the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the Truth" (1st Timothy 3:15).
Without this living witness, Scripture easily becomes a battlefield of
sectarian opinions.
 
                                Sincerely in Christ,
 
                                Father Mateo