With these words to the angel Mary the mother of Jesus became the first believer in Jesus:
And Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her. Luke 1:38 (RSV).
It took great courage for Mary to consent to God's plan, and to accept this pregnancy while she was not yet married to Joseph. She knew that some in Nazareth would see her pregnancy as a great scandal, and yet as stated in verse 38 she freely consented to it. For this reason we honor Mary as the blessed mother of the church.
While we revere the mother of Jesus, she was human, and it is not impertinent to ask this question: Did Mary struggle to understand the identity and mission of her son? Ben Witherington III said this in Bible History Daily:
In Luke’s birth narrative, Mary is the first to be told that Jesus will be the messiah. Luke adds that she “treasures the words” the angel Gabriel speaks to her. But Mary is also puzzled by the divine message; she is “perplexed” when the angel greets her and must “ponder” the meaning of his words (Luke 1:29; see also 2:19).
Quoting Luke chapter 2 and also the late Fr. Ray Brown, Witherington explained that for Mary to fully understand Jesus, she needed to experience the ministry of Jesus, and his death and resurrection:
Twelve years after the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, the Holy Family returns to Jerusalem and Jesus returns to the Temple, this time by himself. Mary and Joseph search for him frantically for three days. When at last they find him listening to and asking questions of the teachers in the Temple, Mary asks, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.” Jesus responds, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But, Luke reports, “they did not understand what he said to them … [but] his mother treasured all these things in her heart” (Luke 2:48–51). The late New Testament scholar Raymond Brown wrote: “Luke’s idea is that complete acceptance of the word of God, complete understanding of who Jesus is, and complete discipleship is not yet possible. This will come through the ministry of Jesus and particularly through the cross and resurrection.”
http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/new-testament/mary-simeon-or-anna-who-first-recognized-jesus-as-messiah/ (Bible History Daily online article February 12, 2013, an article originally appearing in Bible Review).
We honor Mary for saying yes to God in that first encounter with the angel. But from that encounter she did not immediately gain a complete understanding of God's plan. Over her life Mary grew in her understanding of Jesus. (Jesus himself grew in wisdom and understanding. Luke 2:52.) Mary needed time to witness and experience the life of her son, and to reflect on the meaning of his death and resurrection. Her gradual growth in understanding is normal and to be expected. The story of Mary has a happy ending. In Acts 1:14 Mary is present when the apostles gather in the upper room after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus.
After Jesus had left this world and as the church begins its work, Mary has full understanding of Jesus. We know from Mary's presence in that upper room that she had become a revered disciple of our Lord. I picture Mary providing Luke with precious eyewitness testimony of the history of Jesus' birth and his early life which we find in Luke chapters 1 and 2, and that testimony would have included these beautiful stories of Mary's early struggles to understand.
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