CO-REDEMPTRIX
Now, why art thou drawn together with grief?
Hast thou no king in thee,
or is thy counsellor perished,
because sorrow hath taken thee
as a woman in labour.
Micah 4, 9
And Simeon blessed them,
and said to Mary his mother:
Behold this child is set for the fall,
and for the resurrection of many in Israel,
and for a sign which shall be contradicted:
And thy own soul a sword shall pierce,
that, out of many hearts,
thoughts may be revealed.
Luke 2, 34-35
Jesus
says, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you
rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of
heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. My yoke is easy, and my
burden light” (Mt 11:28-30). Our Lord cites the Book of Sirach 51, 23-30:
‘Come to me, all you that need instruction, and learn in my school. Why do you
admit that you are ignorant and do nothing about it? Here is what I say: It
costs nothing to be wise. Put on the yoke and be willing to learn. The
opportunity is always near. See you! I have not studied very hard,
but I have found great contentment. No matter how much it costs to get
Wisdom, it will be well worth it. Be joyfully grateful for the Lord’s mercy,
and never be ashamed to praise him. Do your duty at the proper time, and the
Lord will give you your reward at the time he thinks proper. Jesus also
says, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his
cross, and follow me” (Mt 26:24).
By citing Sirach,
Jesus identifies himself with the eternal wisdom: The Divine Logos of God.
Our souls can find rest only by learning how to be like Jesus was in his
humanity: humbly and meekly obedient to the will of God and perfected in
obedience by willingly suffering for the sins that offend our heavenly Father.
Jesus produced our eternal reward for us, but if we hope to merit this reward,
we must be willing to take up our cross after Him. No matter how much it
physically and emotionally costs us to follow the road to Calvary in our Lord’s
footsteps, our love of God and hope in His promised reward should relieve our burdens (Rom 8:18).
By trusting God and
surrendering our burdens to Him, as we faithfully carry out our duties of
discipleship with Christ’s yoke taken upon us, He will be faithful to us in
return and provide the patience and fortitude we need to endure our yoke with
the help of these actual graces (Rom 5:2-3; 2 Cor 12:9-10). God’s actual grace
is efficacious in that it can inspire and influence us to do what
pleases Him over and against our natural instincts. By opening ourselves to the
Divine persuasion with the knowledge and understanding we have received from
the Holy Spirit (the sanctifying light of faith), we can acquit ourselves of
the temporal debt of sin by offering our suffering to God in reparation for our
sins.
Without faith and
uniting our sufferings with Christ’s afflictions, our trials and burdens hold no redemptive value. Nor could they ever be lightened if
we focus strictly on ourselves and fail to look at Christ, our paschal victim.
Trying to remove these burdens altogether would be ignorant of us and unwise,
for without them, we could never be buried with our Lord into death and be
raised with him to new life with God. We who have been predestined to grace or
adopted as children of God are co-heirs with Christ on the condition that we
unite our sufferings with our Lord’s suffering in temporal expiation for our
sins to appease God’s anger or justice. St. Paul teaches us: ‘And if sons,
heirs also; heirs indeed of God and joint heirs with Christ; yet so if we
suffer with him, that we may be glorified with him’ (Rom 8:17).
Jesus suffered and
died to redeem humanity by eternal expiation for sin.
The primary purpose of his self-sacrifice was to gain forgiveness of sin for
the whole world and remove mankind’s eternal guilt. So, we as Christians do not
unite our suffering and dying to self with Christ’s temporal satisfaction to
God for sin exclusively to increase in sanctification for the individual
allotment of heavenly rewards now that we have been assuredly saved by
professing our faith in our Lord and Saviour’s just merits – a Protestant
presumption. Instead, our predestination to glory or the attainment of our
salvation rests on whether we have sufficiently expiated our temporal debt of
sin before gaining admittance into Heaven with no stain of the remnants of sin
on our souls. Nothing unclean may pass through the gates that lead to the
marriage feast of the Lamb. Those who have been invited (predestined to grace)
must don white and spotless apparel by having suffered and died to self in
union with Christ to be worthy of attendance in the first place (Rev 2:7; 7:14;
21:27; Mt 22:1-14).
Our cross stands at
the forefront of our baptismal commitment (Jn 12:24; Rom 6:4; Col 2:12). St. Paul
preached a “Christ crucified” (1 Cor 1:23). For unbelievers, the cross is a
scandal and something foolhardy to take up. The wisdom of this world is totally
indifferent to it. Yet, as heirs with Christ, we shall be glorified with him. Still, only after we have temporally suffered for our sins (Rom 8:17). Jesus did
not eradicate suffering and death by his passion and death, because these evil
effects of original sin are means by which we can make temporal reparation and
expiation for our personal sins to mend our broken relationship with God. Our
Lord and Savior gave suffering redemptive value, making it the necessary means
to redeem mankind. So, unless we accept and unite our suffering and death with
the passion and death of our Lord because of our daily sins and offer our
suffering to God in reparation for our sins in union with him, we are unworthy
to reap the fruit which Christ alone has gained for us: eternal life with God
(Phil 3:10).
Pain and suffering
have no moral and spiritual value if divorced from repentance. Conversely,
repentance is incomplete if the debt of sin remains in the balance. God forgave
David for his mortal sins of murder and adultery after he sincerely repented
with a contrite heart. But to offset his transgressions and restore equity of
justice, God took the life of the child David conceived in his act of adultery
with Bathsheba for having murdered her husband Uriah: an innocent life for an
innocent life or an eye for an eye. And God also permitted the rape of David’s
wives for his act of adultery (2 Sam 12:9-10, 14, 18-19). Only then could
David’s broken relationship with God be wholly amended, provided he accepted his
pain and loss as a temporal punishment for his sins to restore the equity of
justice in his relationship with God.
Now, one might
object that this was required of David because Christ hadn’t died for his sins
yet in real-time. However, if our Lord and Savior’s just merits hadn’t been
applied to David, God wouldn’t have forgiven him. He, nor even
Abraham, could have been reckoned as righteous before God because of his act
of faith. His several days of fasting and lying on the ground in sackcloth
covered with ashes would be non-sequitur if Christ’s foreseen merits and the
saving grace our Lord produced for us did not apply to him at this time.
But what Jesus accomplished on Calvary transcends historical time.
His merits extend to all three dimensions of time: past, present, and future.
If this weren’t the case, all the righteous in Hades of Old Testament time would
still be there forever, but not in Gehenna or Hell, being denied the Beatific
Vision of God. Yet, they were liberated by Christ after he had died on the
cross and rose from the dead to open the gates of Heaven.
Thus, the debt of
sin can be fully remitted only by having to do penance for it. Doing acts of
penance, whose pain and loss counterbalances the sinful pleasure one is
heartily sorry for or accepting the pain and loss God permits because of
our sins, completes the temporal redemptive process. Christ didn’t suffer and
die so that we should no longer owe God what is His rightful due for having
offended His sovereign dignity (Mt 5:17; Job 42:6; Lam 2:14; Ezek 18:21; Jer
31:19; Rom 2:4; Rev 2:5, etc.). If this were so, then there would be no need for
us even to repent besides doing penance. Our Lord and Savior made eternal
expiation for sin on behalf of mankind (Adam). We cannot reap the fruit of his
merits unless we make temporal expiation for our own personal sins in union
with his temporal and thereby eternal propitiation for sin, now that he alone
has unlocked the gates of heaven and merited grace for us as our ultimate
paschal sacrifice.
This is from Jesus
himself: “No, I say to you: but unless you do penance, you shall all
likewise perish”(Lk 13:3); “Bring forth, therefore, fruit worthy of penance”
(Mt 3:8). True repentance for the forgiveness of sin calls for fruit worthy of
our act of contrition. Our outward acts (almsgiving/fasting) must conform to
our inner disposition or spiritual reality (charity/temperance) to offset our
vices and sins (greed/gluttony), which have been forgiven by the act of
repentance pending full temporal restitution.
In Reformed Protestantism,
sanctification isn’t justification's essence or formal cause.
Sanctification is a separate construct that relies on our first being justified on a one-time basis strictly by Christ’s alien, external merits. Some Non-Catholics exercise penance but merely for an increase in sanctification and, consequently, an enhancement of heavenly rewards. Penance does not contribute to an ongoing and progressive justification in Protestant thought. Here, there is no place for the temporal
remission of our debt of sin and purification of the soul, making it inherently
just or righteous before God and worthy of entering Heaven. Yet Jesus says in
the Gospel of Luke that unless we do penance, we shall all perish. Repentance
and penance go together. Doing penance is necessary for gaining
admittance into Heaven, notwithstanding the subsequent rewards. Our Lord’s infinite merits aren’t applied to us personally unless we make temporal and finite restitution for our sins in union with his temporal and, thereby, eternal satisfaction for sin.
Hence, the best way
to learn from Jesus is to look to him and be meek and humble. Only then can we have the patience and fortitude to carry our cross.
The proud of the heart are the ones who can’t bear carrying the cross and regard it
as a personal affront. By being inordinately self-appreciative, they see their
trials as having no positive value since they’re too focused on themselves and
on what they feel they don’t deserve but deserve better. But as Christians, we
mustn’t forget that the crosses we bear have redemptive value. By offering our suffering to God as an oblation for our sins, in acknowledgment of them, we can make temporal satisfaction to God in union with Christ’s temporal and, thereby, eternal satisfaction for the remission of our personal temporal debt for our past sins.
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my
part that
which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s
sake, which is the church.
Colossians 1, 24
Temporally, we are
still indebted to God for our offenses against Him and must make
restitution for the remittance of our debts. Satisfaction is to
repair the offense offered to God and make Him favorable to us again. An act of
reparation can be satisfactory to God only if there is something painful about
it. This is what commutative justice means: the virtue whose object is
to render what belongs to them to everyone. When we sin against God, we deny
Him what He is supremely entitled to, viz., our love and obedience. So, saying
sorry isn’t enough to restore a balance of equity in our relationship with God.
This requires that we show our love for Him, which we have denied Him. By
accepting our sufferings or making personal sacrifices and offering them to God
as a means of reparation for our offenses against Him, equity is restored, as the
pain or loss counters the vain pleasure of selfish gain, which is the object of
our sins.
By his passion and
death, our Lord gained the grace of forgiveness and the removal of guilt for
all humanity because of our implication in the sin of Adam. However, the temporal
damage that remained because of man’s personal sins still had to be covered on
his part, and this had initially been done by the Blessed Virgin Mary on behalf
of all mankind. She was chosen to help restore mankind to the life of grace
since Eve morally contributed to its loss. Her interior suffering
counter-balanced Eve’s pursuit of vain pleasure. It repaired the offense our
primordial mother had committed against God’s sovereign dignity by enticing her
husband to join her with the serpent in typical rebellion (Gen 3:6).
The sin Eve
committed was an irrational movement toward a mutable good, which Satan was
aware of when he deceived Eve to put her faith in him. So, only Mary’s obedient
act of faith in God could have provided the contrary movement needed to undo
Eve’s transgression. And this required that she willingly suffer to appease God
in His justice. Only then could the equity of justice be restored between
mankind and God, on condition that our Blessed Lady united her suffering with
the suffering of her Son in and through his merits. The Mother made finite
temporal satisfaction in union with the Son’s infinite temporal satisfaction in
his sacred humanity, pending the eternal satisfaction to God for the sin he
alone could make in his divine nature, but not without temporal satisfaction.
God willed eternal
satisfaction should be made on the condition that it be completed and perfected
by man’s temporal satisfaction. Jesus (the second Adam) and Mary (the
second Eve) did this in their shared humanity, having learned obedience to God
and being made perfect through suffering. If temporal satisfaction weren’t
needed, God would have redeemed humanity without having to become a man. Our
Lord’s theandric (Divine and human) act would be superfluous. We, as “living
stones,” have been “built up into a spiritual house,” a holy priesthood, to
offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2:5).
As “partakers of the divine nature,” we are called to unite our sacrifices to
God with the ultimate sacrifice of the Godman for the temporal remission of
sin.
The eternal
satisfaction Jesus made for our transgressions by his afflictions could be
completed only by the temporal satisfaction our Blessed Lady made by her sorrow
in union with her divine Son’s suffering for the forgiveness of sins in
reparation for Adam’s transgression which alone produced the Fall, but not
without Eve’s involvement. What our Lord super-abundantly gained for us by his
just merits – mankind’s reconciliation to God – was completed by the Virgin
Mary, whose participation rendered God’s plan of salvation perfect. The serpent
mustn’t be able to gloat, not even over half of what he accomplished by
seducing Eve to rebel against God with him, now that the sin of Adam would be
undone by her divine Son.
God ordained that a
sword should pierce Mary’s soul so that the temporal satisfaction she should
make would complete the eternal satisfaction made by her Son in human unity
together. What Jesus accomplished in his passion was mankind’s objective
redemption. What his mother, Mary, gained for mankind as its spiritual and maternal representative was subjective redemption. By carrying her cross in
union with her Son, Mary offered penance to God for all the sins of Adam’s
descendants and thereby helped remit the temporal debt of sin by her act of
reparation. Her sorrow for the loss of her beloved Son temporally expiated
mankind’s sins so that her Son’s temporal and eternal expiation would be
complete. Our Lady could unite with her Son for sinful humanity
because she was without sin (Gen 3:15; Luke 1:28, 30; 1:42).
Christ chose to be
“made of a woman” primarily for this reason (Gal 4:4), which is why he called
his mother “Woman,” viz., the New Eve, at the beginning and end of his public
ministry – in the shadow of the Cross and from the Cross (Jn 2:2-5; 19:26-27).
Adam called his spouse and helpmate “the woman,” though she didn’t help him much. By her instigation, we who are descended from Adam are “conceived in sin”
and “born in guilt” by association (Ps 51:5). Mary’s moral participation
contributed to our reconciliation with God and restoration to the life of His
grace. Her sorrow beneath the Cross temporally restored a measure of balance on
the scales of Divine justice by counteracting Eve’s selfish pursuit of vainglory
– her wish to be like God but apart from God and before Him. It wasn’t enough
for Eve to be created in the divine image and a partaker in the divine nature
by aligning her will with God’s. But Mary’s will was God’s will for her despite
the motherly sorrow she must endure for our salvation.
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But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead,
they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his
side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out.
John 19, 33-34
The Greek
translation for “and a sword shall pierce your own soul” is ψυχὴν διελεύσεται ῥομφαία.
The nominative noun ῥομφαία (a sharp blade) can be taken both literally and
figuratively. Thus, we have a play on words in this verse. Just as her Son’s
body was pierced by a sharp blade when the soldier struck his side with his
spear, so also should the Mother’s soul or heart be pierced by a sharp blade.
Luke’s message is clear: God desired Mary to participate in her Son’s suffering
to complete His plan, though Christ’s suffering alone was more than sufficient
to make reparation for the world's sins. The nominative noun is a metaphor
for the shared anguish of the Son and the Mother, which was required for the
redemption to be perfect in the Divine order.
What Jesus,
therefore, merited in strict justice, Mary merited by her maternal right and
friendship with God. Unless the Mother would make temporal satisfaction for the
world’s sins against God, the Son would not make eternal satisfaction. So that
the hearts of many shall be revealed, a sword should pierce Mary’s soul – and
not only the side of her deceased Son. Mary’s participation cannot be excluded.
The truth of this revelation is emphasized by the juxtaposing of the Son’s
rejection and physical suffering and the Mother’s interior suffering in verses
34-35 of Luke’s gospel.
And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you,
though the more abundantly I love you,
the less I am loved.
2 Corinthians 12, 15
In His wisdom and justice, God chose Mary to associate her with His dispensation of grace for the salvation of souls in and through the merits of Christ. Our heavenly Father acted purely on His own initiative, followed by Mary’s free act of faith working through love in collaboration with the Holy Spirit. In the Christian life, the merit of our good works done in grace is first attributed to the grace of God and only then to the faithful “whose good works proceed in Christ” by cooperation with divine grace (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2008). And since we are created in the image of God and have free will, we can accept or reject God’s grace (Acts 7:51).
The application of the salvation formally gained for us by our Lord and Saviour by his merits more than sufficiently depends on how well we respond to His grace. Our salvation is conditional. And despite our having been forgiven and our collective guilt removed, temporal reparation is still required of us individually to completely satisfy God’s justice, and this often requires spiritual works of mercy done in charity and grace (Eph 2:8-10). His righteousness demands it. ‘He shall judge the world in equity, he shall judge the people in justice’ (Ps 9:8).
With the fall of
Adam, mankind incurred an eternal separation from the Beatific Vision of God.
And in consequence of the fall, man needed the satisfaction of infinite value
to God for his sins to be released from this eternal debt of sin. Of course,
only God Himself could make such infinite satisfaction, which he did in the
person of Jesus Christ, the Divine Word made man. Nevertheless, temporal
satisfaction for sin is still required of us for the temporal remission of the
debt of sin and the conferral of sanctifying or justifying grace. This finite
satisfaction of ours has a supernatural value. It confers supernatural merit
provided it is joined with Christ’s temporal and eternal satisfaction to the
Father in and through his merits. Mary made this satisfaction on behalf of
humanity when she united her interior suffering with the suffering of her
divine Son in his Passion.
But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering
on the sacrifice and service of your faith,
I am glad and rejoice with all of you.
Philippians 2, 17
Sin is a transgression against the order of the Divine justice with which God rules the universe. He has arranged all things by measure. Thus, Christ had to counter-balance the eternal consequences of sin and restore the equality of justice between God and mankind. But our Lord had no intention of acting entirely alone (sola Christo). God willed with the necessity that his blessed mother should counter-balance the temporal consequences of sin by uniting her suffering with his to restore the equality of friendship and justice between God and man. God required a just measure of satisfaction from her on behalf of humanity to regain equilibrium in His Divine order of creation.
The infinite satisfaction made by Christ made Mary’s finite satisfaction possible since she had acted in union with him in charity and grace. When Adam sinned against God, he did not sin as an individual person but as the natural head of an organic whole, viz., humanity. The human race is like a human body: Once the head falls off, all the lower members are destroyed with it. So, when Adam sinned against God and fell from the supernatural life of grace, the whole human race fell with him. We are all members of this single organic whole, and as such, we have all fallen from grace in Adam. And as members of this one organic whole, we have all inherited the penalties of Adam’s sin, suffering, and death since we all have sinned (Rom 5:12).
In the order of grace, the Blessed Virgin Mary is the “neck” that joins us with our Head. She is the Second Eve and Dispensatrix of Grace who channels the grace that proceeds from Christ and flows to the members of his body. Through Mary’s maternal mediation, we receive the life of grace that our primordial mother, Eve, lost for all her offspring. Mary’s obedience and being made perfect through suffering to appease an offended God in His grace counter-balanced and undid Eve’s rejection of God and disobedience in her fall from grace by an inordinate love of self in the pursuit of selfish gain. The Virgin Mary appeased the Divine justice by acting contrary to her natural maternal instinct, that is, by joyfully offering her Son back to God in faith despite her sorrow for the world's salvation. She “rejoiced” in God our savior in the depths of her pierced soul and wounded heart.
Wherefore I pray you not to faint
at my tribulations for you,
which is your glory.
Ephesians 3, 13
Mary’s divine
vocation was much more than being a natural mother of Jesus. As a member of her
Son’s Mystical Body, Mary was called to participate with her Son in his
redemptive work, which required her to suffer to repair the offense
mankind committed against God and amend its broken relationship with Him. The
suffering Mary endured drew its supernatural value from the suffering her Son
had to endure in his passion. Only by suffering would Christ merit the grace of
redemption for mankind. And since her Son suffered to provide this channel of
grace, Mary’s suffering could also serve as an instrument of the dispensation
of grace by being joined with her Son’s suffering since it is originally a
penalty for our sins. As Head of his Mystical Body, of which Mary was a member,
Christ could suffer in his blessed mother. As one member of a body suffers, the other members are affected.
Our Lord merited redemptive grace for humanity by his own suffering as Head of his Mystical Body. So, by suffering, Mary could merit an increase in grace as a
member of her Son’s Body, especially by joining him in the
objective redemption. This grace that she merited for mankind was channeled to
her from her divine Son. Her willingness to suffer had a supernatural effect on
mankind, for she intimately participated with her Son in his redemptive work as
his mother and pre-eminent member joined with the Head in His Mystical Body.
St. Paul tells us:
‘As
it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I
don’t
need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the
contrary, those
parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that
we think
are less honorable, we treat with special honor.’
1 Corinthians 12:20-23
Since ancient times, the Catholic Church has honored Mary for her vital contribution to dispensing redemptive grace as a member of Christ’s Mystical Body. Presently, she is the neck that transmits all the signal graces from the Head to all the lower members of the body. As “the mother with (cum) the Redeemer,” the Blessed Virgin Mary is our co-Redemptrix. Being both Head and Body, Jesus desired his mother, Mary, the most vital member, to collaborate with him simply because he chose it to be this way in concurrence with the will of his heavenly Father. All members of his Mystical Body serve the Head in some capacity in the order of grace, each according to their spiritual gifts (See 1 Cor. 12).
Mary’s
gift is the Divine Maternity, which belongs to the higher hypostatic order of
Christ’s incarnation. Her cooperation in and through the merits of her divine
Son, by her pleasing love of God, immeasurably exceeds that of any of his
apostles in the redemption. Our Blessed Lady is the spiritual mother of all
Eve’s offspring in her co-redemptive participation with her Son – the new Adam.
Jeremiah prophesies: “A woman shall compass a man” (Jer. 31:22).
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various
kinds,
for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect
and complete, lacking in nothing.
James 1, 2-4
Further, Mary
cooperated in the principal act of Christ’s priesthood when she consented to
the sacrifice of the Cross. She spiritually offered up her Son to God in her
wounded love for Him as his loving mother. True, the priestly power effectively rested with Jesus, but the oblation and immolation of her Son, which she acceptably offered in her motherly sorrow, bestowed on her the character or spirit of the priesthood. Mary offered up her Son to God in conformity with his
suffering, by the interior suffering of hers because of a mother’s love for her
Son – the God-man. Spiritually, our sorrowful Mother was the first among the
royal priesthood of believers to offer up the Eucharistic sacrifice to God in
union with our eternal High Priest in the order of Melchizedek and sacrificial
victim.
Indeed, her
presentation of the infant Jesus in the Temple was a pre-presentation of her
sacrificial offering for the expiation of sin on Calvary in union with her
Son’s pre-presentation of his self-sacrifice on the Cross at the Last Supper.
The fruit of Mary’s womb (her offering of peace and reconciliation) was the
Lamb of God, who came to take away the world's sins. Jesus offered Himself
as the ultimate propitiation of sin, but he chose to do so in union with his
blessed mother. Our Lord chose to be “made of a woman” so that she should have
an active priestly role as a member of His Mystical Body.
Thus, Mary’s sorrow
for the Godman (the most perfect and pleasing oblation offered to God the
Father for the world's sins) temporally appeased God’s justice. Under the shadow of the cross, Mary consecrated her firstborn and only Son
to God when she presented the infant Jesus in the Temple to commemorate Abraham’s consent to offer up Isaac as a fragrant oblation (Gen 22:1-19).
Fittingly, Simeon prophesied on this occasion that a sword would also pierce
her soul. The prophecy was fulfilled when the soldier pierced Jesus’
side with his lance, drawing out blood and water, representing justification
and regeneration, symbolically marking the birth of the Church (Jn 19:34).
For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures
sorrows while
suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for
it, you
endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a
gracious
thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ
also
suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his
steps.
1 Peter 2, 19-21
God willed that His Only-begotten Son should be “made of a woman” rather than be formed out of the clay
of the ground, as the first Adam had been at the time of creation, partly so
that a woman could make temporal satisfaction to Him given Eve’s
transgression. Mary had, in fact, vindicated the entire human race by her faith
working through love. Together with the infinite satisfaction that the Son
alone made in strict justice, since its value and dignity were derived from his
divine Person, Mary offered for us a satisfaction of becomingness and
friendship with God, whose value rested on her obedient act of faith and
charity in God’s grace in and through Christ’s merits. The immeasurable love
she had for her divine Son – the God-man – could only please God, without which
the merits of our Lord’s sacrifice should not be formally applied to the human
race in the Divine plan.
What our Lord and
Savior accomplished in his passion and death was more than sufficient and
super-abundant. Still, his work would have lacked perfection and completeness
without his blessed mother’s moral participation. On the other hand, Mary would have lacked perfection and completeness in God’s grace if she had lost
faith in God beneath the Cross. The collaboration between the Mother and her
Son had to be faultless and lacking in nothing for God’s plan of salvation to
be fulfilled.
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing
worth of knowing
Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and
count
them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not
having a
righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through
faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may
know
him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming
like
him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from
the
dead.
Philippians 3, 8-11
In Catholic
theology, Mary made a satisfaction de convenientia whose value was derived
from the dignity of her divine motherhood and the plenitudes of grace she was
endowed with. Thus, her interior suffering made satisfaction to God on our behalf since she suffered in proportion to her love for her crucified Son, who was also God. This human love was perfect in that it held supernatural value. As the Mother with the Redeemer, Mary was intimately united with him in
his work of redemption by her perfect command of the will in conformity with
the Divine will, her poverty of spirit, and suffering for the sake of God’s
infinite love and goodness in emulation of her Son in his loving obedience to
the Father. Both the Son and the Mother suffered to propitiate God the Father, who was offended by sin and for humanity ravaged by sin. “God desires
that everyone be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4). The
Mother and the Son also suffered in unity so that God’s antecedent will might
be fulfilled, for “God so loved the world” (Jn 3:16).
Moreover, Mary made
a temporal satisfaction of becoming on our behalf through her obedience to
God’s will. The aim of making satisfaction to God is to repair an offense
against God and make him favorable to us again. This can only be achieved by
suffering pain or loss and being in grace. Mary’s consent to be the
mother of our Lord was a meritorious deed since it was made in charity and
grace. But what made it a means of satisfaction and temporal expiation was the
suffering that would be involved. Her satisfaction was perfect since it
proceeded from love and an oblation that were more pleasing to God than the sin
of Eve was displeasing to Him. It was made by a woman full of grace and
with the Lord as His fellow worker in the vineyard (Lk 1:28; 1 Cor 3:9).
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes
upon you
to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But
rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice
and be glad when his glory is revealed.
1 Peter 4, 12-13
Hence, Mary’s
interior suffering had the character of satisfaction in that, like her divine
Son and in union with him, she suffered because of sin and the offense it
offers to God. As the late Catholic theologian Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange tells us:
“Her suffering was measured by her love of God whom sin offended, by her love
of her Son who was crucified for our sins, and her love towards those who do
sin.” God honored the mother's suffering in accordance with her state of grace and her affinity with the Son, with whom she was united for the same purpose. It was through Jesus that the inner
thoughts of many might be revealed, but only if it involved the wounded love of
his sorrowful mother because of sin. So that the inner thoughts of many might
be revealed, a sword should pierce her heart.
Mary’s participation
in her Son’s suffering was ordained by God. She had to stand before the Cross
and feel the pangs of tremendous sorrow to vindicate Eve and her fallen
offspring and make temporal restitution for the sins of the world together with
her Son’s eternal expiation, which undid the sin of Adam and opened the gates of
Heaven. But for us to pass through these gates, we must willingly offer up our
suffering to God for our sins and the sins of others to temporally make
satisfaction for offending Him. Jesus did not temporally remove suffering and
death by his passion and death to give these penalties for sin
redemptive value by our sharing in his paschal work.
In this sense, the
Blessed Virgin Mary is our co-Redemptrix, Reparatrix, and Advocatrix of grace.
She shouldered the moral responsibility of humanity for its sins and temporally
restored the equality of justice between God and His fallen created children by
her act of reparation, which universally relieved mankind of the temporal debt
of sin, forgiven by the merits of Christ through his passion and death on the
Cross. Since God judges the world in equity, he shall judge the world in
justice. Mary had to stand beneath the Cross and feel its total weight upon her
on behalf of all Eve’s offspring, who were indebted to God for their sins if
her Son were to be crucified on the Cross for the dispensation of the grace of
justification and forgiveness. As our co-Redemptrix, the Virgin Mary is indeed
the spiritual mother of all the living, who gave birth to redeemed humanity
through the labor of her sorrow.
And so, God decreed
with the necessity that our sorrowful mother takes up her cross together with
her Son for mankind’s redemption. Mary helped reveal the glory of the Lord to
all mankind by sharing in her Son’s suffering. This she did by making up for
what was lacking in her Son’s afflictions in her sorrow and anguish through the
Cross. Our Blessed Lady suffered the loss of her maternal right so that the
world might gain Christ and be restored to the life of grace.
Mary’s endurance in
suffering for the sake of God’s love and goodness, which had been violated
against, was gracious to God. So He honored her suffering and was
propitiated by it insofar as He could forget about mankind’s unworthiness to be
forgiven because of her faith and love. Mary’s obedient act of faith
counter-balanced mankind’s infidelity and disobedience, its cold-hearted
indifference and hatred, thereby temporally restoring the equality of justice
between God and man through her act of reparation. And temporally, she made
satisfaction for mankind’s sins by suffering because of them and for them so
that God may be fully appeased for the sin of both Adam and Eve.
Thus, by showing
herself worthier than Eve, Mary gave temporal satisfaction to God for our sins with a solid appeal to the Divine justice and mercy, which her love and
sorrow satisfied to completion. As a human creature, she concretely
represented the human race as worthy of being redeemed by the blood of the
Cross in strict justice. Unlike the rest of humanity, Mary was not alienated
from God, having never fallen from grace. So, for his mother’s sake more than
for ours, Jesus delivered himself into the hands of ungrateful and unworthy
sinners. Through that act, he designated her Mother of the Church. He redeemed humanity because of her perseverance in faith and obedience to the will of the Father, despite all the suffering they should bear
for the world's sins.
As Eve prompted Adam
to disobey God, Mary encouraged her Son in his suffering humanity to fulfill
the will of his heavenly Father by standing sorrowfully by his side and
enduring suffering together with him so that the grace of redemption could be
channeled to the world and mankind be reborn. Both the human wills of the
Mother and the Son were aligned with the Divine will, albeit the suffering that
was required of them to appease God, who was greatly offended by the sins of
humanity.
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A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun
with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.
She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.
Revelation 12, 1-2
Early Sacred Tradition
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“She stood before the Cross
and looked up full of pity
to the wounds of her Son, because she expected not the death
of her Son but the salvation of the world.”
St. Ambrose of Milan
De Institutione Virginis
(c. A.D. 392)
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“Eve brought in sin by means
of a tree; Mary,
on the contrary, brought in Good by means of
the tree of the Cross.”
St. Gregory of Nyssa
Sermon on the Nativity of Christ
(A.D. 395)
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“The cross and nails of the
Son were also those
of his Mother; with Christ crucified the Mother
was also crucified.”
St. Augustine of Hippo
Of Holy Virginity
(c. A.D. 401)
“Oh, womb so holy that
welcomed God,
womb in which the writ of sin was torn up.”
St. Basil of Seleucia
Homily 39 on the Annunciation
(ante A.D. 460)
“Through Mary we are
redeemed
from the curse of the Devil.”
St. Modestus of Jerusalem
PG 86; 3287
(ante A.D. 630)
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Salve Regina
