Mary as Coredemptrix,
Mediatrix and Advocate in the Contemporary
Roman Liturgy
Rev. Arthur Burton Calkins
Fr. Calkins is
an official of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei in Rome, and
contributing member of the Pontifical International Marian Academy.
I. Introduction
The topic of Our
Lady's role as Coredemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate for the People of God in
the Liturgy of the Catholic Church is a very broad one, one which requires a
number of preliminary clarifications.
For the purposes of our analysis, it is important to recognize at the
outset that in the overall category of Marian mediation three distinct
"moments" of the process may be differentiated: (1) that of Mary's collaboration in the
redemption of the human race; (2) that of her distribution of the manifold
graces won by the redemption and (3) that of her complementary intercession on
behalf of the human race for the gift of redemption and all that flows from
it. These three moments have been
delineated by Dr. Mark I. Miravalle in terms of Our Lady's role as
Coredemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate for the People of God.
Yet another way of clarifying
these inter-related concepts is to say that Mary's mediation constitutes the
general category while the specific categories may be further distinguished as
coredemption, mediation and advocacy.
There is no doubt that the category of
Marian mediation is an ancient one traceable to the Scriptures and expounded by the Fathers and Doctors of the Church With time and
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the theme has been continually enriched,
developed and refined by subsequent ecclesiastical writers. This topic has also passed into the realm of
popular piety and the liturgy as well as into the speculation of theologians
and the magisterium of the Church.
The object of this particular study will
be to investigate the manifold mediation of the Mother of God as it is
testified to in the liturgy of the Catholic Church. The Church's public worship is a privileged
place for coming to grasp her deepest belief.
Here is how the relationship between faith and liturgy is put in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
The Church's faith precedes the
faith of the believer who is invited to adhere to it. When the Church celebrates the sacraments,
she confesses the faith received from the apostles -- whence the ancient
saying: lex orandi, lex credendi (or:
legem credendi lex statuat
supplicandi, according to Prosper of Aquitaine [5th cent.]). The law of prayer is the law of faith: the Church believes as she prays. Liturgy is a constitutive element of the holy
and living Tradition.
The Servant of God Pope Paul VI cited this classic
dictum lex orandi, lex credendi in
his Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus
with specific reference to the place of Mary in the Church's worship.
The Church's devotion to the Blessed
Virgin is an intrinsic element of Christian worship. The honor which the Church has always and
everywhere shown to the Mother of the Lord, from the blessing with which
Elizabeth greeted Mary (cf. Lk. 1:42-45) right up to the expressions of praise
and petition used today, is a very strong witness to the Church's norm of prayer
and an invitation to become more deeply conscious of her norm of faith. And the converse is likewise true. The Church's norm of faith requires that her
norm of prayer should everywhere blossom forth with regard to the Mother of
Christ.
Hence we should fully expect that the Church's past
and present liturgical formulations which speak of Mary's mediatorial role will
be sound indications of her fundamental belief.
A full treatment of the theme of Mary's
role as Coredemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate for the People of God in the
Liturgy of the Catholic Church would most probably require an extensive
collaborative effort among liturgical specialists in all the rites of the
Church, both in their past and presently fixed forms. A pioneering effort in this regard was
already made over seventy years ago by Dom Idesbald Van Houtryve, O.S.B., a
monk of the Belgian Abbey of Mont-César, Louvain. The monastic
scholar's two-part article, although of a general nature, demonstrated
nonetheless the author's remarkable familiarity with liturgical fonts in the
Latin Rites, such as the Roman, Sarum, Ambrosian and Mozarabic Missals and
breviaries, and with the Byzantine Rite in its Greek form. Brief overviews of the liturgical testimony
in this area have also been provided by E. Druwé, S.J. in his masterful study,
"La Médiation Universelle de Marie," by Armand J. Robichaud, S.M. in his essay
"Mary, Dispensatrix of All Graces" and by Robert Javelet in his book, Marie, La Femme Médiatrice. All of these studies, however, have concentrated
almost exclusively on Our Lady's mediation in the sense of her distribution of
the grace of redemption with much less emphasis on her complementary roles as
Coredemptrix and Advocate. These other two
areas are dealt with in more detail by Father Serapio de Iragui, O.F.M. Cap. in
a presentation which he made to the International Mariological Congress held in
Rome in 1950. Like Father
Van Houtryve, he displays a notable mastery of Eastern and Western liturgical
sources with a special emphasis on medieval breviary hymns.
This essay has an aim which is at once
more specific and more limited. It is my
intention to study the evidence indicative of the Church's belief in Our Lady's
roles as Coredemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate primarily in the present edition
of the Roman Missal issued according to the Apostolic Constitution Missale Romanum of 3 April 1969 (RM 70)
and particularly in the Collection of
Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary issued according to the Decree Christi mysterium celebrans of the
Congregation for Divine Worship of 15 August 1986 (Col). The latter volume is
described in this way by Fathers Cuthbert Johnson, O.S.B. and Anthony Ward,
S.M.:
The Collection is not strictly a new
liturgical book nor a supplement to the Roman Missal, nor is it a wholly
original composition. The Masses given
in the Collection have, for the most part, been drawn from the Roman Missal or
from the Propers of Masses of local Churches or Religious Orders and
Institutes. It is precisely what its
name indicates: a gathering under one
cover of several Masses in honour of the Virgin Mary. The material is gathered and sanctioned by
authority for use in Marian sanctuaries, in the celebration of Saturday Masses
of Our Lady, and other such occasions provided for by law.
In some ways it might be said that the Collection fulfills the function of the
various Marian Masses published in editions of the Roman Missal prior to that
of Pope Paul VI in the Proper of the Saints for Certain Places [Proprium Sanctorum pro Aliquibus Locis],
but with the exception of the Masses for the Advent, Lenten and Easter seasons
whose use is restricted to Marian shrines, these Masses are available to priests and
congregations of the entire Roman Rite.
While many of the Masses in the Collection and virtually all of the
Prefaces are of recent composition, they nonetheless conform faithfully to the
norm lex orandi, lex credendi in
expressing the faith of the Church. Thus
Paul VI wrote in his Apostolic Letter Signum
Magnum:
Nor is it to be feared that
liturgical reform, if put into practice according to the formula "the law
of faith must establish the law of prayer" may be detrimental to the
"wholly singular" veneration due to the Virgin Mary for her
prerogatives, first among these being the dignity of the Mother of God.
It will be noted that in this case the Pope was
citing the principle lex orandi, lex
credendi from the perspective of the faith of the Church establishing the
law of prayer. In fact Pius XII had
proposed two formulations of this maxim in his Encyclical Letter Mediator Dei, the first and most ancient
which comes from Prosper of Aquitaine affirming the constitutive nature of the
liturgy of the Church for her belief and the second rightly insisting on the
normative value of the Church's belief in establishing the liturgy. Our primary
concern, as already indicated, will be, in line with the ancient formulation of
the maxim lex orandi, lex credendi,
to discover the Church's belief in Mary as Coredemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate
as this is expressed in the contemporary liturgy of the Roman Rite.
II. Mary as Coredemptrix
The term Coredemptrix usually requires
some initial explanation in the English language because often the prefix
"co" immediately conjures up visions of complete equality. For instance a co-signer of a check or a
co-owner of a house is considered a co-equal with the other signer or
owner. Thus the first fear of many is
that describing Our Lady as Coredemptrix puts her on the same level of her
Divine Son and implies that she is our Redeemer in the same way that He is,
thus reducing Jesus "to being half of a team of redeemers". In the Latin
language from which the term Coredemptrix comes, however, the meaning is always
that Mary's cooperation or collaboration in the redemption is secondary,
subordinate, dependent on that of Christ -- and yet for all that --something
that God "freely wished to accept ... as constituting an unneeded, but yet
wonderfully pleasing part of that one great price" paid by His Son for world's redemption. As Mark Miravalle points out:
The prefix "co" does not
mean equal, but comes from the Latin word, "cum"
which means "with". The title
of Coredemptrix applied to the Mother
of Jesus never places Mary on a level of
equality with Jesus Christ, the divine Lord of all, in the saving process of
humanity's redemption. Rather, it
denotes Mary's singular and unique sharing
with her Son in the saving work of redemption for the human family. The Mother of Jesus participates in the redemptive work of her Saviour Son, who alone could reconcile humanity with the Father in his
glorious divinity and humanity.
While one might argue about the use of
the term Coredemptrix because of the possible confusion which might result
from it and propose Pius XII's term of predilection, alma socia Christi (beloved associate of Christ), it is equally arguable that there is no other word
which places the participation of the Mother of God in our redemption in such
sharp and bold relief.
A further argument brought up against the
use of this term is that it was specifically avoided by the Second Vatican
Council. It is, indeed, true that the
term was not used in any of the official documents promulgated by the Council and, undeniably, "ecumenical sensitivity"
was a prime factor in its avoidance. The concept,
however, was nonetheless conveyed. Thus
the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen
Gentium speaks of Mary as "under and with him [Christ], serving the
mystery of redemption, by the grace of Almighty God" [sub Ipso et cum Ipso, omnipotentis Dei gratia, mysterio remdeptionis
inserviens], as "freely cooperating in the work of man's
salvation" [humanĉ saluti
cooperantem] (#56), of the "union of the mother with the Son in the
work of salvation" [cum Filio in
opere salutari coniunctio] (#57) and of how she
faithfully persevered in her union
with her Son unto the cross, where she stood, in keeping with the divine plan,
enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity of his suffering, associated
herself with his sacrifice in her mother's heart, and lovingly consenting to
the immolation of this victim which was born of her [vehementer cum Unigenito suo condoluit et sacrificio Eius se materno
animo sociavit, victimĉ de se genitĉ immolationi amanter consentiens]
(#58).
Likewise the Council Fathers state that Mary
shared her Son's sufferings as he
died on the cross. Thus, in a wholly singular way she cooperated by her
obedience, faith, hope and burning charity in the work of the Savior in
restoring supernatural life to souls [Filioque
suo in cruce morienti compatiens, operi Salvatoris singulari prorsus modo
cooperata est, oboedientia, fide, spe et flagrante caritate, ad vitam animarum
supernaturalem restaurandam] (#61).
Monsignor Brunero Gherardini points out
that, with or without the use of the term Coredemptrix, the Protestant
observers recognized just as readily the Catholic position on Mary's
participation in the redemption. The
great majority of those who adhere to the reformed tradition see any human
participation in the work of man's salvation, however secondary and
subordinate, as contrary to Luther's principle of solus Christus and thus "a robbery from God and from
Christ". Hence in this
enterprise we are dealing with more than just the possible justification of the
term Coredemptrix, but a fundamental datum of Catholic theology, a matter which
will not be facilely dealt with in ecumenical dialogue by simply substituting
one word or phrase with another which seems more neutral.
Father Gabriele M. Roschini, O.S.M.,
founder of the Pontifical Faculty of Theology "Marianum" and tireless
researcher in mariology, summarized the teaching of the papal magisterium on
the coredemption under five headings: (1)
Mary's association with Christ the Redeemer; (2) her union with Christ the new
Adam in the redemption of the human race as the new Eve; (3) her cooperation in
the Redemption beyond the fact of her Divine Maternity; (4) her cooperation in
the Redemption which involves her at the same time in the distribution of the
graces of the Redemption and (5) her immediate collaboration in Christ's
redemptive death and the various effects flowing from it. I have found
that not all of these categories seem equally helpful in organizing the
liturgical data on the Coredemption and so I have developed the following: (1)
Associate of Christ the Redeemer; (2) the New Eve; (3) Totally Devoted to the
Person and Work of Her Son; (4) Sharer in the Sufferings of Christ; (5)
Presenting her Son to the Father; (6) the United Sacrifice of Jesus and
Mary. Since it would be impossible
within the limits of this study to cite every text available, I will strive to
illustrate each of these points with representative texts.
A.
Associate of Christ the Redeemer
The concept of Mary as intimately
associated with the life, suffering and death of Christ has deep roots in the
Christian tradition. Hence describing
her as associate or companion of the Redeemer [socia Redemptoris] has become a standard way of recognizing her active
role in the Redemption. The first
explicit use of this terminology with regard to Mary occurs in the writings of
Ambrose Autpert (+784), but he uses the verbal form sociata to express the idea.
"As present knowledge goes, it is Ekbert of Schönau (+1184) who
first uses the noun socia of
Mary." As we have
already indicated, Pope Pius XII had a particular preference for the term socia Christi in referring to Mary's
secondary and subordinate, but nonetheless real, collaboration in the
Redemption. For instance, in his Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus of 1 November 1950 he described Our Lady as
"the noble associate of the divine Redeemer" [generosa Divini Redemptoris socia] and again in his Encyclical Letter Ad Cĉli Reginam of 11 October 1954 he
referred to her as the "Mother of the Christ God and ... His associate in
the work of redemption" [Christi Dei
mater, socia in divini Redemptoris opera]. The term,
"generous associate" [generosa
socia], is used of Mary in the Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution
on the Church Lumen Gentium #61 and
in John Paul's Marian Encyclical Redemptoris
Mater #38.
Not surprisingly, we find the very same
terminology utilized in the liturgy. In the
Preface of the Mass of Mary, the New Eve [Sancta
Maria, Mulier Nova] the celebrant addresses the Father saying:
You gave to Christ, author of the New Covenant, the Blessed Virgin Mary as his mother and companion ... [Quia
beatam Virginem Mariam Christo, novi foederis auctori, matrem et sociam dedisti ...].
Likewise in the Mass of Holy Mary, Handmaid of the
Lord [Sancta Maria, Ancilla Domini]
the opening prayer begins:
Lord our God, in your loving plan of
redemption you chose the Blessed Virgin, your lowly handmaid, to be the mother and companion of Christ
your Son, ... [Deus, qui beatam
Virginem, humilem ancillam tuam, misericordi redemptionis consilio, Christi matrem et sociam statuisti, ...]
The Mass of The Blessed Virgin Mary,
Mother and Mediatrix of Grace [Beata
Maria Virgo, Mater et Mediatrix Gratiĉ], is particularly expressive of
Mary's association with the Redeemer. Hence the Opening Prayer addresses God in
this way:
Lord our God, in your eternal wisdom
and love you chose the Blessed Virgin Mary to be the mother of the author of
all grace and his companion in bringing
about the mystery of our redemption.
[Deus, qui arcano providentiĉ consilio, beatam Virginem Mariam gratiĉ
Auctorem proferre voluisti eique in
humanĉ redemptionis mysterio sociam dedisti ...]
Her role is further delineated in the Preface of that
same Mass:
In your wisdom and goodness the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother and
companion of the Redeemer, was to have a maternal role in the Church: of intercession and pardon, of prayer and
grace, of reconciliation and peace. [Sed tuĉ bonitatis
consilio statuisti ut beata Virgo Maria,
Redemptoris mater et socia, munus in Ecclesia exerceret maternum: intercessionis et veniĉ, impetrationis et
gratiĉ, reconciliationis et pacis.]
In the Preface of the Mass of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, Mother of Good Counsel [Beata
Maria Virgo, Mater Boni Consilii] the theme is sounded again:
How generously you poured out the
gifts of your Holy Spirit upon the Blessed Virgin Mary to make her worthy to be
the mother and companion of the Redeemer. [Qui beatissimam Virginem Mariam Sancti
Spiritus donis abundanter replevisti ut digna fieret mater et socia Redemptoris ...]
Finally, let us take note of the praise-filled
testimony of the Preface of the Mass of Our Lady of Ransom [Beata Maria Virgo de Mercede], a feast
proper to the Mercedarian Order and celebrated on 24 September.
In your wise and provident plan you joined the Blessed Virgin so closely to
your Son in the work of redemption that she was with him as a loving mother in
his infancy, stood by his cross as the faithful companion in his passion,
... [Qui mirabili providentique consilio, beatam
Virginem in opere salutis humanĉ Filio tuo tam arcta societate iunxisti, ut in
humilitate cunarum ei amantissima mater adesset et iuxta crucem staret fidelis
socia passionis: ...]
B.
The New Eve
St. Justin Martyr (+165), St. Irenaeus (+
after 193) and Tertullian (+ after 220) all signaled the parallelism and
contrast between Mary and Eve. This
teaching which had developed over the centuries was highlighted in the Marian chapter of Lumen Gentium thus:
Rightly, therefore, the Fathers see
Mary not merely as passively engaged by God, but as freely cooperating in the
work of man's salvation through faith and obedience. For, as St. Irenaeus says,
she "being obedient, became the cause of salvation for herself and for the
whole human race." Hence not a few
of the early Fathers gladly assert with him in their preaching: "the knot of Eve's disobedience was
untied by Mary's obedience: what the
virgin Eve bound through her disbelief, Mary loosened by her faith." Comparing Mary with Eve, they call her
"Mother of the living," and frequently claim: "death through Eve, life through
Mary."
The English-speaking reader might expect
that the Mass formulary of Mary, the New Eve would capitalize on the Mary/Eve theme, only to be
dismayed at not finding it so directly underscored. The primary reason for this is that the
translators chose not to render the Latin title of this Mass [Sancta Maria, Mulier Nova] literally as
"Holy Mary, the New Woman".
While the introduction to this formulary does in fact speak of Mary as
the "New Eve", it develops even more the idea of the "new
woman".
The explicit theme of Mary as the New
Eve, however, is not ignored in the Collection. It is sounded
already in the Preface of the Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Chosen Daughter
of Israel [Beata Maria Virgo, Electa
Israel Progenies], the first of the Marian Masses of the Advent season:
She is by nature the daughter of
Adam, who by her sinlessness undid the
sin of Eve. [Ipsa enim condicione filia est Adĉ, quĉ culpam matris innocentia
reparavit ...]
It will be noted that the Latin text does not mention
Eve, but does speak of the sin of "the mother".
The motif of Mary as the New Eve is
beautifully developed in the Prefaces of the two Lenten Masses of Mary at the
Foot of the Cross [Beata Maria Virgo iuxta Crucem Domini]. In the first we have this lapidary statement:
At the cross the Blessed Virgin appears as the new Eve, so that, as a woman shared
in bringing death, so a woman would share in restoring life. [Ibi enim beata
Virgo nova fulget Eva, ut, sicut mulier contulit ad mortem, ita mulier
conferret ad vitam.]
In the second we have the happy fusion of the theme
of socia (rendered this time in
English as "partner") with that of the "New Eve":
In your divine wisdom you planned
the redemption of the human race and
decreed that the new Eve should stand by the cross of the new Adam: as she became his mother by the power of the
Holy Spirit, so, by a new gift of your
love, she was to be a partner in his passion ... [Tu enim, ad humanam
sobolem sapienti consilio reformandam novam
Evam iuxta crucem novi Adami astare voluisti: ut quĉ, divino fecundante Spiritu, facta erat
mater, novo tuĉ pietatis dono fieret
socia passionis ...]
The description of Mary as a "partner in the
passion of the New Adam" seems quite deliberately evocative of the text of
Genesis in which the Lord God creates for Adam a "helper fit for him"
(2:18, 20).
Likewise the scriptural association of
Eve as crediting the word of the serpent rather than accepting the word of God
(Gen. 3:1-6) and thus with the barring of the gates of Paradise (Gen. 3:24) is
appropriately played upon in the Preface of the Mass of the Blessed Virgin
Mary, Gate of Heaven [Beata Maria Virgo,
Ianua Cĉli]:
She is the humble Virgin, whose faith opened the gate of eternal life,
closed by the disbelief of Eve. [Hĉc
est Virgo humilis, quĉ ĉternĉ vitĉ
ianuam, quam Eva incredula clauserat, nobis reseravit fidelis.]
Finally the New Adam theme which resounds
in Rom. 5:12-17 is complemented by the New Eve theme developed in an
alternative Advent Preface for use from 17 to 24 December which is provided in
the second edition (1983) of the Roman
Missal approved by the Italian Episcopal Conference.
The grace
which Eve took away from us is given back to us in Mary. In her,
Mother of all men, motherhood, freed from sin and from death, is open to the
gift of new life. Where sin abounded, your mercy abounds even more in Christ
our Savior. [La grazia che Eva ci tolse ci èridonata in Maria. In lei, madre di tutti gli uomini, la
maternità, redenta dal peccato e dalla morte, si apre al dono della vita
nuova. Dove abbondò la colpa,
sovrabbonda la tua misericordia in Cristo nostro salvatore.]
C.
Totally Devoted to the Person and Work of Her Son
We have already quoted a passage from Lumen Gentium #56, but let us return to
that illuminating paragraph again as it describes Mary's fundamental
orientation:
Committing herself whole-heartedly
to God's saving will and impeded by no sin, she devoted herself totally, as a
handmaid of the Lord, to the person and work of her Son, under and with him,
serving the mystery of redemption, by the grace of Almighty God. [salvificam
voluntatem Dei, pleno corde et nullo retardata peccato, complectens, semetipsam
ut Domini ancillam personĉ et operi Filii sui totaliter devovit, sub Ipso et
cum Ipso, omnipotentis Dei gratia, mysterio redemptionis inserviens.]
With these carefully chosen words the Council Fathers
articulate the Catholic belief that Mary's role in the life of Christ was not
simply fulfilled by her giving birth to him and nurturing him, but that she
devoted herself totally to his person and work, thus actively participating in
the mystery of the redemption.
Many of the Mass formularies in the Collection illustrate how deeply this
consciousness of Mary's whole-hearted devotion has penetrated the prayer-life
of the Church. This is very clearly
underscored in the Preface of the Mass of Holy Mary, Handmaid of the Lord [Sancta Maria, Ancilla Domini] in which
we can detect the very language of the Council Fathers.
In the Blessed Virgin Mary you were
especially pleased, for by embracing your
plan of salvation she gave herself wholeheartedly to the work of your Son as a
faithful servant of the mystery of redemption. [Quia in beata Virgine tibi singulariter
complacuisti: illa enim, salvificam voluntatem tuam complectens,
operi Filii tui totaliter se devovit, mysterio redemptionis fideliter
inserviens ...]
This conviction about Mary's total
dedication to Christ and his saving work is expressed in a variety of
ways. In the Preface of the Mass of the
Mother of Good Counsel [Beata Maria
Virgo, Mater Boni Consilii] the priest states that
she gave herself wholeheartedly to your wise and loving plan for
renewing all things in Christ. [intime adhĉsit tuĉ pietatis consilio omnia
in Christo instaurandi.]
while in that of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother and
Teacher in the Spirit [Beata Maria Virgo,
Mater et Magistra Spiritalis] she is described as "sharing intimately
in the mystery of Christ" [Quĉ
mysterio Christi tui intime sociata]. Again, the
Preface of Our Lady of Ransom [Beata
Maria Virgo de Mercede] addresses the Father as having
joined the Blessed Virgin ... closely to your Son in the work of
redemption [beatam Virginem in opere salutis humanĉ
Filio tuo ... arcta societate iunxisti]
while that of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Health of the
Sick [Beata Maria Virgo, Salus Infirmorum]
says that
To all who look up to her in prayer she is the model of perfect acceptance of
your will and of wholehearted conformity with Christ ... [eam autem
contemplantibus exemplar prĉbet animi tuĉ
voluntati perfecte consentientis et Christo plene se conformantis ...].
Another facet of the mystery of Mary's
total dedication to and identification with the person and work of her Son is
to speak of her "sacrifice of self" or "self-offering"
which thus rendered her available to serve him and so participate in the work
of our redemption. Hence, in the Mass of
Our Lady of Nazareth [Sancta Maria De
Nazareth] the celebrant prays in the name of all the faithful in the Prayer
over the Gifts
we pray that by following the
example of the Virgin of Nazareth we may
present ourselves as a holy and pleasing sacrifice. [ut, Virginis Nazarethanĉ sequentes exempla, nosmetipsos exhibeamus hostiam sanctam,
tibi placentem.]
Likewise, in the Prayer over the Gifts in the second
Mass of Mary, Image and Mother of the Church [Beata Maria Virgo, Imago et Mater Ecclesiĉ, II] Our Lady is
presented as
the shining model of true worship
for your Church and of our duty to offer
ourselves as a holy victim, pleasing in your eyes. [... quĉ Ecclesiĉ tuĉ spiritalis cultus
fulget exemplar, quo nosmetipsos exhibere
debemus hostiam sanctam tibique placentem.]
D.
Sharer in the Sufferings of Christ
In the course of his pontificate Pope
John Paul II has frequently commented on the text of Col. 1:24, "Now I
rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is
lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the
church." In his Apostolic Letter Salvifici Doloris of 11 February 1984 he
did so with explicit reference to Our Lady's "compassion" or sharing in the sufferings of Christ:
As a witness to her Son's passion by
her presence, and as a sharer in it
by her compassion, Mary offered a
unique contribution to the Gospel of suffering, by embodying in anticipation
the expression of St. Paul which was quoted at the beginning. She truly has a special title to be able to
claim that she "completes in her flesh" -- as already in her heart --
"what is lacking in Christ's afflictions." [quippe quĉ prĉsens adesset, particeps effecta passionis compatiendo;
Illa enim prorsus particularem causam habet ut dicat se Ğadimplere in carne sua
-- quemadmodum iam in corde fecit -- ea quĉ desunt passionum Christiğ.]
This idea of Mary's compassion or
co-suffering in the spirit of Col. 1:24 is brought out
magnificently in the Opening Prayer of the first Mass of Mary at the Foot of
the Cross [Beata Maria Virgo iuxta Crucem Domini, I]:
Lord our God, in your mysterious wisdom you fill out the passion of Christ through
the suffering that his members endure in the many trials of this life. As you chose to have the mournful mother
stand by your Son in his agony on the cross, grant that we too may bring
love and comfort to our brothers and sisters in distress. [Deus, qui passionem Christi tui in eius membris, infinitis vitĉ ĉrumnis vexatis,
arcano perficis consilio, concede, quĉsumus, ut, sicut Filio tuo in cruce
morienti, perdolentem Matrem astare voluisti, ita et nos, beatam Virginem
imitati, fratribus laborantibus caritate et solacio semper adsimus.]
Father Joncas' comment about this prayer is that it
exquisitely unites the Pauline
teaching of the suffering members of the Church bringing to completion the
saving passion of Christ (cf. Col. 1:24), the share Mary had in the agony of
her Son on the cross, and the mission of Christians to alleviate suffering by bearing
it in solidarity with others.
The above-cited prayer finds a splendid
complement in the Prayer after Communion on the Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows
[Beatĉ Mariĉ Virginis Perdolentis Memoria].
As we honor the compassionate love of the Virgin Mary, may we make up in our own
lives whatever is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the good of the
Church. [... ut, compassionem beatĉ
Mariĉ Virginis recolentes, ea in nobis pro Ecclesia adimpleamus, quĉ desunt
Christi passionum.]
While, indeed, all of us are called to
"bring to completion the saving passion of Christ", there is no doubt
that no other human being shared as fully as Mary in the passion of Christ and,
if the sober Roman liturgy does not say this in so many words, it does so
equivalently by the frequent repetition of this theme. Since space does not
allow us to linger over each recurrence, let us take particular note of some
representative texts. The Opening Prayer
of the Mass of Our Lady of Sorrows articulates this theme in the classical and
synthetic Roman manner.
Father, as your Son was raised on
the cross, his mother Mary stood by him,
sharing his sufferings. May your
Church be united with Christ in his suffering and death and so come to share in
his rising to new life ... [Deus, qui Filio tuo in cruce exaltato compatientem matrem astare voluisti, da
Ecclesiĉ tuĉ, ut Christi passionis cum
ipsa consors effecta, eiusdem resurrectionis particeps esse mereatur.].
Unfortunately, the official English translation of
the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) fails to do
justice to the rich theological content of this prayer. In the first place the translation doesn't
clearly state that Mary's presence and sharing in Christ's sufferings was
willed by the Father. Secondly, it
doesn't render accurately the request that the "Church may be her [Mary's]
companion in the passion of Christ." The request
of the prayer, quite clearly, is that, as God willed that Mary should share in
the suffering of Christ, we (as members of the Church) pray to be her
companions in sharing in Christ's passion, so as to share in his
resurrection. Here the understanding is
that participation in Mary's compassion is a privileged way of sharing in
Christ's passion in order to share in his resurrection. Hence Mary's co-suffering (compassion) is
presented as a paradigm for the entire Church.
This theme of companionship with Mary in
sharing in the work of the redemption is beautifully highlighted in the Prayer
over the Gifts of the first Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Image and Mother
of the Church, [Beata Maria Virgo, Imago et Mater Ecclesiĉ I]:
... warm our hearts with the love of
the Virgin Mary, mother of the Church, and join
us more closely with her in sharing the redeeming work of her Son. [... caritate Virginis Mariĉ, Ecclesiĉ
Matris, inflammemus et operi redemptionis
cum ea arctius sociari mereamur.]
It is precisely by the charity which Mary bears for
her children as Mother of the Church that we ask to be inflamed and thus merit
to be intimately associated with her in the work of the redemption. This
prayer, in effect, recognizes the uniqueness of Our Lady's coredemptive role.
Among the numerous other liturgical texts
which could be adduced illustrating Mary's sharing in the suffering of Christ,
let us take note of but two more. The
first comes from the Preface of the third Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
Image and Mother of the Church [Beata
Maria Virgo, Imago et Mater Ecclesiĉ III].
You have given the Blessed Virgin
Mary to your Church as the perfect image of its role as mother and of its
future glory. She is a virgin
unsurpassed in purity of faith, a bride
joined to Christ in an unbreakable bond of love and united with him in his
suffering. [Qui Ecclesiĉ tuĉ beatam
Virginem Mariam materni muneris et futurĉ gloriĉ purissimam dedisti
imaginem: virginem fidei integritate
conspicuam: sponsam indissolubili amoris
vinculo Christo coniunctam atque illius sociatam passioni ...]
This composition gives evidence of a refined
theological and poetic quality in linking the themes of Mary as mother, virgin
and spouse. Of particular interest to us is the paralleling of her spousal
relationship to Christ with her being the sharer of his passion. The second
text is yet another evocative depiction of Mary's intimate union with her Son
in his suffering which is presented in the Preface of the Mass of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, Mother of Fairest Love [Beata
Maria Virgo, Mater Pulchrĉ Dilectionis]:
Beauty was hers in the passion of her Son: in her meekness she shared the suffering of
the Lamb of God,
her Son, silent before his executioners, and won for herself a new title of
motherhood. [... pulchra in Filii passione, eius purpurata cruore, mitis agna mitissimo
Agno compatiens, novo matris ornata munere ...]
Admittedly, this magnificent Latin composition is a
challenge to unravel in English. The
allusion "silent before his executioners" is not found in the Latin,
but what is stated is that "beautiful in the passion of her Son, purpled
by his blood," Mary is "the meek ewe-lamb suffering with the Lamb
most meek".
E.
Presenting her Son to the Father
In his Letter Inter Sodalicia of 22 May 1918 Pope Benedict XV put the mystery of
Mary's coredemption in bold relief. He
said:
Mary suffered and, as it were, nearly
died with her suffering Son; for the salvation of mankind she renounced her
mother's rights and, as far as it depended on her, offered her Son to placate
divine justice; so we may well say that she with Christ redeemed mankind. [Scilicet
ita cum Filio patiente et moriente passa est et pĉne commortua, sic materna in
Filium jura pro hominum salute abdicavit placandĉque Dei justitiĉ, quantum ad
se pertinebat, Filium immolavit, ut dici merito queat, Ipsam cum Christo
humanum genus redemisse.]
So united with God's salvific will was
Mary, says the Pope, that "as far as it depended on her, [she] offered her
Son to placate divine justice."
This motif of Mary as the Virgin offering her Son to the Father is one
which we find taken up in the Collection
of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary in at least three places. First we find it expressed succinctly in the
Prayer over the Gifts of the Mass of Holy Mary, Fountain of Light and Life [Sancta Maria, Fons Lucis et Vitĉ]:
All-holy Father, receive this offering which the Church, our virginal
mother, makes in imitation of the mother of Christ. [Suscipe, sancte Pater, hanc oblationem, quam Matrem Christi imitans, tibi offert virgo
Ecclesia.