Mary Mediatrix
Fr. Victor Devy, SMM
MANY OF US, from our earliest childhood, have been taught to seek out the Blessed Mother’s help and protection in all the circumstances of life. This Christian and Marian formation was nothing short of a practical, albeit elementary, introduction to Mary’s Mediation; it was but the beginning of a more perfect form of Christian life through Mary. Such a basic formation, like a tiny seed planted in our souls, calls for a fuller development if the soul is to progress with giant strides in the ways of the spiritual life.
It is our purpose therefore, in this article, to stress both the reality and the consequences of Mary’s God-given role as Mediatrix of all graces. A clearer knowledge of Mary’s Mediation will, we feel sure induce more souls to avail themselves of all the advantages of her maternal influence in their spiritual lives and lead them to consecrate themselves to her the perfect way.
Mediation and Maternity
Mary‘s Mediation is intimately connected with her divine Maternity. “By the fact that Mary is the Mother of the Redeemer” wrote Pius XI, in his encyclical LUX VERITATIS, “she became, in a certain manner, our own mother, the spiritual mother of those who have been called to be Christ’s brothers.” In his introduction to True Devotion, St. Louis De Montfort expressed the same idea: in a different way: “It was through the most holy Virgin Mary that Jesus came into the world, and it is also through her that He has to reign in the world.” Because Mary had been chosen to give to the world the source of all graces, Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, she has been elected to distribute to all the graces of Redemption. St. Bernard puts it this way: ”It is the will of God that all graces (all good) should come to us through Mary.”
These quotations and many others which we could adduce to bring added weight to our subject are familiar to everyone. But we are not presently interested in finding new authorities, rather we are looking for a deeper understanding of what is already known – that, in the light of the common doctrine of the Church.
The New Eve
The Blessed Virgin Mary has been called Mediatrix between Christ and us, and a feast, under the title of MARY MEDIATRlX OF ALL GRACES, has already been approved by Pope Benedict XV. To understand the full bearing of this title is to possess an excellent synthesis of all that has been revealed concerning the exceptional mission of Our Lady in the world. If the expression “mediatrix” as applied to Mary, is not so old as many of her other titles, the function itself is as old as Christianity itself. Even more, down through the prophecies of the Old Testament, it goes back to the Garden of Eden and to eternity. The promise of a future Redeemer implies in its fulfilment the cooperation of His holy Mother. And all this was but the realization of an eternal decree of Divine Providence: “The Lord possessed me in the beginning of all His ways.”
Mary therefore was predestined as the New Eve, as a Mediatrix between Christ and the world and as our spiritual Mother. These different titles are but three ways of expressing Mary’s unique predestination – she was chosen as “the Mother of all the living,” and as an associate of Christ in the reconciliation of mankind with God.
Down through the centuries there has been a steady progress in the knowledge of Revelation and the apparently simple facts recorded in the Gospels have been expounded in most of their implications. Sacred Liturgy, unfolding treasures down through the ages has insisted ever increasingly upon the connection, the intimate relation, between the mysteries of Christ’s life and those of Mary’s. Within the last hundred years the Church has witnessed a far more comprehensive exposition of Marian theology than ever before in its history. Papal encyclicals, pastoral letters, and the writings of theologians and spiritual writers have given us not only a vivid picture of things past, but a clearer interpretation of Mary’s part in out redemption. We find, for instance, in the encyclicals of Pius XII, on the Mystical Body of Christ and on Sacred Liturgy, not only a narration of facts taken from the Gospels, but a formal assertion of the doctrine implied in those mysteries.
This statue graces the offices of Montfort Publications in the Montfort Spiritual Center, NY.
To obtain a higher degree of perfection, an exact appreciation of Mary’s role in the transformation of souls into Christ is of the utmost importance… if we consecrate ourselves entirely to her, entrusting to her maternal care the very guidance of our whole spiritual life, we can be certain that we are following God’s plan of redemption
Inseparable Union
“Mary’s sinless soul was filled with the divine spirit of Jesus Christ more than all other created souls; and ‘in the name of the whole human race’ she gave her consent to ‘a spiritual marriage between the Son of God and human nature.’ Within her virginal womb, Christ Our Lord already bore the exalted title of Head of the Church.
“In a marvelous birth, she brought Him forth as source of supernatural life, and presented Him, newly born, as Prophet, King and Priest to those who were the first come at Jews and Gentiles to adore Him He: only Son, yielding to a mother’s prayer in ‘Cana of Galilee,’ performed the miracle by which ‘His disciples believed in Him’
“Free from all sin, original and personal, always most intimately united with Her Son as another Eve, she offered Him on Golgotha to the Eternal Father for all the children of Adam, sin-stained by his fall, and her maternal rights and love were also included in the holocaust. Thus she who corporally was the mother of our Head, through the added title of pain and glory, became spiritually the mother of all His members . . (On .the Mystical Body) ”Mary’s life, as a consequence of her mission, is intimately connected with the mysteries of Our Lord. Nobody followed the footsteps of Jesus Christ, our Savior, more closely and more perfectly. Never was any creature more favored by God and endowed with so much authority over the Sacred Heart of her Divine Son, and through Him, over our heavenly Father.” (Mediator Dei)
Meditating upon the events recorded in the New Testament—many of which have not been alluded to in the preceding quotations—anyone may verify for himself this intimate union between Jesus and Mary. More and more shall we find ourselves confronted with the very definite purpose on the part of the Holy Trinity to establish Mary as a Mediatrix between Christ and us, and as the Mother of regenerated mankind.
Holy Trinity and Mary
May we suggest that you read, in this connection, the first chapter of Fr. de Montfort’s True Devotion? In these pages you will be forced to admire our saint’s lofty intuitions on the conduct of the Three Divine Persons of the Most Holy Trinity in relation to Our Lady’s predestination. One of the most important of these is to be found in No. 22: ”The conduct which the Three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity have deigned to pursue in the Incarnation and in the first coming of Jesus Christ, They still pursue daily, in an invisible manner throughout the whole Church; and They will still pursue it even to the consummation of ages in the last coming of Jesus Christ.”
Since her glorious Assumption into heaven, Mary’s mediation consists chiefly in obtaining and distributing, as we say, the merits of redemption. One might be inclined to think that this is the only reason why Mary is called Mediatrix of all graces However, let it be clearly stated, this is only a part at Our Lady’s mission in the world and if we wish to do full justice to the teachings of Revelation, we must integrate in one and the same universal mission ”the great things the Almighty has done” for her. Thus, as a consequence of her divine Maternity, Our Lady is the universal Mediatrix of all graces. Her other titles such as, Co-redemptrix, Queen of the World, Queen of All Hearts, Seat of Wisdom, Refuge of Sinners, and countless others, so aptly devised and so fully deserved, are but various facets and functions of the maternal mediation of this New Eve.
Practical Conclusion
To obtain a higher degree of perfection, an exact appreciation of Mary’s role in the transformation of souls into Christ is of the utmost importance. If we pray, for example, for a particular favor, be it temporal or spiritual, we may hope of course that Our Lady will obtain it for us. But if we consecrate ourselves entirely to her, entrusting to her maternal care the very guidance of our whole spiritual life, we can be certain that we are following God’s plan of redemption because this is the very fulfilment of her universal Motherhood in the realm of grace and the reason why she has been exalted above all the angels and saints as the MEDIATRIX OF ALL GRACES.
