The Blessed Virgin Mary: Mediatrix and Co-Redemptrix

Aelbrecht Bouts, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

What is a mediator?

A mediator is one who occupies an intermediary position between two extremes and binds them together (Summa Theologiae III, q. 26).

In a mediator, two things are to be considered:

The notion of the mean (rationem medii), by which he is distinct from both extremes, and in some way lower than one and at the same time higher than the other (natural mediation in potency).

The act of the mean (actum medii), that is, the office of uniting the extremes, carrying what belongs to one to the other (moral mediation, or mediation in act).

Christ alone is the perfect mediator

‘For God indeed was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing to them their sins; and he hath placed in us the word of reconciliation.’ (2 Cor. 5:19)

‘Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven given to men whereby we must be saved.’ (Acts 4:12)

Our Lord mediates not on account of His divinity, but according to His humanity. As true man, He is lower than the Father, but above men by virtue of the hypostatic union and through the fullness of grace and truth (natural mediation or mediation in potency).

Therefore, He is suited to us to God by presenting His commandments and gifts to men, and by making satisfaction and interceding on their behalf (moral mediation or mediation in act).

However, nothing prevents others from being mediators, either dispositively or ministerially:

Dispositively, by providing preparatory actions.

Ministerially, by applying, in the name and power of Christ, the fruits of the Redemption.

Certainly, these ministers are subordinate to Him in such a way that their intercession has no value apart from His merits.

Accordingly, nothing prevents us from saying the same of the Immaculate Virgin.

The Blessed Virgin Is Our Mediatrix and Co-Redemptrix

As the New Eve, she is the perpetual Mediatrix between heaven and earth, not as the principal and necessary agent, but as secondary and subordinate to Christ, most excellent and most useful to us, since she undoubtedly cooperated in the whole work of Redemption, and without her influence no grace, after original sin, comes to us. This proposition, drawn from the universal and ordinary magisterium of the Church, is common and theologically certain.

She is called Mediatrix:

Not principally or perfectly: Christ alone could reconcile us to God and merit all the means necessary to attain eternal salvation de condigno; the Blessed Virgin could only concur by an imperfect cooperation.

Not absolutely necessarily: Her assistance is not per se necessary, but only because it has been positively decreed and willed by the Most High.

But secondarily: dispositively, ministerially, and by participation.

Dispositively, that is, by inducing or performing something preliminary.

Ministerially, by applying the fruits of Redemption in the name of Jesus.

By participation, as she has been constituted a minister to Christ, to receive Him and give Him to us, to procure our redemption, and to communicate spiritual gifts.

Subordinate: Her intercession originates from the merits of her Divine Son and depends entirely upon them. Whatever she does or asks, she does and asks by His merits.

Our Lady is our Mediatrix on account of her singular assistance in the work of redemption.

This belongs to her under a threefold title:

1. Through her voluntary consent at the Annunciation: She cooperated not only at the beginning, but she has been irrevocably committed to this divine vocation throughout her entire life.

2. Through the merit acquired by her cooperation: She merited de congruo the salvation and the graces of salvation which Jesus Christ merited for us de condigno.

3. Through expiatory compassion: She satisfied de congruo, albeit imperfectly, for our sins.

Our Lady is also called Mediatrix on account of her voluntary cooperation 

For she voluntarily bore the Redeemer and thus became, in a certain sense, the cause of our redemption, since it all depended upon her initial fiat. By consenting to conceive Our Blessed Lord, she accepted all that the Divine Will would require for the accomplishment of this mystery. From that very moment, her whole life was directed towards our salvation.

Therefore, she cooperated with Christ in making satisfaction for sins and in acquiring for us every grace, and this in three ways:

1. In a preparatory manner: The Blessed Virgin cooperated by prayer, purity, and burning charity, by which she drew the Word to herself. In this way she could even merit de congruo to be preferred above all others. She was endowed with that exceptional holiness by which she would be a worthy Mother of God.

2. Essentially and inchoatively: She consented to become the Mother of the Saviour and accepted the angelic salutation out of love for us. Therefore, she voluntarily procured for us the Redemption.

3. Integrally and completely: In the most eminent manner, the Theotokos cooperated by offering her Son for our salvation. She did this:

• At the moment of the Incarnation, by receiving and bearing the Redeemer.

• In the Temple, where she presented and offered her Son to become a victim (cf. Luke 2:35).

• Most of all at the foot of the Cross, uniting herself to the Divine Will and handing over her Son to be sacrificed.

The Blessed Virgin truly is Mediatrix because she merited de congruo for us all that Christ merited de condigno.

Her cooperation meets all the conditions required for de congruo merit:

• Supreme holiness and ardent charity

• Perfect conformity to the Divine Will

• Intense desire for our salvation, with all her actions ordered to this end out of supreme love for God and His Will

'Mary… since she excels all in holiness and in union with Christ, and was drawn by Christ into the work of human salvation, merits de congruo, as they say, what Christ merited de condigno, and is the principal minister in the distribution of graces' (Pope Pius X, Ad diem illum)

The Blessed Virgin is mediatrix because by her compassion she made satisfaction for us imperfectly and de congruo, while Christ made satisfaction de condigno.

Merit is the foundation of satisfaction. Since she has congruent merit, she can also offer congruent satisfaction:

'In the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus is in an agony; in the judgment-hall, where He is scourged, crowned with thorns, condemned to death, not there do we find Mary. But she knew beforehand all these agonies; she knew and saw them. When she professed herself the handmaid of the Lord for the mother's office, and when, at the foot of the altar, she offered up her whole self with her Child Jesus-then and thereafter she took her part in the laborious expiation made by her Son for the sins of the world. It is certain, therefore, that she suffered in the very depths of her soul with His most bitter sufferings and with His torments. Moreover, it was before the eyes of Mary that was to be finished the Divine Sacrifice for which she had borne and brought up the Victim.' (Leo XIII, Iucunda semper, n. 3)

'Thus she suffered with her suffering and dying Son and almost died with Him… and, as far as pertained to her, she immolated her Son to appease justice, so that it can rightly be said that she, together with Christ, redeemed the human race.'

( Benedict XV, Inter Sodalicia)

'Moreover it was not only the prerogative of the Most Holy Mother to have furnished the material of His flesh to the Only Son of God, Who was to be born with human members (S. Bede Ven. L. Iv. in Luc. xl.), of which material should be prepared the Victim for the salvation of men; but hers was also the office of tending and nourishing that Victim, and at the appointed time presenting Him for the sacrifice. Hence that uninterrupted community of life and labors of the Son and the Mother, so that of both might have been uttered the words of the Psalmist"My life is consumed in sorrow and my years in groans" (Ps xxx., 11). When the supreme hour of the Son came, beside the Cross of Jesus there stood Mary His Mother, not merely occupied in contemplating the cruel spectacle, but rejoicing that her Only Son was offered for the salvation of mankind, and so entirely participating in His Passion, that if it had been possible she would have gladly borne all the torments that her Son bore (S. Bonav. 1. Sent d. 48, ad Litt. dub. 4). And from this community of will and suffering between Christ and Mary she merited to become most worthily the Reparatrix of the lost world (Eadmeri Mon. De Excellentia Virg. Mariae, c. 9) and Dispensatrix of all the gifts that Our Savior purchased for us by His Death and by His Blood.' (Pius X, Ad diem illum, n. 12)

REFERENCES  

Benedictus Henricus Merkelbach, Mariologia: Tractatus de Beatissima Virgine Maria Matre Dei atque Deum inter et homines Mediatrice, 1st ed. (Paris: Desclée, De Brouwer et Soc., 1939), 306–14.