Monday, June 27, 2022

Stephen J. Shoemaker on Mary as a "Mediator" in the theology of Maximus the Confessor's The Life of the Virgin

  

It is perhaps also worth mentioning in this context that on several occasions the Life of the Virgin identifies Mary as a “mediator,” a title that might suggest to advocates of her coredemption the closely related notion of Mary’s unique role as “Mediatrix” of divine Grace in conjunction with her son. According to this dogmatic position, the Virgin Mary, because of her unique participation in the redemptive process at the Crucifixion, also “shares in the one mediation of Christ in distributing to the People of God the ‘gifts of eternal salvation’ obtained from the cross (cf. Jn 19.26). Because Mary is Coredemptrix with the Redeemer, she is also Mediatrix of Grace with the Mediator” (Miravalle, Mary: Coredemptrix, Mediatrix, Advocate, 29, emphasis in original). Yet inasmuch as Mary’s elevation to Mediatrix is contingent on her alleged status as Coredemptrix, it hardly seems possible from a historical perspective that the Life of the Virgin envisions such an exalted position for the Virgin so that he could be understood as distributing the Grace of redemption equally with her son. . . . it is quite clear that the Life of the Virgin’s use of the term “mediator” for Mary does not present her as directly involved in the distribution of saving Grace to the faithful. Rather, in each instance where Mary is named a mediator, either her intercession is explicitly invoked in conjunction with her mediation or an intercessory meaning is clear from the context. Thus, while Mary is envisioned as a uniquely positioned intercessor, her mediation is dependent on her son’s concession to her pleas, and she does not distribute the Grace of salvation equally with him. (Maximus the Confessor, The Life of the Virgin [trans. Stephen J. Shoemaker; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012], 33-34 [RB: not just "equally" with him, but with him, too in the sense demanded by Catholic theology--cf. paragraphs 967-970 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, for e.g.])

 

Even in the following passage . . . which perhaps comes closest to the idea of Mary as Mediatrix, it is entirely clear that her role as mediator is connected with her intercession: “Now a second mediator goes forth to the first mediator, a devout human being to the incarnate God, a second offering of our nature to the Father after the first one who was himself sacrificed one time on behalf of all, and she is ever living to intercede on behalf of those who approach God through her.” Maximum the Confessor, Life of the Virgin 128. The same is also true of Mary’s role at the wedding at Cana, where the Life says that “the mediator of all good things was a mediator of this miracle also.” Maximus the Confessor, Life of the Virgin 68. Here again Mary’s role as mediator is determined by her intercessions with her son that he do something for the bride and groom about the lack of wine, rather than “distributing to the People of God the ‘gifts of eternal salvation’ obtained from the cross.” (Ibid., 179 n. 120)