In his February 1904 Encyclical Ad Diel Illum Laetissimum, Pius X, addressing the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, wrote the following concerning Mary's role as co-mediatrix:
11. If then the most Blessed Virgin is the Mother at
once of God and men, who can doubt that she will work with all diligence to
procure that Christ, Head of the Body of the Church (Coloss. i., 18),
may transfuse His gifts into us, His members, and above all that of knowing Him
and living through Him (I John iv., 9)?
12. 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.
13. It cannot, of course, be denied that the
dispensation of these treasures is the particular and peculiar right of Jesus
Christ, for they are the exclusive fruit of His Death, who by His nature is the
mediator between God and man. Nevertheless, by this companionship in sorrow and
suffering already mentioned between the Mother and the Son, it has been allowed
to the august Virgin to be the most powerful mediatrix and advocate of the
whole world with her Divine Son (Pius IX. Ineffabilis). The source,
then, is Jesus Christ "of whose fullness we have all received" (John i.,
16), "from whom the whole body, being compacted and fitly joined together
by what every joint supplieth, according to the operation in the measure of
every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in
charity" (Ephesians iv., 16). But Mary, as St. Bernard justly
remarks, is the channel (Serm. de temp on the Nativ. B. V. De
Aquaeductu n. 4); or, if you will, the connecting portion the function
of which is to join the body to the head and to transmit to the body the
influences and volitions of the head - We mean the neck. Yes, says St.
Bernardine of Sienna, "she is the neck of Our Head, by which He
communicates to His mystical body all spiritual gifts" (Quadrag. de
Evangel. aetern. Serm. x., a. 3, c. iii.).
14. We are then, it will be seen, very far from
attributing to the Mother of God a productive power of grace - a power which
belongs to God alone. Yet, since Mary carries it over all in holiness and union
with Jesus Christ, and has been associated by Jesus Christ in the work of redemption,
she merits for us de congruo, in the language of theologians, what
Jesus Christ merits for us de condigno, and she is the supreme
Minister of the distribution of graces. Jesus "sitteth on the right hand
of the majesty on high" (Hebrews i. b.). Mary sitteth at the
right hand of her Son - a refuge so secure and a help so trusty against all
dangers that we have nothing to fear or to despair of under her guidance, her
patronage, her protection. (Pius IX. in Bull Ineffabilis).
15. These principles laid down, and to return to our
design, who will not see that we have with good reason claimed for Mary that -
as the constant companion of Jesus from the house at Nazareth to the height of
Calvary, as beyond all others initiated to the secrets of his Heart, and as the
distributor, by right of her Motherhood, of the treasures of His merits, - she
is, for all these reasons, a most sure and efficacious assistance to us for
arriving at the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ. Those, alas! furnish us by
their conduct with a peremptory proof of it, who seduced by the wiles of the
demon or deceived by false doctrines think they can do without the help of the
Virgin. Hapless are they who neglect Mary under pretext of the honor to be paid
to Jesus Christ! As if the Child could be found elsewhere than with the Mother!
This is again why Mariology is an important topic and
a true “dividing line” between Latter-day Saints and Roman Catholics. Hopefully, in early 2023, I will be having a moderated public debate, “Is the Immaculate
Conception of Mary Apostolic in Origin?” with a Catholic apologist here in Utah
(yes, I said ‘here in Utah’—moved from Ireland last week and hopefully will be
here until at least August 2025!)
