Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Sacrae Theologiae Summa on Mary's Participation in the Work of Redemption and Role as Dispensatrix of All Graces in Roman Catholic Theology

Concerning the thesis that “The Bl. Virgin Mary participated in accomplishing the work of redemption principally by her virginal consent and by her maternal compassion”:

 

173. Doctrine of the Church. 1) Pius VII: “The Christian faithful really owe reverence to the Bl. Virgin Mary, as the sweet Parent of her Son, so that with careful zeal and benevolence they may cultivate the memory of the sorrows—those intense sufferings that She, while standing near the cross of Jesus, endured with singular and invincible fortitude and constancy and which She offered to the Eternal Father for their salvation” (In Bover, Soteriologia Mariana 453).

 

2) Leo XIII: “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 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 . . . There stood by the Cross of Jesus his Mother, who, in a miracle of charity, so that she might receive us as her sons, offered generously to Divine Justice her own Son, and died in her heart with Him, stabbed with the sword of sorrow” (Encyclical “Iucunda semper”: ASS 27, 178).

 

3) St. Pius X: “When the extreme 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. And from this community of will and suffering between Christ and Mary she merited to become most worthily the Reparatrix of the lost world and Dispensatrix of all the gifts of our Savior purchased for us by His Death and by His Blood” (Encyclical “Ad diem illum”: ASS 10 [1918] 182).

 

4) Benedict XV: “Thus with her suffering and dying Son she almost died, and she so abandoned her maternal rights to her Son for the salvation of mankind, and immolated her Son to placate the Divine Justice as much as she could, that it can rightly be said that She along with Christ redeemed the human race! (Apostolic Letter ”Inter Sodalicia”: ASS 10 [1918] 182).

 

5) Pius XI: “The sorrowful Virgin participated with Christ in the work of redemption . . . “ (Apostolic Letter “Explorata rest est”: AAS 15 [1921] 104) “O Mother of piety and mercy, who, as compassionate and corredemptrix stood by your sweet Son as he was accomplishing on the wood of the Cross the redemption of the human race . . . : preserve in us, we pray, and daily increase the precious fruits of redemption and of your compassion” (Prayer at the end of the Jubilee Year: L’Osservatore Romano, 29-30 April 1935)

 

6) Pius XII: “It was she . . ., always most intimately united with her Son, offered Him on Golgotha to the Eternal Father for all the children of Adam, sin-stained by his unhappy fall, and her mother’s rights and mother’s love were included in the holocaust . . . “ (Encyclical “Mystici Corporis”: AAS 35 [1943] 247). (Iesu Solano and J. A. de Aldama, Sacrae Theologiae Summa, 4 vols. [trans. Kenneth Baker; Keep the Faith, Inc., 2014], 3-A: 454-55)

 

On the thesis that “The Bl. Virgin Mary truly is the Dispensatrix of all graces”:

 

194. Doctrines of the Church. Leo XIII: We need to obtain the favor of “the great Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, the guardian of our peace and the minister to us of heavenly grace, who is placed on the highest summit of power and glory in heaven, in order that she may bestow the help of her patronage on men who through so many labors and dangers are striving to read that eternal city” (Encyclical ”Supremi Apostolatus”: ASD 16,113). “God . . . listens to the prayers of her whom He wished to be the minister of his heavenly graces” (Encyclical “Superiore anno”: ASS 17,49). “With equal truth may it be also affirmed that, by the will of God, Mary is the intermediary through whom is distributed unto us this immense treasure of mercies gathered by God . . . Thus no man goes to the Father but by the Son, and no man goes to Christ but by His Mother” (Encyclical “Octobri mense”: ASS 24,195f.). “The recourse we have to Mary in prayer follows upon the office she continually fills by the side of the throne of God as Mediatrix of divine grace; being by worthiness and by merit most acceptable to Him, and, therefore, surpassing in power all the angels and saints in Heaven . . . And later, without measure and without end will she be able to plead our cause, passing upon a day to life immortal . . . We turn out prayerful voices to Mary. Thus is confirmed that law is merciful mediation of which We have spoken, and which St. Bernardine of Siena expressed: ‘Every grace granted to man has three degrees in order: for by God it is communicated to Christ, from Christ it passed to the Virgin, and from the Virgin it descends to us” (Encyclical “Iucunda semper”: ASS 27,178f.). “From her heavenly abode in she began, by God’s decree, to watch over the Church, to assist and befriend us as our Mother; so that she who was so intimately associated with the mystery of human salvation is just as closely associated with the distribution of the graces which for all time will flow from the Redemption . . . She is the Dispenser of all heavenly gifts” (Encyclical “Adjutricem populi”: ASS 28,130f.). “From her, as from an abundant stream, are derived the streams of heavenly graces. In her hand are the treasures of the mercies of the Lord; God wished her to be the beginning of all good things” (Encyclical “Diuturni temporis”: ASS 31,146f.). “Thus the most powerful Virgin Mother, who formerly cooperated in charity that the faithful might be born in the Church, is also now the mediatrix of our salvation . . .” (Apostolic Letter “Parta humano”: ASS 34,195)

 

2) St. Pius X: “And from this communion of will and suffering between Christ and Mary, she merited to become most worthily the reparatrix of the lost world and Dispensatrix of all the gifts of Our Savior purchased for us by His Death and by his blood . . . Jesus sits at the right hand of the majesty on high. Mary sits at the right hand of her Son—a refuge to secure and so a help so trusty against all dangers that we have nothing to fear or to despair of under her guidance, her patronage, her protection” (Encyclical “Ad diem illum”: ASS 36,453f.). The Virgin is “the Mediatrix of all graces” (Apostolic Letter ”Manilensium Archiepiscopus”: AAS 2 [1920] 901). For through her, who is the mirror of justice and seat of wisdom, the Omnipotent willed us to have all things” (Sermo ad PP Franciscales”: AAS 2 [1910] 909). This is the time of the feast and Mass for B.M.V. Mediatrix.

 

3) Benedict XV: “But if for this reason all of us have received these graces from the treasury of redemption, they are administered as it were by the hands of the Sorrowful Virgin herself” (Apostolic Letter “Inter Sodalicia”: AAS 10 [1918] 182). “Since the most holy Virgin Mary was chosen with so many and such great merits to be the Mother of God and at the same time was divinely constituted the mediatrix of graces for all mankind” (Apostolic Letter “Cum Sanctissima Virgo Maria”: AAS 9 [1917] 324). “She is the most blessed Mother of God and has the power of mediatrix of graces with the Lord” (Apostolic Letter “Locarni, intra fines”: AAS 11 [1919] 67). “Whatever graces he [Christ] confers on men, she has their distribution and appointment” (Encyclical “Fausto appetente die”: AAS 13 [1921] 334)

 

Pius XI: “Christ “since he is the one Mediator of God and men, wished to join his Mother to Himself as the advocate of sinners, the minister and mediatrix of grace” (Encyclical “Miserentissimus Redemptor”: AAS 20 [1928] 178) “We know that everything is given to us by the Excellent and Supreme God through the hands of the Mother of God” (Encyclical “Ingravescentibus malis”: AAS 29 [1937] 380)

 

“The Virgin Mother herself, the Mediatrix with God of all graces” (Apostolic Letter “Galliam Ecclesiae filiam”: AAS 14 [1922] 186). “The Virgin Mary . . ., the Mediatrix with God of all the charisms” (Apostolic Letter “Extat in civitate”: AAS 16 [1924] 152) “To the Virgin, the Mediatrix with God of all graces” (Apostolic Letter “Cognitum sane”: ASS 18 [1924] 213). “For she is the Mother of God, the administrator of heavenly graces . . .” (Letter “Sollemne semper”: AAS 24 [1932] 376)

 

Pius XII: “For the Bl. Virgin has so much grace with God, she enjoys such power with her Only-begotten Son, that whoever in need of help does not run to her, is attempting to fly without wings, as Dante sings” (Letter “Superiore anno”: AAS 32 [1940] 145). “May she never cease to beg from him that copious streams of grace may flow from its exalted Head into all the members of the Mystical Body (Encyclical “Mystici Corporis”: AAS 35 [1943] 248).

 

195. Please note concerning these texts: it is said in them: a) that in general we have grace through Mary, that graces come to us from Her, that graces are in Her hands; b) that in particular Mary procures graces for us from God, that she is the Mediatrix of graces; c) that the graces, about which we are concerned, are all graces of redemption, whatever Christ confers on men, or form a negative point of view that Christ grants us nothing except through Mary. (Ibid., 468-70)

 

Although the Roman Pontiffs in these texts speak mainly about the Bl. Virgin as she is now in heaven, still there are some texts in which tye speak about the graces granted by Christ through Mary while she was on the earth. Thus Leo III: “During His private life on earth He associated her with Himself in each of His first two miracles: the miracle of grace, when at the salutation of Mary, the infant leaped in the womb of Elizabeth: the miracle of nature when He turned water into wine at the marriage-feast of Cana. And, at the supreme moment of His public life . . . “ (Encyclical “Augustissimae Virginis”: ASS 30,129). Thus Pius XII: “Furthermore, her only Son, condescending to His prayer at Cana of Galilee, performed the miracle by which His disciples believed in Him” (Encyclical “Mystici Corporis”: AAS 35,247). (Ibid., 470 n. 26)