Our Lady of Sorrows, Co-Redemptress
by VP
Posted on Wednesday September 01, 2021 at 12:09AM in Documents
"This glorious title of Co-Redemptress, and that of Mediatrix of all graces ,which it implies, have been given her by the latest popes. On February 2nd, 1904, Pius X wrote in the encyclical Ad Diem: "In virtue of the communion of sorrows and of will which attached her to Christ, Mary wanted to become the worthy Reparatrix of the fallen world, an din consequence the Dispenser of all the graces Jesus acquired for us by His bloody death...Because she surpasses all other creatures by her sanctity and by her union with Christ, and because she was called by Christ to participate in the work of our salvation, she merits for us de congruo, as the expression is, what Christ has merited for us de condigno, and she is the first steward in the dispensing of graces."
Benedict XV writes similarly, March 22nd, 1918:"When her Son suffered and died, she so to say suffered and died with Him, renouncing for the salvation of men and the appeasement of the justice of God her maternal rights over he Son - and immolating her Son, as much as in her lay, so that we are entitled to say that she, with Christ, has redeemed the human race."
And Pius XI writes, February 2nd, 1923:" The Virgin of Sorrows participated with Christ in the work of the Redemption." The actual word Co-Redemptrix appears in two decrees of the Holy Office, dated June 26th, 1913, and January 22nd, 1914."
The consent Our Lady gave to the mystery of the Cross was already contained in the Fiat she had uttered to the angel.
Speaking of this totally free acceptance Leo XIII quotes the great sentence of St. Thomas Aquinas according to which at the instant of the Annunciation, God waited for the Virgin to utter the consent of the human race in its entirety; "and he adds that in consequence none of that immense treasure of grace and truth which the Lord has brought us is communicated to us apart from Mary. He calls her our Mediatrix with the Mediator."
As we may see, the mystery of the Redemption stands in the Church like as great tree of doctrine which never ceases to flower.
Source: Our Lady of Sorrows, by Fr. Journet, Sheed, SJ 1939
