Vol 11 Issue 16 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward KrieR
April 21, 2018 ~ Saint Anselm, opn!
- Mary as Co-Redemptrix
- Third Sunday after Easter
- Saints Soter and Caius
- Family and Marriage
- Articles and notices
Dear Reader:
Next week I will return to the thesis on Sacrament of Confirmation, concluding the treatise on Mary, Co-Redemptrix, in this issue. In between, on April 25 the Church will be asking Divine intervention as she prays the Litanies and processes through the streets. You may say this is now rarely done, and this may be true. Still, it is part of the Church Tradition and it is wonderful in those communities where it is still possible. The spirit of the liturgy will continue to be that of asking God’s divine intervention that we may be protected from natural disasters, wars, pestilence and famine.
There are two articles that are inserted that of significance. The first reminds us that the worst people, after atheists, are Conciliar Catholics: They are known to be the largest users of contraceptives and the largest “Christian” religion that promotes and uses abortion clinics. They now promote the LGBTQ agenda and want divorce to be accepted. The second is a reminder of how the Conciliar Church views their Protestant Meal service—of course one only needs to watch what was done at Copacabana on July 27, 2013, to realize
As always, enjoy the readings and commentaries provided for your benefit. —The Editor
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Mary as Co-Redemptrix
By Rev. Courtney Edward Krier
Co-Redemptrix and Theology
Catholics give to all the saints universal veneration that is expressed with the Greek word, dulia, or service. But to Mary, Catholics give a greater veneration than any of the saints expressed with the Greek word, hyperdulia, or superior service. This is in view of the gifts God has bestowed upon her, particularly her being the Mother of God and her unique role in the redemption of mankind. Jean Guitton writes:
There are two ways of regarding the Virgin’s relationship to our Redemption. We may consider what it was she received from her Son’s sacrifice, or what in her own way she actually contributed to it. In the first case she received a privilege. In the second she shares in Christ’s gift to mankind. (The Virgin Mary, 139)
No other human can lay claim to that which Mary possesses in her privileges. Smith writes, in his work Mary’s Part in Our Redemption:
Our blessed Lady is herself redeemed. Her preservation from original sin, her fulness of grace, and consequently all her merits, were bought with the same price—the Precious Blood—with which Christ purchased our reconciliation with God and opened up the sources of grace for humanity. . . (93)
But, since Mary was conceived without sin and was preserved from sin from the first moment of her conception, it means that Mary had no personal sin to atone for. Yes, it is clearly the teaching of the Church that Mary obtained this privilege from the Redeeming Act of Her Divine Son as was just said, but which He bestowed in view of the forth-coming Redemption. Saint Francis de Sales, in his chapter, Of Certain Special Favours Exercised by Divine Providence in the Redemption of Man (Treatise on the Love of God, book 2, chapter 6), writes:
And thus he first of all destined for his most holy Mother a favour worthy of the love of a Son who, being all wise, all mighty, and all good, wished to prepare a mother to his liking; and therefore he willed his redemption to be applied to her after the manner of a preserving remedy, that the sin which was spreading from generation to generation should not reach her. She then was so excellently redeemed, that though when the time came, the torrent of original iniquity rushed to pour its unhappy waves over her conception, with as much impetuosity as it had done on that of the other daughters of Adam; yet when it reached there it passed not beyond, but stopped, as did anciently the Jordan in the time of Josue, and for the same respect: for this river held its stream in reverence for the passage of the Ark of Alliance; and original sin drew back its waters, revering and dreading the presence of the true Tabernacle of the eternal alliance. In this way then God turned away all captivity from his glorious Mother, giving her the blessing of both the states of human nature; since she had the innocence which the first Adam had lost, and enjoyed in an excellent sort the redemption acquired for her. Whence as a garden of election which was to bring forth the fruit of life, she was made to flourish in all sorts of perfections; this son of eternal love having thus clothed his mother in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety (Ps. xliv.10), that she might be the queen of his right hand, that is to say, the first of all the elect to enjoy the delights of God’s right hand (Ps. xv. 11): so that this sacred mother as being altogether reserved for her son, was by him redeemed not only from damnation but also from all peril of damnation, he giving her grace and the perfection of grace, so that she went like a lovely dawn, which, beginning to break, increases continually in brightness till perfect daylight. Admirable redemption! master-piece of the redeemer! and first of all redemptions! by which the son with a truly filial heart preventing his mother with the blessings of sweetness, preserved her not only from sin as he did the angels, but also from all danger of sin and from everything that might divert or retard her in the exercise of holy love. And he protests that amongst all the reasonable creatures he has chosen, this mother is his one dove, his all perfect one, his all dear love, beyond all likeness and all comparison. (79-80)
Pure and undefiled, Mary was able to co-operate with her Divine Son in a manner no other human could co-operate.
Of her own, she had no sins to expiate; therefore all her sufferings were offered to God in union with the sufferings of her Son for the sins of the human race. In their measure, all the redeemed are able, in virtue of Christ’s expiatory sacrifice, to make this vicarious reparation for sin; but of no other member of the mystical body may we say that his sufferings avail, under Christ, to atone for all the sins of humanity. But of our Lady this is true; not merely by reason of her great charity, not merely because her sufferings were so acute, but because on behalf of the human race she freely consented to become the Mother of the Redeemer; because she was predestined by God to be His official associate in the work of saving the human race as Eve was the associate of Adam in ruining it. For this reason the expiatory value of her Compassion in its own order extends to as many sins as does the Passion of her Son, that is, to all the sins of the human race. It was to expiate these that God became man, and it was for the same purpose that Mary deliberately undertook to become His Mother. Every sorrow that pierced the pure heart of Mary, from the moment of the Annunciation until she acquiesced in His death on the cross, was due to human sin, and it was in order to expiate human sin that she willingly endured them all. For in all things her will was conformable to her Son’s. Hence the Holy Father [Pius XI] concludes his encyclical on Reparation (Miserentissimus Redemptor, A.A.S. [1928] 178) with the following prayer: ‘May the most gracious Virgin Mother of God look propitiously upon this our desire and purpose; she, who, because she gave us Jesus the Redeemer, because she nurtured Him and because at the foot of the cross she offered Him as a Victim, by reason of her mysterious union with Christ and her singular grace is rightly called Reparatrix.’ (Smith, 107-108)
In Church teaching on merit and grace, each must co-operate with God both in their salvation and in the salvation of others. Mary, alone, obtained salvation from the gratuitous act of Her divine Son. She entered this world just as the virgin Eve, with God’s sanctifying Grace. Yet, unlike Eve, she said her Fiat to the angel in her perfect obedience and submission to God. In this the Church sees the fulfillment of Genesis 3:15: I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel. This undoing of the sin of Eve, as articulated by Saint Justin:
. . and that He became man by the Virgin, in order that the disobedience which proceeded from the serpent might receive its destruction in the same manner in which it derived its origin. For Eve, who was a virgin and undefiled, having conceived the word of the serpent, brought forth disobedience and death. But the Virgin Mary received faith and joy, when the angel Gabriel announced the good tidings to her that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon her. . . . (Against Typhro, 100)
Therefore, she cooperates in her personal salvation by fully cooperating in the redemption of the rest of mankind. In Church teaching on expiation, every member of the Mystical Body of Christ in the state of grace is able to expiate sin, first for their own and then that of others. Smith writes:
. . . Mary redeemed herself in the same way in which all the members of the mystical body must co-operate in the work of their own redemption, by offering His sacrifice with Him and thus becoming a partaker of its fruits. On Mary’s soul the fruits of that sacrifice had been bestowed gratuitously and in great abundance when she was immaculately conceived. But the purpose of redemption is not merely to win us grace; it is to win us grace in order that by the use of that grace we may earn for ourselves the reward of glory. Hence it is by the gift of final perseverance, says Pope Benedict XV, ‘that the work of redemption in each individual man is effectively and definitively accomplished’ (Inter sodalicia)
By reason of her most perfect conformity with the sacrificial will of her Son, Mary shared far more fully than any other could ever share, but in the same way in which all members share, the meritorious and expiatory activity of the Head. Like her Son, and like all the members of His body, she suffered that she might enter into her glory. By her complete correspondence with every grace of God, by her perfect docility to the inspirations of the Holy Ghost, by her all-surpassing charity and holiness and by reason of her sovereign dignity as the Mother of God, she merited and earned for herself that pre-eminent reward in heaven which she now enjoys. Redeemed most perfectly by her Son, she has most perfectly co-redeemed herself.
And by that same activity by which she is the Coredemptrix of herself, Mary is the Co-redemptrix of the human race. (Ibid, 104)
Earlier, Canon Smith had written, regarding the spiritual treasury of the Church:
Thus there is accumulated in the Body of Christ an inexhaustible treasure of merit and satisfaction. Before the eyes of God, if we may so express it, is a limitless array of meritorious and expiatory works, of virtuous deeds pleasing in His sight, all uttering their claim upon Him for reward and appeasement. Dominating them all, giving value to them all, as it were the creator of them all, is the superabundant merit-atonement of Christ the Head; and this is the source of all merit and atonement, for it is the ultimate reason why grace has become accessible to humanity. Subordinate to His, like creature-merits telling forth the glory of the creator-merit, are the multitudinous good works of all the members of the Body; so many voices calling upon God. But above all these voices is one which gives them tone and reduces them to unison, one ‘which speaketh better than the blood of Abel’ (Heb. xii, 24) the voice of the Redeemer’s Precious Blood.
In this sense all the members of the body are co-redeemers with the Head, all are active causes under Him in the acquisition of grace and glory. ‘The merit of Christ,’ says St. Thomas (De ver., 29, 7, ad 8.), ‘operates sufficiently as the universal cause of our salvation, but this cause needs to be applied to individuals through the sacraments and through faith that works by charity. Hence something else is required for our salvation besides the merit of Christ; but of this also the merit of Christ is the cause.’ Made objectively conformable to Christ by a gratuitous outpouring of grace through the sacraments, the members then conform themselves actively with their Head by their merit and atonement. The Head is the principal and universal meritorious cause, who has made grace and salvation universally available and provided the means by which the members, under His constant and efficacious influence, may make redemption effective in themselves and in others. The members are thus subordinate applicative causes, making actual for individuals what the Head has made possible for all. (Smith, 34-35)
Even in speaking of Mary as mediatrix of all graces, that is, that she obtains from her Divine Son the graces the members of the Church need for salvation, again theologians turn to that role Mary had in the Redemption. Christ obtained all the graces by His Sacrifice on the Cross and Christ, as Son of God, is the one Mediator with the Father. There is no ability of replacing Jesus Christ, but there is a recognition of the role Mary played in the Redemption of mankind. In the words of Garrigou-Lagrange:
This noble spiritual doctrine [mediatrix of all graces], the fruits of which we see daily more clearly, is the normal consequence, on the level of contemplation and intimate union with God, of the doctrine admitted by all theologians: that Mary has merited de congruo all that Jesus has merited for men de condigno, and especially has she merited for the elect the effects of their predestination. (213)
This is in agreement with the statement of Pope Saint Pius X, who wrote in Ad diem illum:
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). (Par. 14)
Again, Garrigou-Lagrange explains:
When a meritorious work is in some way painful it has value as satisfaction as well. Thus theologians commonly teach, following upon what has been explained in the previous section, that Mary satisfied for all sins de congruo in everything in which Jesus satisfied de condigno. Mary offered God a satisfaction which it was becoming that He should accept: Jesus satisfied for us in strict justice.
As Mother of the Redeemer, Mary was closely united to Jesus by perfect conformity of will, by humility, by poverty, by suffering— and most particularly by her compassion on Calvary. That is what is meant when it is said that she offered satisfaction along with Him. Her satisfaction derives its value from her dignity as Mother of God, from her great charity, from the fact that there was no fault in herself which needed to be expiated, and from the intensity of her sufferings. (215)
Both Garrigou-Lagrange and Attwater quote E. Dublanchy:
Since the word “co-redemptress” signifies of itself simple co-operation in the work of the redemption, and since it has received in the theological usage of centuries the very precise meaning of secondary and dependent co-operation . . . there can be no serious objection to its use, on condition that it be accompanied by some expression indicating that Mary’s role in this cooperation is secondary and dependent (Dict. de Theol. Cath., art. Marie).
It is in this sense, that Mary in the role of the New Eve, that of being the Mother of the Saviour, that of interceding for the salvation of mankind, and that she is with the Redeemer in His act of sacrifice she obtains the graces of salvation and merits from her Son to be able to give those graces. As one writes, co-should be understood as the Latin word cum, with, and therefore she is with the Redeemer both in His act of obtaining redemption and bestowing the grace of redemption.
The efficacy of His [Christ] redemptive activity is such that the redeemed themselves are made to participate in it; and the more perfectly a creature is redeemed the more fully and the more perfectly does he share the salutary power and causality of the Redeemer. Hence St. Peter exhorts us: ‘As every man hath received grace, ministering the same to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.’ (1 Peter iv, 10.; cf. ST I, 106, 4. And just as the noblest and most powerful of God’s creatures cannot emulate the omnipotence of the Creator who made them all, so the greatest of all co-redeemers must be immeasurably below the Redeemer to whom all the redeemed owe their redemption.
Accordingly, so long as it is borne in mind that the title of Redeemer belongs in an exclusive sense to the Word Incarnate, and is applied to others only by analogy, there is no reason why the name Co-redemptrix should not be given to our Lady. Those who accord her this title are fully aware that Christ is the one Mediator who by His death paid the all-sufficient price of our redemption; ‘because in him it hath well pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell, and through him to reconcile all things unto himself, making peace through the blood of his cross’ (Col. i, 19-20.); they know that ‘he is our peace who hath made both one, breaking down the middle wall of partition, the enmities in his flesh.’ (Eph. ii, 14) It was by the act of Christ alone that the human race, hitherto the enemy of God, became reconciled to Him; by His act alone that humanity became worthy of grace and glory. His was the primordial operation by which the human race is re-created in the supernatural order, by which men receive the power through Him and in Him to become the sons of God and to earn for themselves their promised inheritance. This is what we mean when we say that Christ is our Redeemer. When we say that Mary is our Co-redemptrix we mean that she has done something for the human race sufficiently similar to what Christ has done to be called by the same name, but yet something so different that the function of Christ Himself remains unique. (Smith, 86-87)
One may conclude, without hesitation, that Mary may be called Co-redemptrix as this title is understood by the Church: Mary is the New Eve through whom the New Adam, Christ, is induced to Redeem mankind; and without whom, according to the divine Will, redemption would not have been accomplished. Other titles, such as Co-operatrix and Reparatrix have been used, but they do not convey the same significance that envelopes the Church’s teaching regarding the mystery of Redemption. Though a misconception may be claimed to arise with the prefix, Co-, the Church has not presented a better word and has accepted to determine it to mean her role in the act of Redemption with Her divine Son. The Church cannot stifle the application of this role inferred by the title without rejecting her teaching regarding Redemption.
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Dr. Pius Parsch
The Church’s Year of Grace (1953)
NEW ORIENTATION
An analysis of the liturgy during these seven weeks after Easter furnishes grounds for dividing the season into two sections. The first continues themes proper to the feast of Easter itself (viz., resurrection, baptism, Eucharist) and extends to the second Sunday after Easter. Thereupon follows the second section, oriented toward the coming mysteries. During the latter Mother Church prepares us for two more events that are closely connected with our salvation: the ascension of Jesus, and the descent of the Holy Spirit.
These two mysteries will be singled out for emphasis on the coming Sundays. Christ is proceeding to found His kingdom on earth, a spiritual kingdom. Therefore it becomes necessary for Him to leave this earth and make heaven His home. His followers must not attach themselves to His physical person; they must spiritualize their affections. That is why Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, to take His place and to guide and comfort His followers. To spiritualize human activity is therefore the Church’s chief concern during these weeks after Easter. with the climax coming on Pentecost.
Nevertheless, this does not prevent the liturgy from stressing realistic approaches to the problems of life. In so doing the Church seeks to detach us from the perceptible joys of Easter and introduce us into the real world of strife and daily conflict. Together with the newly baptized, we beheld our Redeemer in His great mysteries at Easter. But before eight days had passed the Church took the white robes from the neophytes and sent them back into the world. They had become of age spiritually, ready to meet the problems of life. On each succeeding Sunday the liturgy confronted us squarely with the practical affairs of daily living.
Saturday evening is already a part of Sunday. That is why we generally sing an antiphon from Sunday’s Gospel at the Magnificat. Today, for instance: “A little while and you shall not see Me, says the Lord; and again a little while and you shall see Me, because I go to the Father, alleluia, alleluia.”
THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER
Yet a little while
Three weeks have passed since the glorious feast of Easter. During this time holy Mother Church centered her affection and attention on the resurrection of the Savior. Each day during the first week we met Christ in one of those beautiful apparitions described in the Gospels. On Low Sunday, together with Thomas, we saw Him and touched His glorified wounds. Last Sunday we flocked round our Good Shepherd who at Easter called us back into His fold and now leads us into the verdant pastures of His holy mysteries. Up to this moment, therefore, the Church centered the attention of eye, ear, and mind on the risen Redeemer.
Beginning this Sunday she divides her attention, directing her gaze likewise to the mystery of Redemption in its final phase – with reference to Christ and to ourselves. Today, therefore, for the first time is there mention of Christ’s ascension into heaven. Note how clearly it is put in the Gospel, “A little while and you shall not see Me. . . because I go to the Father.” These words, however, do not imply that the Church will be sad and mournful because her Spouse is leaving. No, the joy of Easter does not diminish, rather it increases. Look at the very first words of the Mass: “Shout joyously to God, all the earth, alleluia; sing the glory of His Name, alleluia; render Him glorious praise, alleluia, alleluia.”
These sentiments would not arise from a heavy heart, such as the apostles have in today’s Gospel. The Church is happy beholding her Savior ascending to heaven, because her own home is not on earth; heaven is her true home and she yearns to follow her Spouse as soon as possible. The Head leads, the members and the body follow. This brings us to the second point, what the future holds in store for us. When we were celebrating Easter, we felt as though we were in heaven. With Peter we could have exclaimed: “Lord, it is good for us to be here. Let us set up our tents here.” It seemed as if we had forgotten our earthly existence. But now in clear and forceful words the Church reminds us and the newly baptized that a Christian’s life is hard and difficult, a life filled with sufferings, struggle, and trial. We are still on pilgrimage to a heavenly home.
- Holy Mass (Jubilate).“Cross on earth, crown in heaven!” This proverb expresses well the spirit of today’s well coordinated Mass formulary. Joy, therefore, and the praise of God is the predominating mood, as indicated immediately by the Introit. Alleluia is its key word, not an extraneous appendage; this is easily seen if the wording is rearranged as follows:
“All nations, shout joyously to God: Alleluia
Sing this song to His Name: Alleluia.
Honor Him with words of praise: Alleluia, alleluia.”
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