The Voice of Thy Salutation
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And when the ark of the Lord was come into the city of David,
Michol the daughter of Saul, looking out through a window,
saw king David leaping and dancing before the Lord.
2 Samuel 6, 16
And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come
to me? For behold as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in
my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Luke 1, 43-44
Grace originates from God the Father
and is produced for us by the merits of God the Son through his passion, death,
and resurrection. The distribution of divine grace is appropriated to God the
Holy Spirit. By her divine motherhood and mystical union with the Holy Spirit
as His chaste spouse, the Blessed Virgin Mary has acquired a universal maternal
role in the dispensation of all actual graces in collaboration with the third
Person of the Holy Trinity. Since it was through Mary’s salutary co-operation
with divine grace in faith and love that the living Font of all grace came into
the world by the power of the Holy Spirit, her Son willed to continue coming to
us through his most Blessed Mother’s mediation (Jn 2:2-8), and he continues to
reach out to us through her until the end of this age (Jn 19:26-27). Vatican 2
Council explains:
This maternity of Mary
in the order of grace began with the consent which she gave in faith at the
Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross and
lasts until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did
not lay aside this salvific duty, but by her constant intercession continued to
bring us the gifts of eternal salvation. By her maternal charity, she cares for
the brethren of her Son, who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and
cultics, until they are led into the happiness of their true home. Therefore,
the Blessed Virgin is invoked by the Church under the titles of Advocate,
Auxiliatrix, Adjutrix, and Mediatrix. This, however, is to be so understood
that it neither takes away from nor adds anything to the dignity and
efficaciousness of Christ the one Mediator. - Lumen Gentium, 62
Before we see how the Virgin Mary is
designated Mediatrix of Grace, it’s a good idea to clear up any
misunderstanding that might arise with respect to Christ’s majestic stateliness
of being the “one mediator between God and man.” Protestants who object to this
Catholic Marian doctrine do so because they think it “takes away from or adds
to the dignity and efficacy of Christ the one Mediator.” To support their
objection, they normally quote in isolation 1 Timothy 2:5: “For there is one
God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.”
However, St. Paul doesn’t mean to say
that Jesus is our “one and only” mediator in the entire economy of salvation.
If this were his intention, he would have chosen the Greek word monos instead
of heis. By using heis, the apostle means there is “one and the same mediator
between God and mankind.” Jesus is exclusively the one mediator for both the
Jews and the Gentiles in “uniqueness,” but in “a sameness of function”
(commonality or universality) which the word heis denotes. This is obviously
what Paul means, considering what he writes in the four preceding verses: "I
urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession, and
thanksgiving be made for all people… This is good and pleases God our Savior, who
wants everyone to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim
2:1-4). By no means are baptized Christians totally passive in the divine work
of salvation.
If then, we were to ask Paul, the
father of the theology of human mediation, how it is that the Blessed Virgin
Mary is a mediator (mediatrix), he would reply by saying that she intercedes
for us in the name of her divine Son by making petitions and prayerful
intercessions in Heaven. And he would surely underscore the fact that she isn’t
our Mediatrix of Grace by having given herself as “a ransom for all people”
through the outpouring of her blood (1 Tim 2:6). For the apostle, Mary would be
a factual mediator, not unlike himself and Abraham, who intercedes for us by
participating in the principal mediation of her divine Son in and through his
merits, as all baptized Christians can do as adopted sons and daughters of God;
only the mother of our Lord holds a pre-eminent place in the order of grace
because of her moral participation in the hypostatic order of Christ’s
incarnation and his work of redemption.
Hence, Vatican 2 has made it clear that Christ is the one mediator as such by divine nature. He alone has merited the initial grace of justification and forgiveness by being both God and man in his work of redemption (Eph 2:8-9). And he alone has produced all the actual graces (faith, hope, charity, etc.) we can now receive and minister by his passion and death. What he alone has merited for us is the ability to merit an increase of grace and charity for ourselves and others for our growth in sanctification and justification. God hears the prayers of the righteous (Jas 5:17). Christ alone has made this possible for us by his unique mediation, in and through which we become adopted children of God who partake of his divine nature and are a kingdom of priests to serve our God (1 Pet 2:5; 2 Pet 1:4). Indeed, God has prepared us to do good works in His grace in view of the merits of Christ, and these good works include corporal and spiritual works of mercy, such as offering our prayers for others and making personal sacrifices for the salvation of souls (Eph 2:10).
Moreover, there is only one mediator,
which is Christ, whose sacrificial work is necessary if mankind is to be
redeemed and reconciled to God. Without Christ, there can be no salvation in
the Divine plan. Although God has willed that the Blessed Virgin Mary should
participate in His plan of salvation, her involvement and contribution aren’t
necessary; since she cannot merit grace for anyone, including herself, in
strict justice, but only by right of friendship, if this is what God wills.
What Mary can merit by her prayerful mediation is sufficient insofar as how God
has ordered her moral participation in and through her Son’s merits, without which
the reward of eternal life couldn’t be produced at all, not by the Virgin Mary
or any saint.
Christ’s mediation is more than
sufficient and necessary for the forgiveness of sins and our initial
justification. Still, God has obligated himself to honor the Blessed Virgin
Mary’s merits in His love and mercy. But what she can merit is only an increase
in sanctification and charity needed for the attainment of salvation, a gift
and a reward that Christ alone has produced for mankind. Our Lord and Savior
doesn’t depend on anyone in what he alone has merited for mankind
(justification and forgiveness), though he desires that all the members of his
mystical body participate with him in his mediation or dispensation of grace,
now that he alone has merited grace for them. To be sure, we read in 1 Pet
4:10: “As every man hath received grace, ministering the same one to another:
as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”
The Protestant doctrine of sola
Christo (Christ alone) is originally a Catholic doctrine, but in
Protestantism, it has been grossly exaggerated. What follows is that all
baptized Christians are merely passive spectators in God’s plan of salvation
and dispensation of grace. There’s really nothing at all we can do to be saved
or reckoned as just. However, the Blessed Virgin Mary was no coerced on-looker,
when she declared: “Let it be done to me, according to thy word” (Lk 1:38). By
her Fiat or free consent, she brought the living Font of all grace into the
world so that “all might be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1
Tim 2:4). God honored her free will pending the Incarnation.
Meanwhile, the universal Magisterium
of the Catholic Church reminds us that Mary is only a human creature. If God
has chosen her to be our Mediatrix, it is strictly because she freely consented
to be the mother of our Lord and Saviour and intimately associate herself with
him in his redemptive work. But what she has and can merit for us is in
co-operation with her Son and participation in his merits, not in coordination
with them. Thus, we must always remember that Mary’s association with her Son
in his saving work receives its raison d’être in the free decision of the
Father. Mary (nor any saint) must not be counted together with her divine Son
in his unique mediation, which alone is necessary for our redemption, and
without which her factual mediation for an increase in sanctification or
justification would be non-existent. Mary’s whole ability to do anything in
God’s plan comes entirely from her Son, the principle of all human merit in his
sacred humanity, and the divine source of all saving grace.
Finally, we should note that the term
Mediatrix of Grace refers to all actual or signal graces that are needed for
effecting our increase in sanctification and the attainment of eternal life
with God (2 Cor 2:15; 4:16; Col 3:10, etc.). These include the actual graces of
faith, hope, charity, repentance, chastity, and final perseverance, without
which we cannot reap the fruits of Christ’s saving work. On an individual
basis, the baptized are in the process of “being saved” and “renewed” daily.
The justification of the person isn’t a one-time and completed event. So,
Catholics petition Mary for these helping graces when, for example, they recite
the Rosary. These signal graces, of course, do not include the initial grace of
justification and forgiveness for our sanctification which has been merited and
produced by Christ alone by his death and resurrection.
There is Mary: Mediatrix and
Dispensatrix of grace. These titles signify that, by God’s special ordinance,
all the graces merited by Christ for our salvation are conferred and
distributed foremost through the factual mediation of his mother. These are the
actual graces that Christ pours out to us through the Holy Spirit for an increase
in our sanctification or justification by Mary’s moral influence with her
divine Son. Mary’s association with her divine Son is moral in nature. Our
Blessed Lady co-operates with him by her maternal prayerful intercession in
applying saving grace to all people in spiritual need according to God’s will.
Mary co-operated in the same way when she, in charity and the state of grace,
freely consented to be the mother of our Lord for the redemption of mankind in
the shadow of the Cross on Calvary (Lk 2:34-35).
Sacramental grace is communicated by the valid and fruitful reception of any of the seven sacraments. A distinctive sacramental grace is imparted by each of the sacraments in accordance with their respective purpose in the supernatural life of the soul. The actual graces given upon the reception of the sacraments efficaciously sanctify the soul making it just. The faithful, however, do not receive graces that are physically channeled through supernaturally transformed properties naturally intrinsic to Mary, as they are conferred, for instance, by the application of the sacramental water of baptism or the oil of chrismation. On the contrary, the graces that they receive through her mediation are a share of those graces which she herself has received from the Holy Spirit without making any physical contact with her.
The Virgin Mary’s cooperation in
objective redemption points to what Catholic theologians call “subjective
redemption.” Unless we freely co-operate with the graces God mercifully wills
to give us for our sanctification, we have no hope of being saved, for
sanctification is supernatural life with God. The Holy Spirit operates through
Mary, our intermediary, and chief steward of grace, just as He operates through
the Seven Sacraments in the conferral of actual graces and sanctifying grace.
Unlike Mary, however, the sacraments are physical instruments that communicate
grace as opposed to a moral influence for its conferral.
Sanctifying grace is the supernatural
state of being by the efficacious infusion of God’s grace which permeates the
soul. Sanctifying grace is a quality of the soul created by the activity of the
Holy Spirit through His efficacious actual graces. If then, one should happen
to receive an actual grace by touching the hem of Mary’s mantle, that grace
would be contained in this sacramental garment as a supernatural healing
property of it and not in Mary herself, though she would undoubtedly be endowed
with that same grace which effects the supernatural quality of her soul through
the working of the Holy Spirit. In the same way, many people were cured of
their illnesses and liberated from demonic oppression or possession simply by
touching the handkerchiefs that were used by Paul to wipe sweat from his body
and the aprons he wore (Acts 19:12).
When we place our faith in the
powerful intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the other hand, we are
essentially placing our faith in her divine Son who has granted his mother the
maternal prerogative of morally channeling the dispensation of his grace, so
that we may continue to abide in his love by faithfully observing all his
commandments (Jn 15:9-10). Christ’s redemptive work in our souls continues from
the time we are baptized and through our pilgrimage of faith, as we grow in
spiritual perfection to attain our salvation by bearing fruit and persevering
in grace to the end (Col 1:11-12; 3:9-10). The grace of final perseverance is
one of the many actual graces we can receive through the intercessory prayers
of our loving Blessed Mother by her supernatural merits if only we humbly
implore her intercession as her Son desires (Prov 15:29).
“Under your mercy we take refuge, O Mother of God.
Do not reject our supplications in necessity,
but deliver us from danger.”
– Sub Tuum Praesidium (c. A.D. 250)
And the ark of the Lord abode in the house of Obededom
the Gethite three months: and the Lord blessed Obededom,
and all his household.
2 Samuel 6, 11
And Mary abode with her about three months;
and she returned to her own house.
Luke 1, 56
John’s coming into the world to
prepare mankind for the coming of the Messiah was foretold by a prophet who
spoke of him as “A voice of one calling in the desert prepare the way for the
Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God” (Isa 40:3). And
another: “I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then
suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the
covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty” (Mal 3:1). If
John had been sanctified and justified by being made holy in his mother’s womb,
making him more than a prophet, it would have happened in anticipation of his
ministry to administer or mediate the grace of justification and forgiveness
through the sacrament. John baptized his followers in the Jordan River, which
signifies the drowning of their old life in the flesh and their emergence out
of the water of purification into a new life in the spirit through the foreseen
merits of Christ.
The sanctifying grace that the infant
John received in his mother’s womb originated from the Divine infant in Mary’s
holy womb. But it was by the mediation of the mother that he was cleansed of
original sin. The powerful influence that the mother of our Lord wielded
resided in the voice of her salutation. It was through Mary’s mediation that
the infant John entered communion with Jesus. In Heaven, the sweet sound of
Mary’s prayers for her children never escapes the attention of her divine Son.
With that same dynamic influence, only a mother can possess over her son, the
Blessed Mother petitions on behalf of all her children. David leaped and danced
with joy in the presence of the Ark of the Old Covenant, as John the Baptist
had in his mother’s womb in the presence of the Ark of the New Covenant which,
in the personification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, mediated God’s physical
presence and grace on earth.
We meet our Lord Jesus Christ in his blessed mother Mary, as the ancient Hebrews met God when YHWH physically manifested Himself in the glory cloud (Shekinah) which descended on (“overshadowed”) the sanctuary and enveloped the Ark to be with them. Mary was overshadowed in a similar way by the Holy Spirit so that she would conceive the Son of God and he would physically dwell among his people (Ex 25:8; 40:34-35; Lk 1:35; Jn 1:14).
Gary G. Michuta (Making Sense of Mary: Grotto Press) cites Zechariah 2:10 to connect the verse with John 1:14. In the prophecy, God says, “I am coming to dwell among you.” The author informs us that the Greek word for “dwell” is kataskenoso, whose root word for “tent” or “tabernacle” is skene, viz., the portable tent or tabernacle that housed the Ark of the Covenant before Solomon built the Temple. In the Gospel of John (1:14), the Greek word for “dwelt” is eskenosen, which is derived from the same root word skene. So, the evangelist is literally saying, “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” This occurred when Mary was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and conceived our Lord. God’s incarnated presence filled the temple of her body and the sanctuary of her womb in which He personally dwelled and filled with His glory as He had the Ark of the Covenant. Since Jesus comes to us through his blessed mother Mary, we can come to him only through her. As the living Ark of the New Covenant, our Blessed Mother mediates the graces we need to tear down the walls or barriers in our souls that separate and keep us from God and the life of grace.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Through Mary’s mediation, Jesus came to
re-create the world and depose the Prince of darkness. The walls of Satan’s
dominion in the world came crashing down through the mediation of our Lord’s
mother by whom our Lord physically manifested Himself and made His presence
felt. The Virgin Mary carried in her pure womb the One who claimed, “The water
that I will give him, shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up
into life everlasting” (Jn 4:14). Jesus was alluding to the supernatural life
we receive through Baptism, the sanctifying grace, and charity that raises us
from spiritual death unto eternal life. This supernatural life of grace merited
for us by the Son was made possible through the merciful and charitable
mediation of our Blessed Mother, who brought the living Font of all saving
grace into the world by the sacred tabernacle of her womb. The sound of Mary’s
Fiat ascended to God’s heavenly throne sweeter than the fragrance of a burnt
sacrificial offering: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done to me
according to thy word” (Lk 1:38).
God instructed Moses to construct the
Ark for mediating the divine theophany and God’s providential grace for His
people, the two primary credibilia: God who is and God who saves. To inaugurate
His New and everlasting covenant a millennium later, God sent the angel Gabriel
to a virgin who was espoused to a man named Joseph, and the virgin’s name was
Mary (Lk 1:27). It was she who was blessed above all women by being drawn into
the mystery of the hypostatic order of Christ’s incarnation and his redemptive
work (Lk 1:42). God willed Mary’s mediation, that we must go to the Son through
His mother. All should be accomplished by her intercession from the time she
joyously gave her salutary consent to be the mother of the Lord to the time she
sorrowfully stood beneath the Cross on Calvary to make temporal satisfaction to
God for the sins of humanity – and beyond this climactic event in salvation
history until the end of this age, during which period (the new exodus
anticipated by the Jews) she hasn’t laid her saving office aside as our Queen
Mother (Gebirah) and Advocatrix.
Indeed, God decreed by His consequent
will that “all good should come to us through the hands of Mary”. God gave us
this Mediatrix by “His most merciful Providence” (Pope Leo Xlll, Encyclical, Jucunda
sempre). Our Lord and Saviour constituted her “Mother of Mercy, Queen, and
a most loving advocate, Mediatrix of His graces, Dispenser of His treasures”
(Pope Pius Xll, Radio Message to Fatima). ‘When Bathsheba went to King Solomon
to speak to him for Adonijah, the king stood up to meet her, bowed down to her,
and sat down on his throne. He had a throne brought for the king’s mother, and
she sat down at his right hand. “I have one small request to make of you,” she
said. “Do not refuse me.” The king replied, “Make it, my mother; I will not
refuse you”’ (1 Kgs 2:19-20).
Mary received her office of Queen
Mother and Advocatrix from God. By being the royal mother of the King, she is
intricately linked to Christ’s saving mysteries and the restoration of the
Davidic kingdom as foretold by the prophets (Lk 1:31-33). As our maternal
advocate, Mary offers our petitions to her Son for the graces we need to
inherit the kingdom. By this title, we are not so much her subjects as we are
her children, her being the mother of our Head and Body of which we are the
members. Through her life, the Blessed Virgin Mary personally relates to us as
a genuine mother should. Mary is not just a metaphor. “She teaches us all the
virtues; she gives us her Son, and with Him, all the help that we need, for God
has willed that we should have everything through Mary” ( Pope Pius Xll,
Encyclical, Mediator Dei).
God said to the serpent: “I will put
enmities between thee and the woman, and between her seed and thy seed; she
will crush your head, as you lie in wait for her heel” (Gen 3:15). In the wake
of the fall, of Adam and Eve, God foretold that He would designate Mary to be
the universal Mediatrix to help repair and undo the fall of mankind in union
with her Son. This was right after He chastised the serpent for having caused
the fall by deceiving the virgin Eve in her innocence. The Virgin Mary was
chosen “before all ages, prepared for Himself by the Most High” to be the
“Reparatrix of the first parents, the giver of life to posterity” (Pope Pius
lX, Apostolic Constitution, Ineffabilis Deus). At the beginning of
creation, at the time of the fall which God foresaw, but permitted for the sake
of a greater good, “Mary was set up as the pledge of restoration of peace (with
God) and salvation” (Pope Leo Xlll, Encyclical, Augustissimae).
Mary is the Immaculate Mother of the
Church who is at total enmity with the serpent by being without sin and
standing ever-just before God as our pre-eminent patroness. In a universal
capacity, our Blessed Mother serves to help repair the fall of mankind by
giving her children a filial spirit through the graces they receive through her
maternal intercession. Mother Mary desires nothing more than we cease to offend
God and be reconciled to Him. She is there to teach us the docility she had as
a servant of God. Mary calls us to supplicate her for the graces we need to
humble ourselves before God and abide in His love. She truly is our heavenly
mother, for through her maternal patronage we receive the divine life if, in a
childlike spirit, we truly wish to turn towards God through her and be one with
her divine offspring as from her regenerating womb at enmity with the serpent
and its offspring: wicked and sinful humanity.
The late Catholic Theologian, Father
Garrigou-Lagrange (Mother of the Savior: Tan) tells us that true
devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary is a sign of being predestined to glory.
So, now that we Christians have been predestined to grace, being adopted sons
and daughters of God by partaking of the divine life, we have a far greater
chance of attaining our salvation and realizing our hope if we take recourse to
the Immaculate Heart of our Blessed Mother for the actual graces we need to
persevere in faith. This is because her divine Son has ordered it this way. In
Heaven, Mary prays for all God’s created children, but she is more attentive to
the spiritual needs of those who are regenerated in Christ and humbly implore
her intercession. It is for his mother’s sake more than ours that Jesus confers
his graces on us from conversion through repentance to final perseverance (the
principle of predilection).
The prophet Elijah prayed fervently so
that it might not rain, and so, it did not rain for three years and six months.
Then when he prayed that God provides rain for the fruit harvest, his prayer
was answered. This was because God heard the prayers of the righteous who
aligned their will with His. If God could work great wonders such as these in
response to the prayers of a prophet, what greater wonders must He perform in
response to the prayers of His own mother? All Christians are exhorted to pray
for the conversion of sinners so that they might be healed and saved by the
grace of God (Jas 5:13-19).
In the order of grace, the Blessed
Virgin Mary leads the way. By joining our prayers to God with hers and asking
her to put in a good word for us, we can be confident that our Lord will shower
down an abundance of grace on us from Heaven. This is because our Blessed
Mother is holy with absolute perfection, as we continue to strive towards that
heavenly perfection she has been graced with in our pilgrimage of faith on
earth. Mary has attained her salvation in a singular way: the redemption and
glorification of her body in anticipation of ours, and she has received her
eternal reward for her labor in Christ’s vineyard, while there is no guarantee
that we will attain ours.
Thus, it’s imperative that we implore
our Blessed Mother for her moral assistance since she has an immeasurably far
greater influence on her Son than we can ever hope to have in our fallen human
state. Christ himself has designated his blessed mother, Mary, to be Our Lady
of Perpetual Help. And so, by this title, the pilgrim Church implores her
powerful maternal intercession in Heaven.
The Blessed Virgin Mary is Mediatrix
in the dispensation of grace – our Dispensatrix. She undertook the discharge of
her maternal duties when the Church was born at Pentecost. She nurtured the
infant Church in Jerusalem “by her holy example, her authoritative counsel, her
sweet consolation, and her fruitful prayers”. She was in truth “the Mother of
the Church and the Queen of Apostles” (Pope Leo Xlll, Encyclical, Ubri
primum). Jesus entrusted the Church to his mother Mary’s tender care and
the whole human race in the disciple John from the Cross (Jn 19:26-27). Mary
received the redefinition of her motherhood while uniting her sorrow with the
suffering of her beloved Son. She prayed more fervently for sinful humanity
while she was smitten with great sorrow and a sword pierced her heart, all
because of the perfect love she had for her Son who was unjustly “wounded for
our transgressions.” Thus, God accepted her prayers as they were joined with
her Son’s self-sacrifice for the expiation of our sins. Only by suffering for
the sins of the world and dying to self together with Him could Mary become the
mother of us all and reign with her Son the King of Kings as our Queen Mother
(2 Tim 2:11).
The sword that pierced our Great
Lady’s heart or soul undid the vain and selfish pleasures Eve sought for
herself while she presumed she could be like God apart from Him and before Him.
By her sorrow, Mary repaired what Eve had wrought to God’s satisfaction. Jesus
would not undo what Adam had wrought in his pride unless his mother stood at
the foot of the Cross and united her interior suffering with his suffering in
accordance with the Father’s will. “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 that our Saviour purchased for
us by His death and by His blood…By this union of sorrow and suffering which
existed between the Mother and the Son, it has been allowed through the august
Virgin to be the most powerful Mediatrix and advocate of the whole world with
her divine Son” (Pope Pius X, Encyclical, Ad Diem illum).
Hence, the Blessed Virgin Mary is the
“help of Christians” and the “refuge of mankind”. She is “triumphant in all
battles” with the serpent as she makes war against it with her children in
their spiritual warfare. In view of this cosmic battle between light and
darkness, in which we are involved as descendants of Adam and Eve, we should
humbly prostrate ourselves before the heavenly throne of our Queen Mother as
her loyal suppliants, “confident that we shall obtain mercy and grace, the needed
assistance and protection, during the calamities of these days…through the
goodness of [her] motherly heart” (Pope Pius Xll, Radio Message).
The Blessed Virgin Mary is intimately
associated with our Lord Jesus forever with infinite power and majesty, in virtue
of her royal dignity as a daughter of King David and the mother of Christ the
King in the New Dispensation of all the saving graces which flow from the
redemption gained for us by her royal Son. This is all made possible because
“she gave us Jesus, Himself the source of grace”. Mary has been the mediatrix
and dispensatrix of all graces since the Annunciation. Predestined to be the
mother of our Lord, “she has been appointed the mediatrix of all the graces
which look towards sanctification” in and through the merits of her divine Son
(Pope Pius Xll, Apostolic Constitution, Sedes sepientiae).
All baptized Christians in communion
with the Vicar of Christ, whether alive or dead, are members of the mystical
Body of Christ, which comprises both the heavenly and the pilgrim church on
earth. We read in sacred Scripture that all members of Christ’s body are bound
together by mutual love (Jn 13:34-35; Rom 12:10, 13:8; Gal 5:13; Eph 4:2, 16:1,
etc.). The Head has composed his body so that all its members “may have the
same care for one another” (1 Cor 12:25-27). Death doesn’t drive a wedge
between the love that unites all the saints with each other in Christ’s
mystical Body (Rom 8:38-39). Christians remain “in him” as living members of
his body even after death (Eph 2:5-7). Thus, the saints who have passed from
this world stay united with the saints who are still living on earth.
By being connected members of Christ’s
Mystical Body, the saints in Heaven can express their love and concern for the
pilgrim saints on earth as best they can, that is through prayer, which
presupposes an awareness of the needs of these other beings and a communicative
link with them. Meanwhile, they don’t rely on the physical sense of hearing or
any form of natural mental awareness, existing in God’s eternal presence beside
real-time. The saints in Heaven have a direct vision of Christ and the Beatific
Vision of God, which enables them to intuit what the Lord knows, and in this
capacity, be like him in his glorified state and shared humanity (1 Jn 3:2).
The saints in Heaven can intuit all that God knows about the saints or other
beings on earth who are of concern, except what God knows about Himself. God
reveals His knowledge to them so that they can express their love for others on
earth the best way they can. The saints in Heaven must know what concerns the
spiritual welfare of the saints on earth if they are to show concern for them.
After all, we are all members of one mystical Body in Christ the Head and
comprise the family of God as His adopted children.
We read in the Apocalypse that the
prayers of the saints (in heaven and on earth) are presented to God by the
angels and human saints in heaven. This reveals that all the saints intercede
on our behalf before God, and it also shows that our prayers on earth are
united with their prayers in heaven (Revelation 5:8). Further, the martyred saints
in Heaven are shown to be crying out to God to avenge their blood “on those who
dwell on the earth” (Rev 6:9-11; cf. Ps 35:1; 59:1-17; 139:19; Jer 11:20;
15:15; 18:19; Zech 1:12-13). This vision indicates that the saints in Heaven
are aware of what is happening to the pilgrim Church on earth in the wake of
persecution. The saints are praying for their loved ones and all the other
pilgrim members of the Body. What affects one member affects the other. These
prayers for God’s judgment on the persecutors resemble the imprecatory prayers
of the Jews in the Old Testament. In the same vein, God hears and answers the
intercessory prayers of the saints in Heaven for those brothers and sisters in
Christ who are being treated unjustly on earth, especially because of their
profession of faith (Rev 8:1-5).
In the order of grace, then, the
Blessed Virgin Mary’s intercession is maternally based on her care for Christ,
who alone is both the Head and the Body. Since we who belong to her Son are
members of his body, we too are sons and daughters of hers (Rev 12:5, 17). In
Heaven, our Blessed Mother has assumed the royal office of Queen Mother, whose
throne is situated in the heavenly court on the right of the throne of our Lord
and King in the royal line of David (Lk 1:31-33). Being our Queen Mother or
“Great Lady” (Gebirah), the Blessed Virgin Mary serves as our Mediatrix and
Advocatrix. She prayerfully intercedes for us by presenting our petitions to
her Son. Not unlike the other saints in Heaven, our Blessed Mother cares for
us, but with a maternal love that immeasurably surpasses the love which all the
other saints combined have in their concern for our spiritual well-being. Thus,
she constantly prays for us with the most perfect and solicitous maternal love,
being aware of our individual spiritual needs.
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Hence, the pilgrim saints on earth
have a far greater chance of growing and persevering in grace and attaining
their salvation if they petition their Queen Mother daily in true filial
devotion. Our Lord and King knows all our needs even before we present our
petitions, either directly to him (but not without the other member’s awareness
in his Body) or indirectly, by asking his Blessed Queen Mother and our Mother,
the pre-eminent member of Christ’s Body, to put in a good word for us while we
pray. This is because our Lord Jesus desires that we, stewards of grace, pray
for one another in mutual, filial love as members of God’s family.
Of all such stewards who Peter and
Paul speak of, the Blessed Virgin Mary is immeasurably the most influential
member in God’s heavenly kingdom because of the supreme office she holds in her
Son’s royal court. Her Son the King will not refuse her. By seeking God’s grace
through Mary, the pilgrim saints on earth will surely receive it. By petitioning
the King through his Blessed Queen Mother, they will surely receive her loving
maternal patronage which pleases God, who for her sake more than anyone else’s,
who lacks her spiritual perfection, shall dispense His grace wherever it is
wanting in a human soul.
May he send you help from the sanctuary,
and give you support from Zion.
Psalm 20, 2
Early Sacred Tradition
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the Pure One opening purely
that pure womb, which generates men unto God.”
– St. Irenaeus (A.D. 180-189)
name of the Church. Christ’s body she nurtures by the power (grace) of the Word; the
people reborn, for whom the Lord on the Cross hung in agony, lovingly cradling as
children, and wrapping them deep in the blood (justice) of the Godhead.”
– St. Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 202)
compassion and mercy, for, after God, we have no hope but in you!”
– St. Ephraem of Syria (c. A.D. 361)
but in reality, it is from Mary that Life was truly born to the world, so that by giving
birth to the Living One, Mary might also become the Mother of all the living.”
– St. Epiphanius (c. A.D. 374)
– St, Basil the Great (A.D. 379)
it was through a virgin that flesh was linked to God…
Eve is called mother of the human race, but Mary Mother of salvation."
– St. Ambrose of Milan (A.D. 397)
Our Lady of
Perpetual Help
Pray for us.
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Salve Regina!