And Thy Own Soul a Sword shall Pierce
Now,
why art thou drawn together with grief?
Hast thou no king in thee,
or is thy counsellor perished,
because sorrow hath taken thee
as a woman in labour.
Micah 4, 9
And Simeon blessed them,
and said to Mary his mother:
Behold this child is set for the fall,
and for the resurrection of many in Israel,
and for a sign which shall be contradicted:
And thy own soul a sword shall pierce,
that, out of many hearts,
thoughts may be revealed.
Luke 2, 34-35
Jesus says, “Come to me,
all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find
rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light” (Mt 11:28-30).
Our Lord is citing the Book of Sirach 51, 23-30: ‘Come to me, all you that need
instruction, and learn in my school. Why do you admit that you are ignorant and
do nothing about it? Here is what I say: It costs nothing to be wise. Put on
the yoke and be willing to learn. The opportunity is always near. See for
yourselves! I have not studied very hard, but I have found great contentment.
No matter how much it costs you to get Wisdom, it will be well worth it. Be
joyfully grateful for the Lord’s mercy, and never be ashamed to praise him. Do
your duty at the proper time, and the Lord, at the time he thinks proper, will
give you your reward.’ Jesus also says, “If any man will come after me, let him
deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Mt 26:24).
By citing Sirach, Jesus is identifying himself with the eternal wisdom: The Divine Logos of God. Our souls can find rest only by learning how to be like Jesus was in his humanity: humbly and meekly obedient to the will of God and perfected in obedience by willingly suffering for the sins that offend our heavenly Father. Jesus produced our eternal reward for us, but if we hope to merit this reward, we must be willing to take up our cross after him. No matter how much it physically and emotionally costs us to follow the road to Calvary in our Lord’s footsteps, our love of God and hope in His promised reward should relieve us of our burdens (Rom 8:18).
By trusting God and
surrendering our burdens to Him, as we faithfully carry out our duties of
discipleship with Christ’s yoke taken upon us, He will be faithful to us in
return and provide the patience and fortitude we need to endure our yoke with
the help of these actual graces (Rom 5:2-3; 2 Cor 12:9-10). God’s actual grace
is efficacious in that it has the power to inspire and influence us to do what
pleases Him over and against our natural instincts. By opening ourselves to the
Divine persuasion with the knowledge and understanding we have received from
the Holy Spirit (the sanctifying light of faith), we can acquit ourselves of
the temporal debt of sin by offering our suffering to God in reparation for our
sins.
Without faith and uniting our sufferings with Christ’s afflictions, the trials we have and the burdens we carry hold no redemptive value. Nor could they ever be lightened if we focus strictly on ourselves and fail to look at Christ our paschal victim. Trying to remove these burdens altogether would be ignorant of us and unwise, for without them we could never be buried with our Lord into death and be raised with him to new life with God. We who have been predestined to grace or adopted as children of God are co-heirs with Christ on the condition that we unite our sufferings with our Lord's suffering in temporal expiation for our sins to appease God's anger or justice. St. Paul teaches us: "And if sons, heirs also; heirs indeed of God and joint-heirs with Christ; yet so if we suffer with him, that we may be glorified with him" (Rom 8:17).
Jesus suffered and died
first and foremost to redeem humanity by making eternal expiation for sin. The
primary purpose of his self-sacrifice was to gain forgiveness of sin for the
whole world and remove mankind's eternal guilt. So, we as Christians do not
unite our suffering and dying to self with Christ's temporal satisfaction to
God for sin exclusively to increase in sanctification for the individual
allotment of heavenly rewards, now that we have been assuredly saved by
professing our faith in our Lord and Saviour's just merits - a Protestant
presumption. Rather, our predestination to glory or the attainment of our
salvation rests on whether we have sufficiently expiated our temporal debt of
sin before gaining admittance into Heaven with no stain of the remnants of sin
on our souls. Nothing unclean may pass through the gates that lead to the
marriage feast of the Lamb. Those who have been invited (predestined to grace)
must don white and spotless apparel by having suffered and died to self in
union with Christ to be worthy of attendance in the first place (Rev 2:7; 7:14;
21:27; Mt 22:1-14).
Our cross stands at the forefront of our baptismal commitment (Jn 12:24; Rom 6:4; Col 2:12). St. Paul preached a “Christ crucified” (1 Cor 1:23). For unbelievers, the cross is a scandal and something foolhardy to take up. The wisdom of this world is totally indifferent to it. Yet, as heirs with Christ, we shall be glorified with him, but only after we have temporally suffered for our sins (Rom 8:17). Jesus did not eradicate suffering and death by his passion and death, because these evil effects of original sin are means by which we can make temporal reparation and expiation for our personal sins to mend our broken relationship with God. Our Lord and Savior gave suffering redemptive value, making it the necessary means to redeem mankind. So, unless we accept and unite our suffering and death with the passion and death of our Lord because of our daily sins and offer our suffering to God in reparation for our sins in union with him, we are unworthy to reap the fruit that Christ alone gained for us: eternal life with God (Phil 3:10).
Pain and suffering have no
moral and spiritual value if divorced from repentance. Conversely, repentance
is incomplete if the debt of sin remains in the balance. God forgave David for his
mortal sins of murder and adultery after he sincerely repented with a contrite
heart. But to offset his transgressions and restore equity of justice, God
took the life of the child David conceived in his act of adultery with
Bathsheba for having murdered her husband Uriah: an innocent life for an innocent life, or an eye for an eye. And God also permitted the rape of David's
wives for his act of adultery (2 Sam 12:9-10, 14, 18-19). Only then could
David's broken relationship with God be fully amended, provided he accepted his
pain and loss as a temporal punishment for his sins to restore the equity of
justice in his relationship with God.
Now, one might object that this was required of David because Christ hadn't died for his sins yet in real-time. However, if our Lord and Saviour's just merits hadn't been applied to David, God wouldn't have forgiven him, to begin with. He, nor even Abraham, couldn't have been reckoned as righteous before God because of his act of faith. His several days of fasting and lying on the ground in sackcloth covered with ashes would be non-sequitur if Christ's foreseen merits and the saving grace which our Lord produced for us did not apply to him at this time. But what Jesus accomplished on Calvary transcends historical time and space. His merits extend to all three dimensions of time: past, present, and future. If this weren't the case, all the righteous in Hades of Old Testament time would still be there forever, but not in Gehenna or Hell, being denied the Beatific Vision of God. Yet, they were liberated by Christ after he had died on the cross and rose from the dead to open the gates of Heaven.
Thus, the debt of sin can
be remitted only by having to do penance for it. Doing acts of penance, whose
pain and loss counterbalances the sinful pleasure one is heartily sorry for or
accepting the pain and loss that God permits because of our sins, completes the
temporal redemptive process. Christ didn’t suffer and die so that we should no
longer owe God what is His rightful due for having offended His sovereign dignity
(Mt 5:17; Job 42:6; Lam 2:14; Ezek 18:21; Jer 31:19; Rom 2:4; Rev 2:5, etc.).
If this were so, then there would be no need for us even to repent, besides
doing penance. Our Lord and Saviour made eternal expiation for sin on behalf of
mankind (Adam). We cannot reap the fruit of his merits unless we make temporal
expiation for our own personal sins in union with his temporal and thereby
eternal propitiation for sin, now that he alone has unlocked the gates of
heaven and merited grace for us as our ultimate paschal sacrifice.
This is from Jesus himself: "No, I say to you: but unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish"(Lk 13:3); "Bring forth, therefore, fruit worthy of penance" (Mt 3:8). True repentance for the forgiveness of sin calls for fruit worthy of our act of contrition. Our outward acts (almsgiving/fasting) must conform to our inner disposition or spiritual reality (charity/temperance) to offset our vices and sins (greed/gluttony) which have been forgiven by the act of repentance pending full temporal restitution.
In Protestantism,
sanctification isn't the essence or formal cause of justification.
Sanctification is a separate construct that relies on our first being justified
strictly by Christ's external merits. Some Non-Catholics do exercise penance
but merely for an increase in sanctification and consequently a greater
enhancement of heavenly rewards. Penance does not contribute to an ongoing
justification in Protestant thought. Here there is no place for the temporal
remission of our debt of sin and purification of the soul making it inherently
just or righteous before God and worthy of entering Heaven. Yet Jesus says in
the Gospel of Luke that unless we do penance, we shall all perish. Repentance
and penance go together. Doing penance, therefore, is necessary for gaining
admittance into Heaven, albeit the subsequent rewards. Our Lord's infinite
merits aren't applied to us personally unless we make temporal and finite
restitution for our sins in union with his temporal and thereby eternal
satisfaction for sin.
Hence, the best way to
learn from Jesus is to look to him and try to be like him: meek and humble of
heart. Only then can we have the patience and fortitude to carry our cross. It
is the proud of heart who can’t bear carrying the cross and regard it as a
personal affront. By being inordinately self-appreciative, they see their
trials as having no positive value, since they’re too focused on themselves and
on what they feel they don’t deserve but deserve better. But as Christians, we
mustn’t forget that the crosses we bear have redemptive value. By offering our
suffering to God as an oblation for our sins, in acknowledgment of them, we
can make temporal satisfaction to God in union with Christ’s temporal and
thereby eternal satisfaction for the remission of our personal temporal debt to
God for our past sins, regardless of whether God has already forgiven us, yet
because He already has by our humble act of contrition in a true spirit of
repentance in and through the just merits of Christ.
Now I rejoice in my sufferings
for your sake,
and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions
of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake,
which is the church.
Colossians 1, 24
Temporally, we are still
indebted to God for our offenses against Him and are required to make
restitution for the remittance of our debts. The purpose of satisfaction is to
repair the offense offered to God and make Him favorable to us again. An act
of reparation can be satisfactory to God only if there is something painful
about it. This is what is meant by commutative justice, that virtue whose
object is to render to every one what belongs to him. When we sin against God,
we deny Him what He is supremely entitled to, viz., our love and obedience. So,
saying sorry isn’t enough to restore a balance of equity in our relationship
with God. This requires that we show our love for Him which we have denied Him.
By accepting our sufferings or making personal sacrifices and offering them to
God as means of reparation for our offenses against Him, equity is restored, as
the pain or loss counters the vain pleasure of selfish gain which is the object
of our sins.
By his passion and death, our Lord gained the grace of forgiveness and the removal of guilt for all humanity because of man's implication in the sin of Adam. But the temporal damage that remained because of man's personal sins still had to be covered on his part, and this had initially been done by the Blessed Virgin Mary on behalf of all mankind. She was chosen to help restore mankind to the life of grace since Eve morally contributed to its loss. Her interior suffering counter-balanced Eve’s pursuit of vain pleasure and repaired the offense our primordial mother had committed against God’s sovereign dignity by enticing her husband to join her with the Serpent in common rebellion (Gen 3:6).
The sin Eve committed was
an irrational movement toward a mutable good, which Satan was aware of when he
deceived Eve to put her faith in him. So, only Mary's obedient act of faith in
God could have provided the contrary movement needed to undo Eve's
transgression. And this required that she willingly suffer to appease God in
His justice. Only then could the equity of justice be restored between mankind
and God, on condition that our Blessed Lady united her suffering with the
suffering of her Son in and through his merits. The Mother made finite temporal
satisfaction in union with the Son's infinite temporal satisfaction in his
sacred humanity, pending the eternal satisfaction to God for sin that he alone could
make in his divine nature, but not without temporal satisfaction.
God willed that eternal satisfaction was to be made on the condition that it be completed and perfected by man's temporal satisfaction. Both Jesus (the second Adam) and Mary (the second Eve) did this in their shared humanity, having learned obedience to God and made perfect through suffering. If temporal satisfaction weren't needed, God would have redeemed humanity without having to become a man. Our Lord's theandric (Divine and human) act would be superfluous. We, as “living stones,” have been “built up into a spiritual house,” a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2:5). As “partakers of the divine nature,” we are called to unite our sacrifices to God with the ultimate sacrifice of the Godman for the temporal remission of sin.
The eternal satisfaction
Jesus made for our transgressions by his afflictions could be completed only by
the temporal satisfaction our Blessed Lady made by her sorrow in union with her
divine Son’s suffering for the forgiveness of sins in reparation for Adam's
transgression which alone produced the Fall. What our Lord super-abundantly
gained for us by his just merits - mankind's reconciliation to God - was
completed by the Virgin Mary, whose participation rendered God's plan of
salvation perfect. The serpent mustn't be able to gloat, not even over half of
what he accomplished by seducing Eve to rebel against God with him, now that
the sin of Adam would be undone by her divine Son.
God ordained that a sword
should pierce Mary’s soul so that the temporal satisfaction she should make
would complete the eternal satisfaction made by her Son in human unity
together. What Jesus accomplished in his passion was mankind's objective
redemption. What his mother Mary gained for mankind as its spiritual and
maternal representative was subjective redemption. By carrying her cross in
union with her Son, Mary offered penance to God for all the sins of Adam's
descendants and thereby helped remit the temporal debt of sin by her act of
reparation. Her sorrow for the loss of her beloved Son temporally expiated
mankind's sins so that her Son's temporal and eternal expiation would be
complete. Our Lady could act in union with her Son on behalf of sinful humanity
because she was without sin (Gen 3:15; Luke 1:28, 30; 1:42).
Christ chose to be
"made of a woman" primarily for this reason (Gal 4:4), which is why
he called his mother "Woman", viz., the New Eve, at the beginning and
end of his public ministry - in the shadow of the Cross and from the Cross (Jn
2:2-5; 19:26-27). Adam called his spouse and helpmate "the woman,"
though she wasn't much help to him. By her instigation, we who are descended
from Adam are "conceived in sin" and "born in guilt" by
association (Ps 51:5). Mary's moral participation contributed to our
reconciliation with God and restoration to the life of His grace. Her sorrow
beneath the Cross temporally restored a measure of balance on the scales of Divine justice by counteracting Eve's selfish pursuit of vain glory - her wish
to be like God but apart from God and before Him. It wasn't enough for Eve to
be created in the divine image and a partaker of the divine nature by aligning
her will with God's. Mary's will was God's will for her despite the motherly
sorrow she must endure for our salvation.
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But
when they came to Jesus and saw that he was
already dead, they did not break his legs.
Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear,
and at once blood and water came out.
John 19, 33-34
The Greek translation for
“and a sword shall pierce your own soul” is ψυχὴν διελεύσεται ῥομφαία. The
nominative noun ῥομφαία (a sharp blade) can be taken both literally and
figuratively. Thus, we have a play on words in this verse. Just as the Son’s
body was pierced by a sharp blade when the soldier struck his side with his
spear, so also should the Mother’s soul or heart be pierced by a sharp blade.
Luke’s message is clear: God desired Mary to participate in her Son’s suffering
to complete His plan, though Christ’s suffering alone was more than sufficient
to make reparation for the sins of the world. The nominative noun is a metaphor
for the shared anguish of the Son and the Mother which was required for the
redemption to be perfect in the Divine order.
What Jesus, therefore,
merited in strict justice, Mary merited by her maternal right and friendship
with God. Unless the Mother would make temporal satisfaction for the world’s
sins against God, the Son would not make eternal satisfaction. So that the
hearts of many shall be revealed, a sword should pierce Mary’s soul - and not
only the side of her deceased Son. Mary’s participation cannot be excluded. The
truth of this revelation is emphasized by the juxta-positioning of the Son’s
rejection and physical suffering and the Mother’s interior suffering in verses
34-35 of Luke's gospel.
And
I will very gladly spend and be spent for you,
though the more abundantly I love you,
the less I am loved.
2 Corinthians 12, 15
In His wisdom and justice,
God chose Mary to associate her with His dispensation of grace for the
salvation of souls in and through the merits of Christ. Our heavenly Father
acted purely on His own initiative, which was then followed by Mary’s free act
of faith working through love in collaboration with the Holy Spirit. In the
Christian life, the merit of our good works done in grace is first attributed
to the grace of God and only then to the faithful “whose good works proceed in
Christ” by cooperation with divine grace (Catechism of the Catholic Church,
2008). And since we are created in the image of God and have free will, we can
either accept or reject God’s grace (Acts 7:51).
The application of the
salvation formally gained for us by our Lord and Saviour by his merits more
than sufficiently ultimately depends on how well we respond to His grace. Our
salvation is conditional. And despite our having been forgiven and our
collective guilt removed, temporal reparation is still required of us
individually to completely satisfy God’s justice, and this often requires
spiritual works of mercy done in charity and grace (Eph 2:8-10). His
righteousness demands it. 'He shall judge the world in equity, he shall judge
the people in justice' (Ps 9:8).
With the fall of Adam,
mankind incurred an eternal separation from the Beatific Vision of God. And as a consequence of the fall, man had to make satisfaction to God for his sins of
infinite value to be released from this eternal debt of sin. Of course, only
God Himself could make such infinite satisfaction, which he did in the person
of Jesus Christ, the Divine Word made man. Nevertheless, temporal satisfaction
for sin is still required of us for the temporal remission of the debt of sin
and the conferral of sanctifying or justifying grace. This finite satisfaction
of ours has a supernatural value and confers supernatural merit provided it is
joined with Christ’s eternal satisfaction to the Father in and through his merits.
Mary made this satisfaction on behalf of humanity when she united her interior
suffering with the suffering of her divine Son in his Passion.
But
even if I am being poured out like a drink offering
on the sacrifice and service of your faith,
I am glad and rejoice with all of you.
Philippians 2, 17
Sin is a transgression
against the order of the Divine justice with which God rules the universe. He
has arranged all things by measure. Thus, Christ had to counter-balance the
eternal consequences of sin and restore the equality of justice between God and
mankind. But our Lord had no intention of acting entirely alone (sola
Christo). God willed with necessity that his blessed mother should
counter-balance the temporal consequences of sin by uniting her suffering with
his to restore the equality of friendship and justice between God and man. God
required a just measure of satisfaction from her on behalf of humanity to
restore equilibrium in His Divine order of creation.
The infinite satisfaction
made by Christ made Mary’s finite satisfaction possible since she had acted in
union with him in charity and grace. When Adam sinned against God, he did not
sin as an individual person, but as the natural head of an organic whole, viz.,
humanity. The human race is like a human body: Once the head falls off, all the
lower members are destroyed with it. So, when Adam sinned against God and fell
from the supernatural life of grace, the whole human race fell with him. We are
all members of this single organic whole, and as such, we have all fallen from
grace in Adam. And as members of this one organic whole, we have all inherited
the penalties of Adam’s sin, suffering, and death, inasmuch as we all have
sinned (Rom 5:12).
In the order of grace, the
Blessed Virgin Mary is the “neck” that joins us with our Head. She is the
Second Eve and Dispensatrix of Grace who channels the grace that proceeds from
Christ and flows to the members of his body. Through Mary's maternal mediation,
we receive the life of grace that our primordial mother Eve lost for all her
offspring. Mary's obedience and her being made perfect through suffering for
the sake of appeasing an offended God in His grace counter-balanced and undid
Eve's rejection of God and disobedience in her fall from grace by an inordinate
love of self in the pursuit of selfish gain. The Virgin Mary appeased the
Divine justice by acting contrary to her natural maternal instinct, that is by
joyfully offering her Son back to God in faith despite her sorrow for the
salvation of the world. She "rejoiced" in God our savior in the
depths of her pierced soul and wounded heart.
Wherefore
I pray you not to faint
at my tribulations for you,
which is your glory.
Ephesians 3, 13
Mary’s divine vocation was
much more than being a natural mother of Jesus. As a member of her Son’s
Mystical Body, Mary was called to participate with her Son in his redemptive
work, which required that she, too, suffer to repair the offense mankind
committed against God and amend its broken relationship with Him. The suffering
Mary endured drew its supernatural value from the suffering her Son had to
endure in his passion. Only by suffering would Christ merit the grace of
redemption for mankind. And since her Son suffered to provide this channel of
grace, Mary’s suffering could also serve as an instrument of the dispensation
of grace by being joined with her Son’s suffering, since it is originally a
penalty for our sins. As Head of his
Mystical Body, of which Mary was a member, Christ could suffer in his blessed
mother. As one member of a body suffers, so too, the other members are
affected.
It was by his own suffering as Head of his Mystical Body that our Lord merited redemptive grace for humanity. So, by suffering, Mary could also merit grace as a member of her Son's Body joined with him. This grace that she merited for mankind was channeled to her from her divine Son. Her willingness to suffer had a supernatural effect on mankind, for she participated with her Son in his redemptive work as a member joined with the Head in one Mystical Body. St. Paul tells us:
‘As it is, there are
many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!”
And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those
parts of the body
that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that
we think are less honorable, we treat
with special honor.’
1 Corinthians 12:20-23
Since ancient times, the
Catholic Church has honored Mary for her vital contribution in the
dispensation of redemptive grace as a member of Christ’s Mystical Body.
Presently, she is the neck that transmits all the signal graces from the Head
to all the lower members of the body. As "the mother with (cum) the
Redeemer," the Blessed Virgin Mary is our co-Redemptrix. Being both Head
and Body, Jesus desired his mother Mary, the most vital member, to collaborate
with him, simply because he chose it to be this way in concurrence with the
will of his heavenly Father. All members of his Mystical Body serve the Head in
some capacity in the order of grace, each according to their spiritual gifts
(See 1 Cor. 12). Mary's gift is the Divine Maternity which belongs to the
higher hypostatic order of Christ's incarnation. Her co-operation in and
through the merits of her divine Son, by her pleasing love of God, immeasurably
exceeds that of any of his apostles in the redemption. Our Blessed Lady is the
spiritual mother of all Eve's offspring in her co-redemptive participation with
her Son - the new Adam. Jeremiah prophesies: "A woman shall compass a
man" (Jer. 31:22).
Count
it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
for you know
that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
And let steadfastness
have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete,
lacking in nothing.
James 1, 2-4
Mary co-operated in the
principal act of Christ’s priesthood when she consented to the sacrifice of the
Cross. She offered up her Son to God spiritually in her wounded love for Him as
his loving mother. True, the priestly power effectively rested with Jesus, but
the oblation and immolation of her Son which she acceptably offered in her
motherly sorrow bestowed on her the character or spirit of the priesthood. Mary
offered up her Son to God in conformity with his suffering, by the interior
suffering of hers because of a mother’s love for her Son - the God-man.
Spiritually, our sorrowful Mother was the first among the royal priesthood of
believers to offer up the Eucharistic sacrifice to God in union with our
eternal High Priest in the order of Melchizedek and sacrificial victim.
Indeed, her presentation of
the infant Jesus in the Temple was a pre-presentation of her sacrificial
offering for the expiation of sin on Calvary in union with her Son's
pre-presentation of his self-sacrifice on the Cross at the Last Supper. The
fruit of Mary's womb (her offering of peace and reconciliation) was the Lamb of
God who came to take away the sins of the world. Jesus offered himself as the
ultimate propitiation of sin, but he chose to do so in union with his blessed
mother. Our Lord chose to be "made of a woman" so that she should
have an active priestly role to perform as a member of his Mystical Body.
Thus, her sorrow for the
Godman (the most perfect and pleasing oblation offered up to God the Father for
the sins of the world) temporally appeased God’s justice. It was under the
shadow of the cross that Mary consecrated her firstborn and only Son to God
when she presented the infant Jesus in the Temple in commemoration of Abraham’s
consent to offer up Isaac as a fragrant oblation (Gen 22:1-19). Fittingly, it
was on this occasion Simeon prophesied that a sword would also pierce her soul.
The prophecy was fulfilled at the instant the soldier pierced Jesus’ side with
his lance, drawing out blood and water, which represent justification and
regeneration, symbolically marking the birth of the Church (Jn 19:34).
For
this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while
suffering unjustly.
For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if
when you do good and
suffer for it you endure; this is a gracious thing in the
sight of God. For to this you have been called,
because Christ also suffered
for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
1 Peter 2, 19-21
This incident on Golgotha happened after Jesus had redefined Mary's motherhood from the Cross and designated her Mother of the Church, just before he drank the fourth (Hallel) Passover cup of the sacrificial wine of his wedding banquet on the Cross, which he deferred from drinking at the Last Supper, and gave up his spirit, having consummated the new nuptial covenant between God and redeemed humanity (Jn 19:26-30).
God willed that His
Only-begotten Son was to be “made of a woman” rather than be formed out of the clay of
the ground, as the first Adam had been at the time of creation, partly so that
a woman could make temporal satisfaction to Him in view of Eve’s transgression.
Mary had, in fact, vindicated the entire human race by her faith working
through love. Together with the infinite satisfaction that the Son alone made
in strict justice since its value and dignity were derived from his divine
Person, Mary offered for us a satisfaction of becomingness and friendship with
God, whose value rested on her obedient act of faith and charity in God’s grace
in and through Christ’s merits. The immeasurable love she had for her divine
Son - the God-man - could only please God, without which the merits of our
Lord’s sacrifice should not be formally applied to the human race in the Divine
plan.
What our Lord and Saviour
accomplished in his passion and death was more than sufficient and
super-abundant, but his work would have lacked perfection and completeness
without his blessed mother's moral participation. Mary, on the other hand,
would have lacked perfection and completeness in God's grace if she had lost
faith in God beneath the Cross. The collaboration between the Mother and her
Son had to be faultless and lacking in nothing for God's plan of salvation to
be fulfilled.
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the
surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things
and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain
Christ and be found in him,
not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which
comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on
faith— that I may know him
and the power of his resurrection, and may share his
sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
that by any means possible I may
attain the resurrection from the dead.
Philippians 3, 8-11
In Catholic theology, Mary
made a satisfaction de convenientia, whose value was derived from the dignity
of her divine motherhood and the plenitudes of grace she was endowed with.
Thus, her interior suffering made satisfaction to God on our behalf, since she
suffered in proportion to her love for her crucified Son who was also God – a
human love that was perfect in that it held supernatural value. As the Mother
with the Redeemer, Mary was intimately united with him in his work of
redemption by her perfect command of the will in conformity with the Divine
will, her poverty of spirit, and suffering for the sake of God’s infinite love
and goodness in emulation of her Son in his loving obedience to the Father.
Both the Son and the Mother suffered to propitiate God the Father who was
offended by sin and for humanity which was ravaged by sin. "God desires
that everyone be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim
2:4). The Mother and the Son also suffered in unity so that God's antecedent
will might be fulfilled, for "God so loved the world" (Jn 3:16).
Moreover, Mary made a temporal
satisfaction of becomingness on our behalf through her obedience to God’s will.
The aim of making satisfaction to God is to repair an offense against God and
make him favorable to us again. This can only be achieved by suffering pain or
loss and being in a state of grace. Mary’s consent to be the mother of our
Lord was a meritorious deed since it was made in charity and grace. But what
made it a means of satisfaction and temporal expiation was the suffering that
would be involved. Her satisfaction was perfect since it proceeded from love and an oblation that were more pleasing to God than the sin of Eve was displeasing
to Him. It was made by a woman who was full of grace and with the Lord as His
fellow worker in the vineyard (Lk 1:28; 1 Cor 3:9).
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when
it comes upon you to test you, as though something
strange were happening to
you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also
rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
1 Peter 4, 12-13
Hence, Mary’s interior
suffering had the character of satisfaction in that, like her divine Son and in
union with him, she suffered because of sin and the offense it offers to God. As
the late Catholic theologian, Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange tells us: “Her suffering
was measured by her love of God whom sin offended, by her love of her Son who
was crucified for our sins, and her love towards those who do sin." God
honored her suffering in accord with her state of grace and the affinity which
had existed between them. It was through Jesus that the inner thoughts of many
might be revealed, but only if it involved the wounded love of his sorrowful
mother because of sin. So that the inner thoughts of many might be revealed, a
sword should pierce her heart.
Mary’s participation in
her Son’s suffering was ordained by God. She had to stand before the Cross and
feel the pangs of tremendous sorrow to vindicate Eve and her fallen offspring
and make temporal restitution for the sins of the world together with her Son's
eternal expiation which undid the sin of Adam and opened the gates of Heaven.
But for us to pass through these gates, we must willingly offer up our
suffering to God for our sins and the sins of others to temporally make
satisfaction for offending Him. Jesus did not temporally remove suffering and
death by his passion and death in order to give these penalties for sin
redemptive value by our sharing in his paschal work.
In this sense, the Blessed Virgin Mary is our co-Redemptrix, Reparatrix, and Advocatrix of grace. She shouldered the moral responsibility of humanity for its sins and temporally restored the equality of justice between God and His fallen created children by her act of reparation, which universally relieved mankind of the temporal debt of sin, forgiven by the merits of Christ through his passion and death on the Cross. Since God judges the world in equity, he shall judge the world in justice. Mary had to stand beneath the Cross and feel its full weight upon her on behalf of all Eve's offspring, which was indebted to God for its sins if her Son were to be crucified on the Cross for the dispensation of the grace of justification and forgiveness. As our co-Redemptrix, the Virgin Mary is indeed the spiritual mother of all the living, who gave birth to redeemed humanity through the labor of her sorrow.
And so, God decreed with
necessity that our sorrowful mother take up her cross together with her Son's
for mankind's redemption. Mary helped reveal the glory of the Lord to all
mankind by sharing in her Son's suffering. This she did by making up for what
was lacking in her Son's afflictions in her sorrow and anguish through the
Cross. Our Blessed Lady suffered the loss of her maternal right so that the
world might gain Christ and be restored to the life of grace in and through his merits.
Mary's endurance in suffering for the sake of God's love and goodness, which had been violated against, was a gracious thing to God, and so He honored her suffering and was propitiated by it insofar He could forget about mankind's unworthiness to be forgiven because of her faith and love. Mary's obedient act of faith counter-balanced mankind's infidelity and disobedience, its cold-hearted indifference and hatred, thereby temporally restoring the equality of justice between God and man by her act of reparation. And temporally she made satisfaction for mankind's sins by suffering because of them and for them, so that God may be fully appeased for the sin of both Adam and Eve.
By showing herself to be
worthier than Eve, Mary made temporal satisfaction to God for our sins with a
strong appeal to the Divine justice and mercy which her love and sorrow
satisfied to completion. She, being a human creature, concretely represented
the human race as worthy of being redeemed by the blood of the Cross in strict
justice. Unlike the rest of humanity, Mary was not alienated from God, having
never fallen from grace. So, for his mother’s sake more than for ours, Jesus
delivered himself into the hands of ungrateful and unworthy sinners, through
which act he designated her Mother of the Church and redeemed humanity because
of her perseverance in faith together with him in his obedience to the will of
the Father, despite all the suffering they should bear for the sins of the
world.
As Eve prompted Adam to
disobey God, so Mary encouraged her Son in his suffering humanity to fulfill
the will of his heavenly Father by standing sorrowfully by his side and
enduring suffering together with him so that the grace of redemption could be
channeled to the world and mankind be reborn. Both the human wills of the
Mother and the Son were aligned with the Divine will, albeit the suffering that
was required of them to appease God who was greatly offended by the sins of
humanity.
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A
great sign appeared in heaven: a woman
clothed with the sun with the moon under her feet
and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant
and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.
Revelation 12, 1-2
Early Sacred Tradition
that mortality should be swallowed up and overwhelmed by immortality;
and Eve summed up in Mary, that a virgin should be a virgin’s intercessor,
and by a virgin’s obedience undo and put away a virgin’s disobedience.”
St. Irenaeus
The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, 33
(A.D. 190)
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to the wounds of her Son, because she expected not the death
of her Son but the salvation of the world.”
St. Ambrose
De Institutione Virginis
(c. A.D. 392)
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on the contrary, brought in Good by means of
the tree of the Cross.”
St. Gregory of Nyssa
Sermon on the Nativity of Christ
(A.D. 395)
of his Mother; with Christ crucified the Mother
was also crucified.”
St. Augustine of Hippo
Of Holy Virginity
(c. A.D. 401)
womb in which the writ of sin was torn up.”
St. Basil of Seleucia
Homily 39 on the Annunciation
(ante A.D. 460)
from the curse of the Devil.”
St. Modestus of Jerusalem
PG 86; 3287
(ante A.D. 630)
Pray for us!
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Salve Regina!