Mary’s place at the foot of the Cross confirms her role as Co-Redemptrix

Editor’s note: The following article is an abridgement of a longer study, complete with objections, answers, and full scholarly apparatus, available HERE.

(FSSPX) — Among the fundamental questions for every human person, such as “where do we come from?” or “what is the purpose, the goal of our life?” the most difficult is certainly: why do we suffer?

Suffering touches everyone. To that question, no philosopher has found an adequate answer, no religion has given an appropriate answer except our Lord Jesus Christ: the Cross! Yet, redemption through the Cross itself is a mystery, a challenge, a stumbling block for many. Stat crux dum volvitur orbis.

The three great mysteries of the Christian faith – the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Redemption – are intimately bonded together and are summed up by St. John: “God is charity.” Yet, that divine charity is a mystery for us, manifested in the Cross: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” The unique place of the Blessed Virgin Mary in these mysteries is a great help to better understand them and our own place in them. It is in this context that we find the title Mary Co-Redemptrix.

The most ancient texts of the Fathers of the Church concerning our Lady present her as the New Eve. Thus, St. Irenaeus says:

And if the former did disobey God, yet the latter was persuaded to be obedient to God, in order that the Virgin Mary might become the patroness [advocata] of the virgin Eve. And thus, as the human race fell into bondage to death by means of a virgin, so is it rescued by a virgin; virginal disobedience having been balanced in the opposite scale by virginal obedience.

READ: Catholics in Leo’s former diocese urge him to reverse ‘scandalous’ rejection of Co-Redemptrix title

This expression “rescued by a virgin” is extremely significant, especially from a Father of the Church whose teacher was St. Polycarp, disciple of St. John the Apostle to whom the Blessed Virgin was entrusted at the foot of the Cross. In the centuries after, the same doctrine has been explained, but not altered: this is the essential doctrine of the title Co-Redemptrix.

The Magisterium of the Church has not defined such doctrine, yet it has taught it in some very clear texts, especially St. Pius X:

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.

The mystery of suffering

If there is a book in the Holy Scriptures that deals with that mystery, it is the book of Job.

God had rewarded him with great wealth and protection, as was often the case in the Old Testament. But the devil was jealous and asked permission from God to hurt Job. And here comes the first mystery: God gave him that permission! And in one day, Job lost everything. How did he react? “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: as it hath pleased the Lord so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord.” How few in suffering react with such submission to God’s providence!

Then a second time, the devil asked permission to hurt him “in his flesh.” And again, God gave permission! And the devil “struck Job with a very grievous ulcer, from the sole of the foot even to the top of his head.” What did Job say? “If we have received good things at the hand of God, why should we not receive evil.” Again, perfect submission to God’s providence.

Then three friends come, and they do not know what to say. Job speaks first, and to sum up the whole book in one word, Job asks God why? – “Do not condemn me: tell me why thou judgest me so.” His three friends have no other answer but to say that, since God is just, he must be guilty of very grave sins! But Job is the perfect example of the innocent who suffers.

But the why of Job did not get an answer, and it resonates through the centuries until someone else, even more innocent than Job, suffers at the hands of God Himself and asks why?

READ: Vatican rejects Marian titles ‘Co-Redemptrix’ and ‘Mediatrix’ in new doctrinal note

That was the Blessed Virgin Mary when the Child Jesus was lost in the Temple. She had suffered before, from Herod, but that was to be expected from such a wicked person. But now, it was Jesus Himself who made her and St. Joseph suffer, by deliberately escaping their care, knowing perfectly well that this would be deeply painful to them. When they find Him in the temple, Mary said: “Son, why hast thou done so to us? behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.”

Mary was even more innocent than Job; she was the Immaculate – from her conception and throughout her whole life, she did not commit the least venial sin! So, why did Jesus make her suffer? Again here, there is no rebellion, no criticism, no reproach, but the simple desire of a loving heart full of sorrow: why?

And again, Jesus (who is God the Son) answers with a question: “did you not know, that I must be about my father’s business?” And the Scripture itself testifies: “And they understood not the word that He spoke unto them.” Even Mary, the Seat of Wisdom, did not understand! This is how deep the mystery of suffering can be.

And she meditated on those words for about 20 years! And then again, our Lord Jesus Christ made her suffer, even more than before, when she met Him on the way to Calvary and later when she stood – full of the deepest sorrow – at the foot of His Cross. But then she does not ask why: the answer is in front of her eyes: the Redemption of the world, which was being performed by her Son on the Cross!

To this mystery the holy man Job is associated with the mystery of Redemption as a foreshadowing, as a type.

The Blessed Virgin Mary is associated with this mystery in a very unique way: she too was Immaculate, so she could not have suffered for her own sins. God in His Justice would not let her suffer without also giving her a reward: the coredemption!

If one searches in the Scriptures for the word immaculate, (or equivalents: sine macula – “without blemish,” “unspotted,” etc.), one finds that its most frequent use is as a condition required in the victim of the sacrifice! This puts the Immaculate Conception not only in the light of Christmas, to be a worthy receptacle of the Word made flesh, but also in the light of Good Friday: to be one with Christ the Immaculate Lamb, the Lamb of God. The word is used only twice in the New Testament – both times referring to Christ as the Immaculate Victim:

“How much more shall the blood of Christ, who by the Holy Ghost offered himself unspotted [immaculatum] unto God, cleanse our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God?”

“You were not redeemed with corruptible things as gold or silver, from your vain conversation of the [pagan] tradition of your fathers: but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted [immaculatum] and undefiled.”

READ: Vatican document against ‘Co-Redemptrix’ promotes an ecumenism that silences the truth

Necessary participation in the Redemption

The requirement of cooperation with the grace of God is a very important truth denied by Luther; that denial is at the very heart of his heresy. He taught that Christ having done and paid everything, we have nothing to do; Christ has earned all merits, we cannot earn any merit; justification being a mere external declaration of justice, there is no inner transformation needed, no inner cooperation. The Church anathematized this deep error, which destroys the whole spiritual life. Hence it is not surprising that Protestants do not like such titles of our Lady, directly opposed to their fundamental error and rejection of merit.

The requirement of cooperation also comes from the very nature of God who is Charity. The life of the soul consists in sanctifying grace, which is a participation in the life of God, and therefore is bonded with charity, which here below presupposes true faith and hope.

In response to such divine love, charity cannot remain unmoved: when we contemplate our Saviour on the Cross, we say to Him: “O my Lord, I am the guilty one, I should be there on the Cross. Please allow me to be there with Thee!” We offer ourselves to become one with Christ’s suffering. This oneness with Christ in His Passion is a requirement of charity. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself said so: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” But many refuse the Cross, they are enemies of the Cross of Christ. Yet “whosoever doth not carry his cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple.” This is the reason why many souls are lost, because they refuse the Cross of Christ.

This is precisely where we need the Blessed Virgin Mary: she is the very first at the foot of the Cross, and the other holy women and St. John would not be there if they had not followed the Blessed Virgin Mary! She is thus truly the model and pattern for all true faithful, all Catholic faithful, and a wonderfully kind invitation to all Protestants to come to the one true Church!

Indeed, to be in Christ is essentially to be a member of His Mystical Body, which is the Church, the true Church, which He built on Peter, the Catholic Church. Our Lady is Mother of the Church, having given birth to the faithful in the pangs of childbirth at the foot of the Cross.

Because every human being needs redemption, he needs to participate in the suffering of Christ (“if we suffer with Him”): that is why suffering touches every human being. We need it first for our own selves, because of our sins. But we are called to participate in the mystery of Redemption also for others, typically parents for their children, priests for their flock: saints such as St. Monica are not without having deserved (de congruo) the salvation of their sons.

READ: Global petition urges Pope Leo to reconsider document opposing Co-Redemptrix title

Saints, who often were much more innocent than most (it is said, for instance, of St. Therese of Lisieux that she never committed a mortal sin) and offered their sufferings with Christ, participate in that mystery of Redemption for many other souls (as in the case of the very many roses obtained by St. Therese). But Our Lady has a special place, being completely immaculate, she fully participated in that Redemption for all other members of the Church: she is Co-Redemptrix.

This participation with the mystery of Redemption is the very core of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. St. Augustine beautifully says: “He is both the Priest who offers and the Sacrifice offered. And He designed that there should be a daily sign of this in the sacrifice of the Church, which, being His body, learns to offer herself through Him.”

In the Mass, we learn to offer ourselves through Christ, with Him, and in Him.) When we eat the Lamb of God, His very flesh and blood, we do not transform Him into ourselves (like normal digestion), but He transforms us in Himself, to be Lambs of God in Him, victims with Him, or rather one victim with Him. This Our Lady of Compassion had fully done at the foot of the Cross.

Reprinted with permission from the Society of Saint Pius X.