Mary as Coredemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate in the Contemporary Roman Liturgy

The topic of Our Lady's role as Coredemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate for the People of God in the Liturgy of the Catholic Church is a very broad one, one which requires a number of preliminary clarifications. For the purposes of our analysis, it is important to recognize at the outset that in the overall category of Marian mediation three distinct "moments" of the process may be differentiated: 1. that of Mary's collaboration in the redemption of the human race; 2. that of her distribution of the manifold graces won by the redemption and 3. that of her complementary intercession on behalf of the human race for the gift of redemption and all that flows from it. These three moments have been delineated by Dr. Mark I. Miravalle in terms of Our Lady's role as Coredemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate for the People of God. (1) Yet another way of clarifying these inter-related concepts is to say that Mary's mediation constitutes the general category while the specific categories may be further distinguished as coredemption, mediation and advocacy.

There is no doubt that the category of Marian mediation is an ancient one traceable to the Scriptures (2) and expounded by the Fathers (3) and Doctors of the Church. (4) With time and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the theme has been continually enriched, developed and refined by subsequent ecclesiastical writers. This topic has also passed into the realm of popular piety and the liturgy as well as into the speculation of theologians and the magisterium of the Church.

The object of this particularstudy will be to investigate the manifold mediation of the Mother of God as it is testified to in the liturgy of the Catholic Church. The Church's public worship is a privileged place for coming to grasp her deepest belief. Here is how the relationship between faith and liturgy is put in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

The Servant of God Pope Paul VI cited this classic dictum lex orandi, lex credendi in his Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus with specific reference to the place of Mary in the Church's worship.

Hence we should fully expect that the Church's past and present liturgical formulations which speak of Mary's mediatorial role will be sound indications of her fundamental belief.

A full treatment of the theme of Mary's role as Coredemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate for the People of God in the Liturgy of the Catholic Church would most probably require an extensive collaborative effort among liturgical specialists in all the rites of the Church, both in their past and presently fixed forms. A pioneering effort in this regard was already made over seventy years ago by Dom Idesbald Van Houtryve, O.S.B., a monk of the Belgian Abbey of Mont-César, Louvain. (7) The monastic scholar's two-part article, although of a general nature, demonstrated nonetheless the author's remarkable familiarity with liturgical fonts in the Latin Rites, such as the Roman, Sarum, Ambrosian and Mozarabic Missals and breviaries, and with the Byzantine Rite in its Greek form. Brief overviews of the liturgical testimony in this area have also been provided by E. Druwé, S.J. in his masterful study, "La Médiation Universelle de Marie," (8) by Armand J. Robichaud, S.M. in his essay "Mary, Dispensatrix of All Graces" (9) and by Robert Javelet in his book, Marie, La Femme Médiatrice. (10) All of these studies, however, have concentrated almost exclusively on Our Lady's mediation in the sense of her distribution of the grace of redemption with much less emphasis on her complementary roles as Coredemptrix and Advocate. These other two areas are dealt with in more detail by Father Serapio de Iragui, O.F.M. Cap. in a presentation which he made to the International Mariological Congress held in Rome in 1950. (11) Like Father Van Houtryve, he displays a notable mastery of Eastern and Western liturgical sources with a special emphasis on medieval breviary hymns.

Thisarticle has an aim which is at once more specific and more limited. It is my intention to study the evidence indicative of the Church's belief in Our Lady's roles as Coredemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate primarily in the present edition of the Roman Missal issued according to the Apostolic Constitution Missale Romanum of 3 April 1969 (12) (RM 70) and particularly in the Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary issued according to the Decree Christi mysterium celebrans of the Congregation for Divine Worship of 15 August 1986 (Col). The latter volume is described in this way by Fathers Cuthbert Johnson, O.S.B. and Anthony Ward, S.M.:

In some ways it might be said that the Collection fulfills the function of the various Marian Masses published in editions of the Roman Missal prior to that of Pope Paul VI in the Proper of the Saints for Certain Places (Proprium Sanctorum pro Aliquibus Locis), but with the exception of the Masses for the Advent, Lenten and Easter seasons whose use is restricted to Marian shrines, (14) these Masses are available to priests and congregations of the entire Roman Rite. (15)

While many of the Masses in the Collection and virtually all of the Prefaces are of recent composition, they nonetheless conform faithfully to the norm lex orandi, lex credendi in expressing the faith of the Church. Thus Paul VI wrote in his Apostolic Letter Signum Magnum:

It will be noted that in this case the Pope was citing the principle lex orandi, lex credendi from the perspective of the faith of the Church establishing the law of prayer. In fact Pius XII had proposed two formulations of this maxim in his Encyclical Letter Mediator Dei, the first and most ancient which comes from Prosper of Aquitaine affirming the constitutive nature of the liturgy of the Church for her belief and the second rightly insisting on the normative value of the Church's belief in establishing the liturgy. (17) Our primary concern, as already indicated, will be, in line with the ancient formulation of the maxim lex orandi, lex credendi, to discover the Church's belief in Mary as Coredemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate as this is expressed in the contemporary liturgy of the Roman Rite.

Mary as Coredemptrix

The term Coredemptrix usually requires some initial explanation in the English language because often the prefix "co" immediately conjures up visions of complete equality. For instance a co-signer of a check or a co-owner of a house is considered a co-equal with the other signer or owner. Thus the first fear of many is that describing Our Lady as Coredemptrix puts her on the same level of her Divine Son and implies that she is our Redeemer in the same way that He is, thus reducing Jesus "to being half of a team of redeemers." (18) In the Latin language from which the term Coredemptrix comes, however, the meaning is always that Mary's cooperation or collaboration in the redemption is secondary, subordinate, dependent on that of Christ—and yet for all that—something that God "freely wished to accept... as constituting an unneeded, but yet wonderfully pleasing part of that one great price" (19) paid by His Son for world's redemption. As Mark Miravalle points out:

While one might argue about the use of the term Coredemptrix (21) because of the possible confusion which might result from it and propose Pius XII's term of predilection, alma socia Christi (beloved associate of Christ), (22) it is equally arguable that there is no other word which places the participation of the Mother of God in our redemption in such sharp and bold relief. (23)

A further argument brought up against the use of this term is that it was specifically avoided by the Second Vatican Council. It is, indeed, true that the term was not used in any of the official documents promulgated by the Council (24) and, undeniably, "ecumenical sensitivity" was a prime factor in its avoidance. (25) The concept, however, was nonetheless conveyed. Thus the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium speaks of Mary as "under and with him (Christ), serving the mystery of redemption, by the grace of Almighty God" (sub Ipso et cum Ipso, omnipotentis Dei gratia, mysterio remdeptionis inserviens), as "freely cooperating in the work of man's salvation" (humanæ saluti cooperantem) (#56), of the "union of the mother with the Son in the work of salvation" (cum Filio in opere salutari coniunctio) (#57) and of how she

Likewise the Council Fathers state that Mary

Monsignor Brunero Gherardini points out that, with or without the use of the term Coredemptrix, the Protestant observers recognized just as readily the Catholic position on Mary's participation in the redemption. The great majority of those who adhere to the reformed tradition see any human participation in the work of man's salvation, however secondary and subordinate, as contrary to Luther's principle of solus Christus and thus "a robbery from God and from Christ." (26) Hence in this enterprise we are dealing with more than just the possible justification of the term Coredemptrix, but a fundamental datum of Catholic theology, a matter which will not be facilely dealt with in ecumenical dialogue by simply substituting one word or phrase with another which seems more neutral. (27)

Father Gabriele M. Roschini, O.S.M., founder of the Pontifical Faculty of Theology "Marianum" and tireless researcher in mariology, summarized the teaching of the papal magisterium on the coredemption under five headings: 1. Mary's association with Christ the Redeemer; 2. her union with Christ the new Adam in the redemption of the human race as the new Eve; 3. her cooperation in the Redemption beyond the fact of her Divine Maternity; 4. her cooperation in the Redemption which involves her at the same time in the distribution of the graces of the Redemption and 5. her immediate collaboration in Christ's redemptive death and the various effects flowing from it. (28) I have found that not all of these categories seem equally helpful in organizing the liturgical data on the Coredemption and so I have developed the following: 1. Associate of Christ the Redeemer; 2. the New Eve; 3. Totally Devoted to the Person and Work of Her Son; 4. Sharer in the Sufferings of Christ; 5. Presenting her Son to the Father; 6. the United Sacrifice of Jesus and Mary. Since it would be impossible within the limits of thisstudy to cite every text available, I will strive to illustrate each of these points with representative texts.