Oh sweetest and most adorable Jesus ... I adore Thee profoundly in the bosom and splendors of Thy Father during eternity; and I adore Thee also in the virginal bosom of Mary, Thy most worthy Mother, in the time of Thine Incarnation.¹

Mary, daughter of Sts. Joachim and Ann, and the created Immaculate Conception, is our "mother in the order of grace" (Lumen Gentium, n. 62). She is the obedient daughter of God our Father, who, according to an Orthodox tradition, danced on the temple steps, as a small child of three years of age, when her parents presented her in the temple for service. She is the spouse of the uncreated Immaculate Conception, the Holy Spirit, through whom Jesus Christ was conceived in her womb. She is the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, who became true God and true Man for our sake. As His mother, and because she was His Mother, she rightly deserves the titles of Co-redemptrix, Mediatrix of all graces, and Advocate. Her participation in the redemptive life of her Son was fulfilled as she stood at the foot of the Cross, "grieving exceedingly with her only begotten Son, uniting herself with a maternal heart with His sacrifice, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this Victim which she herself had brought forth" (LG, n. 58). Her participation, however, began at that anointed moment of His submissive conception, through her perfect submission; when from her lips fell her "Fiat." With those words, she became not only Christ's Mother, but began her journey of spiritual maternity for the entire universe.

This spiritual maternity of Mary, as Co-redemptrix, Mediatrix of all graces, and Queen-Advocate began with their "Yes." The redemptive quality of his and her submission at the moment of conception can be illustrated through their perfect submissive obedience, through Mary's role as the created Immaculate Conception, spouse of the uncreated Immaculate Conception, and in the self-gift of both hearts at the moment of conception. Mary, the expectant mother, is seen as Mediatrix of all graces, as observed in her meeting with her cousin Elizabeth. Finally, she is seen as Queen Mother and our Advocate, even before Christ the King was born, as she proclaims her song of praise, joy, and hope in the Magnificat.

Jesus, the Redeemer, and Mary, Co-redemptrix,
in Their Perfect Submissive Obedience

Two separate Gospel accounts in which Mary is present, which seem at first to have a hint of disrespect, actually illustrate for us how highly Christ regarded the obedience of His mother.

While he was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers appeared outside, wishing to speak with him. (Someone told him, "Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak with you.") But he said in reply to the one who told him, "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?" And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother" (Mt 12:46-50).

While he was speaking, a woman from the crowd called out and said to him, "Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed." He replied, "Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it" (Lk 11:27-28).

In both verses, Jesus is stressing the "primacy of supernatural over the natural, the primacy of spirit over flesh, of the divine will over the human will."² He is emphasizing the primacy of obedience over blood relation, both of which Mary shared in.

Without any doubt, Mary is worthy of blessing by the very fact that she became the mother of Jesus according to the flesh ... but also and especially because already at the Annunciation she accepted the word of God, because she believed it, because she was obedient to God, and because she "kept" the word and "pondered it in her heart" (cf. Lk 1:38, 45; 2:19, 51) and by means of her whole life accomplished it. Thus we can say that the blessing proclaimed by Jesus is not in opposition, despite appearances, to the blessing uttered by the unknown woman .... If it is true that "all generations will call her blessed" (cf. Lk 1:48), then it can be said that the unnamed woman was the first to confirm unwittingly that prophetic phrase of Mary's Magnificat and to begin the Magnificat of the ages.³

The obedience of Mary is worthy of blessing because, in a unique manner, it is a participation in Christ's redemption, in a way which far surpasses how our obedience is a participation in redemption. Christ's redeeming grace was not wholly acquired on the day of his death; rather, at the moment of their Yes, they began to merit the graces which she mediates.

In the very poverty of His embryonic humanity, the Redeemer in the womb is in some mysterious fashion able to know and say Yes to the Father. ...

"Every action of the Son of God, his every mystery and state, infuses a certain grace into the soul." Thus in the womb he merited specific graces for us. "The deified incapacity of Jesus is a source of the grace of innocence ...." The bodily incapacity of the embryonic Christ, accepted by him for love of us, is the meritorious cause in us of a spiritual "incapacity," that is, the grace to resist the disorders of concupiscence.⁴

The response given by Mary to the angel also expresses, in addition to her consent, a humble and unconditional dedication to the plan of God entrusted to her. Such a dedication reveals the incomparable faith of Mary, a faith that ... offers the perfect model of obedience ... for the salvation of others.⁵

Before His passion and death, Jesus acquires graces for us because He is the God-man; Mary, through Him and in union with her Son, acquires graces for us because of her obedience. This was recognized already in the early Church, as witnessed to by St. Ireneaus (ca 202):

Just as Eve, wife of Adam, yet still a virgin, became by her disobedience the cause of death for herself and the whole human race, so Mary, too, espoused yet a Virgin, became by her obedience the cause of salvation for herself and the whole human race .... And so it was that the knot of Eve's disobedience was loosed by Mary's obedience.⁶

In the Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum, each member of the Church is called to "the obedience of faith," as his or her response to Divine Revelation. "The 'obedience of faith' (Rom 13:26; cf. 1:5; 2 Cor 10:5-6) 'is to be given to God who reveals, an obedience by which man commits his whole self freely to God, offering the full submission of intellect and will to God who reveals,' and freely assenting to the truth revealed by Him" (Dei Verbum, n. 5). Dei Verbum makes reference to Paul's letter to the Romans in which the obedience of Christ is explained.

In conclusion, just as through one transgression condemnation came upon all, so through one righteous act acquittal and life came to all. For just as through the disobedience of one person the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one the many will be made righteous (Rom 5:18-19).

Paul explains that Adam's disobedience was reversed by Christ's obedience. Adam's disobedience brought death to us, but Christ's obedience brought us life. In Chapter 6, Paul goes on to say how this obedience applies to us. Since we are baptized into Christ, we are united to Him. This means that we are united to his death and resurrection. Being united to Him means that we are united also to his perfect obedience and it is with His obedience that we are to respond to Divine Revelation. As Dei Verbum exhorts us, the Christian is to "commit his whole self freely to God, offering the full submission of intellect and will to God who reveals" (Dei Verbum, n. 5). St. Paul goes on in Romans 6 to say that as baptized Christians, we have a choice to make - either to be slaves of sin or of obedience, meaning that we must imitate Christ's redemptive obedience.

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, although you were once slaves of sin, you have become obedient from the heart to the pattern of teaching to which you were entrusted. Freed from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness (Rom 6:16-18).

Christians are sacramentally united to Christ's obedience in Baptism, by virtue of Christ's redeeming death. Mary is united to Christ's obedience by virtue of her Immaculate Conception. Christ's perfect obedience did not begin in the Garden of Gethsemane as he sweated blood and tears, but when he, "though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness ..." (Phil 2:6-7). Jesus Christ, second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, Redeemer of mankind, through Whom all things are made, took the form of a slave. "Freed from sin" in her Immaculate Conception, Mary, too, in her submission, became a "slave of righteousness." Jesus and Mary both said "yes" at the moment of conception. Jesus and Mary both made an act of obedience which was redemptive. Jesus and Mary both perfectly submitted themselves to the will of their Father.

We must consider once more the fundamental event in the economy of salvation, namely the Incarnation of the Word at the moment of the Annunication. It is significant that Mary ... submitting to his power says, 'Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word.' (Lk 1:38) The first moment of submission ... is the Virgin of Nazareth's acceptance of Motherhood.⁷

Mary Co-redemptrix as Spouse of the Uncreated Immaculate Conception

According to the Mariology of St. Maximilian Kolbe, Mary is particularly united by her very essence to the Uncreated Immaculate Conception, Who is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, as the third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, is the "flowering of the love of the Father and the Son."⁸

If the fruit of created love is a created conception, then the fruit of divine Love, that prototype of all created love, is necessarily a divine "conception." The Holy Spirit is, therefore, the "uncreated eternal conception.⁹

Further, since Mary is filled with the fullness of this divine Love, she is the created Immaculate Conception, whose "virginal womb ... is kept sacred for Him." In this way, she has been "grafted into the Love of the Blessed Trinity." At the Annunciation, Mary is even more fully united, if this were possible, with the Holy Spirit, and "in this union, heaven and earth are joined: all of heaven with all of earth, the totality of eternal love with the totality of created love."¹⁰

This understanding of the created and uncreated Immaculate Conception brings to light more evidence of Mary, Co-redemptrix and Mediatrix. This is seen in the role of the Holy Spirit in the work of human redemption, beginning at the Annunciation, and the way in which Mary participated perfectly in this role. The work of the Holy Spirit in human redemption is twofold. He was instrumental in the hypostatic union, and he now sanctifies the People of God through His immaculate spouse, Mary.

In this union at the moment of the conception of Christ in Mary's womb, it is helpful to investigate the roles that were played by the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and Mary. As is prayed in the Nicene Creed:

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in being with the Father. Through Him all things were made. For us men and our salvation He came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit, He was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man (emphasis my own).

Jesus was "begotten of the Father ... by the power of the Holy Spirit" which describes the Father and the Spirit playing an active role in the conception of Jesus. Jesus Christ, in his eternal obedience to His Father, also plays an active role in obediently entering Mary's womb, certainly exposing Himself in vulnerability as unfathomable as it may seem. That leaves one question: what was Mary's role? Was she simply the passive recipient of the God-man in her womb? St. Thomas Aquinas viewed a mother's role in conception as "passive and receptive,"¹¹ which was in accord with the scientific notions of the time of how a child was conceived. It is true that Jesus was already eternally begotten by the Father through the Spirit, meaning that the Father did not need Mary to beget His Son. This is the mystery of the Trinity, but the Father chose to send His Son through a Mother, and in our understanding of science today, we know that the mother's role is not just "passive and receptive" but "in physical generation father and mother are really co-principles of new life."¹²

Just as the second divine Person appears in his Incarnation as the "seed of the woman," so the Holy Spirit manifests his share in the work of the Redemption through the Immaculate Virgin who, although she is a person entirely distinct from him, is so intimately associated with him that our minds cannot understand it. So while their union is not of the same order as the hypostatic union linking the human and divine natures in Christ, it remains true to say that Mary's action is the very action of the Holy Spirit.¹³

In this union of the Uncreated and Created Immaculate Conception at the moment of the Annunciation, Mary is immediately drawn into and united with Christ the Redeemer Who is hidden in her womb. Her union with Christ the Redeemer in this moment is not passive or subjective, but because of her active and free yes, her part in the union becomes objectively fruitful. Her yes continued, through the Holy Spirit, to be redemptive as she walked with her Son through His Life, Passion, Death and Resurrection.

It was the Holy Spirit who came to Mary from the Father by the Son, to make of her the Immaculate Conception, the Gift of Love, the future Mother of God, just as he himself draws his origin from the Father through the Son in the bosom of the Trinity, where he is from all eternity their mutual Love, their primary Gift to each other, the divine motherhood of Love.¹⁴