Ott: Mediatrix of All Graces

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JMJ

So Pope Francis has an issue with Our Lady's titles - particularly Co-Redemptrix.

Oh well, Dr. Malloy has posted a series of articles highlighting some key couter-points.

I have also included links to Fr. Hunwicke and Wikipedia articles.

Theological Flint - Dr. Malloy - Mary Co-Redemptrix - Part 1
Theological Flint - Dr. Malloy - Mary Co-Redemptrix - Part 2
Theological Flint - Dr. Malloy - Mary Co-Redemptrix - Part 3
Theological Flint - Dr. Malloy - Mary Co-Redemptrix - Part 4
Theological Flint - Dr. Malloy - Mary Co-Redemptrix - Catholic Radio: Mary as Co-Redemptrix
Fr. Hunwicke: Coredemptrix? 
Wikipedia: Co-Redemptrix 

Reproduced below is Dr. Ott's section on the same topic. I've been tidying it up (PDF conversion didn't work so well) ... but I have better things to do and I think you'll be able to error-correct 😀



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Source: Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma - Ott 1954


Mary's Co-operation in the Work of Redemption
§ 7. The Mediatorship of Mary
Although Christ is the Sole Mediator between God and man (I Tim. 2, S), since He alone by His death on the Cross, fully reconciled mankind with God, this does not exclude a secondary mediatorship, subordinated to Christ (cf. S. tho HI 26, 1). "To unite men to God perfectively (perfective) appertains to Christ according to 2 Cor. V. 19. Therefore Christ alone is the perfect mediator between God and man, inasmuch as He reconciled mankind with God by His death. But there is nothing to prevent others in a certain· way (secundum quid) from being called mediators between God and man, in so far as they, by preparing or serving (dispositive vel ministeraliter), co-operate in uniting men to God."

The Fathers called Mary the "Go-between" ( mediatrix). A prayer ascribed to St. Ephrem says of her : "After the Mediator thou art the mediatrix of the whole world" (post mediatorem mediatrix totius mWldi: Oratio IV ad Deiparam. 4th Lesson of the Office of the Feast). The title Mediatrix is attached to Mary in official Church documents also, for example, in the Bull Ineffabilis of Pope Pius IX (1854); in the Rosary Encyclicals" Adiutricem " and Fidentem" (D 1940 a) of Pope Leo XIII. (1895 and 1896); in the Encyclical " Ad diem ilIum " of Pope Pius X (1904). It has also been received into the Liturgy of the Church through the introduction of the Feast of M. Mariae Virginis omnium gratiarum Mediatricis (1921).
 
Mary is designated mediatrix of all graces in a double sense:

1. Mary gave the Redeemer, the Source of all graces, to the world, and In this way she is the channel of all graces. (Sent. certa.)
2. Since Mary's Assumption into Heaven no grace is conferred on man without her actual intercessory co-operation. (Sent. pia et probabilis).

1. Mary is the Mediatrix of all graces by her co~operation in the Incarnation. (Mediatio in universali.)

Mary freely and deliberately co-operated in giving the Redeemer to the world. Instructed by the angd as to the person and the task of Her Son she freely assented to be Mother of God. Luke I, 38: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it done unto me according to thy word." The Incarnation of the Son of God, and the Redemption of mankind by the vicarious atonement of Christ were dependent on her assent. In this significant moment in the history of Salvation Mary represented humanity. St. Thomas says: cc At the Annunciation the concurrence of the maiden was awaited as a representative of all human nature " (S. tho III 30, I). In regard to these words, Pope Leo XIII remarks: "To a certain extent she (Mary) represented the whole human race tt (quae ipsius generis humani personam quodammodo agebat). D 1940 a.

The Fathers contrast Mary's obedience at the Armunciation with Eve's disobedience. Mary by her obedience became the cause of the Salvation, while Eve by her disobedience became the cause of death. St. Irenaeus teaches:

"As she (Eve) who had Adam as her husband, but was nevertheless a virgin. was disobedient, and thereby became the cause of death to herself and to the whole of mankind, so also Mary, who had a pre-ordained husband, and was still a virgin, by her obedience became a cause of her own salvation and the Salvation of the whole human race" (et sibi et universo generi humane causa facta est salutis: Adv. haer. III 22, 4-; cf. V 19, I).

St. Jerome says: "By a woman the whole world was saved  (per mulierem totus mundus salvatus est ; Tract. de Ps. 96). Cf. Tertullian, De came Christi 17.

Mary's co-operation in the Redemption.
The title Corredemptrix= Coredemtress, which has been current since the fifteenth century, and which also appears in some official Church documents under Pius X (cf. D 1978 a), must not be conceived in the sense of an equation of the efficacy of Mary with the redemptive activity of Christ, the sole Redeemer of humanity (I Tim. z, S). As she her.self required redemption and in fact was redeemed by Christ, she could not of herself merit the grace of the redemption of humanity, in accordance with the principle: Principium meriti non cadit sub eodqu merito. (The author of an act of merit cannot be a recipient of the same act of merit.) Her co-operation in the objective redemption is an indirect, remote co-operation, and derives from this that she voluntarily devoted her whole life to the service of the Redeemer and, under the Cross, suffered and sacrificed with Him. As Pope Pius XII says in the Encyclical II Mystici Corporis H (1943), she "offered Him on Golgotha to the Eternal Father together with the holocaust of her maternal rights and her motherly love like a new Eve for all children of Adam U (D 2291). As" The New Eve " she is, as the same Pope declares, in the Apostolic Constitution" Munificelltissimus Deus U (1950) " the-sublhne associate of our Redecillcr U (alnla Redemptorisnostrisocia [ef. Gn. 3,12]). Cf. D. 3031 : generoso Divini Rcdemptoris socia.
Christ alone truly offered the sacrifice of atonement on the Cross; Mary merely gave I~iln mOia} support in this action. Thus Mary is llOt entitled to the title" Priest" (~acerdos). Indeed this is expressly laid down by the Holy Office (1916, 1927). Christ, as the Church teaches, "conquered the enemy of the human race alone (solus) " (D 711) ; in the same \vay, He alone acquired the grace of ltedemption for the whole hunlall racet including Mary. The words ofLuke 1,38 : " Behold the handmaid ofthe Lord/' imply Mary's mediate, remote co-operation in the Redemption. St. Ambrose expressly teaches: Chrises Passion did not require any support U (De inst. virgo 7).
 
In the power of the grace of Redemption merited by Christ, Mary, by her spiritual entering into the sacrifice ofher Divine Son for men, made atonement for the sins oftuen, and (de congruo) merited the application of the redemptive grace of Christ. In this manner she co-operates in the subjective redemption of mankind.

The statement of Pope Pius X in the Encyclical " Ad dienl ilium U (1904) ~ (Beata Virgo) de congruo, ut aiunt, promeret nobis, quae Christus de condigno promeruit (D 1978 a) (The Blessed Virgin merits for us de congruo what Christ merited de condigno) is, as the present tense" pronleret " shows, not indeed to be taken as referring to the historical objective Redelnption, which occurred once and for alIt but to her ever-present, intercessory co-operation in the subjective redemption.

 2. Mary is the Mediatrix of all graces bV her intercession in Heaven. (Media~io in speciali.)
Since her asswnption into Heaven, Mary co-operates in the application of the grace of Redell1ption to luau. She participates in the distribution of grace by her maternal intercession which is far inferior in efficacy to that of the i ntercessory prayer of Christ, the High Priest, but surpa$se5 far the intercessory prayeI of all the other saints.

According to the view of the older. and of many of the modern theologians Mary's intercessory co-operation extends to all graces, which are conferred on 111allkilld, so that 110 grace accrues to men, without the intercession of Mary. The implication of this is not that \ve are obliged to beg for all graces through Mary, nor that Mary's intercession is intrinsically necessary for the application of the grace, but that, according to God's positive ordinance, the redenlptive grace of Christ is conferred on nobody without the actual intercessory co-operation of Mary.
Recent Popes have declared in favour of this doctrine. Leo XUl says in the Rosary Encyclical H Octobri mense" (1891): "From that great treasure of

all graces, which the Lord has brought, nothing, according to the will ofGod, comes to us except through Mary, so that, as nobody can approach the Supreme Father except through the Son, similarly nobody can approach Christ except through the Mother" (1940 a). Pope Pius X calls Mary" the dispenser of all gifts, which Jesus has acquired for us by His death and His blood" (D 1978 a). Pope Benedict XV declared ~ "All gifts which the Author of all good has deigned to communicate to the unhappy posterity of Adam, are, accordiug to the loving resolve of His Divine Providence, dispensed by the hands of the Most Holy Virgin" (AAS 9, 1917, 266). The same Pope calls Mary: U the mediatrix with God of all graces" (gratiarum omnium apud Deum sequestra: AAS II 1919, 227).
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Pope Pius XI in the Encyclical Ingravescentihus malis" (1937) quotes with approval the words of Saint Bernard: Thus it is His (God's) will that we should have everything through Mary" (AAS 29, 1937, 373). Similarly Pope Pius XII in the Encyclical " Mediator Dei " (1947)'

Express scriptural proofs are lacking. Theologians seek a biblical foundation in the words of Christ,John 19, 26 et seq. : "Woman behold thy son, son behold thy mother." According to the literal sense these words refer only to the persons addressed, Mary and John. The mystical interpretation, which became dominant in the West in the late Middle Ages (Dionysius the Carthusian), sees in John the representative of the whole human race. In him Mary was given as a mother to all the redeemed. Moreover, it corresponds to the position of Mary as the spiritual mother of the whole of redcetned humanity that she, by her powerful intercession, should procure for her children in need of help all graces by which they can attain eternal salvation.

The idea of the spiritual Motherhood of Mary is part of the Ancient Christian tradition, independently of the interpretation ofJohn 19, 26 et seq. According to Origen the perfect Christ had Mary as mother: "Every perfect person no longer lives (of himself) but Christ lives in hiln ; and because Christ lives in him, it is said of him to Mary: Behold thy son Christ" (Com. in loan. I 4, 23). St. Epiphanius derives Mary's spiritual Motherhood from the Eve-Mary parallel: "She (Mary) is she of wholn Eve is the prototype, who, as such received the appellation ' nlother of the living' . . . as to externals the whole human race on earth stemmed froiu that Eve. Thus in truth, through Mary, the very life of the world was borne, so that she bore the Living One, and became the Mother of the Living. Thus in prototype Mary was called ' Mother of the living'" (Haer. 78, 18). St. Augustine bases Mary's spiritual Motherhood on the n1ystical unity of the faithful with Christ. As the bodily Mother of God, she is, in a spiritual fashion, also the mother of those who are articulated with Christ. Cf. De s. virginitate 6. 6.
Express testimonies, though few in number, to Mary's position as mediatrix of grace are found since the eighth century. They became more numerous during the peak period of the Middle Ages. St. Germanus of Constantinople(t 733) says: "Nobody can achieve salvation except through thee . ~ . 0 Most Holy One . nobody can receive a gift of grace except through thee ... a Most Chaste One U (Or. 9, 5. Le~son of the Office of the Feast). St. Bernard of Clairvaux (t 1153) says of Mary: "God wished that we have nothing, except by the hands of Mary" (In Vig. Nativit. Domini serm. 3, 10). Ps.-Albert the Great calls Mary : " The universal dispenser of all riches" (omnium bonitatum universaliter distributiva; Super Missus est q. 29). In modem times the doctrine


that Mary is the Universal Mediatrix of Grace was advocated by St. Peter
Callisius, Suarez, St. Alphonsus Liguori, Scheeben, and it is supported by the
opinion of numerous theologians at the present day.
Speculatively the doctrine of Mary's Universal Mediation is based on her cooperation
in the Incarnation and the Redemption, as well as on her relationship
to the Church :
a) Since Mary gave the source of all grace to men, it is to be expected that she
would also co-operate in the distribution of all grace.
b) As Mary became the spiritual Mother of all the redeemed, it is fitting that she,
by her constant motherly intercession should care for the supernatural life of
all her children.
c) As Mary is" the prototype of the Church (St. Ambrose, Expos. ev. sec. Luc.
II 7), and as all grace of redemption is obtained by the Church, it is to be assumed
that Mary, by her heavenly intercession, is the universal mediatrix of grace.
Definability
The doctrine of Mary's Universal Mediation of Grace based on her co-operation
in the Incarnation is so definitely luanifest in the sources of the Faith, that nothing
stands in the way of a dogmatic definition. Her position as Mediatrix of Grace
in virtue of her intercession in Heaven is less definitely attested. Since however
it is organically associated with Mary's Spiritual Motherhood which in turn is
based on Scripture and with her intimate participation in the work of her
Divine Son, its definition does not seem impossible.