Mary's Maternal Mediation

John Paul II speaks a lot about Mary’s maternal mediation and Fr. Gaitley uses the term “Mediatrix of all graces”.  So, that’s what we are going to focus on tonight!

John 19:25-27 says, “Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home”. This is where Mary becomes OUR mother.  John is representing ALL humanity at this point.  Notice how there are no personal pronouns - it’s all very general, all encompassing terms that Jesus uses here.  We can put ourselves in John’s shoes, and imagine Jesus speaking to us personally, giving us His Mother.  Fr. Bob makes the point, that not only does Jesus give us the gift of HIMSELF on the Cross, but he also gives us his treasured gift of his mother. Mary’s mission to be the Spiritual Mother of all humanity is fulfilled here in this moment.  

But this Mission was not completely foreign to her when Jesus was on the Cross.  She was not caught off guard when Jesus gave her to John and thus the whole Church.  Remember, she “pondered” God’s will her whole life.  Her mission of Spiritual Motherhood really began at the Annunciation.  Dr. Mark Miravalle says, “The Blessed Virgin began her mission as Spiritual Mother of humanity with her ‘fiat’ at the Annunciation.  Her ‘let it be done’ (Lk. 1:38), leads her to becoming the Mother of Jesus, who is the Head of the Mystical Body (which is the Church), and also mysteriously begins her spiritual motherhood in relation to the rest of the Body of Christ which is mystically connected to Jesus the head.”  

If we turn back to the account of the Crucifixion, we see that Christ is stating a fact - almost a command!  “Behold your mother”.  “He does not passively invite us to accept Mary as Mother, rather he states the theological fact that Mary is the newly God-given Mother of each beloved disciple: our remaining question then should not be, “Is Mary our mother?” but more appropriately, “How do we properly behold this Mother, who is now our Mother?” (Miravalle).  

By physically giving birth to Jesus, Mary has MADE IT POSSIBLE for us to attain Salvation, for there is no salvation without Jesus.  I have mentioned before that there was no grace available to humans before Jesus’ Sacrifice on the Cross.  Grace was lost when sin entered this world.  Throughout the whole Old Testament, we see that the Chosen People (Israel) just COULD NOT get their act “together” and follow God as they ought.  They could not keep up their part of the covenant.  When Christ comes and gives himself to us on the Cross, then conquers sin and death through the Resurrection, he makes it possible for us to be united to the Father, through grace.  Grace is spiritual help from God to help us be holy; it gives us a share in the divinity of Christ and helps us be more like Him (who perfectly gives himself to the Father).  We need grace!  We all need grace to help us become saints and to make it to heaven.  We need grace so that we may be saved.  

So, many great theologians, bishops and popes of our Church have taught us that Mary, in a mystical and spiritual way, is the Mother of all grace, since she is the Mother of Jesus.  Miravalle says again, “Mary, in giving birth to Jesus, truly communicated to us the supernatural life of grace that allows us to become children of God.”  I really like that phrase from Dr. Miravalle.  Mary communicated to us the life of supernatural grace.  Let’s look at the word “communicate”.  Webster’s dictionary defines it as “to convey knowledge of or information about :  make known”, “to reveal by clear signs” or “to cause to pass from one to another”.  Using these three definitions, we can see Mary’s role in our salvation:

    By giving birth to Jesus, who is the author of Salvation and Source of all Grace, Mary “makes known” to the world the life of grace; she “reveals” to us the life of grace, and by her physical motherhood, she causes grace to pass from her womb to the whole world.  Grace enters this world through Her, and then Jesus does the work of making it available to us all.  Jesus is the DOER of salvation, he is the FORCE behind grace.  Mary is the GIVER of grace, the dispenser of grace and supernatural life.  Think about it: she carried GOD inside of her, and THROUGH HER, God, in the person of Jesus Christ, entered this world.  

So, for these reasons, she is known as the “Mediatrix of all grace” and this is where John Paul II uses the term “maternal mediation”.  She is the “mediator” of grace.  Now, let’s turn to look at what “mediator” means.  Miravalle says, “A mediator, in general, is a person who intervenes between the two other persons for the goal of uniting two parties.  The task of the mediator is not to distance further, BUT TO RECONCILE, to bring together the two parties in question”.  

Now, it is true that St. Paul says, “For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and man: the person of Jesus Christ” (1 Tim. 2:5).  Jesus perfectly and wholly united us back to God the Father by his death and resurrection.  But the story doesn’t end there.  He entrusted a Church to the Apostles, who labored and worked to help bring Jesus to others.  And the rest is history, right?  Here we are, still trying to spread the Good News and trying to GIVE Jesus to others.  We offer prayers and sacrifices for others, trying everything we can to help bring people back to the Father, right?  In this sense, we all SHARE in the mediation of Christ.  So, yes, there is ONE PERFECT MEDIATOR.  But we all participate in his mediation.  

And Mary is in this equation, too.  John Paul II says, “Mary’s maternal mediation does not obscure the unique and perfect mediation of Christ…”  Miravalle says, “The term ‘mediatrix’ therefore, refers to Our Lady’s role as a secondary and subordinate participant in the one mediation of Jesus Christ, who acts with the same intention as her Divine Son, the one Mediator: to redeem and reconcile humanity with God.”  And her role is unique because she alone is the mother of Jesus and she alone participated in his objective work of Redemption.

In Summary, Mary’s Maternal Mediation is exercised in three ways:  

    1.) She uniquely and actively participated with Jesus in the work of Redemption.  Thus she is known as “Co-Redemptrix”.

    2.)  As “mediatrix” she distributes all grace.  All grace comes through her.  Again, there is the distinction that Christ merited/ won for us all grace, Mary is the distributer of that grace won by His Passion, Death and Resurrection.  

    3.) She is our advocate, presenting our needs before the King (remember the peasant analogy from St. Louis de Montfort?)

 

Mary Brings us to the Cross

Once again, I want to be able to connect last week’s readings to this week’s since we meet in the middle of a week.  Last week we read about St. Maximilian Kolbe’s wisdom regarding Mary and Consecration.  We learned about the Immaculate Conception,and I hope that you went away in AWE of God’s wonderful plan to include Mary in our Salvation.  Mary has a pre-eminent role in Salvation History and NEEDS to have a pre-eminent role in our own personal faith history as well.  That’s why we’re all here, right?!?

 

There are some things that Koble touches on that John Paul II will help us discover deeper.  What I want to highlight to “wrap up” Koble’s week is this:

    “We need to learn to LIVE this consecration to the Immaculata.  We need to ‘belong to her in an ever more perfect way.’  How do we do this?  Simple.  We learn to love the Immaculata.  How?  By relying on her powerful intercession, experiencing her tender care, speaking to her from our hearts, letting ourselves be led by her, having recourse to her in all things, and trusting her completely.”

   

 Then again, Kolbe tells us that we need to “help extend as far as possible the blessed kingdom of the most Sacred Heart of Jesus.”  So, as a summary, Kolbe encourages us to carry Mary in our hearts, internally, every single day, and then to share her with others so that we may grow the Kingdom of Jesus.  And this really is what Mother Teresa is going to help us see in such a beautiful way!  

    Kolbe tells us to let ourselves be led by Mary, trusting her completely.  Mother Teresa shows us that, when we let ourselves be led by Mary, she is ultimately going to lead us to her son’s Cross and to share in that Cross.  

Mother Teresa’s whole life centered around the gospel scene in John chapter 19:28: “After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, ‘I thirst”.  It is true that physically speaking, Christ was probably thirsty and needed a drink.  But, hanging there on the Cross, knowing he was about to leave this earth, and couple that with the fact that it was very difficult and painful for him to speak, his words were very purposeful.  There is so much meaning to this phrase!  Mother Teresa realizes that Christ here is speaking of his thirst for love, his thirst for souls to be united with Him in love.  He thirsts for US!  And I think Mother Teresa also is able to meditate on his humanity: in his suffering, in his weakest, darkest hour, he feels alone and rejected because of the weight of sin that he feels (our sins!).  He just thirsts for love in such a human way.  He wants to be comforted and consoled.  

 

 Mother Teresa was able to see in this her life mission to bring herself and others to the foot of the Cross to comfort the sweet Jesus, as he waits and thirsts for us.  

   

This is something that I could meditate on for quite awhile.  Two years ago, I read “Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta” a book which compiles all of Mother Teresa’s personal letters.  She talks SO MUCH about the fact that Christ thirsts for our love and for souls to be united with Him.  In the Catechism, it says, “The wonder of prayer is revealed beside the well where we come seeking water: there Christ comes to meet every human being.  It is he who first seeks us and asks us for a drink.  Jesus thirsts; his asking arises from the depths of God’s desire for us...God thirsts that we might thirst for Him…” (paragraph 2560).

  

  This image of Christ on the Cross, saying, “I thirst” is a reflection of the heart of God our Father.  The God of the universe, who created the universe, who knows everything, who is all powerful, who is eternal, THIRSTS for love.  It blows my mind to think about it!  How can God thirst? HE IS GOD!!  “God is love” and not only does He GIVE us love, he thirsts for love.  

   

When we are thirsty, aren’t we kind of desperate?  We get to such a vulnerable point, right?  Our whole self just thinks about getting a drink, we get fixated on quenching our thirst, and when we get a drink, it is so wonderful!  We enjoy that drink!  The same is with God.  He is so desperate for our love, so desperate that we might be thirsty for him...He is consumed in thinking about and desiring US…he is hanging on the Cross, in the most vulnerable state, wishing that we would satisfy his thirst and be with Him as he suffers.  

 

    And Mother Teresa does give herself to Jesus, she does everything she can to satisfy his thirst.  She realizes that not only is He thirsty for just her, but for ALL PEOPLE.  His thirst won’t be satisfied until all people are drawn to Him.  Have you ever had that realization?  “Gosh, Christ sure does love me, he sure is pursuing me everyday.  And he feels that way about EVERY SINGLE PERSON EVER!”  I will often find myself in a crowd, whether at the grocery store or mall or something like that, and I will have an “out of body” experience where, mentally, I just watch these individual people going by me and imagine how God feels about every one of them.  And I can feel so small in that moment.  The sadness I see in people eyes...they’re lost.  How can I comfort these people, how can I bring them to Jesus?  This is where Mother Teresa found her calling, to bring people to meet this Thirst of Jesus.

 

    She writes a letter to the women who are following her in the Missionaries of Charity and she says, “We are reminding the world of His thirst...I worry some of you still have not really met Jesus - one to one - you and Jesus alone.  We may spend time in the chapel - but have you seen with the eyes of your soul how He looks at you with love?  Do you really know the living Jesus - not from books but from being with Him in your heart?  Have you heard the loving words He speaks to you?  Ask for the grace, He is longing to give it.  Until you can hear Jesus in the silence of your own heart, you will not hear Him saying, ‘I thirst’ in the hearts of the poor’”  

 

    Then later she talks about how Mary was really the first person to understand Jesus’ cry of “I thirst”.  Think about it: Mary initiated Christ’s first miracle at the Wedding of Cana, where he turned water into wine...Mary initiated her Son to perform the work of quenching the thirst of others.  And she is there to see the cruelty and suffering inflicted on her Son and she sees how desperate He is to be with us.  So desperate that he will die for us.  

    MARY’S ROLE IS TO BRING US FACE TO FACE WITH THE SUFFERING JESUS.

 

    This past spring, during Lent, Women of the Word studied the 7 Sorrows of Mary (which can be found on our website).  Mary suffered immensely in her life as she “pondered” God’s will for her son and as she watched her own son be murdered.  She witnessed it.  She witnessed her own son’s murder.  Again, this blows my mind.  And not once did she ever fight it.  

 

    Personally, I have a 3 year old little boy.  He holds such a special place in my heart.  He is a Momma’s boy!  And i KNOW that through out his WHOLE LIFE, I will hold these memories of him as a baby and toddler in my heart and refer back to this image engrained in my heart.  He will always be my baby!!!

 

    Well, Jesus was Mary’s “Baby”.  If I ever knew that my son would be tortured and murdered...it is unfathomable.  I would say, “No, no no!”  I want to read to you a reflection that I wrote for one of our classes from our study this past spring on the 6th and 7th sorrows of Mary (Jesus was pierced and buried):

“We have wondered, Mary, did you know?  Did she know that it would be HER Son’s own blood and water that would mark every Christian throughout the centuries?  The lance “poured out” the precious blood and tears of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  Was Mary herself the lance, going straight into Christ’s heart, offering salvation for the whole world? Was this lance the physical blow, the physical representation of what her heart had been going through the past 24 hours?  The blow was to Jesus’ body, but it was felt by Mary.  

 

And if we think about it, really, this act of the soldier piercing the heart of Christ to issue forth blood and water, can we see ourselves here?  It is our infirmities which break His heart, and it is His most precious heart that we seek to be in union with.  Oh Lord, that WE would be the lance, rushing straight to the Sacred Heart to receive His love and mercy, to be bathed and covered with His Most Precious Blood, to wash away our sins! And in uniting ourselves with the Sacred Heart, we must remember Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart as well.

 

Then, Jesus is brought down from the Cross. He is handed to Mary.  She is finally able to hold him, to caress him, to console him, to speak to  Him.  We have imagined the suffering and separation she must have felt while watching her Son’s Passion and Death; we have ached with her as she so desperately wished she could end all the suffering or at least to console him.  

 

If Mary held back any display of her emotions up to this point in hopes to be that support and consolation for her son, then I can only imagine the scene of her holding her dead Son.  A quiet, but deep cry.  A sob.  In that moment, as the mockery, the violence was over, did Mary sense the mockery her Son would CONTINUE to endure throughout the upcoming centuries?  He would continue to be cursed, ignored, spat upon, stomped on, blatantly despised and rejected.  She wept for her son.

 

As Jesus, laying on the Cross, cried out, “My god, My god, why have you forsaken me?”, I wonder if this moment, when Mary finally gets to hold her son’s lifeless body, if she felt that same distance from the Father.  If she felt the darkness and ugliness of sin in her own body now, as she holds the heavy, blood soaked body of her son.  She continues to weep.

 

And she wept for us.  WE are the ones who ignore Jesus, who forget him.  Our sins pierce His most innocent, pure, loving heart.  In this moment, she is holding the death, the bloody physical death which sin causes, and she weeps for us.  She knows that we will not stop to see her Son.  We will not care.  We will be broken apart from her son; WE WILL BE LOST. And she weeps.  

Lamentations 1:12 says, “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?  Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me, which the Lord inflicted…”

Again, does Mary remember some of Jesus’ last words, “I thirst”? She knows.  He thirsts for love; He thirsts for OUR LOVE.  He thirsts to be united with His children.  Does she vow to “quench” His thirst?  To bring His beloved children back to the Father?  Does she vow to work aimlessly to bring souls to Him? Her son’s death will not be in vain.  She will quench His thirst.”

 

There are many times that we ignore Jesus on the Cross; we ignore His suffering.  Or we don’t feel the heaviness of our own sins.  Fr. Gaitley says, “Thankfully, the one who has a sinless, perfect immaculate heart will help us.  She’ll give us her compassionate heart.  She’ll even let us live in her heart.”

 

Our Lady will not let her Son’s suffering “got to waste”.  So she is working with us to bring others to Him.  We are her “partners”.  I myself cannot reach out to ALL PEOPLES to help them to see Jesus.  But Mary, because of her vantage point in Heaven, CAN.  And that is what Mother Teresa understood.  We CANNOT KNOW what Jesus truly meant when he said “I thirst” without Our Lady’s help.  A title for Mary is, “Our Lady of Sorrows”.  

 

St. Albert the Great said, “that as we are under great obligations to Jesus for His Passion endured for our love, so also are we under great obligations to Mary for the martyrdom which She voluntarily suffered for our salvation in the death of Her Son.” He said “voluntarily (suffered), since, as St. Agnes revealed to St. Bridget, ‘our compassionate and benign Mother was satisfied rather to endure any torment than that our souls should not be redeemed.’” Mother Mary will bring us to our Redemption and help us bring others to Christ!

 

Let us invoke Blessed Mother Teresa’s intercession and thank God for the insights that she has given us as we continue to journey to knowing the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus.