On Mary as Mediatrix of All Graces by Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange
Fr. Reginald
Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P.
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On Mary as Mediatrix of All Graces by Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange
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The Influence of Mary, Mediatrix
TAKEN FROM THE THREE AGES OF THE INTERIOR LIFE, VOL. 1, chapter 6
Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat, 1948
Original French edition © The Dominican Province, France.
English translation © Baronius Press Ltd
WHEN the bases of the interior life are considered, we cannot discuss the
action of Christ, the universal Mediator, on His Mystical Body without also
speaking of the influence of Mary Mediatrix. As we remarked, many persons
delude themselves, maintaining that they reach union with God without having
continual recourse to our Lord, Who is the way, the truth, and the life.
Another error would consist in wishing to go to our Lord without going first to
Mary, whom the Church calls in a special feast the Mediatrix of all graces.
Protestants have fallen into this last error. Without
going as far as this deviation, there are Catholics who do not see clearly
enough the necessity of having recourse to Mary that they may attain to
intimacy with the Savior. Blessed Grignion de Montfort speaks even of “doctors
who know the Mother of God only in a speculative, dry, sterile, and indifferent
manner; who fear that devotion to the Blessed Virgin is abused, and that injury
is done to our Lord by honoring too greatly His holy Mother. If they speak of
devotion to Mary, it is less to recommend it than to destroy the abuses that
have grown up around it.”[1] They
seem to believe that Mary is a hindrance to reaching Divine union. According to
Blessed Grignion, we lack humility if we neglect the mediators whom God has
given us because of our frailty. Intimacy with our Lord in prayer will be
greatly facilitated by a true and profound devotion to Mary.
To get a clear idea of this devotion, we shall consider what must be understood
by universal mediation, and also how Mary is the mediatrix of all graces, as is
affirmed by tradition and by the Office and Mass of Mary Mediatrix which are
celebrated on May 31. Much has been written on the subject in recent years. We
shall here consider this doctrine in its relation to the interior life.[2]
THE MEANING OF UNIVERSAL MEDIATION
St. Thomas says: “Properly
speaking, the office of a mediator is to join together those between whom he
mediates: for extremes are united by an intermediary. Now to unite men to God
perfectly belongs to Christ, through Whom men are reconciled to God, according
to 2 Cor. 5:19: ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.’ And,
consequently, Christ alone is the perfect Mediator of God and men, inasmuch as,
by His death, He reconciled the human race to God. Hence the Apostle, after
saying, ‘Mediator of God and man, the man Christ Jesus,’ added: ‘Who gave
Himself a redemption for all.’ However, nothing hinders certain others from
being called mediators, in some respect, between God and man, forasmuch as they
cooperate in uniting men to God, dispositively, or ministerially.”[3] In this sense, adds
St. Thomas,[4]the prophets and priests of
the Old Testament may be called mediators, and also the priests of the New
Testament, as ministers of the true Mediator.
St. Thomas explains further how Christ as man is the Mediator: “Because, as
man, He is distant both from God by nature, and from man by dignity of both
grace and glory. Again, it belongs to Him, as man, to unite men to God, by
communicating to men both precepts and gifts, and by offering satisfaction and
prayers to God for men.”[5] Christ satisfied and
merited as man by a satisfaction and a merit which drew an infinite value from
His Divine personality. This mediation is twofold, both descending and
ascending. It consists in giving to men the light and grace of God, and in offering
to God, on behalf of men, the worship and reparation due to Him.
As has been said, there is nothing to prevent there being mediators below
Christ, subordinated to Him as secondary mediators, such as were the prophets
and priests of the Old Law for the chosen people. It may thus be asked whether
Mary is the universal mediatrix for all men and for the distribution of all
graces in general and in particular. St. Albert the Great speaks of the
mediation of Mary as superior to that of the prophets when he says: “Mary was
chosen by the Lord, not as a minister but to be associated in a very special
and quite intimate manner in the work of the redemption of the human race:
‘Faciamus ei adjutorium simile sibi.'”[6]
Is not Mary in her quality as Mother of God completely designated to be the
universal mediatrix? Is she not truly the intermediary between God and men? She
is, indeed, much below God and Christ because she is a creature, but much above
all men by the grace of her Divine maternity, “which makes her attain the very
frontiers of the Divinity,”[7] and by the plenitude
of grace received at the moment of her Immaculate Conception, a plentitude
which did not cease to grow until her death. Not only was Mary thus designated
by her Divine maternity for this function of mediatrix, but she received it in
truth and exercised it. This is shown by Tradition,[8] which has given her
the title of universal mediatrix in the proper sense of the word,[9] although in a manner
subordinated to Christ. This title is consecrated by the special feast which is
celebrated in the universal Church.
To have a clear understanding of the meaning and import of this title, we shall consider how it is becoming to Mary for two principal reasons: because she cooperated by satisfaction and merit in the sacrifice of the Cross; and because she does not cease to intercede for us, to obtain for us, and to distribute to us all the graces that we receive. Such is the double mediation, ascending and descending, which we ought to ponder in order daily to draw greater profit from it.
MARY
MEDIATRIX BY HER COOPERATION IN THE SACRIFICE
OF THE CROSS
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During the entire course of
her earthly life, the Blessed Virgin cooperated in the sacrifice of her Son.
First of all, the free consent that she gave on Annunciation day was necessary
for the accomplishment of the mystery of the Incarnation, as if, says St.
Thomas,[10] God had waited for
the consent of humanity through the voice of Mary. By this free fiat, she
cooperated in the sacrifice of the Cross, since she gave us its Priest and
Victim. She cooperated in it also by offering her Son in the Temple, as a most
pure host, at the moment when the aged Simeon saw by prophetic light that this
Child was the “salvation … prepared before the face of all peoples: a light to
the revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel.”[11] More enlightened than
Simeon, Mary offered her Son, and began to suffer deeply with Him when she
heard the holy old man tell her that He would be a sign which would be
contradicted and that a sword would pierce her soul.
Mary cooperated in the sacrifice of Christ, especially at the foot of the
Cross, uniting herself to Him, more closely than can be expressed, by
satisfaction or reparation, and by merit. Some Saints, in particular the
stigmatics, have been exceptionally united to the sufferings and merits of our
Savior: for example, St. Francis of Assisi and St. Catherine of Siena, and yet
their share in His suffering cannot be compared with Mary’s. How did Mary offer
her Son? As He offered Himself. By a miracle, Jesus could easily have prevented
the blows of His executioners from causing His death; He offered Himself
voluntarily. “No man,” He says, “taketh it (My life) away from Me: but I lay it
down of Myself. And I have power to lay it down: and I have power to take it up
again.”[12] Jesus renounced His
right to life; He offered Himself wholly for our salvation. Of Mary, St. John
says: “There stood by the Cross of Jesus, His mother,”[13] surely very closely
united to Him in His suffering and oblation. As Pope Benedict XV says: “She
renounced her rights as a mother over her Son for the salvation of all men.”[14] She accepted the
Martyrdom of Christ and offered it for us. In the measure of her love, she felt
all the torments that He suffered in body and soul. More than anyone else, Mary
endured the very suffering of the Savior; she suffered for sin in the degree of
her love for God, whom sin offends; for her Son, whom sin crucified; for souls,
which sin ravishes and kills. The Blessed Virgin’s charity incomparably
surpassed that of the greatest Saints. She thus cooperated in the sacrifice of
the cross by way of satisfaction or reparation, by offering to God for us, with
great sorrow and most ardent love, the life of her most dear Son, whom she
rightly adored and who was dearer to her than her very life.
In that instant, the Savior satisfied for us in strict justice by His human
acts which drew from His divine personality an infinite value capable of making
reparation for the offense of all mortal sins that ever had been or would be
committed. His love pleased God more than all sins displease Him.[15] Herein lies the
essence of the mystery of the redemption. In union with her Son on Calvary,
Mary satisfied for us by a satisfaction based, not on strict justice, but on
the rights of the infinite friendship or charity which united her to God.[16]
At the moment when her Son was about to die on the Cross, apparently defeated
and abandoned, she did not cease for a moment to believe that He was the Word
made flesh, the Savior of the world, Who would rise in three days as He had
predicted. This was the greatest act of faith and hope ever made; after
Christ’s act of love, it was also the greatest act of love. It made Mary the
Queen of Martyrs, for she was a Martyr, not only for Christ but with Christ; so
much so, that a single Cross sufficed for her Son and for her. She was, in a
sense, nailed to it by her love for Him. She was thus the Co-redemptrix, as
Pope Benedict XV says, in this sense, that with Christ, through Him, and in
Him, she bought back the human race.[17]
For the same reason, all that Christ merited for us on the Cross in strict
justice, Mary merited for us by congruous merit, based on the charity that
united her to God. Christ alone, as head of the human race, could strictly
merit to transmit Divine life to us. But Pius X sanctioned the teaching of
theologians when he wrote: “Mary, united to Christ in the work of salvation,
merited de congruo for us what Christ merited for us de
condigno.”[18]
This common teaching of theologians, thus sanctioned by the sovereign pontiffs,
has for its principal traditional basis the fact that Mary is called in all
Greek and Latin tradition the new Eve, Mother of all men in regard to the life
of the soul, as Eve was in regard to the life of the body. It stands to reason
that the spiritual mother of all men ought to give them spiritual life, not as
the principal physical cause (for God alone can be the principal physical cause
of Divine grace), but as the moral cause by merit de congruo,
merit de condigno being reserved to Christ.
The Office and Mass proper to Mary Mediatrix assemble the principal testimonies
of Tradition on this point with their scriptural foundations, in particular the
clear-cut statements of St. Ephrem, the glory of the Syriac Church, of St.
Germanus of Constantinople, of St. Bernard, and of St. Bernardine of Siena.
Even as early as the second and third centuries, St. Justin, St. Irenaeus, and
Tertullian insisted on the parallel between Eve and Mary, and showed that if
the first concurred in our fall, the second collaborated in our redemption.[19]
This teaching of Tradition itself rests in part on the words of Christ, related
in the Gospel of the Mass for the Feast of Mary Mediatrix. The Savior was about to die
and, seeing “His mother and the disciple standing whom He loved, He saith to
His mother: Woman, behold thy son. After that, He saith to the disciple: Behold
thy mother. And from that hour the disciple took her to his own.”[20] The literal meaning of these words, “Behold
thy son,” points to St. John, but for God, events and persons signify others;[21]here St. John represents spiritually all men
purchased by the sacrifice of the Cross. God and His Christ speak
not only by the words They use, but by the events and persons whose masters
They are, and by whom They signify what They wish according to the plan of
Providence. The dying Christ, addressing Mary and John, saw in John the personification
of all men, for whom He was shedding His Blood. As this word, so to speak,
created in Mary a most profound maternal affection, which did not cease to
envelop the soul of the beloved disciple, this supernatural affection extended
to all of us and made Mary truly the spiritual mother of all men. In the eighth
century we find Abbot Rupert expressing this same idea, and after him St.
Bernardine of Siena, Bossuet, Blessed Grignion de Montfort, and many others. It
is the logical result of what tradition tells us about the new Eve, the
spiritual mother of all men.
Finally, if we studied
theologically all that is required for merit de congruo, based not
on justice, but on charity or supernatural friendship which unites us to God,
we could not find it better realized than in Mary. Since, in fact, a good
Christian mother by her virtue thus merits graces for her children,[22] with how much greater
reason can Mary, who is incomparably more closely united to God by the
plenitude of her charity, merit de congruo for all men.
Such is the ascending mediation
of Mary in so far as she offered the sacrifice of the cross with Christ for us,
making reparation and meriting for us. We shall now consider the
descending mediation, by which she distributes the gifts of God to us.
MARY OBTAINS AND DISTRIBUTES ALL GRACES
That Mary obtains for us and distributes to us all graces is a certain doctrine, according to what we have just said about the mother of all men. As mother, she is interested in their salvation, prays for them, and obtains for them the graces they receive. In the Ave Maris Stella we read:
Salve
vincla reis,
Profer lumen caecis,
Mala nostra pelle,
Bona cuncta posce.[23]
Break the sinner’s fetters,
To the blind give day,
Ward all evils from us,
For all blessings pray.
In an encyclical on the
Rosary, Leo XIII says: According to the will of God, nothing is granted to us
except through Mary; and, as no one can go to the Father except through the
Son, so generally no one can draw near to Christ except through Mary.”[24]
The Church, in fact, turns to Mary to obtain graces of all kinds, both temporal
and spiritual; among these last, from the grace of conversion up to that of
final perseverance, to say nothing of those needed by virgins to preserve
virginity, by apostles to exercise their apostolate, by Martyrs to remain firm
in the faith. In the Litany of Loreto, which has been universally
recited in the Church for many centuries, Mary is for this reason called:
“Health of the sick, refuge of sinners, comforter of the afflicted, help of
Christians, Queen of Apostles, of Martyrs, of Confessors, of Virgins.” Thus all
kinds of graces are distributed by her, even, in a sense, those of the
Sacraments; for she merited them for us in union with Christ on Calvary. In
addition, she disposes us, by her prayer, to approach the Sacraments and to receive
them well. At times she even sends us a priest, without whom this sacramental
help would not be given to us.
Finally, not only every kind of
grace is distributed to us by Mary, but every grace in particular. Is this not what the faith
of the Church says in the words of the Hail Mary: “Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen”? This “now” is said
every moment in the Church by thousands of Christians who thus ask for the
grace of the present moment. This grace is the most individual of graces; it
varies with each of us, and for each one of us at every moment. If we are
distracted while saying this word, Mary, who is not distracted, knows our
spiritual needs of every instant, and prays for us, and obtains for us all the
graces that we receive. This teaching, contained in the faith of the Church and
expressed by the common prayers (lex orandi lex credendi), is based on
Scripture and Tradition. Even during her earthly life, Mary truly appears in
Scripture as the distributor of graces. Through Mary, Jesus sanctified the
Precursor when she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth and sang the Magnificat.
Through His mother, Jesus confirmed the faith of the disciples at Cana, by granting
the miracle that she asked. Through her, He strengthened the faith of John on
Calvary, saying to him: “Behold thy mother.” Lastly, by her the Holy Ghost came
down upon the Apostles, for she was praying with them in the cenacle on
Pentecost day when the Holy Ghost descended in the form of tongues of fire.[25]
With even greater reason after the Assumption and her entrance into glory, Mary
is the distributor of all graces. As a beatified mother knows
in Heaven the spiritual needs of her children whom she left on earth, Mary
knows the spiritual needs of all men. Since she is an excellent mother, she
prays for them and, since she is all powerful over the heart of her Son, she
obtains for them all the graces that they receive, all which those receive who
do not persist in evil. She is, it has been said, like an aqueduct of graces
and, in the mystical body, like the virginal neck uniting the head to its
members.
When we treat of what the prayer
of proficients ought to be, we shall speak of true devotion to Mary as it was
understood by Blessed Grignion de Montfort. Even now we can see how
expedient it is frequently to use the prayer of mediators, that is, to begin
our prayer by a trusting, filial conversation with Mary, that she may lead us
to the intimacy of her Son, and that the holy soul of the Savior may then lift
us to union with God, since Christ is the way, the truth, and the life.[26]
[1] Blessed Grignion de Montfort, Treatise on the True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, chap. 1, a. I, § I. See also The Secret of Mary, by the same author. It is a summary of the preceding treatise.
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[2] Cf. St. Bernard, Serm. in Dominic. infra. Oct. Assumpt., no. I (PL, CLXXXIII, 429). Serm. in Nativ. B. V. Mariae De aquaeductu, nos. 6-7 (PL, CLXXXIII, 440)’ Epist. ad Canonicos Lugdunenses de Conceptione S. Mariae, no. 2 (PL, CLXXXII, 333). St. Albert the Great, Mariale sive Quaestiones super E’Vangelium: Missus est (ed. A. Borgnet; Paris, 1890-99, XXXVII, q. 29). St. Bonaventure, Sermones de B. V. Maria, De Annuntiatione, serm. V (Quarrachi, 1901, IX, 679). St. Thomas, In Salut. angel. expositio. Bossuet, Sermon sur la Sainte Vierge. Terrien, S.J., La Mère de Dieu et la Mère des hommes, III. Hugon, O.P., Marie pleine de grâce. J. Bittremieux, De mediatione universali B. Mariae V. quoad gratias, 1926, Beyaert, Bruges. Leon Leloir, La mediation mariale dans la théologie contemporaine, 1933, ibid. P. R. Bernard. O.P., Le mysètre de Marie, Desclee de Brouwer, Paris, 1933. This excellent book ought to be meditated upon. See also P. G. Friethoff, O.P., De alma Socia Christi mediatoris, Rome, 1936.}. V. Bainvel, S.J., Le saint coeur de Marie, 1919. P. Joret, O.P., Le Rosaire de Marie, an annotated translation of the Encyclicals of Leo XIII on the Rosary, 1933.
[3] See IIIa, q. 26, a. 1.
[4] Ibid., ad 1um.
[5] Ibid.,a. 2.
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[6] Mariale, 42.
[7] Cajetan.
[8] Cf. J. Bittremieux, op. cit.
[9] Cf. G. Friethoff, O.P., Angelicum (October, 1933), pp. 469-77.
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[10] See IIIa, q. 30, a. 1.
[11] Luke 2:30-32.
[12] John 10:18.
[13] Ibid., 19:25.
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[14] Litt. Apost., Inter sodalicia, March 21, 1918. (Act. Ap. Sed., 1918, p. 182; quoted in Denzinger, 16th ed., no. 3034, n. 4.)
[15] See IIIa, q. 48, a. 2: “He properly atones for an offense who offers some thing which the offended one loves not less, or even more, than he detested the offense. But by suffering out of love and obedience, Christ gave more to God than was required to compensate for the offense of the whole human race. …First of all, because of the exceeding charity from which He suffered; secondly, on account of the dignity of His life which He laid down in atonement, for it was the life of One Who was God and man; thirdly, on account of the extent of the Passion, and the greatness of the grief endured.”
[16] “Satisfactio B. M. Virginis fundatur, non in stricta justitia, sed in jure amicabili.” This is the common teaching of theologians.
[17] Benedict XV, Litt.
Apost., citat.: “Ita cum Filio patiente et moriente
passa est et paene commortua, sic materna in Filium jura pro hominum salute
abdicavit placandaeque Dei justitiae, quantum ad se pertinebat, Filium
immolavit, ut dici merito queat, ipsam cum Christo humanum genus
redemisse.” Denzinger, Enchiridion, no. 3034, n.4.
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[18] Cf. Piux X, Encyclical, Ad diem illum, Feb. 2, 1904 (Denzinger, Enchiridion, 3034): “Quoniam universis sanctitate praestat conjunctioneque cum Christo atque a Christo ascita in humanae salutis opus, de congruo, ut aiunt, promeruit nobis, quae Christus de condigno promeruit, estque princeps largiendarum gratiarum ministra.” It should be remarked that merit de congruo, which is based in jure amicabili seu in caritate is a merit properly so called, although inferior to merit de condigno. The word “merit” is used for both according to an analogy of proper and not only metaphorical proportionality.
[19] St. Irenaeus, who
represents the Churches of Asia where he was trained, the Church of Rome where
he lived, and the Churches of Gaul where he taught, wrote (Adv. haeres., V, 19,
I): “As Eve, seduced by the discourse of the (rebellious) Angel, turned away
from God and betrayed His word, so Mary heard from the Angel the good tidings
of the truth. She bore God in her bosom because she obeyed His word. … The human race, enchained by a virgin, was
delivered by a virgin …; the prudence of the serpent yielded to the simplicity
of the dove; the bonds which chained us in death were broken.”
In a prayer used in the second nocturn of the Office of Mary Mediatrix, St.
Ephrem concludes from this parallel between Eve and the Mother of God, that
“Mary is, after Jesus, the mediator par excellence, the mediatrix
of the entire world, and that it is through her that we obtain all spiritual
goods (tu creaturam replesti omni genere beneficii caelestibus laetitiam
attulisti, terrestria salvasti).
St. Germanus of Constantinople (Oratio 9, PG, XCVIII, 377 ff.,
quoted in the same nocturn of the Office) even says: “No one is saved except by
thee, O most holy; no one is delivered except through thee, O most immaculate;
no one receives the gifts of God except through thee, O purest.”
St. Bernard says: “O our mediatrix, O our advocate, reconcile us with thy Son;
recommend us to thy Son; present us to thy Son” (Second sermon In adventu,
5). “It is
the will of God that we should have everything through Mary” (On the Nativity
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, no. 7). “She is full of grace; the overflow is
poured out on us” (Sermon II on the Assumption, no. 2).
[20] John 19:26f.
[21] See Ia q. 1, a. 10: “The author of Holy Scripture is God, in Whose power it is to signify His meaning, not by words only (as men also can do), but also by things themselves.”
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[22] See Ia IIae, q. 114, a. 6: “It is clear that no one can merit condignly for another his first grace, save Christ alone … inasmuch as He is the head of the Church and the author of human salvation. … But one may merit the first grace for another congruously; because a man in grace fulfills God’s will, and it is congruous and in harmony with friendship that God should fulfill man’s desire for the salvation of another, although sometimes there may be an impediment on the part of him whose salvation the just man desires.”
[23] The Jansenists altered this verse in order not to affirm this universal mediation of Mary.
[24] Encyclical on the Rosary, Octobri mense, September 22, 1891 (Denzinger, no. 3033).
[25] Acts 1:14.
[26] Several Thomistic theologians admit that, as the humanity of Christ is the physical instrumental cause of all the graces that we receive (cf. St. Thomas, IIIa, q. 43, a. 2; Q. 48, a. 6; q. 62, a. 5), everything leads us to think that, in a manner subordinated to Christ, Mary is not only the moral but also the physical instrumental cause of the transmission of these graces. We do not think that this can be established with true certitude, but the principles formulated by St. Thomas on this subject in regard to the humanity of Christ incline us to think so.
Categories Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, Spiritual Reading
Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P.
Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, OP (1877–1964) was a professor of metaphysics and theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome from 1909 until 1960. A faithful Thomist, standing squarely within the Dominican tradition of Thomist commentary, he penned many articles and books through the course of his very active career. Although best known for his masterpiece in spiritual theology, The Three Ages of the Interior Life, he wrote extensive commentaries on St. Thomas Aquinas’s Summa theologiae, a massive two-volume work devoted to the topic of apologetic theology, multiple philosophical texts defending Thomistic metaphysics and epistemology, and a number of studies dedicated to particular theological topics such as Providence, Predestination, and the problem of theological modernism. Through his many years of activity, he defended the truths of the faith, as well as the theological positions of the Thomist school, doing so with a charitable but firm tone. A man of apostolic zeal, when not teaching and writing, he dedicated much time to the vocation of preaching that is eponymous for his religious order, in particular in the form of retreats for religious and laity alike. Through this teaching and writing, he influenced countless souls and left a mark upon Thomism which remains to this day and, in fact, is finding new appreciation among readers seeking to understand the great principles of Thomist thought. English translations of his works can be found at St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology and Cluny Media. Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange is one of the many figures in our modern epoch that is promoted at OnePeterFive as a spiritual father to whom we must pay homage and heed for wisdom in our times.
