CHRIST’S MEDIATION: V. REDEMPTION.
MARY’S MEDIATION. – For one to be a mediator two things are required: 1° that he be a middle term between two extremes from which he is distinct, yet with which he has something in common; 2° that he unite the two extremes by communicating to one the things of the other (St. Th. 3°, q. 26, a. 2, ad 3). When the first condition is verified we have ontological mediation; when the second is verified we have moral mediation.
According to St. Paul, there is only one mediator between God and men, Christ (1 Tim. 2:5): “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” Thus the Church’s Magisterium teaches with the Fathers (cf. Council of Trent, sess. V; Denz.-U., n. 790). In Christ alone are perfectly verified the two conditions required for mediation.
Yet this principal and perfect mediation of Christ does not exclude a secondary and subordinate mediation, such as that which God willed to grant to Mary, indissolubly united to the Mediator in the entire work of mediation. She was indeed the instrument through which the incarnate Word made Himself the universal Mediator. This occurs through the redemptive Incarnation, which could not take place without the free consent of the Virgin. Mary was thus intimately bound, as a secondary and subordinate Mediatress, to the principal and perfect Mediator in the entire work of mediation. In her, therefore, there are verified, in a secondary and subordinate manner, all the conditions required for a mediator: first, the reason for being “middle” between the two extremes (between the Creator and creatures), since as a mere creature she is infinitely distant from the Creator and close to creatures; yet as the true Mother of the Creator she may be said to be infinitely distant (in a moral sense) from creatures and close to the Creator, inasmuch as she enters into the Order of the Hypostatic Union. Moreover, there is found in her the office of uniting the two extremes, namely, the Creator with creatures, since she presented to the Creator the merits and satisfactions of creatures, and distributes to creatures the gifts, that is, all the graces of the Creator.
Given this intimate and indissoluble union of Mary Mediatress with Christ Mediator in the entire work of mediation, it follows that Mary’s mediation extends as far as Christ’s mediation. Now, according to St. Paul, Christ’s mediation embraces two distinct phases: Redemption (the earthly mediation) and intercession (the heavenly mediation), that is, the distribution of all and each of the graces and fruits of Redemption (cf. I. Bover, Pauli doctrina de Christi mediatore Maria mediationi applicata, in Marianum, 4 [1942], pp. 81-89). Mary’s mediation, therefore, also embraces, in a secondary and subordinate manner, two phases: cooperation in the Redemption (v. CO-REDEMPTRIX) and cooperation in the distribution of all graces, the fruit of the Redemption. This second phase is based on the first. For whoever cooperates in acquiring a treasure is justly entitled to cooperate in its dispensation. That the Blessed Virgin is the universal Mediatress, that is, cooperates in the distribution of each grace to each individual, in the sense that God grants no grace to anyone without Mary’s intervention, is a doctrine repeatedly taught by the Church’s ordinary Magisterium, especially by recent Supreme Pontiffs, and commonly accepted by theologians. The very feast of Mary, Mediatrix of all Graces, instituted in 1921 by Benedict XV at the request of Cardinal D. Mercier for the dioceses of Belgium and for any others that might request it, to be celebrated on May 31, practically confirms the moral certainty of this singular prerogative of Mary. Pius XI, in confirming the doctrine and the feast of Mary’s mediation, calls the Virgin: “gratiarum omnium apud Deum sequestram” (Apostolic Letter Congruit sane, Jan. 14, 1926: AAS, 18 [1926], p. 213). Pius XII links Mary’s mediation not only to her corrective merit, but also to the fact of her glorious Assumption and her queenship (Encyclical Miserentissimus, May 8, 1928: AAS, 20 [1928], p. 178; Encyclical Mystici corporis Christi, June 29, 1943: ibid., 35 [1943], pp. 247 ff.).
Besides the Protoevangelium (Gen. 3:15), in which Mary appears associated with Christ in the entire work of salvation, and therefore not only in the acquisition but also in the distribution of all graces, the New Testament contains some eloquent indications of this divine design. All graces are either of a spiritual or a material order. Now all graces of both orders were obtained by Jesus Christ through Mary. The first spiritual grace (the sanctification of John the Baptist) was given, as Elizabeth attested, through Mary (Lk. 1:41-45). The first grace of a material order (the conversion of water into wine at Cana) was granted through Mary’s intercession (Jn. 2:1-11). These two graces seem to indicate a general law of Providence in the dispensation of every grace, a law so well enunciated by St. Bernard and repeated by the Church. Christian tradition, moreover, began to express this truth in practice at an early date. It suffices to recall the recently discovered Egyptian papyrus, dated by experts to the 3rd century, which contains the well-known prayer “Sub tuum praesidium,” in which there is expressed a lively confidence in Mary’s universal intercession: “Despise not our petitions, but deliver us from all dangers.” It seems an echo anticipated in the hymn Ave Maris stella, from the beginning of the 9th century, which asks: “Keep us from all evils, obtain for us all good things.” This universal mediation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the distribution of all graces has been expressed by the Fathers and writers through metaphors such as aqueduct, neck, life, gate, etc. (cf. I. Bover, De universali B. Maria V. Mediatione metaphorica testimonia, in Marianum, 3 [1941], pp. 201-37). It is debated whether in Marian mediation, besides moral causality (that of intercession), physical instrumental causality should also be admitted.
Given the solid foundation upon which rests the universal mediation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the distribution of all graces—an issue that for about thirty years, especially through the work of Cardinal D. Mercier, has given rise to a strong movement in favor of a solemn definition by the Roman Pontiff—