INSIGTHS ON THE TRUTH OF THE TITLE; MARY COREDEMPTRIX

_____________

A Book Report On Mariology Submitted to Rev. Fr. Mariano Rondael RCJ

_____________

In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Course in Mariology

_____________

by GERRY F. ARAMBALA November 2012

Mary as Coredemptrix

I. Introduction The role of Mary in the history of our salvation as the active, yet subordinate cooperator, side by side with the absolute Redeemer Jesus Christ, the lone and principal cause of our salvation, i.e., as the Coredemptrix is another privilege, a prerogative given to her as the faithful servant of God who because of her being the Immaculate conception was predestined by God to wage war together with her Son against the ancient serpent of Genesis 3:15. This seemingly new prerogative is somehow rooted in the foundations of the history of the Church, present in the scripture passages both in the Old and the New Testament writings and narratives. Likewise in the tradition of the Church, both in the Western and Eastern rites, present in their liturgical celebrations and in the writings of the early Church Fathers acclaiming Marys active participation in the work of restoration of life for the entire humanity. The term Coredemptrix usually requires a thorough elucidation especially when taken in its English terminology. The prefix Co in the English language often directly conjures up visions of complete equality. For instance of a co-signer of a check or a co-owner of a house is immediately equal with the other signer and other owner, and so that by such misconception of the term has somehow formulated prudent fear on the part of some modern theologians particularly, in the usage of the term Coredemptrix. Because it would seem that by employing such terminology we are putting Mary to the level of Christ as the principal and absolute Redeemer. Fr. Stefano Manelli writes, The term Coredemption means Redemption-with, as similarly the word cooperation, connotes working-with, thus indicating a neat distinction between operator and cooperator , or between principal artisan of something and secondary and subordinated artisan of the same. The Coredemptrix, therefore, is she who has redeemed with her Son the Redeemer, or has become the secondary and subordinated artisan of the universal Redemption in relation to the principal and independent artisan, Jesus the Rdeemer.[1] In another text Dr. Mark Miravalle points out: the prefix co does not mean equal, but comes from the Latin word cum which means with. The title of Coredemptrix applied to the Mother of Jesus never places Mary on a level of equality with Jesus Christ, the Divine Lord of all, in the saving process of the humanitys redemption. Rather, it denotes Marys singular and unique sharing with her son in the saving work of redemption for the human family. The Mother of Jesus participates in the redemptive work of her Savior Son, who alone could reconcile humanity with the Father in his glorious divinity and humanity[2]

II. Scriptural Foundations Every truth of our faith has its origin in Divine Revelation, whose two primary sources are Sacred Scripture and Tradition. Both sources are guaranteed by the Magisterium of the Church whose duty it is to guard the deposit of faith and confirm believers in their faith according to the word of Jesus[3] In the Old testament books, the most cited passage connoting the first revelation and prophecy of Marys intimate cooperation with the Redeemer is contained in first Gospel (ProtoEvangelium) in the book of Genesis, particularly in Gen 3:15.Following the sin committed by our

first parents in the garden, God addresses the serpent: I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed; he shall crush your head and you shall lie in wait for his heel (cf. Gen 3:15). The sacred text reveals a crucial struggle, singular and absolute, between the temper Satan and the future Redeemer, Jesus Christ. This revealed struggle will end in triumph for the seed of the woman.[4] Pope Pius IX in the apostolic letter which infallibly defined the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, explained the biblical text of Gen 3:15, writes; By this Divine prophecy [Gen 3:15], the merciful Redeemer of mankind, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, was clearly foretold; that his most Blessed Mother, the Virgin Mary, was prophetically indicated; and at the same time, the very enmity of both against the Evil one was significantly expressed. Hence, just as Christ, the Mediator between God and man, assumed human nature, blotted out the handwriting of the decree that stood against us fastened it triumphantly to the cross, so that the most holy Virgin, united with Him by a most intimate and indissoluble bond, was with Him and through Him, eternally at enmity with the serpent, and most completely triumphed over Him[5] The early Church Fathers affirmed this unique and active subordinated participation of Mary by parallelizing the Mother of God as the New Eve, who actively participated with the new Adam, Jesus Christ who won for us our Redemption by winning the struggle set by the ancient serpent of Genesis 3:15, in restoring the supernatural life of grace lost by the first Adam and the first Eve. Another Old Testament prophecy which foretells the coming of the Redeemer and consequently of the Virgin Mother, is the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14. The Lord giving Ahaz a sign of salvation for Israel: Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel[6] And through this Virgin Mother (later Virgin Mother of Nazareth) the Emmanuel, the God with us, will enter the world to effect its salvation[7] Furthermore, in the same prophetic book in Isaiah 53:3-5, it later talks about the life of the Messiah born of the Virgin Mother, referring to Him as the suffering servant of God. Jesus Christ is destined to buy back the world with his sufferings, so that Mary, as the prophesied Mother of the Messiah on Isaiah, by nature of her maternal relation, is destined to suffer with Him. The future Mother of the Redeemer was predestined to suffer with her Redeeming Son.[8] The New Testament prophecy of the significant role of Mary as the Coredemptrix comes from the inspired words of Simeon at the presentation of the child Jesus to the temple.[9] In which Simeon inspired by the Holy Spirit prophesied about the life of the future Messiah who shall be the cause for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that will be contradicted.[10] Then he addressed Mary with a sorrowful prophecy, and a sword will pierce through your own heart too.[11] This sorrowful annunciation to the Mother of the Savior confirms that her intimate sharing in the redemptive work of her Son will be at the price of profound suffering, and will lead her in the obedience of faith to the side of the suffering Redeemer.[12] The great Bl. John Paul II affirms, Simeons words seem like a second Annunciation to Mary, for they tell her of the actual historical situation in misunderstanding and sorrow. While this announcement confirms her faith in the accomplishment of the divine promises of salvation that she will have to live her obedience of faith in suffering, at the side of the suffering Savior, and that her motherhood will be mysterious and sorrowful.[13] The culminating point of the Coredemptive role of Mary in the New Testament is narrated in the book of John, particularly on John 19:26. In which Christs salvific mission culminated in his crucifixion and death actualized on Calvary when He died on the cross for our salvation upon which Mary was at his feet on Calvary where the words of the aged Simeon was fulfilled, and your heart shall be pierced with a sword.[14] And in parallelism with the Woman of Genesis 3:15, who together with her Son will work for our redemption, that is, with the Redeemer in the triumph over Satan and his seed of sin and death and in the end will emerge always victorious. Mary, who previously was the Handmaid of the Lord at the annunciation, becomes through the bitter suffering of Calvary the Woman with the Man of Redemption, the Mother with the Son of Salvation, the Lady (Domina) with the Lord (Dominus) of all peoples.[15]

III. Historical and Liturgical Foundations

A. Early Patristic Foundation The facts on the historicity and the theological truthfulness of Marys subordinate cooperation in the work of salvation together with her Savior Son, Jesus Christ can be traced down back to the first writings of the early second century Fathers. Whose theology is strongly based on the assumption of the inseparability of Christs Incarnation to his Divine Passion, that is, for them to evoke the former is to include the latter also. This theological contention gives way to a broader comprehension of Marys role in her Sons mission, as the Divine Redeemer. Making her not only the predestined virgin to be His mother but likewise through her active consent to his Incarnation will likewise be an active participant to his passion and death as the sorrowful mother at the foot of the cross. Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons for instance insisted that the Incarnation without the Passion would not have saved the humanity. And that Mary in her humble acceptance of the Divine decree has somehow accepted her role and her part of suffering with her Son destined to suffer for our sins. Parallelizing Marys sacrificial obedience to that of Abraham when asked by God to offer Isaac as sacrificial offering to Him in which Abraham because of his obedience was blessed by God and is made father of all the nations. Bertrand de Margarie, a Jesuit theologian commenting on this Irenian text says, Among those who learnt beforehand, in Abraham, to following the Word of God, we must obviously consider, in the first place, the Virgin Mary [who] has relinquished earnestly her only beloved Son in sacrifice to God for our Redemption[16] For Irenaeus it signifies that Mary participates in the salvific obedience of Christ on the cross and has participated in it ever since the annunciation, receiving from her Son the grace of obedience obedience to Him- in view of the salvation of the human race.[17] Thus Mary by her obedience was able to cooperate for her own salvation and likewise that of the entire humanity. Furthermore, Marys cooperation in the works of redemption was further taken into consideration by some of the Church Fathers in the later century. For instance, Cyril of Alexandria during the council of Ephesus in 431, in his prayer of invocation for the help and guidance of Mary says, Hail, Mary, Mother of God, by whom all faithful souls are saved, - such invocation, says Bertrand de Margerie - insist more precisely still, on the salvific role of Mary [which] is linked to the unique privilege of Divine Motherhood [which] points to the unique character of the Virgins cooperation in the economy of salvation.[18] Another, St. Leo the Great, insisted on the active instrumentality of Mary, as being the instrumental cause of the Incarnation of the Word who brought fort for us our salvation. Ambrose of Milan on the other hand, presents Mary as the one redeemed by Christ in view of her active cooperation in the salvation of all, thus for Ambrose, Mary is the first of all the redeemed. Bertrand quoting Ambrose says, Let us not be astonished that the Lord, who came to save the world, begun his work in Mary, so that she, by whom the salvation of all was being readied, would be the first to receive from her own child its fruits.[19] Turning our attention to the East, we can find numerous writings which portrays Marys unique role of subordinated participation in the salvific mission of Christ. Which coincide with the thoughts of the early second century Fathers of the West. The Syrian doctor, Ephraem for instance insisted on the instrumentality of Mary in the work of redemption referring on Marys Fiat which gave the Word His humanity for his Messianic mission of saving the entire human family from death. Another is, Gregory of Nyssa, following Irenaeus parallelism of Mary as the new Eve with the old Eve the bringer of death, says, Eve has brought sin and death by means of a tree; Mary, on the contrary, brought in Good by means of the tree of the cross.[20] Following such thought, John Chrysostom offers a very similar affirmation: the Virgin, the wood and death are symbols both of our ruin and our resurrection.[21] Many of these early Church Fathers hold the same sentiments towards Marys subordinated role of Coredemption as active

and redemptive and is absolutely dependent on Christ the absolute and principal Redeemer.

B. Liturgical Foundations Numerous liturgical prayers going back to the first millennium, both in the East and the West, reveals the privilege association of the Virgin Mary with Christ the Redeemer in the entire work of restoration and buying back the entire humanity from death. The truth of Marys cooperation in the salvation of man is expressed in the early church liturgical celebrations of the Romans, Mozairabic, Byzantine and Ethiopian liturgies. Accordingly, there were liturgical texts found by Dom Botte and M. Charasse dating from the texts of a Marian mass celebrated on January 1 st and it reads, ex cujus meritis deleantur nostra chyrographa peccatorum. Bertrand commenting on the text says, We can understand the meaning of this prayer in this way: by consenting to the Incarnation, Mary, in the eyes of the Father, has merited, independence upon the coming Christ and by Him, the fruits of His sacrifice, the purpose and the very reason for His Incarnation which began with her deserving by a condign merit, the Incarnation itself, Mary has at the same time earned its salvific fruits for the whole human race.[22] Thus it is clear that the Divine Motherhood exalted since the beginning of the Roman Church is clearly a salvific motherhood. Tradition and liturgies saw in the consent to the Incarnation and divine Motherhood an implicit and coredemptive acceptance of the sacrifice of the cross and of the compassion at the foot of the cross.[23] The Mozarabic liturgy of Spain, on the other hand, is historically used to celebrate a feast of the glorious and holy Virgin Mary in 656 to be observe on Dec. 18, with the purpose of giving exaltation for the Incarnation of the Word in the womb of the Virgin Mary for the redemption of man. The Latin liturgy of Spain expressed already in the 17th century and continues to express the mediating intercession and the coredemptive merits of the Virgin Mother it encourage the perfect filial love of Christians towards Mary clearly indicated in a prayer of the feast of Dec.18.[24] The ancient liturgies of the Coptic and the Ethiopian both venerate Mary and give special emphasis on Marys coredemptive role in the mystery of our salvation, recalling her as the Virgin Mother who bore the God-man Savior of the world who will suffer together with her son as foretold in the inspired words of the scripture. 6th century Rome. They were

IV. Reflection

Mary Mother Coredemptrix The entire mystery of Marys cordemptive role in the history of our salvation departs from her being the Immaculate Conception, the woman of the proto-evangelium whom God put in enmity with the infernal serpent Satan, who together with her Son shall crush the head of the serpent. She is the one predestined by God from all eternity to be His sacred vessel who will give Him his humanity in preparation for his greatest act of love of redeeming us through his blood. Following the teachings of the early Church Fathers of the necessity of accepting the inseparability of Christ mission of salvation to his incarnation, and that likewise because of Marys absolute consent to this divine decree was made worthy to participate in this act of Divine love as the sorrowful mother of the suffering servant of God, as foretold by Isaiah. Furthermore, such grace had its fulfillment when she at the words of Gabriel consented in the annunciation to be the Mother of whom who she will offer in the altar of the cross as Abraham did when he was asked by God to offer his only son Isaac. And because of his blind obedience Abraham was given his son and is made the father of all nations. Similar to Mary, by her sacrificial offering to the Father, by offering her only Son, Jesus Christ the Redeemer, she was made mother of us all at the cross when Christ turning to John and giving her to his care. For it is on the cross, that Mary generated us in love through Christ. But the only difference between Mary and Abraham was that, Abrahams offering consummated not by offering his son but by a sheep provided by God to him. Mary on the other hand, her sacrificial offering consummated even to the last drop of the blood of Christ her only Son. Such event could have indeed pierced her heart with the sword of sorrow, foretold by the aged Simeon on the visitation of the temple; and in your heart a sword of sorrow will pierce (cf. Lk 2: 35). She offered her son in loving sacrifice for the atonement for our sins on the cross. It is on this thought that the evangelist Luke put special emphasis on the words, and she kept all these things in her heart (cf. Luke 2:19). Some contemporary theologians reflect on this theme by affirming that what Mary kept in her heart was definitely the thought of having to offer her son when the time comes, to offer him to die like a malefactor worthy of all miserable deaths. Reflecting upon this assumption we could empathized on how Mary did suffer everyday as she looks on Jesus waiting for the time that she herself will present her Son to die on the cross. How much pain and suffering that her motherly and loving heart could have borne thinking that she will have to see her Son die a most painful and shameful death despite of his innocence. Indeed Mary will triumph with her Son but she will have to endure unimaginable pain of suffering. Similar to a mother upon the sight of one of her children in pain, suffers as well spiritually with her child, so also is Mary, whose heart was filled with love as prepared by God to contain Him who is Love in the Incarnation. Christ the principal Redeemer suffered on the cross to save us, He suffered physically and spiritually as man and Mary together with Him as his loving Mother suffered as well spiritually in union with the sufferings of Christ her Son and Redeemer. The early Church Fathers were right in saying that by her consent to become the mother of the Redeemer she herself was saved and by her natural affiliation as Mother of God, was decreed by God to be His subordinated cooperator in the work of redemption. So that next to her greatest prerogative as the Mother of God in view of her being the Immaculate Conception, she is likewise the mother of our spiritual life in view of her being the coredemptrix with Christ. Her title of being the Coredemptrix finds its foundations in the inspired texts found in the sacred scripture, both in the Old Testament and New Testament books. As is being prophesied in the prophetic book of Isaiah and in the book of Genesis, and in some books in the Old Testament and while the New Testament books serve as the fulfillment of these prophecies of the coredemptive role of Mary. In some instances of the patristic tradition we can find Mary being parallelized with Eve, and identified as the new Eve who by her consent to he Will of God bring to us life and salvation in contrary to Eve who by her disobedience brought us death in sin. By acclaiming Mary as Coredemptrix, we likewise acclaim her as our Mother, our Mother

whom Christ before His death on the cross gave to John. She is our Mother as we are the brothers and sisters in Christ through his passion as affirmed by Paul in his writings, we became heirs of the kingdom of God. It must be put in mind that Marys Coredemptive mission, that is, her being with the Redeemer is never to be taken as equal to that of Christ. For her cooperation is but only a subordinate and dependent to that of Jesus Christs act of salvation, the only and absolute Redeemer. For Christ as the Redeemer is the independent and principal cause of our salvation, while Mary as the Coredemptrix is a secondary and dependent co-cause[25] as they work together, jointly and directly for the ransoming of mankind from the slavery and death of sin, paying with their suffering and death on Calvary the price of the ransom which merits for us our new life in salvation and the entire humanity in all times.

[1] Rev. Stefano Maria Manelli, FFI, Mary Coredemptrix, Mediatrix, Advocate : Theological Foundations II Papal, Pneumatological, Ecumenical, Ed. by Dr. Mark I. Miravalle, STD (United States of America: Queenship publishing, 1997), 64 65. [2] Dr. Mark I.Miravalle, STD, Mary, Coredemptrix, Mediatrix, Advocate: Foundational Presence in Divine Revelation, (United States of America: Queenship publishing, 1997),15. [3] Fr. Stefano Manelli, Mary Coredemptrix, Mediatrix, Advocate : Theological Foundations II Papal, Pneumatological, Ecumenical, 59. [4] Dr. Mark I.Miravalle, STD, Mary Coredemptrix Mediatrix Advocate: Theological Foundations Towards a Papal Definition? Vol. I, (USA: Queenship Publishing), 247. [5] Pope Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus, 8 Dec., 1854. [6] Isaiah 7: 14 [7] Dr. Mark I.Miravalle, STD, Mary Coredemptrix Mediatrix Advocate: Theological Foundations Towards a Papal Definition? Vol. I, 249. [8] Ibid. [9] cf. Luke 2: 25-37. [10] Ibid. 2: 34. [11] Ibid. 2: 35. [12] Dr. Mark I.Miravalle, STD, Mary Coredemptrix Mediatrix Advocate: Theological Foundations Towards a Papal Definition? Vol. I, 255. [13] John Paul II, Redemptoris Mater , no.16. [14] Luke 2:35. [15] Dr. Mark I.Miravalle, STD, Mary Coredemptrix Mediatrix Advocate , 258. [16] Betrand de Margerie, SJ, Mary Coredemptrix In the Light of Patristics: Mary Coredemptrix Mesiatrix Advocate Theological Foundations, Ed. Mark Miravalle, (USA: Queenship Publishing 1995),7. [17] Ibid. 7.

[18] Ibid. 13. [19] Ibid. 14. [20] Ibid. 18. [21] Ibid. [22] Ibid. 23. [23] Ibid. [24] Ibid. 24 [25] Rev. Stefano Manelli, FFI., Mary Coredemptrix In Sacred Scripture: Mary Coredemptrix, Mediatrix, Advocate, Vol. II, Ed. Dr. Mark Miravalle,(USA: Queenship Publishing),65.