Our Lady was a most faithful echo chamber of her Son’s ineffable delight, for She was closely linked to Him throughout the entire epic of salvation.
Newsdesk (08/07/2024 8:26, Gaudium Press)The Blessed Virgin is, in the highest sense of the term, the Co-redemptrix of sinners. Although her cooperation in the Passion of Christ was not per se necessary, it was made so by the will of the Father of Lights, who in His divine designs determined to give the New Adam a faithful companion, in opposition to the first prevaricating woman who dragged Adam into the abyss of sin. For this reason, the most ancient Fathers of the Church designate Mary as the New Eve, entirely holy, immaculate and obedient. Her cooperation made reparation, in the most beautiful way, for the fault of the first couple, guilty of rebellion and the cause of humanity’s misfortunes.
St. John, in his Gospel (cf. Jn 19:25-27), is keen to emphasize the compassionate role of the Virgin Mother in the shadow of the Cross. She stood fast during the sacrifice of the Lamb of God and, in a priestly spirit, and offered Him up to the Heavenly Father in an act of supreme submission. The harrowing sorrows of the Son were shared by the Mother, who immolated herself at His side with an ardent desire to snatch from Satan’s filthy clutches the souls bound by sin and enslaved by death.
United in sorrow, inseparable in victory
Consequently, the suffering Hearts of Jesus and Mary, united as they were by the same afflictions and the same charity, were rightly to experience in unison the consolations of the Resurrection. This is why many Saints claim that it was Our Lady who was the first to meet Our Lord on that dawn abounding with the blessings of the true Easter.
But our filial piety takes us further. Because of the close supernatural bond between them and the gift of the permanence of the Eucharistic Species, the Blessed Virgin certainly accompanied, step by step, all the episodes of her Son’s Passion and Resurrection. Following this, She must have received a visit from Jesus full of life and joy, which filled her maternal spirit with the most sublime joys.
Our Lady was always a sea of deep, transparent and virginal recollection. She treasured and pondered in her Heart every gesture and word of her Divine Son, with an infinite thirst to understand and love the meaning of the most varied nuances regarding Him that were revealed to Her. In this way her spirit became persevering, strong and resilient. She remained standing by the Cross, accompanied only by the Holy Women and St. John, who bore a filial affection for Her. The other disciples remained distant and fearful.
Only Mary could in the truest sense suffer with the Immaculate Lamb and unite herself to Him in the sacrifice that He made of Himself. Our Lady was in some way a victim with the Supreme Victim and a priest with the Divine Priest. It was not a question of a sacramental priesthood, like that of bishops and priests, but of a direct participation in the very priesthood of Jesus, Supreme Pontiff of the New and Eternal Covenant, which, in this very special case, gave Her the prerogative whereby, consenting to every step in the Passion of her Son, She herself in a certain sense offered Him up to the Father
This made the Blessed Virgin a Co-redemptrix with the Redeemer, a glory surpassed perhaps only by the Divine Maternity.
And if the struggle was arduous, the prize was sublime and the joy unspeakable. Contemplating this Marian joy that was enkindled at the precise moment when the Lord of glory reassumed His Body, we can ascend to the boundless happiness that flooded the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus forever.
A Marian Church
A question of capital importance emerges regarding the future of the Church: If the role of Mary, Mother of God and ours, was crucial at the Passion, Death and Resurrection of the Lord, in the sense of manifesting with unique splendour the virtue of hope, so dimmed in the spirit of the disciples, what will her mission be in the current situation, in which revealed truth is forgotten, ridiculed and even trampled underfoot by wolves disguised as shepherds?
Moreover, if Jesus wanted the precious gift of faith to be preserved by His Mother when all others were vacillating, has He not entrusted to Her the task of safeguarding with maternal care the integrity of faith of the Apostles of the Latter Times, heralded by prophets of the stature of a St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort? And how will this virtue be in men and women called to hope against all hope?
It is possible to foresee a faith which is entirely Marian, and therefore a bold, invincible and glorious faith; an ardent faith which will set the world on fire and renew the face of the earth, inundating it with exultation.
From this faith will be born a Marian Church, capable of irresistibly attracting all souls who will be converted before the imposing manifestations of the mercy and justice of God; a Church which, like Our Lady, will be an indomitable warrior and, with the strength that will come to her from the Holy Spirit, will cast Satan and his followers into the bowels of hell; a Church radiant with holy joy, animated with divine enthusiasm, which, with the smile of the Virgin-Mother, will irresistibly illuminate the whole universe.
Text Extracted, with adaptations, from Heralds of the Gospel Magazine, n. 186, April 2023. By Msgr. João Scognamiglio Clá Dias, EP.
Compiled by Roberta MacEwan
