Mary, redemptrix in the Redeemer: a brief liturgical and Mariological reflection

A brief reflection…

Mary, Co-Redemptrix in the Redeemer: a liturgical reflection

On May 13, 2010, at the Shrine of Fatima, addressing the sick, Pope Benedict XVI said:

“Dear sick people, welcome this call of Jesus, who will pass close by you in the Blessed Sacrament, and entrust to Him all the setbacks and pains that you face, so that they may become, according to His designs, a means of redemption for the whole world. You will be redeemers in the Redeemer, just as you are sons in the Son. At the cross… stands the Mother of Jesus, our Mother”.

To be a redeemer in the Redeemer is, therefore, possible for all who hand over to Christ all their setbacks, in accordance with the providence of God the Father, who completes, by a mysterious design, the passion of His Son in His members (cf. Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Missal, Formulary 11). If the disciples of Christ can be redeemers in the one Redeemer, in a special and unequaled way the Most Holy Virgin Mary will be redemptrix in the Redeemer, she who, by God’s will, was given to us as the model of the disciple who faithfully keeps the word of life (cf. Formulary 10).

Formed by the Holy Spirit and fully united to the sacrifice of the new Covenant (cf. Formulary 12), the Mother of Jesus is redemptrix in the Redeemer in a singular and unrepeatable way, because, by the admirable providence of the Father, she was present in the mysteries of our salvation (cf. Formulary 9). At the cross, by the gift of the Father’s goodness, she was the companion of her Son’s passion, and the pains she did not suffer in giving birth to her Son she felt cruelly in bringing men to rebirth for Him (cf. Formulary 12). At the cross of her Son she endured most bitter pains (cf. Formulary 41), because, embracing the saving will of God the Father, she devoted herself entirely to the work of the Son of God, faithfully serving the mystery of the Redemption (cf. Formulary 12).

The Church’s lex orandi: Mary and cooperation in salvation

But the Church’s Lex orandi further affirms that, by God’s infinite goodness, the mystery of our reconciliation, prepared before all ages, was fulfilled in the holy Virgin Mary (cf. Formulary 24). Indeed, the Immaculate Virgin is Reconciler of sinners (cf. Formulary 14), the gentle Lamb who suffered with the innocent Lamb (cf. Formulary 36), Mother of the author of the new covenant and associated with His mystery of salvation (cf. Formulary 20).

As Holy Church, our mother and teacher, never ceases to surprise us, she asks, and teaches us to ask, the heavenly Father that, through the merits of Jesus Christ, the high priest, and through the sorrows of the Virgin Mary, His Mother, the Holy Spirit, present in the Church, may abundantly pour out His gifts over all the earth (cf. Formulary 11). Might it not be possible, after all, to sum up in a single word all these wonders that God has worked in His humble servant?

Fr. João Paulo Quelhas Domingues

Mary’s role in the redemption is explored in depth in no. 58 of the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, which presents Mary as the singular cooperator in Christ’s work of salvation.

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To deepen the theology of Mary in the redemptive mystery, consult the Encyclical Redemptoris Mater by Pope John Paul II.