XXXI — MARY MEDIATRIX

Presence of God. — O Mary, as Jesus willed to come to us through you, grant that through you I may go to Him.

Meditation

1 — The Church has us close the month of May with the feast of Mary “Mediatrix of all graces”; this title is somewhat the synthesis of what Our Lady is for us in relation to her beloved Son: Mediatrix of grace, of mercy, treasurer of all graces Jesus merited for us. “By the communion of sufferings and of will between Christ and Mary,” teaches Pius X, “she merited to become the dispenser of all the benefits that Jesus acquired for us by his Blood” (Enc. Ad diem illum). Associated in the most intimate and profound way with the life, work, and Passion of her Son, Mary cooperated with Him in our Redemption, so that grace, which only Jesus could merit for us in justice, was, though in a secondary way and by pure fittingness, merited also by Mary. Mary thus obtained a true power over all the supernatural treasures acquired for us by her Son and, as together with Him she accumulated them, so together with Him she dispenses them to us. “One can affirm,” says Leo XIII, “that, according to God’s will, nothing is given to us except through Mary’s hands, so that, as no one can approach the almighty Father except through the Son, so no one, so to speak, can approach Christ except through his Mother” (Enc. Octobri mense 3). Beside and after Jesus, the one Mediator, Mary is therefore the Mediatrix; and as Jesus in heaven unceasingly intercedes with his Father on our behalf, so Mary, together with Him, intercedes for us and obtains and dispenses all the graces we need. Very fittingly, the Introit of the Mass of the day applies to Mary what St. Paul says of Jesus: “Let us approach with confidence the throne of grace, to obtain mercy and find grace.” Yes, after Jesus, Mary is truly “throne of grace” and can obtain everything for us from her Son, she who is the Omnipotentia supplex, all-powerful in her prayer as Mother.

2 — Mary is Mediatrix between us and her Son for a twofold reason: because she gives us Jesus and because she leads us to Jesus. The Gospel repeatedly shows her in the attitude of bearer of Jesus to men, an attitude typically maternal: Mary presents the Child Jesus to the adoration of shepherds and Magi; Mary brings Jesus to the Temple and herself presents Him to Simeon; Mary at Cana, by her intercession, obtains the Son’s first miracle; Mary on Calvary receives in her arms the lifeless and lacerated Body of her beloved Son, whom she offers to humanity as the price of its ransom; Mary in the Cenacle invokes the fullness of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and then, until the day of her blessed passing, sustains by her prayer and maternal encouragement the nascent Church. Where Mary is, there is Jesus. The whole reason for Mary’s existence, her whole mission, is here: to bring, to give Jesus to the world and to souls, and with Jesus to give also his grace, his favors. Mary, as St. Bernard says, is truly the aqueduct that carries to humanity the living water of grace; indeed, even more, she brings Jesus, fount of grace.

But Mary also leads men to Jesus: she teaches us the way to go to her Son; she disposes our souls to be acceptable to Him. We are always poor children, unable to offer God presentable gifts, and Mary is always the Mother who, with maternal refinement, arranges and beautifies our gifts, our actions, our prayers and offerings, and with her hands presents them to her divine Son. But Mary above all looks at our hearts: as our true Mother she wants to form them in a way that pleases Jesus. Mary wants to form in each of us a pure heart, full of love and goodness, that can beat in unison with that of her Son. Let us then place our heart in Mary’s hands, so that she may fill it “with grace and truth, with life and virtue” (cf. Gradual of the Mass).

Colloquy

“My Lady, most holy Mother of God, full of grace, inexhaustible ocean of divine and intimate liberality and gifts; after the Trinity, Lady of all; after the Paraclete, new Consoler; and after the Mediator, Mediatrix of the whole world: look upon my faith and the desire inspired in me from heaven. Do not despise me because unworthy, nor let the ugliness of my actions suspend your immense mercy, O Mother of God, O name surpassing all my desire!” (St. Ephrem the Syrian).

“O Mary, God placed in you the fullness of all his goods to make us understand that every hope, every grace, every salvation comes to us from your superabundance. Therefore, O Mary, grant that through you we may have access to the Son, O blessed one, who found grace, who gave us life, mother of salvation! Grant that through you He may receive us, He who through you was given to us. May your spotless purity excuse in his eyes the faults of our malice; may your humility, so pleasing to God, obtain pardon for our pride! May your immense charity cover the multitude of our sins, and may your glorious fecundity make our good works fruitful.

“O Lady, our Mediatrix, our advocate, reconcile us with your Son, commend us to your Son, present us to your Son. O blessed one, by the grace you found, by the privileges you merited, by the mercy you brought into the world, obtain for us that Jesus, who through you deigned to share our infirmity and misery, may make us share, again through you, in his glory and beatitude” (St. Bernard).