Victor R. Claveau, MJ
“Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.” The last sentence of the Hail Mary is a heartfelt plea and a potent example of our faith in Mary as Mother of God. She is the penultimate intercessor between man and God, second only to her Son Jesus Christ in the hierarchy of supplication.
Mary’s soul “magnifies The Lord.” She is the spiritual lens that enlarges in us the image of Jesus Christ, enabling us through her motherly love, to see Him in the light of the Gospels, in our lives, and in the lives of others.
In reference to Mary’s intercessory power, Fr.Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. (1877-1964), consulter to the Holy Office and author of over 500 books and articles, wrote the following:
“Theology explains the belief of the faithful by pointing to three fundamental reasons for Mary’s power of intercession.
“The first of these is that since Mary is Mother of men, she knows all their spiritual needs. It is a principle admitted by all theologians that the happiness of the blessed in heaven would not be complete if they did not know what happens on earth to the extent to which it concerns them by reason of their office, their role, or their relations with men. Such knowledge is the object of a legitimate desire which must find its satisfaction in beatitude, and with all the more reason when the knowledge they desire is of men’s spiritual needs and is therefore desired in charity: it is in charity that the saints desire men’s salvation so that they may glorify God with them for all eternity and share thus in their happiness. Fathers and mothers, for example, know from heaven the needs of their children, especially those which bear on their salvation. The same may be said of the founders of religious institutes. With all the more reason may the same be said of Our Lady, who has the highest degree of glory after her Son: as Mother of all men, she must know everything which bears directly or indirectly on the supernatural life which she has been commissioned to give us and to nourish in us. This universal knowledge, certain and detailed, of all that concerns our destiny—our thoughts, desires, the dangers in which we are, the graces we need, temporal affairs which have some connection with our salvation—is a prerogative which belongs to Mary because of her motherhood of God and her spiritual motherhood of men.
“Knowing our spiritual needs and even the temporal needs which are connected with our salvation Mary is obviously impelled by her great charity to intercede for us. If a mother but suspects that her child needs her help she flies to its side. There is no question here of Mary’s acquiring new merits in heaven but simply of her obtaining that her merits—and her Son’s—be applied to us at the appropriate moment.
“Is Mary’s prayer omnipotent? Tradition has honored Mary with the title, Omnipotentia supplex, omnipotence in the order of supplication.”
In support of the title, we may refer to the principle that the intercession of the saints is proportioned to their degree of glory in heaven, or of union with God.[1] It follows then that Mary, whose glory surpasses that of all the saints, must have all power in intercession. Even before the 8th century, this is the explicit teaching of St. Ephrem. In the 8th century, the most clear-cut statements are those of Andrew of Crete, of St. Germanus of Constantinople, and of Saint John Damascene. Towards the end of the 11th century, Saint Anselm and his disciple Eadmer affirm Mary’s intercessory omnipotence, a doctrine explained by St. Bernard and transmitted to succeeding generations of theologians.
“Bossuet brings out the underlying principles very well in his sermon on the Compassion of Our Lady, when he recalls the two texts: “God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son”[2] and “He that spared not even his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how hath he not also, with him, given us all good things?”[3]. Mary in her turn has loved God and souls to the extent of delivering up her Son, Jesus, on Calvary. She is in consequence all-powerful with God the Father and with Jesus to obtain all that is necessary for the salvation of those who turn to her mediation.
“One paragraph of the sermon deserves to be quoted:
“Intercede for us, O Blessed Virgin Mary: you have in your hands, if I may so speak, the key that opens the treasury of the divine blessings. That key is your Son: He closes and no one can open: He opens and no one can close: It is his innocent blood which makes us to be inundated with heavenly graces. And to whom will he give the right to that blood, if not to her from whom he drew all his blood. … For the rest, you live in such perfect union of love with him that it is impossible that your prayer should not be heard.
“It is enough, as St. Bernard says, if Mary speaks to the Heart of Jesus.
“The teaching of Tradition, thus formulated by Bossuet, has been proclaimed by Leo XIII in his first encyclical on the Rosary, September 1, 1883, in which he calls Mary the dispenser of heavenly graces, coelestium administra gratiarum. In the Encyclical Jucunda Semper, September 8th, 1894, the same Pope makes his own the two statements of St. Bernard: that God in his great mercy has made Mary our Mediatrix and that he has willed that all graces should come to us through her. The same teaching will be found in the encyclical Ad Diem Illum, February 2, 1904, where Mary is spoken of as “the dispenser of all the graces which have been acquired for us by the Blood of Jesus.” Jesus is the source of these graces: Mary is, as it were, the aqueduct, or—to use another image—as it were the neck which unites the Head to the members and transmits the vital impulse to them: “Ipsa est collum capitis nostri, per quod omnia spiritualia dona corpori ejus mystico communicantur.” Benedict XV has consecrated this teaching by approving the Mass and the liturgical Office of Mary, Mediatrix of all graces, for the universal Church.
“As Father Merkelbach indicates, three points are to be noted.
“First of all, it is of faith that Mary prays for us, and even for each one of us, in her capacity as Mother of the Redeemer and of all men, and that her intercession is very useful for us. This follows from the general dogma of the intercession of the saints.[4]). In support of this assertion, we may refer to the practice of the Church in praying, Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis: Holy Mary, pray for us. Legem credendi lex statuat supplicandi: dogma and prayer have one and the same law.[5]
“In the second place, Tradition teaches us as certain that Mary’s powerful intercession can obtain for all those who invoke her with the proper dispositions all the graces required for salvation and no one is saved without her intervention. Thus, the Church repeats: Sentiant omnes tuum juvamen: Let all be cognizant of your assistance.
“In the third place, it is common and safe doctrine, taught by different Popes, by the liturgy, and by preachers throughout the world, that no grace is granted us without Mary’s intervention. This is contained clearly in the Mass and Office of Mary, Mediatrix of all graces, and it would be at least rash to deny it.
“Historically, this doctrine will be found implicit in the doctrine of Mary’s universal mediation up to the 8th century. It becomes more explicit as we draw nearer to the 15th century, in the form of the affirmation that all God’s gifts come to us through Mary as intermediary. From the 16th century onwards, the question has been examined under all its aspects. Even the graces of the sacraments are considered to fall under Mary’s universal mediation in the sense that the dispositions which we must bring to the reception of the sacraments are obtained through her intercession. Besides, if Mary has merited de congruo all that Jesus has merited for us de condigno, it follows that she has merited the sacramental graces themselves.
“It is clear therefore that Mary’s intercession is much more powerful and efficacious than that of all the other saints—even taken all together—for the other saints obtain nothing without her. Their mediation is included under her universal mediation, while hers is, in its turn, subordinated to that of Jesus. There is another point to be noted: it is that Mary has merited all the graces which she asks for us, whereas the saints often ask for graces for others which they have not merited themselves. Their prayer could not then have the same efficacy as Mary’s.
“Regarding the efficacy of Mary’s prayer, a principle which applies to the prayer of Christ may well be recalled. The prayer of Christ is always heard when the thing prayed for is asked absolutely and in conformity with the divine intentions which he knows so well; it is not so heard, however, when the thing prayed for is asked conditionally, as happened in the case of the prayer of the Garden of Olives. In the case of Mary’s prayer, she obtains infallibly from her Son all that she asks absolutely and in conformity with the divine intentions: these intentions she knows, and her will is in complete accord with them.
“What has been said in this section is sufficient to show that Mary’s omnipotence in intercession, resting as it does on the merits of the Savior and on his love for his Mother, is far from derogating from his own universal mediation. On the contrary it is one of its brightest manifestations, and throws into clearer relief the marvelous way in which Jesus redeemed and adorned her who was so intimately associated with him in the redemption of men.”[6]
Accordingly, let it be known far and wide that Mary, the most extraordinary creature ever to be conceived, fashioned, and created by the will of Almighty God, is, and ever shall be, the creme de la creme of humanity.
[1] Cf. IIa IIae, q. 83, a. II.
[2] John 3:16.
[3] Romans 8:32.
[4] Council of Trent: Session 25.
[5] Denzinger 139.
[6] Garrigou-Lagrange, Reginald, O.P., The Mother of Our Saviour and Our Interior Life, (St Louis: B. Herder Book Company), 1959, pp. 198-203.