Mary’s Role in Man’s Redemption – Part II

(Sharing at the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 26 Nov 2011)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Last week, we shared that Mary freely chose to cooperate in God’s eternal plan of salvation, and that she serves Christ in the mystery of redemption by sharing His life and saving mission, which culminates in His sacrifice on the Cross. We stopped at St. Irenaeus’ strict emphasis on the Adam-Christ and Eve-Mary parallels. How does the parallel explain Mary’s role in our salvation?

(Fr. Keyes wrote that) St. Irenaeus started with the analogy itself: i.e., as sin, and then death, entered the world by one man’s disobedience, so the fruitfulness of life in the dead shall be restored by one man’s obedience. The bonds of death could not be broken unless the original process is reversed. Therefore, based on St. Paul’s doctrine that all things will be re-established in Christ, Christ’s obedience can undo Adam’s wrong only if like Adam, Christ is formed as man by God’s own hands. God formed Adam from virgin earth, but to make Christ’s formation a continuation of Adam’s, He could not have done so with Christ. To be Saviour, Christ must resemble Adam in origin. Therefore God formed Christ from the Virgin Mary. That is why Mary is important in this analogy, as St. Irenaeus set out:  

EVE	MARY
still a virgin	the Virgin
the spouse of Adam	already betrothed
was disobedient	through her obedience
She became both for herself and all the human race the cause of death	She became both for herself and all the human race the cause of salvation
Thus, what the virgin Eve  had bound by her unbelief . . .	The Virgin Mary unbound by her faith . . .

 (Deiss, 1972 cited in Keyes)

Fr. Keyes wrote:

“This is where we find the statement that Mary is the "cause of our salvation," and Irenaeus can only make such a bold remark because of the very strict parallel in which it is placed. Mary really is the cause of our salvation. … not … in the same sense that Christ is. …(but) only in the same sense that Eve caused our death. The actions of Mary do nothing to destroy the prerogatives of Christ, who is the Redeemer, just as the actions of Eve do not diminish the responsibility of Adam for sin. Nevertheless, just as Eve played a major role in the first sin, so does Mary play an active part in the salvation of mankind.”

Vatican II states that this is entirely God’s will (LG, #60) and quoted the early Fathers in saying: "death through Eve, life through Mary" and that Mary is the source of life. (LG, #56)

Fr. Neuner summed up Mary’s role in the divine work of redemption in three conclusions:

1.    (Firstly) Everything in salvation is God’s work, what is required of Mary is her faith, her free response and total involvement. (pp.118-119)

2.    (Secondly) The full implication of Mary’s share in the mystery of redemption, as mother of the Saviour, is realised only at the foot of the Cross (p.46, p.119).

3.    (Thirdly) By her union with Jesus in His life, mission and death, Mary sanctifies herself, for although gifted with holiness from her conception, she has to personalise it in faith and obedience throughout her life. (This is because God allows human freedom in His work.) By accepting her vocation as mother of the Saviour, she became a channel of salvation for all. (p.119-120)

How are we to apply these knowledge? Fr. Neuner wrote,

“…God alone saves us through Jesus Christ. (but) It is our task to receive the message of salvation in faith, respond to it in obedience and become involved and committed in its realisation.” (Neuner, 2004, p.118)

In this respect, we can turn to Mary, for in the divine work of salvation, she embodies the human part (Neuner, 2004, p. 118). Fr. Neuner gave good advice in these words:

“So Mary is model of the Church, redeemed and sharing in God’s redemptive work; the Church is the community of the redeemed which, in turn, becomes “sacrament of salvation” for the world. The same mystery is realised in every Christian. All Jesus’ disciples are redeemed to share their life with their brothers and sisters as members of Christ’s body in continuation of Jesus’ mission.” (Neuner, 2004, p.119)

As we enter the season of Advent, let us reflect on this and like Mary, with faith and obedience make present the mystery of Christ to the world. Then, we would have lived our vocation in the mystery of salvation.

References:

John Paul II. (25 March 1987). Redemptoris Mater.

Keyes, J. (n.d.) Mariology in the Fathers of the Second Century. Retrieved from http://www.rc.net/oakland/cpps/mariology.pdf on 19 October 2011

Neuner, J. (2004). Mary – Mother of the Saviour. Bangalore: Theological Publications in India.

Vatican Council II. (21 November 1964). Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen gentium.

Mary’s Role in Man’s Redemption - Part I

(Sharing at the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 19 Nov 2011)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Continuing with our theme Mary and the Church, today we shall delve into Mary’s role in man’s redemption. Does Mary play a part in our redemption? While the Church teaches that she does, non-Catholics maintain that man’s salvation is solely the work of Jesus Christ. As Marian devotees, it is good for us to understand better the Church’s teachings on this.

First of all, God’s plan for our salvation is eternal. Quoting St. Paul and Vatican II, Blessed John Paul II highlighted in the encyclical, Redemptoris Mater (RM), that since the fall of Adam and Eve, Mary was “already prophetically foreshadowed in the promise of victory over the serpent…” (LG, #55, cf. Gen.3:15) He wrote:

In the mystery of Christ she is present even "before the creation of the world," as the one whom the Father "has chosen" as Mother of his Son in the Incarnation.’ (RM, #8)

‘…from the first moment of her conception … she belonged to Christ, sharing in the salvific and sanctifying grace and in that love which… (originates) in the "Beloved," the Son of the Eternal Father, who through the Incarnation became her own Son. (RM, #10)

The Incarnation thus marks the “fullness of time” when God’s promise to man after original sin was fulfilled (RM, #11). The Son of God came “born of woman, born under the law… so that we might receive adoption as sons.” (RM, #1 cf. Gal. 4:4-5)

Vatican II says: "The Father of mercies willed that the consent of the predestined Mother should precede the Incarnation." (LG, #56) Thus, it was God’s pleasure to give Mary the freedom to choose whether to cooperate in His plan for man’s salvation. This was realised at the Annunciation, when she freely consented to God’s request of her announced by the angel Gabriel. Accordingly, Fr. Neuner (2004) calls this a topic of Mary’s cooperation, where God’s sovereignty meets human freedom. It is the heart of all theology. (p. 114) He directed us to Vatican II, which describes Mary as “freely cooperating in the work of human salvation through faith and obedience.” (LG, #56) Because our salvation is God’s free gift of His love, it must include human dignity and freedom. This inclusion in achieving God’s plans does not diminish His absolute sovereignty, but rather makes it fully effective. We see in the biblical accounts of the covenant how God realises His designs with Israel and all creation not through force, but through free interplay of His creature’s freedom. (Neuner, 2004)

How involved is Mary in our redemption? Is it only by her free consent and giving Jesus the human body? Fr. Neuner (2004) wrote that by God’s design, Mary is drawn into Jesus’ life not only through physical motherhood, but also by sharing His life and saving mission (p. 45). By her fiat, she accepts her own place in His life and mission and consecrates herself “to the person and work of her Son” so that she “serves him in the mystery of redemption.” (Neuner, 2004, pp. 45, 115; cf. LG, #56) Her fiat-"let it be to me"-enabled her Son’s desire to do God’s will (cf. Heb. 10: 5-7) to be granted only on the human level, but the crowning moment of Mary’s motherhood in the salvific economy of grace is Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross (RM, #23), Blessed John Paul II wrote.

To understand Mary’s place in our salvation, Fr. Neuner proposes to re-look into Jesus’ redemptive mission in the light of His whole person and work, His mission and message, death and resurrection. Obeying His Father, Jesus accepts solidarity with us broken humans, sharing our condition, struggle, failure and death. (I quote Fr. Neuner) “Jesus is Saviour by being both with His Father and with us in His life, death and resurrection.” (Neuner, 2004 , p.117) In short, (from Fr. Keyes, citing St. Irenaeus), Jesus is Saviour by being fully divine and fully human (Irenaeus as cited in Keyes). Based on St. Paul, Fr. Keyes wrote: “It was because of the fact that the Redeemer had associated himself so closely with Adam, that he was able, in himself, to re-establish or re-create all things.”

St. Irenaeus explained how the death of mankind is transformed into salvation by emphasising on the Adam-Christ analogy with the paralegal of Eve and Mary (Keyes). He placed great importance on the parallels between Adam and Christ and between Eve and Mary, stressing that this is God’s analogy; God accomplished every detail of His work to preserve the analogy. (Keyes)

How does this analogy explain Mary’s role in man’s redemption? Next week, we will unpack this and also reflect on our own part in the mystery of salvation.

References:

John Paul II. (25 March 1987). Redemptoris Mater.

Keyes, J. (n.d.) Mariology in the Fathers of the Second Century. Retrieved from http://www.rc.net/oakland/cpps/mariology.pdf on 19 October 2011

Neuner, J. (2004). Mary – Mother of the Saviour. Bangalore: Theological Publications in India.

Vatican Council II. (21 November 1964). Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen gentium.