Divine Mercy: The Heart of the Gospel

166 Divine Mercy: The Heart Of The Gospel of redemption as the Co-redemptrix. The papal magisterium has made it very clear that every grace and gift given from Christ to humanity comes through the mediation o f the Blessed Virgin Mary. She is the omnium gratiarum, the Mediatrix o f all graces and gifts, which come from our Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit, because she first participated with our Lord as the Co-redemptrix in acquiring those graces. Sacred Scripture profoundly reveals the role o f our Blessed Mother as Co-redemptrix. At the Annunciation, when Mary says “yes” to the angel and thereby gives herfia t (Lk. 1:38), she gives to the Redeemer the instru­ ment of redemption, His human body. In a discussion I had with the late Mother Teresa of Calcutta regarding the solemn papal definition of the co- redemptive role of Our Lady, within the first two minutes of speaking, Mother said, “O f course she is Co-redemptrix, of course. She gave Jesus his body and the body of Jesus is what saved us.” I replied, “Mother, that’s the difference between sanctity and theology. You say in two minutes what it takes the theologians three volumes to write.” We can also look to the Presentation in Luke 2:25ff, where Simeon’s prophecy also identifies with the Mother of Jesus as a sign of contradic­ tion. Any mother o f a sign of contradiction will most certainly have the vocation of suffering. Simeon tells us that the child to be born of Mary will be the cause of the rise and fall o f many. He then gazes at the mother and says, “your heart too will be pierced” (Lk. 2:25). Thus for thirty-three years the Mother with the Redeemer ponders the words of Simeon that her child is bom to die, the child to which she alone gave flesh. Only one woman gave came to the Incarnation, gave flesh to the Word made flesh, and the goal of this Incarnation was redemption and co-redemption. If we were to summarize the single mission that the Father gave to the Son and to the Woman, it is, as Galatians tells us, a mission of redemption and co­ redemption (Gal. 4:4). That is the purpose of the union o f the Two Hearts, the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of our Mother Mary. The inestimable graces acquired by Jesus, the New Adam, and sec­ ondarily by Mary, the New Eve, must then be distributed to human hearts through Our Lady’s mediation as Mediatrix. This is the continu­ ation o f our Mother’s co-redemptive role as the Mediatrix of All Graces. The papal magisterium has repeatedly taught that since Mary unique­ ly participated with the Redeemer in the acquisition o f every grace of redemption as Co-redemptrix, for this reason, Mary has rightly been