I'm sure that many of you have heard the news that 5 cardinals have petitioned the Pope to make an ex cathedra pronouncement declaring a fifth Marian dogma, that Mary is Co-Redemptrix and Mediatrix of All Graces.
annabellissima and I spent yestserday evening doing a bunch of web-reading on the subject. We're both ok with the title of Co-Redemptrix when
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If Mary is co-Redemptrix, then we also would have to say that John the Baptist, Peter, and possibly even Judas Iscariot were also co-redeemers. Especially given the fact that it will be wildly misinterpreted by everyone as soon as it's pronounced and the danger of cheapening the sacrifice of the Cross, this seems like dangerous water for the Church to tread as a whole. If individuals will go there, it's probably okay, but it deserves only magisterial silence.
Mediatrix of All Grace seems heretical to me. It doesn't really tell us anything we should know or which is helpful to our spiritual lives, and it seems to elevate Mary unnaturally. Even if she happens to mediate graces, she does so subordinate to Christ and it's Christ that we should keep in mind, and not his mom, cool a lady as she is.
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1. That when Christ entered the world, he did so without destruction or pain.
2. (potentially) That Mary and Joseph were transformed by the events of their lives such that they didn't want to have sex.
3. (My preferred explanation) Joseph was old and Mary wasn't - this means Jesus' brothers were older half-brothers and that Jesus wasn't a terrible kid for not getting married and supporting his family the way older brothers were bound by Jewish law and custom to do.
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I dunno, it's not something I'm really set on either way, and it's not important to my personal faith or relationship with Mary.
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This view of consecration permeates Catholicism though, found frequently in the Bible. Therefore, I really don't think it is a stretch, it really seems to be part of the "cosmic" order of things.
Since sex between a husband and wife is a consummation of the Sacrament of marriage, since it is indeed a renewal of the vows of the Sacrament it seems to that sex is indeed "holy use" of the body. That, and giving birth to a baby is no more out of the "ordinary" than anything else we do with our bodies.
On one level, we have to bear in mind that the Sacrament did not exist at the time. But beyond that, sex is essentially holy - it is, after all, the way that we become an icon of the Trinity and the way in which we participate in God's creation of the peak of His creation: humanity - but it is also ordinary, something experienced by the majority of people. Bearing God Incarnate, *that* is not just a holy use, but a special use.
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Exactly. That's the way I tried to explain it, that "Co-Redeemer" is something that we could call anyone who participated either in the historical event of the *the* Redemption, or even to anyone who participates in the redemption of a particular individual. To give Mary an actual title only reflects how singular/monumental/important her particular "Co-" was. (Although, I think we might limit it to only those who have played a positive role - so no Judas - since the "with" part seems to imply cooperation, not just utilitarian use.)
Mediatrix of All Grace seems heretical to me.
You know, it really does to me too. But that is just a sense for me, I can't point to anything in particular that would demonstrate that it actually *is* heretical.
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