Mary - Co-Redemptrix as defined by Vatican II

[Conciliar]

Those who shudder, usually due to lack of understanding, when Mary is addressed as Co-Redemptrix make much of the fact that the Council Fathers chose not use this title. I’ve spoken with clerics who point to this fact as evidence that the title doesn’t properly apply to Our Lady. I wholeheartedly disagree.

It is true that for whatever reason the Council did choose to refrain from using the title Co-Redemptrix, but at the same time, it is just as true that they most pointedly chose to define Our Lady’s role as Co-Redemptrix, even without invoking Her by that name.

I would expect that any dogmatic definition of Mary as Co-Redemptrix will include, at least in part, the following from Vatican II. I hope it happpens in my lifetime. Any thoughts?

Embracing God’s salvific will with a full heart and impeded by no sin, she devoted herself totally as a handmaid of the Lord to the person and work of her Son, under Him and with Him, by the grace of almighty God, serving the mystery of redemption. Rightly therefore the holy Fathers see her as used by God not merely in a passive way, but as freely cooperating in the work of human salvation through faith and obedience. For, as St. Irenaeus says, she “being obedient, became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race.”(LG56)

Embracing God’s salvific will with a full heart and impeded by no sin, she devoted herself totally as a handmaid of the Lord to the person and work of her Son, under Him and with Him, by the grace of almighty God, serving the mystery of redemption. Rightly therefore the holy Fathers see her as used by God not merely in a passive way, but as freely cooperating in the work of human salvation through faith and obedience. For, as St. Irenaeus says, she “being obedient, became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race.”(LG61)

 

[Penitus]

Co-redemptrix boils down to Mary’s role in Salvation History and her “yes.”

God the Father could have chose any woman in the world from any time period, yet he chose Mary to be the means by which His divine Son would be born and come into the world.

The Angel Gabriel was asked to deliver this news, and Mary consented wholeheartedly.

Protestants need to keep in mind that “co-” does not mean “equal to,” but rather comes from the Latin word “cum” which means “with.” Mary is not “equal to the Redeemer” but she is “with the Redeemer.”

All Christians are called to say yes to God and be “with the Redeemer” one way or another. But as the first Christian and as the mother of Christ, Catholic believe that she did that the best. It is as simple as that. As early as Irenaeus, we can see that the early Christians believed the same (as evidenced by the quote above).