St. Pius X and the Blessed Virgin Mary

Source: District of Asia

So full of outstanding achievement was the pontificate of the St. Pius X that, although many things have been written on him since his recent beatification, writers in general have passed by in silence a monumental document of his on the Blessed Virgin-the Encyclical "Ad diem illum" of February 2, 1904. This omission is deplorable in view of the profound significance of the "Ad diem illum" for an understanding of the basic principles which dominated the life and pontificate of the saintly Pope.

When the Pope's physician, Dr. Machiafava, bent over the dying pontiff in the early hours of August 20, 1914, he was able to hear the last whispered words: "Together in one - all things in Christ." His life had closed with a statement of the theme on which he had begun his pontificate: "To restore all things in Christ." Such was his aim. The prime means by which he hoped to accomplish this aim had been explained during the very first year of his pontificate in the "Ad diem illum." This Encyclical was occasioned by the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the definition by Pius IX of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. The Holy Father explains: "The chief reason.. why the fiftieth anniversary of the proclamation of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God should arouse a singular fervor in the Christian people is to restore all things in Christ, which We proposed in our first encyclical letter." Thus it is made clear that the anniversary celebration is to fit in with the great aim of restoration of all in Christ. In the very next sentence the Holy Father explains the great means to this end: "For who does not know that there is no surer or easier way than Mary for uniting all persons with Christ and obtaining through Him the perfect adoption of sons that we may be holy and immaculate in the sight of God."

MARY AS MEANS OF UNITING ALL WITH CHRIST

Not satisfied with stating this great truth, St. Pius X goes on to complete the teaching in two stages: first, he will give the most profound reasons why Mary is the surest and easiest means of uniting all with Christ; secondly, he will sketch the basic principles of what a devotion to Mary should include.

The most fundamental of all reasons for his teaching lies in the fact, well known to all, that Mary is the Mother of Christ:

"Could not God have given us the Redeemer of the human race and the Founder of the Faith in another way than through the Virgin? Certainly, but since it pleased Divine Providence that we should have the God-Man through Mary nothing remains for us than to receive Christ from the hands of Mary,"

One who would lead us to Christ and teach us to know Him, must first know Him herself. Hence we are told:

"That through the Virgin, and chiefly through her, a way has been opened for us to acquire the knowledge of Christ, no one can doubt who also recalls that, of all others, with her alone was Jesus united for thirty years. in domestic life and intimate converse.... Mary not only preserved in her heart and meditated on the events that took place at Bethlehem and in the Temple of the Lord at Jerusalem, but, sharing as she did the thoughts and the secret desires of Christ, she may be said to have lived the very life of her Son. And so no one ever knew Christ so profoundly as she knew Him, and no one can ever be a more competent guide and teacher for knowing Christ."

MARY AS THE MOTHER OF THE MYSTICAL BODY

But she is not only the Mother of Christ she is in a very real sense our Mother also. For at the Incarnation she became Mother of the Head of the Mystical Body, and by that very fact the Mother of the entire Mystical Body: "All of us, therefore, who are united with Christ and are, as the Apostle says, 'members of His body, made from His flesh and from His bones,' have come forth from the womb of Mary as a body united to its head."

These truths are familiar to every child blessed with a Catholic education. Many a devout Catholic might think nothing remained to be said on the basic reasons for our need of Mary. But the Holy Father wishes to follow out the sublime consequences of the doctrine of the doctrine of the Motherhood of Mary. For it is not God's way to embark on a course of action and then arbitrarily abandon it; the close association of Jesus and Mary was to become a constant, uninterrupted, common sharing of life and labors.

"Furthermore, the most holy Mother of God had not only the honor of having given the substance of her flesh to the Only-begotten Son of God, who was to be born of the human race (quoted from St. Bede) and by means of this flesh the Victim for the salvation of men was to be prepared, but she was also entrusted with the task of tending and nourishing this Victim and even of offering it on the altar at the appointed time. The result was a never-broken community of life and labor between Son and Mother...”

The last sentence is of prime importance. If it is true that the cooperation which the Son wished to have from His Mother was a "never-broken community of life and labor," then there follows a conclusion which few would dare to propose, had they not the support of the authoritative words of the Vicar of Christ. II Mary cooperated with her Son at absolutely all times, as the Holy Father's words tell us, it follows that she must in some secondary but very real way have cooperated on Calvary itself! But the Blessed Pope does not leave it for us to infer this for ourselves, he himself makes it clear beyond doubt:

"Then, when the last hour of the Son arrived, 'there stood by the Cross of Jesus His Mother' (John, xix. 25), not merely occupied in contemplating the cruel spectacle, but rejoicing that her 'Only-begotten was being offered for the salvation of the human race, and she suffered so much together with Him, that, if it had been possible, she would with greater willingness have borne all the torments that her Son suffered (quoted from St. Bonaventure). And by this community of pain and will between Christ and Mary she merited to become in a most worthy manner the Reparatrix of the lost world' , and consequently the Dispenser of all the gifts that Jesus acquired for us by His Death and Blood.

THE HOLY FATHER SETTLES A THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSY

In other words, in all justice we may call Mary the Coredemptrix of the human race: she had provided the flesh for the Victim, she consented to His offering on the Cross, and joined with Him in the dispositions of His own heart by her "community of pain and will" with Him. One would think it impossible to misunderstand language so clear. But the Holy Father apparently wished to take pains to bring out the full truth. For this teaching that Mary is the Coredemptrix was one over which theologians of that day still disputed hotly. As if hoping to place the matter beyond any possible quibble of argument, St. Pius X thought well to add even further precision to the above:

“. . . since she surpasses all creatures in sanctity and in union with Christ, and since she was chosen by Christ to be His associate in the work of human salvation, she has merited for us congruously, as they say, what Christ has merited for us condignly. and she is the principal minister of the graces to be distributed."

"Condign merit" and "congruous merit" are terms familiar to theologians. Merit is a claim to a reward. If the claim is based on a strictly equivalent payment, the reward is due in justice; if based on an inadequate payment, a reward may yet be fillingly granted by the generosity of God. Now, Christ alone paid the full price in the rigor of justice for our Redemption. But God willed that a mere creature, the greatest of mere creatures, should also exert her utmost in cooperation with Christ, so that the Redemption would actually be granted to the cooperative work of both the one meriting condignly, the other congruously. A considerable number of theologians, even though far from all, had used just such a balanced terminology to describe the cooperation of Mary with her Son. In the interests of avoiding misunderstanding, the Holy Father, as it were, gave the nod of approval to their formulæ when he said in the above passage: "as they say." Thus, he indicated he wished his words to be understood in the sense already familiar to theologians.

The doctrinal conclusion from the above development is easy to find: if Mary shared in the once-for-all earning of all grace on Calvary, it is to be expected that she would also have a part in the distribution of every grace. In other words, she is Mediatrix of All Graces. St. Pius X had made that fact clear twice in the above-quoted passages, where he referred to her as "dispenser of all the gifts that Jesus acquired for us by His death and Blood" and as "the principal minister of the graces to be distributed."

SOLID BASIS SUPPLIED FOR MARIAN DEVOTION

Such is the solid rock of teaching on which genuine devotion to Mary should rest, devotion which leads to restoring all things in Christ. It remains for us to review briefly the principles to be noted in any correct devotion to Mary. Now, there is nothing so excellent that it cannot be abused. The very attractiveness of Mary makes it possible for some to distort the concept of Marian devotion. Hence, the Holy Father warns: the first duty of everyone who earnestly desires to win the favor of Mary by his homage, must be that of amending his sinful and corrupt habits and of subduing the passions which urge him on to forbidden things,"

But this amendment of sinful ways is but a prerequisite: without examining the various methods of devotion to Mary in detail, St. Pius X none the less does give us the basic principle that must be kept in mind in every form of genuine devotion:

if anyone should wish, as all of us ought to wish, that his devotion to Mary be worthy and in every way perfect, he must make progress and use all his energy to imitate her example. It is a divine rule that all who desire to attain eternal happiness must, by imitation, copy in themselves the picture of the patience and sanctity of Christ. . . . But since we are so weak as to be easily frightened by the greatness of the Exemplar, Divine Providence has proposed for us an other model, which, though it is the closest copy of Christ that human nature is capable of, is more suitable to our littleness. This exemplar is no other than the Mother of God."

Such is the teaching of the "Ad diem illum," a great milestone in the development of Marian doctrine. The Blessed Pope did not merely leave us a beautiful memorial of his own personal devotion to the Mother of God, but authoritatively made a great advance in the clarification of the doctrine on Mary, both by his teaching that Mary is Mediatrix of All Graces (his predecessors had taught that) and especially by giving us priceless instruction on the role of Mary on Calvary. Fittingly, the Encyclical closes with the promulgation of "an extraordinary indulgence in the form of a Jubilee."