Ave Maria Meditations
Jesus and Mary: these are the two dear names with which the entire plan of our salvation is entwined. This was the will of God, that as a man and the woman were the authors of our ruin, so a man and a woman should bring the salvation. As Jesus Christ is the Redeemer of mankind, Mary was destined to be that co-redemptress, for to use the phrase of Albertus Magnus, Adjutorium redemptionis.
Jesus Christ is verily the Redeemer of mankind, but He has been given to us by Mary. She is therefore of necessity our Co-redemptress. When we speak of redemption, we picture to ourselves the Divine Victim on the cross. And yet the mystery of the cross is not to be separated from the mysteries of the crib, for the evening Sacrifice of Calvary was but the completion of the morning Sacrifice of the Incarnation.
The priceless Victim offered on the cross had been prepared and fashioned in Mary’s womb. The heroines of Israel, Abigail who saved her husband, Judith who saved a city, Esther who saved her people, we’re but faint images of her who brought into the world the Savior not of a man, not of a city, not of a nation, but of the whole race: Adjutorium redemptionis.
+Fr. Luigi Lanzoni
