Ave Maria Meditations
The spiritual victory of the church has always been proportionate to her application of the wisdom of the cross. Whenever her members have depended on worldly wisdom, they have failed spiritually. When they have acted on the wisdom of the cross, they have marked up one victory after another. This is vividly illustrated in the Saints, who have chosen poverty rather than riches, humiliation rather than honor, self denial rather than pleasure, death rather than a life characterized by betrayal of God and His truth.
None but unbelievers would question the victory that the Saints have achieved through the application of the wisdom of the cross. Their triumph is decisive and eternal. If the evil forces of injustice and hate have had a series of passing victories, it has been because the cross has been ignored as the symbol of divine wisdom, justice, and love.
The essential fact about the cross is brought out by St. Paul when he says that Christ was obedient, even to death on a cross. Thus on Calvary, our divine Master was exemplifying the one teaching that summed up his whole doctrine: that the entire purpose of life on earth is to carry out God’s will. 
Here Mary could not have better fulfilled her role as co-teacher. The supreme achievement of Christ was the saving of the human race from eternal doom by means of His redeeming cross. As His cooperator par excellence in this tremendous work, His Mother shared in His achievement. So important and intimate was Mary’s participation in the saving of mankind from eternal perdition that the church has never hesitated to give her the title of co-Redemptrix.
(And yet) The passion of Christ, without His resurrection, would have availed us nothing. St. Paul make this evident when he says “And if Christ is not risen, vein is your faith, for you are still in your sins.” Nothing could show better than these words how important for our understanding of the faith, and our spiritual progress, is the association in our thinking of our Lord’s death and resurrection. All this is paramount for a growth in the virtue of hope, a virtue which, along with faith and love, is necessary for salvation.
+Fr. Bertrand Weaver C.P.
