When the angel of the Lord visited Mary of Nazareth and told her the Lord is “with you” (Luke 1:28) the angel was revealing something special regarding the identity of Mary and also the profound dignity and wonder of the miraculous grace of all motherhood. For Christians, the life of holiness is to become a full, flourishing and fruitful expression of the Lord being “with” us. The conception of Jesus Christ in the womb of Mary is the highest expression of the glory that all motherhood, be it biological or spiritual, attains by virtue of its inseparable union to the Holy Spirit – the Author of Life (Acts 3:15). The Mother of God becomes the perfect model of bringing, quite literally, the salvific presence of God into the world through the Holy Spirit. God’s vision of motherhood is so esteemed, that he willed from eternity to be the son of Mary of Nazareth and through her motherhood, He “became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him” (Luke 2:40). In this way it is possible that Mary may one day be given the title Co-redemptrix (quite literally “with the Redeemer”), this was a desire of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta who wrote in a letter to St John Paul II in 1993 where she stated in plain terms her spiritual insight that:

“Mary is our Co-redemptrix with Jesus. She gave Jesus his body and suffered with him at the foot of the Cross… The papal definition …will bring great graces to the Church. All for Jesus through Mary. God bless you.”

There is a lot to unpack here that shows the depth of dignity that Motherhood is given within the title Co-redemptrix, which could be ascribed to Mary’s role in salvation history. To be clear Mary is a creature and Jesus is the Creator-incarnate, but is it the case that the Creator has willed, through the freedom of Mary’s “yes” at the Annunciation, to be specifically “with us” through the generosity of a Mother? Yes it is. It is factual that God chose to save us through Motherhood, which is the most perfect union “with the Redeemer” as to be His very own biological and spiritual Mother. In this way her being Co-Redemptrix (“with the redeemer”) is fulfilled perfectly; to look at Jesus’ face is to see his Mother’s facial likeness – the closeness of being with him is “bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh” (Genesis 2:23).  May we learn from Mary’s motherhood the supreme dignity of all mothers, so inexorable from God’s plan of salvation, by which he chose to redeem us. God asked for a Mother to love him, nurture and never to abandon him in the hour of His greatest suffering and also now in Heaven seeks to help all Christians come home to Heaven, through the prayers of His own Mother and the grace of Jesus her Son.

Daniel Côté Davis
Head of Religious Studies, Downham Market Academy

Daniel Côte Davis is currently a student of the MA Contemporary Faith and Belief in the Global Context at the Margaret Beaufort Institute. His research project focuses on the possible Fifth Marian Dogma of Our Lady Co-Redemptrix.