The Cooperation of Mankind to God’s Salvation: An Ecumenical Perspective

Our Protestant brothers often remind us that everything comes from God and nothing from the creature. They are reticent to grant a positive role to Mary in the work of redemption. The Dombes group is made up of Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant theologians, who meet and work towards unity, and publish texts in common. The group has already sketched a backdrop of agreement on this subject, with the theme of the gift.

"Passivity is never total."

Mary in the Plan of God and in the Communion of the Saints, Alain Blancy and Maurice Jourjon, and the Dombes Group, Paulist Press 2002

Let's use a concrete example to help us better understand that there is no contradiction or mutual exclusion between God's action and man's.

An octogenarian religious was hospitalized for a minor fibula fracture. He seemed to have lost his taste for life and rejected any food. If a nurse tried to spoon-feed him some yogurt he would spit it out at once.

In that same town there lived a young woman who had been prior to her marriage a professor in the institution where the religious lived. He had helped her to better handle her job and she had deep esteem and admiration for him. When she heard that the religious was in the hospital, she went to see him. Taking stock of his condition and his refusal to eat, she told him: "Really, Mr. Louis, you have to eat..." Then she picked up a little spoon and attempted to make him swallow the yogurt left on the table...

And Mr. Louis ate the yogurt... She came back every day, and Mr. Louis regained his appetite and the habit to eat. (...) He lived a few more years and was almost 90 when he died.

The refusal to eat was his. Was the decision to eat his also? Of course it was. But what made him change his mind? It was the loving relationship between Mr. Louis and the young woman. Their mutual affection set off the opening of his mouth to accept the food.

When mankind was blocked by sin it couldn't open its mouth to welcome the Savior. But between God and the young Mary - thanks to the Immaculate Conception - a completely mutual loving relationship existed. And this love enabled Mary to welcome the Word so He could take flesh in her.

The richer and nobler the gift, the better equipped to receive it the recipient should be. A gift begins with the initiative of a giver; in this case: God. But for a gift to be one there has to be a recipient. Otherwise the gift doesn't reach its destination, and it isn't fulfilled.

Light on the question from Saint Matthew

Saint Matthew gives an excellent light on this question of the gift, in the parable of the dishonest paymaster (Mt 18: 23-35).

The dishonest paymaster, by refusing to cancel the small debt of one of his debtors, reveals that he didn't accept the cancelling of the big debt the King conceded to him. If he had accepted it, his heart would have been transformed and would have become in turn a "debt-canceller," in the image of the King. By condemning the dishonest paymaster, the King doesn't change his mind: his forgiveness is still granted, but doesn't reach its destination. A real gift - and forgiveness is a form of gift - transforms he who receives it. Without this transformation, the gift isn't received, therefore not effective. Even when a gift is received, it can happen with nuances and degrees.

Let's use an example. Let's suppose that I have two godchildren, Timothy and Marilyn. I give to each one the Symphony of the New World by Dvorak. They both thank me.

Eight days later, I meet Timothy's mother. "Your CD is still in its wrapping in the corner of a shelf. All Timothy is interested in is his ball."

Later, in the street I come upon Marilyn: "Oh, godfather! Your CD is wonderful. I already listened to it four times. And each time I find it more beautiful..." And you see this girl as she grows up becoming interested in music, learning to play an instrument, acquiring a nice collection of CDs. And when she announces to you that she is getting married, she tells you once more: "You know, the CD you gave me for my Confirmation, I still have it and I listen with the same pleasure when I think of you."

You made the same gift to each. And yet, how different are the results. When you think of it, Timothy received only the "intention" and he thanked you for it. But didn't really draw any benefit from the gift. The gift made to Marilyn is a seed that keeps on growing and giving fruit.

Mary, the Immaculate Conception

The richer and nobler the gift, the more "able" to receive it the recipient must be.

If the Father wanted to give the Son to the earth, he couldn't have taken the risk that his gift be accepted half-heartedly, not even to three-fourths. For the Incarnation to be fully realized, nothing in the Son could be "foreign" to humans. Jesus couldn't be an "unwanted" child, or even as little as a bit "unwanted."

However, since the tragedy of the first sin, no human being could henceforth be able to give total love, and experience total freedom. How could God, then, make the gift of his Son to the earth?

The solution had to come from God alone, and not from men.

God prepared mankind over a long period of time: a promise came after the fall, so that in the heart of each member of the human race an ever-renewed hope would germinate; the choice of a man, Abraham, and of a people; a long history yielding its tribute of weightiness and generous impetus; a lineage, a family...

And finally, a little girl who was "younger than sin," restored, from the time of her conception, to the grace of the origins, "granted grace" and from the onset able to fully receive any grace that descended upon our earth. So that none of God's gift would escape, nothing would be refused, misunderstood, wasted.

Vatican II found this treasure to describe it: "Mary, fashioned by the Holy Spirit."

(Lumen Gentium 56).

Yes, I think that the expression "Mary, fashioned by the Holy Spirit" is a perfect definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. The very formulation says that it applies to Mary from the beginning of her existence, from her conception. She wasn't picked up again and "corrected" afterwards: the Holy Spirit has always been working on her, and nothing in her is foreign to this action of the Holy Spirit.

Texts from the Dombes Group

219. Mary is an example of the lot of all the saved. Salvation consists in a relationship: there is no salvation if this relationship is not accepted, if it does not meet with a response of thanksgiving. Passivity in the presence of grace, faith's "letting itself be moved" by grace - these are the source of a new activity: receptivity turns into obedience.

Docility to the Holy Spirit becomes an active force.

Passivity is never total; in a second moment receptivity itself becomes active. But every response is at one and the same time the work of God's grace and the work of human freedom stirred into action by grace. The only thing that belongs exclusively to human beings is the rejection of grace.

[...]

220. But here a distinction is needed: acceptance is not a work. One who accepts a gift plays no part in the initiative that produces the gift. On the other hand, a gift is not fully a gift unless it is received. Strictly speaking, there is no gift unless the intended recipient accepts it; if he does not, there is only the offer of a gift. In a sense, the giver needs the recipient if there is to be a giving. A gift is a kind of appeal of the giver to the recipient. The response to the gift is part of the gift. The gift of God which is Christ himself is subject to that law of free acceptance: "How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her breed, and you were not willing!" (Mt 23:37). Saint Augustine would say later on: "He who made you without you will not save you without you."

Mary in the Plan of God and in the Communion of the Saints, by Alain Blancy and Maurice Jourjon, and the Dombes Group, Paulist Press 2002

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Father Bernard Vial