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The painting manifests the objective and subjective redemptions. The
objective redemption by Jesus' death made full reparation for the
sins of the world and merited for us grace and mercy which are
distributed to us in the subjective redemption by the mediation of
the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Our
Lady appears as the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary symbolizing
her role as Co-Redemptrix and Mediatrix of all Grace. She suffers in
union with Jesus as our Co-Redemptrix and offers us the grace and mercy
merited by Him through her heart as Mediatrix and begs us for our
reparation and consecration in the subjective redemption.
This vision is
re-presented at every Mass when Jesus as Mediator consecrates Himself to
His Father and truly gives us His Real Body and Blood under the
appearances of bread and wine. Our Lady stands beneath him as Mediatrix
and mediates His grace and mercy to us.
As we gaze at and
mediate upon the painting we see that Jesus Christ is Mediator between
the divine nature of the Holy Trinity and our human nature. The divine
nature of the Holy Trinity is symbolized by the gold triangle which
over-laps the Cross. Jesus hangs from them both symbolizing His sharing
of the divine and human natures.
From the Cross
proceeds a red triangle. This symbolizes the blood of Christ and the
grace and mercy that He merited. Jesus and Mary are within this grace
and mercy. Our Lady is a gift of God's mercy. She stands at the foot of
the cross as Mediatrix of All Grace. The faces of Jesus and Mary are
blank so that we may substitute ours in their places in the hope of
becoming like them.
The Sacred Heart
of Jesus shows a white dove and the cross-shaped wound caused by the
soldier's spear. The Heart itself is in the form of a dove symbolizing
the Holy Spirit which descends upon Our Lady's head (Lk 1:35).
Her Immaculate
Heart likewise shows a white dove and is pierced by a sword of sorrow
(Lk 2:35) which proceeds from her heart through the Word of God which
she holds in her hands. This Word is her Son the Word made flesh, is
living, effective and sharper than any two-edged sword (Heb 4:12). The
sword sets the earth on fire as Jesus came to do (Lk 12:49).
The Cross becomes
a part of Our Lady's clothing in the habit of the Brown Scapular because
she shared her Son's Cross as our Co-Redemptrix. Her Brown Scapular
proceeds from her and envelops the whole world as does the grace and
mercy of God which she mediates to us. This is symbolized by the
red-colored inside of the Scapular. The brown-colored side is the sign
of our consecration to her. She promised St. Simon Stock that "whosoever
dies clothed in this shall never suffer eternal fire."
She calls us to
consecrate ourselves to her as Mediatrix of all Grace so that Jesus may
reign as King in every heart. Let us respond to her call now!
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