MASS: Gaudeámus
LESSON: Revelation 7:2-12
GOSPEL: St Matthew 5:1-12

Homily for the Sixth Day in the Octave of All Saints

From Old Roman TV — Understanding “Coredemptrix”, the Incarnation and our salvation

Beloved in Christ, welcome to this broadcast Mass on this, the sixth day in the Octave of All Saints. Within this blessed octave, the Church invites us to linger in contemplation of the mystery of sanctity¹—not as a remote ideal, but as the destiny of every soul redeemed by Christ.

Yesterday’s feast of the Holy Relics taught us that grace is not an invisible abstraction. It touches, it transfigures, and even lingers in matter². Today, in the light of that truth, we turn to the supreme mystery by which grace first entered creation: the Incarnation of the Word through the Virgin Mary³.

No Mary, no Jesus. These few words contain the hinge of salvation history. God, who could have redeemed the world by a mere act of His will, chose instead the way of cooperation⁴. He awaited the consent of a creature—a young woman of Nazareth—whose free fiat opened the gate of Heaven: “Be it done unto me according to thy word.”⁵ At that moment, eternity entered time; the Infinite took flesh; Divinity clothed itself in our humanity⁶.

The Incarnation was not magic—it was covenantal. It required the yes of faith. Hence the Church rightly calls Mary Theotokos, the God-Bearer⁷, for the One she bore is truly God. She is rightly honoured as Co-Redemptrix, for she participated uniquely and subordinately in His saving work—not as a rival, but as the most perfect image of redeemed humanity⁸. At Bethlehem she gave Him flesh; on Calvary she gave Him back to the Father. Her participation in His suffering was not symbolic but real⁹. The sword that pierced her heart was the price of her union with the Redeemer¹⁰.

To deny that participation, as some now attempt, is to deny the very logic of the Incarnation¹¹. For if God truly became man, then human cooperation truly matters. Grace does not override nature—it perfects it¹². The mystery of the Word made flesh is not an episode of divine disguise, but the permanent union of God and man in the one Person of Christ¹³.

To separate the spiritual from the material, as the Arian heretics and later (Protestant) reformers did in differing ways, is to fall back into the old dualism that Christianity once overthrew¹⁴—the notion that matter is too lowly to bear divinity, that God can act only upon the world, not within it. Yet the whole of our faith rests upon the opposite conviction: that the Creator entered His creation and sanctified it from within¹⁵.

The Incarnation is the definitive rejection of all spiritualism that despises the flesh and of all rationalism that reduces grace to moral inspiration¹⁶. In Mary, divine grace and human freedom meet without confusion or separation¹⁷. What began in her womb continues in the Church and in every soul reborn by baptism¹⁸, where the divine life takes root in human weakness and transforms it from within.

Dear faithful, what God wrought in Mary in a singular way, He wills to accomplish in us according to our measure. In baptism, the divine life first entered our souls—the Word took flesh again in us, not in substance but in sanctifying grace¹⁹. Our cooperation with that grace through prayer, obedience, and sacrifice is the continuation of Mary’s fiat in the life of each believer²⁰. Her example shows that holiness is not achieved by effort alone, but by docility, submission, and surrender to the will of God²¹.

As she conceived Christ by the Holy Ghost, so we the baptized bear Him spiritually when we yield to that same Spirit in faith and charity²². This, dear faithful, is the Communion of Saints—the extension of the Incarnation through time²³. The saints are those in whom Christ has been fully formed, and their relics, those sacred fragments of transfigured flesh, bear witness that the Divine has truly entered the human²⁴. When we venerate them, we are not looking backward but forward, for what they are, we are called to become: sanctified, saintly saints in an age that denies the sacredness of the body and the permanence of the soul²⁵.

The Incarnation and the saints proclaim the opposite: that God sanctifies flesh, redeems suffering, and raises the lowly to glory²⁶. To live as Christians is to let this mystery unfold within us—to say fiat, “Let it be done unto me according to Thy will,” as Mary did, until Christ is perfectly formed in us, until we are fully conformed to Him—from within to without, spiritually and physically²⁷.

Mary is Co-Redemptrix because of her unique collaboration with God in making possible the Incarnation of the Word made flesh²⁸. In that singular aspect—because she literally gave birth to Him—she stands apart from the rest of us. Through her fiat, the Redeemer Himself entered into the world²⁹. This is an important point, my brothers and sisters, that heretics are so keen to reject. They are uncomfortable with the notion that God desired to cooperate with the free will of Mary³⁰. And in so doing, she became a unique dimension to the redemption of the world³¹.

If she had said no, who knows what would have happened? There are those who like to speculate about that—philosophize and theologize about that. “If Mary had said no, God would have found another way.” Perhaps—but He didn’t. He chose Mary, and Mary said yes³². And at that moment, eternity broke into history³³.

Our faith is not about what ifs; it is about the actual revelation of the Divine Himself to us in His creation. That is how our redemption works—with Him, through Him, by Him—in tangible reality³⁴.

Mary also stands before us as model and mother. For while she cooperated once and perfectly in the coming of Christ, we are called to cooperate continually with His grace, allowing the Word to take flesh within our lives through faith, obedience, and charity³⁵. What was accomplished bodily in her is to be accomplished spiritually in us, so that through His grace the restoration of flesh and spirit may be perfected in us, and the whole person—soul and body—may be made a living temple of God in this life and united with Him in the next³⁶.

That is the Gospel. That is the Catholic Faith. That is what it means to be a Christian. That is the significance of Baptism. That is why the need for personal holiness³⁷. The world constantly strives to drive a wedge between the soul and the flesh. Christ, through His Incarnation, restores what God had created and intended—the harmony and union of flesh and spirit³⁸.

In this time of crisis, not only in the world and our societies, but within the Church, let us not be discouraged when we hear supposedly educated men seek to silence and suppress the title Co-Redemptrix³⁹. It is the world’s way to despise what humbles it—the cooperation of grace and nature, the elevation of womanhood, the mystery of obedience stronger than rebellion⁴⁰. Let us rather imitate what they misunderstand.

Let our hearts echo Mary’s yes. Let our lives bear the fruit of that consent. Then we too shall become living relics—vessels of grace, visible signs that God still sanctifies flesh and makes His dwelling among men⁴¹.

And so, as we continue this Octave, may we renew our baptismal fidelity, persevere in holiness, and trust that the same grace that made Mary “full of grace” will one day make us full of His glory⁴².

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

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¹ Apoc. 7:9–17; Rom. 8:29–30.
² 4 Reg. 13:21; Act. 19:11–12.
³ Luc. 1:26–38.
⁴ Phil. 2:7–8.
⁵ Luc. 1:38.
⁶ Ioan. 1:14.
⁷ Conc. Ephesinum (A.D. 431), Formula Unionis: “Confitemur sanctam Mariam Deiparam, quia Deum Verbum carne factum ex ea genuit.”
⁸ Pius X, Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum (2 Feb 1904), §14.
⁹ Ioan. 19:25–27.
¹⁰ Luc. 2:35.
¹¹ Pius XII, Mystici Corporis Christi (29 June 1943), §110.
¹² S. Th. I–II, q.109, a.7.
¹³ Conc. Chalcedonense (A.D. 451), Definitio Fidei: “Unum eundemque Christum… perfectum in Deitate et perfectum in humanitate.”
¹⁴ Athanasius, Contra Arianos I, 41.
¹⁵ Ioan. 1:10–11.
¹⁶ Leo XIII, Divinum Illud Munus (9 May 1897), §2.
¹⁷ S. Th. III, q.30, a.1.
¹⁸ Tit. 3:5–7.
¹⁹ Rom. 6:3–4.
²⁰ Luc. 1:38; Matt. 7:21.
²¹ Phil. 2:13; 1 Pet. 5:6.
²² Gal. 4:19.
²³ Heb. 12:1; 1 Cor. 12:12–27.
²⁴ Act. 19:12; Conc. Tridentinum, Sessio XXV.
²⁵ Rom. 8:30.
²⁶ 1 Cor. 15:42–49.
²⁷ Rom. 8:29; Gal. 2:20.
²⁸ Pius XII, Mystici Corporis Christi, §§110–111.
²⁹ Luc. 1:31.
³⁰ Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses III, 22, 4.
³¹ Ioannes Paulus II, Redemptoris Mater (25 Mar 1987), §39.
³² Luc. 1:38.
³³ Gal. 4:4.
³⁴ Col. 1:16–20.
³⁵ Ioan. 14:23–24.
³⁶ 1 Cor. 6:19–20; 2 Pet. 1:4.
³⁷ Matt. 5:48.
³⁸ Rom. 8:23.
³⁹ Leo XIII, Adiutricem Populi (5 Sept 1895), §2.
⁴⁰ Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus (1 Nov 1950), §38.
⁴¹ 2 Cor. 4:10–11.
⁴² Luc. 1:28; Rom. 8:18

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