The Mediation of Christ in Prayer

CD/mp3 373. A lecture delivered at Thomas More Institute, Montreal, 24 September 1963 Corresponds to CWL 6, pp. 160-82. Sponsored by Kyoko Niimi (through Eduardo Perez Valera, S.J.). The notion of mediation begins with Aristotle’s distinction of first principles, which are immediate, and conclusions, which are mediated by a middle term between the subject and the predicate. This notion can be generalized, and then any factor, quality, property, feature, aspect that has, on the one hand, a source, origin, ground, basis, and on the other hand, consequences, effects, derivatives, a field of influence, of radiation, of expansion, or that has an expression, manifestation, revelation, outcome, is immediate in the source origin, ground, or basis, and is mediated in the consequences, effects, derivatives, outcome, in the field of influence, radiation, expansion, in the expression, manifestation, revelation. From here we can move to the notions of mutual mediation, self-mediation, and mutual self-mediation. Each of these is given a section, after an introductory discussion of mediation in general. These sections constitute the bulk of the paper. They are followed by an application of the notions of self-mediation and mutual self-mediation to the subject’s development in Christ Jesus through the life of prayer, and to Jesus’ development as a human being in relation to us.