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53. If we wish to rediscover in all its richness the profound
relationship between the Church and the Eucharist, we cannot neglect
Mary, Mother and model of the Church. In my Apostolic Letter
Rosarium Virginis Mariae, I pointed to the Blessed Virgin Mary
as our teacher in contemplating Christ's face, and among the
mysteries of light I included the institution of the Eucharist.[102]
Mary can guide us towards this most holy sacrament, because she
herself has a profound relationship with it.
At first glance, the Gospel is silent on this subject. The account
of the institution of the Eucharist on the night of Holy Thursday
makes no mention of Mary. Yet we know that she was present among the
Apostles who prayed “with one accord” (cf. Acts 1:14) in the
first community which gathered after the Ascension in expectation of
Pentecost. Certainly Mary must have been present at the Eucharistic
celebrations of the first generation of Christians, who were devoted
to “the breaking of bread” (Acts 2:42).
But in addition to her sharing in the Eucharistic banquet, an
indirect picture of Mary's relationship with the Eucharist can be
had, beginning with her interior disposition. Mary is a “woman of
the Eucharist” in her whole life. The Church, which looks to Mary
as a model, is also called to imitate her in her relationship with this
most holy mystery.
54. Mysterium fidei! If the Eucharist is a mystery of faith which
so greatly transcends our understanding as to call for sheer abandonment
to the word of God, then there can be no one like Mary to act as our
support and guide in acquiring this disposition. In repeating what
Christ did at the Last Supper in obedience to his command: “Do
this in memory of me!”, we also accept Mary's invitation to obey
him without hesitation: “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5).
With the same maternal concern which she showed at the wedding feast of
Cana, Mary seems to say to us: “Do not waver; trust in the words
of my Son. If he was able to change water into wine, he can also
turn bread and wine into his body and blood, and through this mystery
bestow on believers the living memorial of his passover, thus becoming
the 'bread of life'”.
55. In a certain sense Mary lived her Eucharistic faith even
before the institution of the Eucharist, by the very fact that she
offered her virginal womb for the Incarnation of God's Word. The
Eucharist, while commemorating the passion and resurrection, is also
in continuity with the incarnation. At the Annunciation Mary
conceived the Son of God in the physical reality of his body and
blood, thus anticipating within herself what to some degree happens
sacramentally in every believer who receives, under the signs of bread
and wine, the Lord's body and blood.
As a result, there is a profound analogy between the Fiat which Mary
said in reply to the angel, and the Amen which every believer says
when receiving the body of the Lord. Mary was asked to believe that
the One whom she conceived “through the Holy Spirit” was “the Son
of God” (Lk 1:30-35). In continuity with the Virgin's
faith, in the Eucharistic mystery we are asked to believe that the
same Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Mary, becomes present
in his full humanity and divinity under the signs of bread and wine.
“Blessed is she who believed” (Lk 1:45). Mary also
anticipated, in the mystery of the incarnation, the Church's
Eucharistic faith. When, at the Visitation, she bore in her womb
the Word made flesh, she became in some way a “tabernacle” – the
first “tabernacle” in history – in which the Son of God, still
invisible to our human gaze, allowed himself to be adored by
Elizabeth, radiating his light as it were through the eyes and the
voice of Mary. And is not the enraptured gaze of Mary as she
contemplated the face of the newborn Christ and cradled him in her arms
that unparalleled model of love which should inspire us every time we
receive Eucharistic communion?
56. Mary, throughout her life at Christ's side and not only on
Calvary, made her own the sacrificial dimension of the Eucharist.
When she brought the child Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem “to
present him to the Lord” (Lk 2:22), she heard the aged Simeon
announce that the child would be a “sign of contradiction” and that a
sword would also pierce her own heart (cf. Lk 2:34-35). The
tragedy of her Son's crucifixion was thus foretold, and in some sense
Mary's Stabat Mater at the foot of the Cross was foreshadowed. In
her daily preparation for Calvary, Mary experienced a kind of
“anticipated Eucharist” – one might say a “spiritual communion” –
of desire and of oblation, which would culminate in her union with her
Son in his passion, and then find expression after Easter by her
partaking in the Eucharist which the Apostles celebrated as the
memorial of that passion.
What must Mary have felt as she heard from the mouth of Peter,
John, James and the other Apostles the words spoken at the Last
Supper: “This is my body which is given for you” (Lk
22:19)? The body given up for us and made present under
sacramental signs was the same body which she had conceived in her
womb! For Mary, receiving the Eucharist must have somehow meant
welcoming once more into her womb that heart which had beat in unison
with hers and reliving what she had experienced at the foot of the
Cross.
57. “Do this in remembrance of me” (Lk 22:19). In the
“memorial” of Calvary all that Christ accomplished by his passion
and his death is present. Consequently all that Christ did with
regard to his Mother for our sake is also present. To her he gave the
beloved disciple and, in him, each of us: “Behold, your Son!”.
To each of us he also says: “Behold your mother!” (cf. Jn
19: 26-27).
Experiencing the memorial of Christ's death in the Eucharist also
means continually receiving this gift. It means accepting – like
John – the one who is given to us anew as our Mother. It also means
taking on a commitment to be conformed to Christ, putting ourselves at
the school of his Mother and allowing her to accompany us. Mary is
present, with the Church and as the Mother of the Church, at each
of our celebrations of the Eucharist. If the Church and the
Eucharist are inseparably united, the same ought to be said of Mary
and the Eucharist. This is one reason why, since ancient times, the
commemoration of Mary has always been part of the Eucharistic
celebrations of the Churches of East and West.
58. In the Eucharist the Church is completely united to Christ
and his sacrifice, and makes her own the spirit of Mary. This truth
can be understood more deeply by re-reading the Magnificat in a
Eucharistic key. The Eucharist, like the Canticle of Mary, is
first and foremost praise and thanksgiving. When Mary exclaims:
“My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my
Saviour”, she already bears Jesus in her womb. She praises God
“through” Jesus, but she also praises him “in” Jesus and “with”
Jesus. This is itself the true “Eucharistic attitude”.
At the same time Mary recalls the wonders worked by God in salvation
history in fulfilment of the promise once made to the fathers (cf. Lk
1:55), and proclaims the wonder that surpasses them all, the
redemptive incarnation. Lastly, the Magnificat reflects the
eschatological tension of the Eucharist. Every time the Son of God
comes again to us in the “poverty” of the sacramental signs of bread
and wine, the seeds of that new history wherein the mighty are “put
down from their thrones” and “those of low degree are exalted” (cf.
Lk 1:52), take root in the world. Mary sings of the “new
heavens” and the “new earth” which find in the Eucharist their
anticipation and in some sense their programme and plan. The
Magnificat expresses Mary's spirituality, and there is nothing
greater than this spirituality for helping us to experience the mystery
of the Eucharist. The Eucharist has been given to us so that our
life, like that of Mary, may become completely a Magnificat!
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