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Mary, ‘Woman of the Eucharist’Posted: 01.30.09 
Mary holds a special place in the life of our diocese. She is our patroness under her title as “Queen of the Apostles.” We are privileged to have Mary as our patroness as she holds a preeminent place in the church as its mother and as the perfect disciple of Christ. As we continue to celebrate our 25th anniversary as a diocesan family centered on the Eucharist, it is so fitting for us to look to our patroness in relationship to the Eucharist. In his encyclical on the Eucharist, “Ecclesia de Eucharistia” (“Church of the Eucharist”), the great Pope John Paul II devoted an entire section to the relationship between Mary and the Eucharist titled, “At the School of Mary, Woman of the Eucharist.” Here, the pope explained that the profound relationship between the church and the Eucharist is deeply experienced in the Mother of God. Mary is able to guide us to this most holy sacrament because her whole life was eucharistic. She is also able to do this because she is present in a unique manner at every celebration of the Eucharist since that of the Last Supper. Mary, at the Annunciation, conceived in her womb the physical reality of the body and blood of Christ. Like the one who receives Christ into their very person at the Eucharist, Mary was the first to receive him in a similar manner at the Annunciation. The celebration of the Eucharist is truly in continuity with the Incarnation, which took place when Mary said “yes” to the angel. There is a true relationship between the words of Mary at the Annunciation, “Let it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38), and to the “amen” of the person receiving the Eucharist. The “yes” of Mary is a eucharistic “amen.” In this we truly see her as the first among believers in regard to the Eucharist. However, Mary’s “yes” involved the very essence of the Eucharist since through it the presence of the word made flesh came into existence. Her words at the Annunciation are more similar to the priest’s words of consecration as they actually brought about the presence of Christ in her womb. Furthermore, that real presence came from the very person of Mary. The body and blood of Christ came from the body and blood of Mary as his mother. Pope John Paul II often spoke of this reality. In his 1995 Holy Thursday letter to priests, he wrote that even though Mary was not present at the Last Supper, “it is difficult not to sense her presence at the institution of the Eucharist, the anticipation of the passion and death of the body of Christ, that body which the Son of God had received from the Virgin Mary at the moment of the Annunciation.” Indeed, Mary is present at the celebration of every Eucharist for from her very flesh and blood came the flesh and blood of the incarnate Christ. In his encyclical devoted to Mary herself, “Redemptoris Mater” (“Mother of the Redeemer”), Pope John Paul II again emphasized the fundamental link between Mary and the Eucharist. Here he stated that “Mary guides the faithful to the Eucharist.” Indeed, she guides us to the Eucharist, not only because she guides us to the body and blood of the son born from her, but because she leads us to that eucharistic attitude of thanksgiving which is what the word Eucharist literally means. Mary gave thanks always for what God had given to her by her realization of her complete dependence upon him. She allowed herself to be God’s instrument because she trusted his will completely. She was open to him at all times and openness to God is always the fruit of gratitude. Just as Christ gave thanks and gave himself to the Father at the Last Supper, so Mary always exemplified this eucharistic attitude. Mary also guides us to the eucharistic attitude of sacrifice through which Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and real presence in the Eucharist come about. Mary stood at the foot of the cross and gave herself completely. She also gave her son to the Father’s will trusting in him. Mary’s sacrificial suffering was inseparably linked to the sacrificial suffering of Christ. This suffering was prophesied by Simeon’s words to her at Christ’s Presentation in the Temple, “Behold this child is destined for the rise and fall of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted and you yourself a sword shall pierce” (Lk: 2:34-35). Indeed, Pope John Paul summarized Mary’s role in guiding us to the eucharistic attitude of sacrifice in his memorable Angelus address on the solemnity of the Body and Blood of the Lord in 1983. There he stated, “Every Eucharist is a memorial of that sacrifice and Passover that restore life to the world; every Mass puts us in intimate communion with her, the mother, whose sacrifice ‘becomes present’ just as the sacrifice of her son ‘becomes present’ at the words of consecration of the bread and wine pronounced by the priest.” Mary truly guides us to the Eucharist and to a eucharistic attitude. Our present Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, also shows us ways in which Mary, Woman of the Eucharist, guides us to the Eucharist. One of these is by her being an expression of God’s compassion and love which is fully revealed in the Eucharist. In one of his earlier writings before his election as pope, he speaks of the words of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, which he often quotes, “God cannot suffer, but he can suffer with.” The cross, made manifest in the Eucharist, is God’s compassionate suffering with the world. The pope explains that, in Hebrew, the root word for God’s compassionate love, his suffering with others, is that for a mother’s womb. Through Mary’s bearing Christ in her womb and in her acceptance of the cross, we experience the compassion of God in her compassion of accepting the cross. The pope tells us that, “In her, God’s maternal affliction is open to view. In her we can behold and touch it. She is the compassion of God, displayed in a being who has let herself be drawn wholly into God’s mystery.” Such is the compassionate love of God experienced in the Eucharist. In his apostolic exhortation on the Eucharist, “Sacramentum Caritatis,” (“Sacrament of Charity”), Pope Benedict XVI also shows us another way by which Mary guides us to the Eucharist: It is through the complete beauty of her being. In Mary, the radiance of God’s glory as love shines forth and in this we experience a glimpse of the heavenly liturgy. Mary’s complete beauty is a reflection of the eucharistic liturgy of heaven. The pope exhorts that, “From Mary we must learn to become men and women of the Eucharist and of the church, and thus to present ourselves, in the words of St. Paul, ‘holy and blameless’ before the Lord, even as he wished us to be from the beginning” (cf. Col 1:22; Eph 1:4). We are so privileged to have Mary, Queen of the Apostles, as our patroness guiding us to the Eucharist now for 25 years. The joy of Mary’s special role for us is best captured by the following words of Pope John Paul II from “Ecclesia de Eucharistia”: “What must Mary have felt as she heard from the mouths 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 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.” As our diocese continues to move into the future, may Mary, Woman of the Eucharist and Queen of the Apostles, continue to guide us to the Eucharist, which is the center of our lives.
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